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.

Duncan Kerr is a Tasmanian Senior Counsel. During a long career, Duncan has acted as a barrister in a wide range of matters but specialises in public law issues: constitutional and administrative law, human rights, criminal law, immigration and planning.

Duncan served as federal member for Denison for 23 years (1987-2010), as Attorney General (1993) and Minister for Justice (1993-96) in the Keating Government and as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs (2007-2009) in the Rudd Government.

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.  

Ken Waters has been on the NSW Board since February 2000 and Chair since January 2001. Ken previously held office as a Councillor with the Armidale-Dumaresq Council, Chair of the Northern Tablelands Bush Fire Management Committee, Deputy Chair of the New England Weed Authority and Chair of the New England Regional Art Museum.
Ken is a farmer and partner in a large family grazing business near Armidale, specialising in superfine wool and Angus beef cattle. He was a founding member of the local landcare group and is an active member of the Armidale Choral Society.

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.

Tim West is a Territorian who has had a strong ecological bent from an early age. He spent the majority of his formative years amongst the Larrakia people who provided him with his early native plant knowledge and a link to Kantri (Country).Tim is a Tropical Horticulturist (Adv. Dip. Hort) and has over 25 years experience in Top End Horticulture in both production and Natural Resource Management (NRM) fields.

Tim has worked in both the public and private sectors within the NT Horticultural industry and is a previous employee of Greening Australia NT under the Bushcare Support Initiative. Tim has developed and managed large production nurseries; cultivated broadacre crops and fruit trees; managed horticultural sections within Parks and Wildlife; co-owned a rural hardware store and lectured in Horticulture and Conservation Land Management at Charles Darwin University. He has more recently developed and implemented the NT Sustainable Land Use Guidelines whilst employed by the NT Horticultural Association through the National Landcare Program (NLP).

Tim is currently employed as the Regional Landcare Facilitator for the Northern Territory. Tim has always had a strong NRM focus towards his work in the horticultural industry and has been the GANT Boards representative on the executive of the Nursery Garden Industry of the NT (NGINT) for the past 6 years. Tim is currently the President of NGINT.

Tim is keen to further his involvement and support of Greening Australia through the GAL Board, as he views this dynamic organisation as a relevant, functioning conduit between community, government and industry with respect to native vegetation management in Australia.

After a successful career in senior Army and Defence appointments both in Australia and overseas, Michael left the Army and joined Tattersall’s Club as Chief Executive in March 2005.

During his Army and Defence career, he held senior command appointments including the Royal Military College at Duntroon in 2002/2003, 1st Division Artillery in 1996/97 and the 1st Field Regiment, Brisbane in 1993/94.   He also held senior operations, training and staff appointments in a number of positions in major Australian and British military units, serving both in England and Germany on a number of occasions.  These included Chief of Staff at HQ Australian Theatre, HQ Training Command – Army and as Military Secretary to Chief of Army.

He deployed to the Middle East for a period in 2002 as Commander of the Australian forces committed to the international coalition against terrorism.

He holds a Masters of Strategic Studies, a Bachelor of Arts in Military Studies and a Graduate Diploma of Management Studies. He is a graduate of the United Kingdom Gunnery Staff Course, the Army Command and Staff College at Fort Queenscliff, Victoria and the United States Army War College.  He is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003.

Michael and his wife Rosie have three children. His interests include Australian Rules football, golf, surfing and reading.  

Rod Douglas 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.

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.

Fraser Vickery has supported the work of Greening Australia for many years and worked as a consultant to Greening Australia South Australia prior to joining the SA Board in 1999.  Fraser was elected Chairman of Greening Australia South Australia in 2003 and is focused on building the State organizations’ operations, business and profile and developing national relationships with Greening Australia Limited. Fraser has worked as a professional ecologist, parks and wildlife and natural and cultural resource manager for more than 35 years, mainly in South Australia (10 years on Kangaroo Island) and the Northern Territory.  Fraser has also had a long association with the nature-based tourism industry and with partner Mia developed and operated Australian Wildlife Walkabouts – an eco-tourism business based on Kangaroo Island. Fraser is also the President of the Conservation Council of South Australia.  Fraser is qualified in forestry, horticultural science, science education and ecology and has a Masters Degree in Ecology from the University of New England and remains firmly based on Kangaroo Island.

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.

Gary has joined Greening Australia from the Knox City Council where he was Manager - Sustainability.  Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Yorkshire Culture, a not-for-profit cultural development company established by the UK Government.

Gary has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Kingston, London and a Diploma in Management Studies from the University of Newcastle.  

Professor Barry Hart was elected as President of Greening Australia in Victoria in late 2008.

Professor Barry Hart is Director of the environmental consulting company – Water Science Pty Ltd, having recently retired from Monash University.  He has been appointed an Emeritus Professor by Monash University. Previously he was Director of the Water Studies Centre at Monash University and Deputy Director Research of the CRC for Freshwater Ecology.

Professor Hart has established an international reputation in the fields of water quality management, catchment management, environmental risk assessment and environmental chemistry (heavy metal and nutrient biogeochemistry).  He has published over 175 refereed papers and 12 books, and is on the editorial board of 5 international journals.  He has received several awards, including the Limnology Medal (1982) from the Australian Society for Limnology, the Environmental Chemistry Medal (1996) and Applied Chemistry Medal (1998) from the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and in 2003 a Centenary Medal for services to water quality management and environmental protection.

He is well known for his sustained efforts in developing knowledge-based decision making processes in natural resource management in Australia and south-east Asia.

Professor Hart is currently a member of the Victorian Environment Assessment Council and the Scientific Reference Committee for the Victorian Government’s Land & Biodiversity White Paper.  He also chairs the Commonwealth Environmental Water Scientific Advisory Committee, Gippsland Lakes & Catchment Taskforce, Yarra Coordinating Committee, Gippsland Water’s Technical Advisory Committee, the DSE Environmental Flows Technical Audit Panel, the Great Barrier Reef Water Quality Partnership Science Advisory Panel, Melbourne Water’s Waterways Advisory Committee and EPA Victoria’s Science Futures Panel.

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.