Speakers


		Dr Bridget Ayling Dr Bridget Ayling is a geoscientist in the Geothermal Energy Project at Geoscience Australia. The project was started after the Prime Minister announced an Energy Security Initiative in mid-2006 that provided additional funding to Geoscience Australia for onshore and offshore energy research. Bridget joined the project in early 2007, and is interested in aspects of rock property research, thermal modeling, geothermometry, direct-use of geothermal energy and geothermal resource assessment. Bridget is currently establishing a heat-flow measurement capability at Geoscience Australia, and is also involved in thermal conductivity measurement, heat flow modeling and provision of geothermal technical advice to the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. Bridget joined Geoscience Australia in 2006 to undertake its 12-month graduate program. During this program she was involved in several projects, including earthquake risk modeling, interpretation of marine geophysical data, and an external secondment with the Australian Government Chief Scientist. Prior to this, Bridget completed her PhD at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra. Her research focused on the use of geochemical proxies in fossil coral and giant clam skeletons to reconstruct interglacial climates in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Bridget maintains an interest in climate research, and this complements her work in the geothermal realm.

		Paul Baxter Paul is currently the Senior Commissioner of the ACT’s Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission. He has also been the Associate Commissioner of the PNG Independent Consumer and Competition Commission and Associate Commissioner of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. In all these roles he has been the regulator of energy prices and energy market behaviour. He has had over 25 years experience in competition and regulatory policy matters both in private practice as an advisor to governments and the industry, and as an independent regulator in his own right. Over this period Paul has gained extensive practical experience in the process of effecting regulatory change and the evolution of regulatory regimes and practices in Australia and in a number of other countries in the Asia/Pacific Region. Paul is also a current member of the Independent Audit Group of the Murray Darling Basin Authority reporting on the Cap on water usage from the Murray/Darling Basin, and the implementation of the ‘Living Murray’ program, and is past Chair of the Water Accounting Standards Development Committee reporting to the National Water Commission.

		Dr Helen Berry Dr Helen Berry is a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health, ANU College of Medical & Health Sciences, Canberra. As a psychiatric epidemiologist, Dr Beery has been investigating social capital and mental health and their shared associations with selected contemporary issues in health and wellbeing. Recently, this work has expanded to place these issues in a context of climate change, particularly its impacts in rural and remote locations. With a previous executive career in public and non-profit administration, Dr Berry has a particular interest in the applications of her research findings to Australian public policy and intervention design. She has worked closely on social capital and mental health with Australian Government agencies, state and local government agencies, and has also collaborated with a wide range of universities in Australia and in Vietnam and Thailand. In 2009, Helen Berry has been shortlisted for the Eureka Prize for Medical Research awarded to an individual or research team conducting outstanding research into the health impacts of climate change. Winners of the prize are to be announced 18 August 2009.

		Kristin Blume Kristin Blume is Manager, Strategic Projects, Transport Regulation and Planning in the Transport and Infrastructure Division of the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services (TAMS). She is a Canberra native who joined the ACT Public Service as part of the Graduate program in 2004 after completing an Honours degree in International Relations at the Australian National University with the thesis topic "Greening the EU Marketplace: Free Market Environmentalism in the European setting". Over the past five and a half years with the ACT Government, she has worked for the Land Development Agency and in the Cabinet Office, and for the past two and a half years has been based in TAMS developing sustainable transport policy including the ACT's Green Vehicle Duty Scheme, and the Integrated Transport Framework. Kristin is currently overseeing the development of the ACT Government's Sustainable Transport Action Plan 2010-2016 and four associated strategies (public transport, parking, cycling and walking, and transport infrastructure), and will complete her (part time) Master of International Law at ANU in 2011. Kristin cycles the 15km to work and back 3 days a week, saving fuel, GHG emissions and gym fees.

		Dr Maxine Cooper Dr Maxine Cooper is the inaugural full-time Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment. This role is an expansion of the Office of the Commissioner for the Environment established in 1993, to include sustainability. Prior to taking up this position, Dr Cooper led the ACT’s Water Security Taskforce. Dr Cooper has extensive senior experience in the public and private sectors, with expertise in Arts, Heritage, Environment, Enterprise Services and Territory Planning. Previously, she was Director, Environmental Management with Brisbane City Council; General Manager, Environment and Community with the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority; and worked in private consultancy. She has held statutory positions as Conservator Flora and Fauna and as Chief Animal Welfare Officer for the ACT. Dr Cooper’s professional life began as an urban and regional planner in Western Australia, despite having lived most of her life in NSW. Her formal qualifications include: PhD(Environmental Planning), University of Melbourne, Victoria; Master o Environmental design (Environmental Science, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada; and Bachelor of Arts (Urban and Regional Studies) Curtin University, Western Australia. Dr Cooper is a full-time member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand and the Planning Institute of Australia. She was recently made a fellow of the Planning Institute for her contribution to the profession. Her focus on sustainability was particularly recognised when she received a Professional Fulbright Award to undertake work on this issue in the USA.

