Greening Australia's leadership team

Before being appointed to the position of National CEO of Greening Australia, Brendan was the Corporate Affairs Manager – Eastern States for Alcoa of Australia, one of Greening Australia’s key national partners, where he had been employed since 2002.

Brendan holds an MBA and an Advanced Diploma in Business Management from the University of Ballarat. In addition to business management, strategy development and planning, he has particular strengths in government relations and liaison, community and stakeholder relations and sustainable development and change management.

Prior to working for Alcoa, Brendan was an Environmental Program Leader for Conservation Volunteers Australia from 1999 to 2001, and developed and operated his own business in the UK.

Rod Douglas is currently also acting as the National Chair alongside his role as President of the Queensland Board. He has been a Greening Australia QLD board member since 2002 and in 2006 was appointed as a member of the National board. He holds an MBA (Master of Business Administration) from Bond University (QLD) and is an adjunct Professor at the Australian Centre for Sustainable Business & Development at USQ and is founder and Director of Succe$$ystems Pty Ltd. In addition Rod holds directorship and chair of a growing Australian business. Rod is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and provides strategy & innovation consulting to rapidly growing businesses throughout Australia. At home he is a father of five and the protector of 220 acres of pristine eucalypt regrowth forest at Beechmont. Rod has a passion to see the humanity put back into business, and a commitment to have our natural resources priced at their real economic value ensuring the protection and revitalisation of our natural heritage.

Sean joined Greening Australia in Queensland as General Manager Corporate Services in September 2008. Prior to this, Sean worked for SEQ Water as their Senior Financial Accountant and Financial Controller and for seven years with ExxonMobil in the United Kingdom before immigrating to Australia. Sean’s background is in Finance, horticulture/nurseries and production with a major passion for the environment. Sean holds a Bachelor  degree in Accounting Science and a Diploma in Business Management.

Jason joined the Greening Australia team in May 2010. He has previously been involved in natural resource management as an academic, consultant and policy adviser. Jason has a PhD in ecosystem rehabilitation from the University of New England, and is passionate about seeing the better application of science in resource management.

As a leader of the Capital Region team he shares his focus between fostering new opportunities for landscape transformation and supporting a fantastic team of volunteers and staff.  Jason is also a Councillor of the Ecological Society of Australia, the peak professional society for ecological scientists in Australia.

During his career, Peter has been a Soil Conservationist, Agricultural Adviser, Regional Director, Deputy Director General and CEO of a major Catchment Trust. He has held Commissioner roles in Western Lands and Soil Conservation and was a Deputy Commissioner on the MDBC.

Peter has represented the States on delegations to the UN to develop a Desertification Convention. He was a Visiting Fellow to the University of Western Sydney and holds a Churchill Fellowship. Peter has also operated his own consultancy business focusing on catchment management, community engagement and strategic planning. Peter is a member of the ACT Natural Resource Management Council and has been a Director of Greening Australia ACT Capital Region since 2005.

Peter has nearly forty years professional and practical experience in agriculture, natural resource and catchment management at local, state, national and international levels.  

Greg is a recent arrival to Greening Australia, joining the Northern Territory team in 2011 after 25 years with the Parks & Wildlife Service of the NT.  Greg has a Ph.D. in botany and has worked in many facets of wildlife conservation, specialising in botanical survey, plant taxonomy and ecology of tropical flora, threatened species management and sustainable wildlife use. He has managed the NT Herbarium and the Darwin Botanic Gardens. While Greg’s experience has been gained mostly in the tropics of northern Australia he has also spent a number of years working in Papua New Guinea and central Australia.

Greg has specialist interests in Acacia, mangroves and freshwater plants with an emphasis on taxonomy, productivity and changes following disturbance. He has a particular interest in plant species that are threatened by activities such as habitat destruction, development or trade. Since 1997 he has worked with the UN Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) as the Oceania representative on the CITES Plants Committee. A particular focus has been the determining of safe harvest limits for perennial pants. Greg also chairs the Board of the Cairns-based Australian Tropical Herbarium.

Emily Hinds has worked as Group Training Northern Territory’s (GTNT) Sustainability Officer since mid 2008, instigating initiatives and projects from the Carbon Abatement Strategy which won GTNT the Commercial Division in the 2010 Power Water, Melaleuca Environmental Excellence Awards.

Emily has previously held positions as a Horticulturist and Team Leader with Darwin City Council, owned and operated a retail plant nursery, and worked in education and training roles as a Business trainer and assessor, and as a lecturer in Horticulture at Charles Darwin University.

Leigh Dennis is a highly qualified and experienced environmentalist known to many in the industry. Throughout his career, Leigh has been very successful in delivering natural resource management outcomes in partnership with government, industry and regional groups.

