Main Forum Speaker Profiles - below
(in order of appearance)

For an overview of the program and speakers for the optional morning add-on Study Forum, please click here

Rob is a trained coastal geomorphologist. He taught environmental science and physical geography at tertiary level, then for 28 years he has presented television weather. In his professional life he works as an environmental and communications consultant and is Chairman of Access Environmental Pty Ltd.

Ian has been CEO of AIIA since July, 2008. Prior to then, he had been a National Board Member of the AIIA, serving in this capacity since 2004. As a Board Member Ian has been actively involved in industry workforce and skills issues, working as an advisor to the association’s initiatives in this area. Early in 2008 Ian stepped down as the Managing Director of ASX-listed IT research and advisory firm Ideas International after five years at the helm and 15 prior years in senior roles building the company up from its foundation.  He remains a non-executive

director of Ideas International. Prior to Ideas International, Ian worked in a number of senior roles for Prime Computer of Australia. Ian holds a BSc Tech (Hons) from the University of Manchester (UK) and is a member of Australian Institute of Company Directors.  He is married with three daughters and is based in Sydney.

Dr Keith Suter is one of the world’s great thinkers and communicators. A foremost speaker on global issues, as well as a highly regarded social commentator, strategic planner, writer and broadcaster.

Bob Hayward is an internationally recognised information communication technology (ICT) expert who has set up, grown and managed several successful ICT businesses across Asia Pacific. He is the former Senior Vice President and Research Fellow APJ for Gartner. He has a unique perspective on emerging technologies and the dynamics of the Asia Pacific technology markets and has advised hundreds of enterprises on their Asia Pacific strategies throughout his 29-year career. Bob will take on the role of Director at KPMG focusing on assisting clients with ITA strategy and performance.

Nick is Research Analyst at AMP Capital's Sustainable Share Fund - Australia's largest sustainable investment fund, founded in 2000. Nick's primary role is to undertake the environmental, social and governance research of Australian listed companies, including the ICT sector, and investigate the relationship between sustainability, corporate social responsibility and financial performance. Nick regularly engages with company CEOs and company stakeholders to explore the quality of ESG performance.

Nick joined AMP Capital after more than 8 years experience in the sustainability field, working as a consultant at the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney; as a policy/environment officer at the Australian Government Department of Environment and Heritage; and as a resource economist at the Scottish Agricultural College. Nick has represented the Australian Government at an international multilateral marine conservation treaty meeting, and he holds a Bachelor of Economics and Master of Science in ecological economics.

Elisa de Wit is a Partner in the Melbourne office of Deacons and heads the Environment Group. She also leads the firm’s National Climate Change group. Before joining Deacons at the beginning of 2006, Elisa spent 8 years practising in the United Kingdom, where she had experience advising on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. Elisa has extensive experience in advising on environmental and planning matters to both the private and public sector, and has spoken at national and international conferences on topics such as waste management, contaminated land and climate change.

Nick has 26 years experience at PwC, working predominantly in providing financial and regulatory assurance and advice. Nick is the lead Assurance partner in PwC’s Climate Change Services leadership team. Last year Nick prepared the report on Accounting for Carbon for the State Government National Emissions Trading Taskforce. Nick has calculated and audited carbon footprints, developed offset strategies, reduction plans, and carbon management plans. Nick has also developed a low carbon solution for a financing company. Nick wrote PwC’s submission to the JPC Review on ‘Sustainability and Triple Bottom Line reporting’ and gave evidence at the hearings.

In addition Nick also leads PwC Australia’s corporate reporting and communications team, which undertakes research and supports organisations in communicating more effectively with key stakeholder groups. Nick recently co-authored ‘Best Practice Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting’ – a pro-forma to demonstrate how companies could present their ESG credentials and performance more effectively.
 

Sonya Stephens provides strategic consulting, go-to-market advice and business development planning. In her current position with SAS – the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market – she is focused on sustainability management for Commonwealth, State and local government entities. She is equally at home as a trusted advisor in the private sector, having held numerous roles across the infrastructure, telecommunications, finance and technology industries.

