Diane Smith-Gander AO is a professional non-executive director maintaining a diverse portfolio over varying types of entities, industries and geographies. She is an advocate for gender equity and a past president of Chief Executive Women.

Diane is Chair of Zip Co Limited, DDH1, HBF Health Limited and CEDA, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia.

Diane holds an MBA from the University of Sydney and a BEc from UWA. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), Governance Institute of Australia (GIA) and an adjunct professor of corporate governance at UWA. In 2018 Diane was the Business Award winner in the West Australian of the Year Awards in recognition of her contribution to business in the state and her advocacy for gender equity. She also became an Officer in the Order of Australia in 2019 for services to business, women’s engagement in executive roles, gender equality and the community.

 

Jimmy has a wealth of experience in supply chain management across multiple resource commodities. 

Jimmy was President of BHP Billiton Iron Ore and Member of the Group Management Committee at BHP Billiton from 2012 to 2016. Prior to this, Jimmy led BHP Billiton's Energy Coal, Stainless Steel and Nickel West division in Australia after managing BHP Billiton's Chrome and Aluminium operations in South Africa.

Mark Barnaba commenced as Co-Deputy Chair of Fortescue Metals Group in November 2017 and has served as Lead Independent Director since November 2014 as well as a Non-Executive Director since February 2010.

Mr Barnaba is a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Prior to his appointment, he worked for McKinsey and Company and also recently held several senior executive roles at Macquarie Group, where until 30 August 2017, Mr Barnaba served as Chairman and Global Head of Natural Resources for Macquarie Capital.

He is Chairman of The University of Western Australia's Business School Board and is an Adjunct Professor of Finance and Investment Banking at the University of WA, is co-founder (and previously co-executive Chairman) of Azure Capital, is a Senior Advisor at Ernst & Young Oceania and has previously served as the Chairman of Western Power, Chairman of Black Swan State Theatre Company, Edge Employment Solutions, the West Coast Eagles Football Club, Alinta Infrastructure Holdings and member of the Advisory Council for The Hugh Jackman Deborah-lee Furness Foundation for the Performing Arts. In 2011, he was appointed by the Premier to chair the WA Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Business Forum for CHOGM.

After graduating from The University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Commerce (first class honours; University medal), Mr Barnaba entered Harvard Business School receiving an MBA (high distinction; Baker Scholar). Post business school, he spent the majority of his time with McKinsey and Company, overseas, before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s.

Mr Barnaba was the recipient of the WA Citizen of the Year Award in Industry and Commerce in 2009.

In 2015, Mr Barnaba was named a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the investment banking and financial sectors, to business education, and to sporting and cultural organisations.

He received an Honorary Doctor of Commerce from The University of Western Australia in 2012 and was granted the Honorary designation FCPA from CPA Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Peter Robertson is a Professor of Economics and is Dean of the Business School.

He was Head of Economics 2014-2016  and was Associate Dean of Research from 2011-2014. He was educated at the University of Otago, the University of New England and Simon Fraser University. He has been a visiting Scholar at the University of Otago, The University of British Columbia, Rutgers University and The University of Oxford. He was formerly employed at the Productivity Commission 1994-1996,  and the University of New South Wales 1996-2009. Peter also serves as an expert consultant to the Productivity Commission and to the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research and is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. He is currently serving on the editorial board of The Indian Growth and Development Review and Economic Papers. 

Adrian Fini is Director of Hesperia and Fini Group Pty Ltd, a private property and investment group.  He is also an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship at the UWA Business School.

Adrian is a current Board member of The University of Western Australia Business School Board and the Perth Festival.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from The University of Western Australia.

Alan Cransberg was Chairman and Managing Director, Alcoa of Australia, from 2008 until April, 2016. He is an Adjunct Professor in Corporate Strategy at the UWA Business School.

