Infinity Leadership Program Guest Speakers 2009
Leadership in Indigenous Australia
Ms Julie Andrews
Ms Julie Andrews, appointed to La Trobe in February 2005, is the University’s first Indigenous academic staff member. A member of the Yorta Yorta people, she is from Mooroopna, Victoria. Her mother was born on the Cummer agu unja Mission near the Barmah Forest on the Murray River near the Victoria-New South Wales border. Graduating from La Trobe University as an anthropologist she has over fifteen years experience in Indigenous higher education issues. Julie was instrumental in establishing the Indigenous academic support unit at La Trobe University and also developed the Indigenous Employment Strategy for the University. She has over ten years experience in training university staff on Indigenous community issues.
Leadership in Education
Professor Paul Johnson
Professor Johnson assumed the Vice-Chancellorship of La Trobe University in April 2007. Professor Johnson received his doctorate from Oxford University in 1982, while working as a Research Fellow at Nuffield College. In 1984, he joined the London School of Economics (LSE) as a lecturer in social history, then became Professor of Economic History and Head of the Department at the LSE in 1999 before becoming the LSE's Deputy Director in 2004. His research has focused on two distinct areas: the economic and social development of Britain since 1850, and the economic impact of population ageing. He has published 10 authored or edited books and more than 60 articles and chapters, and has been recipient of research grants valued at over $4 million.
Leadership in Business and Regional Communities
Mr Andrew Watts
Andrew Watts joined Bendigo Bank in 1994 and holds a bachelor of engineering and a graduate diploma of business administration.
Prior to his recent appointment as the Chief Information Officer at Bendigo Bank, Andrew held a number of management roles in Bendigo Bank’s marketing, retail and IT businesses, including Product Development and Research, Direct Banking, Remote Banking, and Network Development and Planning. As part of Bendigo Bank’s $4 Billion merger with Adelaide Bank, he played a major role in delivering part of the pre-tax savings that the merger was expecting to achieve.
Leadership in Technology
Professor Annabelle Duncan
Professor Duncan is a Microbial Ecologist who was educated at Otago University in New Zealand, La Trobe University and Monash University. In 2001 she completed a Senior Executive Management Course at Harvard University. She is also a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, having completed the Directors course and the Advanced Diploma in 2002. She spent 16 years working for CSIRO, initially as a research scientist, later in science management and was the Chief of CSIRO Molecular Science for 6 years. From 2005–2007 she was Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Bio21 Institute at the University of Melbourne and now holds the position of Executive Director, Science Collaboration at the Biosciences Research Centre.
Leadership in the Community
Ms Bernadette McMenamin
Bernadette McMenamin AO is the Chief Executive Officer of Child Wise™ Limited, a child protection charity with a local and global mission based in Melbourne, Australia. Bernadette has a Masters in International Social Work and is highly regarded in Australia and overseas as a successful advocate and innovator in the prevention of child sexual abuse. She has devoted 22 years of her life to the issue. In 1992 Bernadette became a founding member of ECPAT International in Thailand - a global campaign against child sexual exploitation. The campaign now exists in over 70 countries. In 1993, Bernadette returned to Australia and established ECPAT in Australia (now known as Child Wise Limited).
Leadership in Regional Australia
Ms Sylvia Admans
Sylvia Admans is the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR). Sylvia has over 21 years of management experience in the community, public and private sector. As head of FRRR, Sylvia has established alliances with communities large and small throughout Australia. The organisation has made a big impact on rural and regional Australia allocating more than $3.5m in approved grants to rural communities, as well as providing professional support for information services, brokerage, advocacy and funding.
She has also been responsible for developing specialised programs for smaller rural communities living in drought or living in isolation.
Leadership and the Environment
Mr Dave Sweeney
Dave Sweeney has been active in the uranium mining and nuclear debate for two decades through his work with the media, trade unions and environment groups on mining, resource and Indigenous issues. He works as a national nuclear campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation and has also been a key figure in the Beyond Nuclear Initiative (BNI), which campaigns against the expansion of the uranium mining industry in Australia and supports a clean, non-nuclear energy future.
Dave has lectured in Australia and internationally and has previously held forums and seminars at La Trobe University exploring the environmental and wider political aspects of the nuclear issue.
Leadership in Youth and Business
Ms Petra Sprekos
Having a relatively short work history, predominantly in marketing, strategy and research, and working in areas such as online services and research analysis, Petra is now the General Manager of Realestateview, a joint venture between the Real Estate Institute of Victoria Ltd. (REIV) and Victoria's leading real estate agencies. The internet site records more than 16,000 unique visitors a day and has more than 40,000 properties for sale or rent nationally. One of Petra’s biggest achievements is her 70,000 word thesis on Property Development and Entrepreneurship. Over the last 6 years she has built, motivated and managed teams and businesses and has a true passion for making improvements in the products and services available for the real estate industry - in particular the online industry.