Her 15 years information technology industry experience prior to joining SAS included five years as founder and CEO of Washington DC-based Benchmark Professionals, Inc., a strategic management consultancy specialising in the commercialisation of ITC start-ups. During this time she sat on a number of US industry councils and public advisory committees

Theo Theophanous has been the Member for Jika Jika Province since 1988, and was elected to Northern Metropolitan region in 2006. He is currently the Minister for Industry and State Development, Information and Communication Technology and Major Projects. He was born in Cyprus and was educated at Glenroy High School and then Latrobe University where he achieved a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, First Class) in Politics and Sociology.

Anita has more than 25 years experience working with business, governments and communities to turn sustainability concepts into effective action. Working internationally for the past 10 years, Anita has held the positions of Director of Sustainability for Alcoa in New York, where she was responsible for coordinating and integrating the concepts of sustainability throughout the company; Member of the Secretariat for the Global Mining Initiative (GMI)

in London; Acting Secretary General and Chief Operating Officer of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) in London and was Vice President of External Relations with the International Council on Metals and the Environment (ICME) in Canada. Prior to working overseas, she managed WMC’s public policy unit at the company’s headquarters in Melbourne and worked with the then Australian Chamber of Manufactures in strategy and environment roles. Anita was also a Board member of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future and delegate to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Tony Hawthorne has worked in various procurement and outsourcing roles within both industry and government over the past 18 years. After completing an Arts Degree Tony began his career at Shell Australia establishing and managing outsourced relationships for everything from IT&T to corporate aircraft.  He has managed procurement functions within various Victorian Government Departments, primarily focused on IT. A move to the NAB saw a change of career focus to source and manage marketing suppliers, a change that was continued with a move to Foster s Group three and a half years ago.

Since joining Foster s Tony has worked in both the Supply and Marketing divisions of the company and was appointed to the new role of Global Procurement Manager Sustainability & Risk in early 2008. His new role is concentrating on developing and implementing a program to embed Sustainability within Foster s Global Procurement operation.
 

Peter Sharpe has been working in the sourcing field for over 15 years and has held the role of Sustainable Sourcing Manager for ANZ since October 2007. Prior to this, Peter worked in as a sourcing consultant for Woolworths and Victoria Police and the government sector, focused on IT Procurement. His current work with ANZ has focused on the development of a sustainable sourcing framework for the bank, part of which was the recent development of a Sustainability Code of Practice for suppliers. Peter's formal training was originally in marketing and advertising

Hugh Wareham is the inaugral CEO of ECO-Buy Limited.  ECO-Buy is a not for profit company and Australia’s leading green purchasing organisation established to encourage the purchasing of green products.  Starting life in 2000 as a buy recycled program for local government ECO-Buy is an award winning program that now runs programs for local and state governments and businesses and is a Centre of Excellence in environmental purchasing.  ECO-Buy hosts an extensive database of suppliers of environmentally preferable suppliers and commissions research in the area of green purchasing.

Hugh’s last role was as Director and Deputy to Victoria’s Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability.  Prior to moving to Australia, Hugh worked in a number of senior positions for the Environment Agency, the leading public body for protecting and improving the environment in England and Wales.

Shane Holt is the Director of the Appliance Energy Efficiency Section in the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.  Shane is the former Chair of the national Equipment Energy Efficiency Committee (E3) comprising officials from all Australian jurisdictions and New Zealand.  E3 is charged with developing common efficiency standards for end-use products.

Shane is the Australian Delegate and Deputy Chair of the International Energy Agency End-Use Equipment Energy Efficiency Implementing Agreement and project manager for both that group and the Asia Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate.  He is a Board member of the international Collaborative Labelling and Standards Programme and later this month will be a keynote speaker at a European Conference on appliance labelling.

Sean Casey has over 16 years experience with Intel globally, and is currently the business development manager for the Enterprise Solutions Group for Australia and New Zealand assisting enterprise and government accounts deploying Intel technology.  Sean originally joined Intel as a design engineer on the Intel 486 DX4100 in 1992.   Sean has lived in Australia for the last 10 years working for Intel, and is a proud holder of his Australian passport.

Patrick has also held positions in the Commonwealth Department of Finance and in the Banking industry. 

Patrick holds a Bachelor of Economics Degree (Australian National University) and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment (Australian Securities Institute).    He is also a certified Project Management Professional and a Senior Associate with the Australasian Institute of Banking and Finance.