Alan’s last position with Alcoa was President Alcoa Refining and Australia Region. Alcoa of Australia has mining, refining, power and smelting interests across Australia. As President Alcoa Refining, Alan held responsibility for all of Alcoa’s alumina refineries globally. He was also a Vice President of Alcoa Inc., Chairman of Alcoa Australia and a Board Member of the Alcoa Foundation.

Alan graduated from The University of Western Australia with a degree in Civil Engineering (Hons) in 1979. He began his Alcoa career in the West Australian Mining Group in 1980. In 1989, he moved into Alcoa’s Western Australian refining system and became Pinjarra Alumina Refinery Manager in 1998. In 2001, he moved to the United States to continue his Alcoa career with stints in Texas, Tennessee and finally New York where he became President, Global Manufacturing for Alcoa’s Global Primary Products group in 2004.

Alan was Chairman of the West Coast Eagles Football Club from 2011 to 2016, is Chairman of The Wirrpanda Foundation and is Deputy Chairman of the Black Swan State Theatre Company. Other current Board Memberships include the SAS Resources Trust, UWA Business School, ACE Mining Solutions, Swire and Sons Pty Ltd, and he is an ambassador for The Foundation for the Prevention of Violence Against Women and their Children (Our Watch).

Anne Nolan has had a distinguished career in the public sector and has recently retired as Director General of the Department of Finance.

She has held other senior roles including Director General Department of State Development, Deputy Director General Department of Premier and Cabinet and has had extensive experience at Treasury.

She is passionate about good public policy and has a strong interest in  microeconomic reform, regulatory design, government business governance, energy policy, taxation and intergovernmental relations. 

In 2019 Anne was appointed to the Australian Energy Market Operator Board.

Ben Wyatt is the former first Aboriginal Australian Treasurer, appointed in March 2017.

Testament to his capability, capacity and strong work ethic, Mr Wyatt also holds the position as Minister for Finance Aboriginal Affairs; Lands.

Mr Wyatt’s priority as a leader of the state is to focus on his pronounced Ministerial portfolio, his obligation to his constituents and to make a difference to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across the state and the nation. Mr Wyatt is deeply committed to the principles of closing the gap in Australia. 

Elected to the Legislative Assembly in a by-election, held in March 2006, Mr Wyatt was fast-tracked to fill the vacancy created when the Hon Dr Geoff Gallop resigned and has been serving the State for more than 12 years. 
 
Prior to his appointment as a senior Minister in the current Government, Mr Wyatt held the positions of Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Federal State Relations, Aboriginal Affairs, Native Title and Government Accountability. 

Mr Wyatt holds a Masters Degree with distinction from the London School of Economics, Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia and has also served on the National Board of Indigenous Business Australia and as an officer in the Australian Army - following his graduation from the Royal Military College, Duntroon. 

In 2001, Mr Wyatt was awarded Young Australian of the Year in the Town of Victoria Park. Other accolades include a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship from the Rotary Club of Victoria Park for 2001 to 2002 and receiving the Australian Defence Medal in 2008. 

During his pre-Parliamentary legal career, Mr Wyatt worked as a barrister and solicitor with a national law firm in Perth and Sydney.  Mr Wyatt also served as counsel for the WA Director of Public Prosecutions.

Greg has been a non-executive director on the Board of Global Lithium Resources since February 2022. Greg previously served as CEO & Managing Director of Nathan River Resources after four years at Fortescue Metals Group in the roles of Chief Operating Officer and Director Operations and 26 years in various roles with Rio Tinto including as a member of Rio Tinto’s Executive Committee as Group Executive – Technology and Innovation.

Greg has over three decades of extensive international experience in the mining sector, across multiple commodities in large-scale project development and construction, operational and business leadership, joint venture management and technology deployment. 

Greg holds a degree in Construction Engineering from Curtin University and is a Vincent Fairfax Fellow in Ethical Leadership from University of Melbourne, as well as completing the prestigious Wharton Business School’s Advanced Management Program. 

He is a member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

John Willinge is the founder and CEO of Alverstoke Group LLC, an investment firm based in New York, and has extensive experience as a member of the Board of public and private companies both in the United States and Australia.

