Stewart began working for the corporation 27 years ago, when it was still known as the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia, and has held her present position for 22 years.
During her time serving as chief executive Stewart has overseen the allocation of hundreds of millions of dollors in community grants and had the pleasure of dishing out numerous life-changing prizes to lucky Australian lottery players.
Stewart admits she had no idea how to run a lottery when she was initially hired as temporary chief executive.
"It was never the job for me but I just became completely engaged in it," she said, speaking on Saturday, May 17, 2014.
Premier Colin Barnett said Lotterywest's annual sales had grown considerably during Stewarts time serving as chief executive—from $231 million during her first year to a forecast $817 million this year.
Speaking of the future, Stewart said the rising popularity of online gambling would be a challenge, but stated her confidence that the community's long-running association with Lotterywest would continue.
"We are very lucky to have a lottery that belongs to the community," she said and stated the real challenge would be helping a new generation of players to understand that even if their tickets don’t return a big win they would be contributing to the community.
On learning of Stewart's upcoming retirement, Perth International Arts Festival chairwoman Margaret Seares said she would be "missed around the table".