Chloe Munro is Telstra's thought leader on climate change.  As Executive Director, Innovation Projects for the Digital Future, Chloe has a wide ranging brief to explore the potential of technology and Telstra's products and services to improve the way we live, work and play.

Chloe previously held senior positions in Telstra Operations and in Human Resources, having joined the company in February 2004.  Her prior career spans the public, private and not-for profit sectors across three continents.  Chloe was brought up in Scotland and holds degrees from Cambridge University and Westminster University. She migrated to Australia in 1996 to lead Victoria’s energy reform and privatisation division in the Department of Treasury and Finance.  Subsequently Chloe was appointed as Secretary (CEO) of Victoria’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment and later of the Department of Primary Industries.

In 2002 Chloe was awarded the Centenary Medal for outstanding service to public administration. She is also currently serving as a member of the National Water Commission.

Otto Ruettinger is Lenovo's Business Manager, Desktop and Notebooks and is responsible for annual market planning, pricing strategy and marketing programs for the ThinkCentre and ThinkPad range across the Australian and New Zealand Markets. Otto is also one of Lenovo’s lead environmental spokespeople. Otto is also the product lead in Lenovo's Relationship Business that focuses on large customers with direct contact with Lenovo, assisting with strategic opportunities and large-bids focused on the needs of mid-market, large enterprise and government.

In this role Otto also advises large corporate businesses, government and education agencies on the benefits of adopting environmentally friendly technology.  Previous to his role with Lenovo, Otto held various sales and marketing positions with Kodak's digital imaging businesses over a period of eight years.  These positions ranged from Account Manager, Cluster Sales Manager, Asia Region Product Manager, and most recently Worldwide Future Product Manager. As Worldwide Product Manager for Kodak's Graphic Communications Group, based in San Diego California, he lead the development of new products from concept to successful launch.  Otto is personally passionate about environmental responsibility and reduces his impact by driving a smart car and riding his bicycle to and from work covering around 40km in the return trip.  Otto holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Newcastle.

Gabrielle Aitken is the Energy and Environment Leader for IBM Global Business Services, where she has responsibility for helping clients across a broad range of industry sectors create more sustainable business practices to deliver shareholder and customer value whilst minimising their environmental impact. Gabrielle’s role is dedicated to helping clients understand and reduce their carbon footprint and increase their energy efficiency through system and business process improvements.

Gabrielle has worked with IBM for six years in leadership roles across different parts of IBM, in business development, marketing and consulting capacities. She has worked in in the IBM Supply Chain Management consulting practice for the last two years, with a background in complex supply chain management solutions having previously worked for supply chain management company i2. Gabrielle has a Bachelor of Commerce and is currently completing an MBA.

Sandra Walls is Executive Director, Learning and Academic Affairs at Box Hill Institute, Melbourne, Australia, a Technical and Further Education Institute with 35,000 student enrolments and over 1,000 staff.  The Institute has extensive international projects and has recently won major International Export Awards for its work in international education.

Sandra’s role encompasses ensuring quality learning across the Institute, from Certificates to Degrees; the Global Education Network (student and staff international exchanges); teacher education and communities of practice and flexible delivery (content development and online learning)  Sandra is responsible for the Key Platform of Leaders in Teaching and Learning in the Institute’s Strategic Plan.

Sandra has worked in the Vocational Education and Training sector for 17 years. During this time Sandra has designed, delivered, assessed and managed an extensive range of teacher education programs.

 Further detail to follow

Kelly O’Shanassy is the Chief Executive Officer of Environment Victoria, the State’s leading non-government voice on the environment.   Ms O’Shanassy has an extensive background in sustainability, within the public, private and community sector.

She was author of Victoria’s Framework for Environmental Sustainability and set the directions for Melbourne’s future water supplies and conservation actions. Kelly has established world-first environment protection policies and maintains a strong voice for a sustainable Victoria. Kelly is a Director of WaterKeepers Australia, a member of the Commissioner for Sustainability’s Advisory Board and a member of the Plastics and Chemical Industries Association Community Advisory Board. She enjoys the great outdoors and can be found kayaking along Victoria’s rivers in her spare time.

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