He has previously worked at leading financial services firms including Rothschild, Goldman Sachs and Thomas Weisel Partners, where he was a partner of the firm.

John has nearly three decades of experience as an executive, investment professional, and investment committee member in the venture capital, private equity and asset management industries. Before entering the finance industry, he worked as an engineer in the mining and oil and gas industries. 

John is an Adjunct Professor in Finance and Investment at The University of Western Australia and a Patron of The Hackett Foundation. He is also a Member of the Board of the UWA Business School and Chair of its Ambassadorial Council's North American chapter. John was selected as a David Rockefeller Fellow with the Partnership for New York City. In addition, John is the author of a bestselling Harvard Business School publication on private equity.

John holds a Master of Business Administration with Honours from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Commerce and an Honorary Doctorate in Commerce from The University of Western Australia, and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the Western Australian School of Mines.

Marshall co-founded Viburnum Funds in 2007, following a 16 year banking and investment career in UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia with ANZ Private Equity, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale and equity derivatives boutique Credit Agricole Lazard Financial Products (as Deputy Managing Director for Asia).

Viburnum is a Perth based “active ownership” fund manager managing both public and private strategies for local and international institutional investors. Marshall has primary responsibility for management and performance of the Private Equity funds. From time to time he will hold non-executive directorships in portfolio companies currently including MPC Kinetic, Shelf Subsea, Minnovare, MTi Group and Findex.

Marshall was educated at the University of Western Australia (BCom) and Cornell University (MBA).

Meg O’Neill has 27 years experience in the global oil and gas industry, working in the USA, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Meg was appointed Acting Chief Executive Officer on 20 April 2021.

Meg joined Woodside in May 2018 as Chief Operations Officer, responsible for Woodside’s producing facilities, and supporting production, logistics, drilling, HSEQ and reservoir management activities. In October 2019, Meg became Executive Vice President Development which encompasses the delivery of all of Woodside’s major projects, and in August 2020 Meg also assumed responsibility for Marketing.

Prior to joining Woodside, Meg held the position of Vice President, Africa for ExxonMobil Development Company based in Houston, where she was responsible for ExxonMobil’s major projects across Africa, including Angola, Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique. Meg’s recent experience also includes her role as Executive Advisor to the Chairman of Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2016. Meg previously held senior leadership roles in ExxonMobil’s Production Company in Asia / Pacific, Norway and Canada.

Meg is on the Boards of West Australian Symphony Orchestra, APPEA, AMMA, GLX Digital and the University of Western Australia Business School. Meg is originally from Colorado and is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with degrees in Ocean and Chemical Engineering. 

Nick Letch is a member of the Management and Organisations Discipline Group at the UWA Business School where he teaches and researches Business Information Systems.

Nick was appointed as the Deputy Dean and Head of School for the UWA Business School in September 2017. He was Director of Academic Programs for the Business School 2015-2017.

Nick’s research interests examine the interplay of social and technical aspects of information technology implementations. His PhD thesis investigated public sector information systems and in particular their support for citizen-administration relationships. He maintains an interest in IT in public administration and educational contexts and continues to research the development of emerging information infrastructures and their impacts. He has published and presented his research in a range of national and international forums and has also provided consultancy services to government and private sector organisations in areas including information systems management and governance, information systems evaluation and database design and development.

Nick chaired the UWA Business School’s Business Information Management Discipline group 2007-2009 and coordinated UWA’s postgraduate programs in Information Management 2000-2011. From 2012-2015 he served as the Director of Undergraduate Programs for the Business School.

Prior to entering academia Nick held positions in data operations and administration with NCR Australia and in general management in the retail sector.

Rob was appointed Managing Director of Wesfarmers in November 2017 following his appointment as Deputy Chief Executive Officer in February 2017. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of the Wesfarmers Industrials division from August 2015 until August 2017. 

