In November 2020, she became the chief executive officer (CEO) of Australian airline Virgin Australia, replacing Paul Scurrah.

[5] Her father Richard Hrdlicka[6] is from Czechoslovakia and worked as a lawyer, eventually becoming the general counsel of automotive manufacturer Fiat in North America; he was also director of a community bank in Newton, Kansas.

[5] Her father had defected from Czechoslovakia while he was in Paris competing as a member of a national hockey team in 1948 at the age of sixteen.

[5][7][8][pages needed] Her mother Carol Hrdlicka (née Knott) was from a Kansas ranching family.

[9][11] Her resignation from a2 Milk in December 2019 was the subject of speculation that the pace of change Hrdlicka drove was too fast or that the Board was dissatisfied with the scale of payments to the consulting firm, Bain & Company.

[12][13][14] Hrdlicka later stated she left a2 because her husband was found in November 2019 to have a kidney tumour, from which he eventually died in May 2023.