Mark has been involved with the environment movement since the early 1980s, and joined Greening Australia as CEO in April 2002. Trained as a biologist, Mark's experience is broad and includes employment in eco-tourism, wildlife documentary, performing arts and youth crisis services. He has studied fundraising in Europe and the USA and was fundraising manager for The Wilderness Society, and later Greenpeace Australia, before setting up his own marketing and event management company. He is currently completing a Masters in Marketing at the University of South Australia.

Cecilia Woolford is recognised for her capacity to contribute to strategic thinking at a high level, and her communication skills, particularly in the areas of negotiation, mediation and community capacity building.  She is the executive officer of EPICC and the independent Chair of the Andamooka Town Management Committee. Her leadership positions have included; Chairing South Australia’s NRM Council Volunteers Committee and board member of the Eyre Peninsula NRM Board (including as Presiding Member).

Jonathan began his Greening Australia career in 1999 as Manager of the Tasmanian Regional Seedbank operation, and since then has strongly influenced the direction of the organisation. Jonathan became CEO in 2004 and is highly respected for his commitment to engaging the whole Tasmanian community (including business and government), in practical partnerships to achieve positive environmental results. Jonathan has a Bachelor of Engineering and qualifications in environmental studies and sustainable development. He also has a wealth of experience in working with remote indigenous communities on environmental health and related projects.

Jamie has qualifications in the biological sciences and has had a long career in natural resource management leading groups involved in research, management, enforcement and policy development.  He has worked on development of national policies on biodiversity, water, and climate change as well as other policies in the economic, social and environmental domains at both the National and State levels. He has had particular and long involvement in conservation policy, Aboriginal policy, forest policy and climate change.  He was a member of the working group that developed the States and Territories proposal for a National Emissions Trading Scheme.
 
Jamie sees Greening Australia as a natural extension of his career and an opportunity to make a real change to Australian landscapes by putting the theory into practice.

Since retiring from a central policy role with the Tasmanian Government Jamie has undertaken volunteering assignments in the Solomon Islands and East Timor.  On these assignments he has been involved in assisting small business and not for profit companies on organisational development and governance.  
 
Jamie currently chairs the Tasmanian Forest Practices Advisory Council and WildCare Gift Fund Committee.  Jamie also has “not for profit” experience on the Board of Volunteering Tasmania Ltd.

Ron has worked for Greening Australia in Victoria for over 20 years in the West region. Ron has managed staff and initiated and overseen many successful projects including Habitat 141, Borrell a kandelop, Moolapio and the Betr project.

Gordon MacAulay is Principal Economist with GrainGrowers and Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney. A Board member of Greening Australia since 2006, Gordon has experience in the quantitative analysis of markets and inter-regional trade and in agricultural and resource industry policy analysis. 

He has undertaken research projects and consultancies on competition policy in the dairy, grains, rice and palm oil industries and has worked on many issues related to the use of resources. His previous positions held include: Professor of Agricultural Economics and Head of the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Sydney, and member of the Academic Board of the University of Sydney.

Craig Anderson is an agribusiness specialist with a diverse background in a significant number of primary production commodities in Australia and Asia.  Craig has tertiary qualifications in forestry and business management and more than 20 years’ experience in developing, financing and managing large-scale agribusiness enterprises.  He has held a number of executive and board positions in both private and public companies in Australia and has strong experience of project management and trade in Asian jurisdictions. 
 
Craig has a strong background in commercialising projects in the primary industry sector. This has included various forestry and horticultural commodities as well as carbon and environmental offset projects in Australia and Asia.  He has successfully raised more than A$300M for direct and structured investments in more than 20 agribusiness initiatives in the last 10 years and built teams of expert personnel of more than 100 staff responsible for the construction and management of one of Australia’s largest horticultural and forestry enterprises.

Bill has been on the Greening Australia (WA) Board since 2004 and was elected President in 2009.  Bill has more than twenty years experience in environmental management in the agricultural, mining and resources industries and is well connected in these sectors.  He understands the way both industry and government work and brings extensive experience in managing a broad range of environmental issues.  Bill now runs his own environmental consultancy providing services to industry and government.   He has had extensive experience in dealing with mineral resources issues from the day to day operational aspects to the long term management of strategic issues and brings to the table a pragmatic and practical approach to project management.

Bill is currently an Environmental Advisor to the Chevron Gorgon Project and also provides independent advice to Greening Australia’s Environmental Services Unit on an ad hoc basis.

In addition to these roles Bill is one of the Convocation elected Senators on the University of WA Senate and Vice Chairman of the External Environment Committee.