Rob started with Wesfarmers in 1993 before moving into investment banking, where he had various roles in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions in Australia and Asia. Rob rejoined Wesfarmers in 2004 in a commercial role in business development, before being appointed Managing Director of Wesfarmers Insurance in 2007 and then Finance Director of Coles in February 2013. He was appointed to the role of Managing Director, Financial Services in October 2014.

Rob holds a Master of Applied Finance degree from Macquarie University and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the Australian National University. He has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investments, is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He is a dual Olympian in rowing and a silver medallist from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He is Chairman of Rowing Australia, a director of The University of Western Australia Business School Advisory Board and a director of the Business Council of Australia. Rob is also a director of Gresham Partners Holdings Limited and Gresham Partners Group Limited, and a past president and director of the Insurance Council of Australia.

Rowan Munchenberg commenced as Executive, Business Lending at NAB 

He joined the Commonwealth Bank in 2001 and has had broad experience through a number of senior executive roles across retail, business and institutional banking businesses. Prior to joining Bankwest he resided in Johannesburg, where he led the digital banking growth strategy for South Africa in the role of Executive General Manager of South Africa for CBA, following the Group’s acquisition in January 2015 of Take Your Money Everywhere (“TYME”), a South African start-up technology services company.

Rowan has extensive expertise in retail and business banking, and technology and innovation-based business leadership. He has held a range of senior roles in CBA including Executive General Manager (EGM) Group Strategic Initiatives, where he was responsible for successfully building productivity capability across the Group; EGM Banking Solutions in the Group’s business and institutional banking division, where he managed the business banking product portfolio together with operations; EGM Service Delivery where he led a team of 3,500 across Australia to run back-office operations for retail, business and institutional banking within CBA and had responsibility for the EGM Retail Products role within Retail Banking Services (RBS).

Prior to joining CBA, Rowan held senior product and leadership positions in Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications and information services company, including CEO of BigPond, where he grew the business to become Australia’s largest internet service provider. During his tenure at Telstra, Rowan was also responsible for all business-to-business e-commerce products.

Sue Murphy is a Company Director who graduated as a Civil Engineer from the University of Western Australia in 1979. 

After winning a Clough Scholarship as an undergraduate, she joined Clough Engineering in 1980 commencing what would be a 25 year career in that organisation.  Twelve years in the field as a site engineer and project manager led to corporate roles with a focus on human resources, safety and engineering design management and her appointment in 1998 as the first woman on the board of Clough Engineering Ltd.

 From 2008 until 2018 Sue was the Chief Executive Officer of the Water Corporation.

Sue is a member of the University of Western Australia Senate, Board Member of the UWA Business School and Director of the West Australian Treasury Corporation.  Sue is also a Board Member for the AFL Fremantle Dockers.

In each year from 2009 – 2015, Sue was listed in the top 100 most influential engineers in Australia by Engineers Australia.

In 2013, Sue was honoured with the prestigious Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year Award by the Board of the College of Civil Engineers of Engineers Australia.  Sue was also elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia.

In 2014, Sue was presented with the IWA’s “International” Women in Water Award and listed at number 8 of the 2017 “Top 25 Global Water Leaders” by Water and Wastewater International Magazine.

Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive, Iron Ore in 2021, Simon was Chief Commercial Officer from 2018, responsible for global sales and marketing, procurement, marine and logistics. Since joining in 2000, he has held a variety of operating, commercial and business development roles across a number of commodities. 

Under Simon’s leadership, the Commercial team continued to enhance customer experiences, in part by using new technology and digitisation to simplify interactions; the team also launched initiatives to allow the business to respond more quickly to changing market conditions. 

Simon knows Western Australia well and has a deep understanding of the iron ore market and the customers globally. He is committed to leading Iron Ore safely to its next phase, with a strong focus on rebuilding trust with communities and Traditional Owners.

Simon has been with Rio Tinto for nearly two decades, holding a variety of commercial, operating and business development roles across a number of commodities. He has a graduate diploma in Finance & Investment (FINSIA) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.