		Bob Douglas Bob Douglas retired from his post as the Foundation Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health at the ANU in 2001. His forty-year medical career spanned work as a specialist physician in Papua New Guinea, being Dean of the Medial School at the University of Adelaide and Chair of a Geneva based World Health Advisory Group. He was honoured for contributions to medicine by the award of Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2000. Following his retirement in 2001, Bob, with five colleagues from various walks of Australian life, established a new body, Australia 21 the Board of which he currently chairs. (www.australia21.org.au )Australia 21 is building networks of thinkers and researchers on some of the large challenges which face Australia and the world in the 21st Century. Arising from that experience, in 2006 he published a small book entitled “SEE-Change Centres, Grey Power and Hope” Bob currently also Chairs SEE-Change Inc (www.see-change.org.au ) which is promoting the development of SEE-Change Groups in the ACT which help to empower local communities to take action on climate change and their ecological footprint. Bob was a finalist for the ACT Australian of the Year for 2007 and in October 2008 shared the ACT Conservation Council’s Supreme Green Hero award.

		Prof Hubert Gijzen Hubert Gijzen is the Director of the UNESCO Regional Science Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, based in Jakarta; he also is the UNESCO Representative for Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Timor Leste. Hubert Gijzen holds a PhD in Environmental Biotechnology (1987) and an MSc degree in Biology (1982) from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He began his career in academics with the University of Nijmegen as Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology (1982-1987). In 1987, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, and became Team Leader and Coordinator of the Netherlands Cooperation capacity-building projects at the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania). In 1992, Hubert Gijzen joined the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and was posted in Cali (Colombia) as Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. In 1996 and 1997 he worked for UNESCO-IHE in Bangladesh. In 1995, Hubert. Gijzen was appointed full Professor of Environmental Biotechnology and the Head of a new academic Department in Pollution Prevention and Control at UNESCO-IHE in the Netherlands, where he developed and supervised activities and programmes in urban water management, sanitary and environmental engineering, and environmental science. Since 1998 he has been a full Professor at the Wageningen University and Research Center (the Netherlands) on a part-time basis, and Visiting Professor with Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia (since 1992). Hubert Gijzen has published over 250 articles and books in the areas of environmental biotechnology, Water and Sanitation, and water management, and is a member of several regional and international scientific and technological associations. He has also served in various international advisory functions and on Boards of Institutes.

		Robert Hill Robert Hill was recently announced as the inaugural Chair of the Australian Carbon Trust. For the past three years he has served as Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, New York. Since returning to Australia, Robert Hill has taken up the position of Adjunct Professor in Sustainability with the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Born in Adelaide in 1946, Professor Hill holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Adelaide and a Master of Laws from the University of London. He is married and has four children. Robert Hill was a member of the Senate representing South Australia from 1981 till his resignation in March 2006. During this time he held a number of senior Cabinet positions including Minister for Defence (2001-2006), Minister for the Environment and Heritage (1998-2001) and Minister for the Environment (1996-1998). He was also Leader of the Government in the Senate (1996-2006) and Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (1990-1996).

		Ben Keneally Ben Keneally is the Head of Marketing and External Affairs. He joined Better Place after several years working in senior policy, strategy and finance roles in the NSW Public Service, including leadership of the Premier’s Delivery Unit and serving as Deputy Chief of Staff to the NSW Premier. Prior to joining the public service, Ben was a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group where he worked extensively with consumer oriented product and service businesses in both Australia and North America. Ben has a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, both from Sydney University.

		Peter Moore Peter Moore is the Executive Director of the Canberra Office of the International Association of Public Transport. The Australia/New Zealand regional office, established in 2000, is part of the UITP (Europe) network. Formed in 1885, UITP (Europe), based in Brussels, is the foremost advocate for mass transit in the world with over 3100 Members in 110 countries. Regional offices of UITP include Hong Kong, Rome, Moscow, Dubai, Tehran, Bangalore, Sao Paulo and Istanbul.

		Davina Rooney Davina Rooney is a Sustainability Manager in the Commercial Property Division at Stockland. Her role is to ensure sustainable practices and policies are adopted in Stockland's new developments, as well as existing portfolio of buildings, and ensure that sustainability is part of core business decision within the division. Davina is a chartered engineer and has extensive experience in sustainability and building consulting with the leading engineering firm Arup. Davina has completed overseas charity work, spending 8 months working in the Indian Himalayas on the construction of a school which won "Best Education Building" and "Best Green Building" (tied) in the World Architecture Awards. Davina is the 2009-10 Vice President on the National Association of Women In Construction NSW Board and an Assessor with the Green Building Council. Davina has been recognised by numerous prizes in the industry such as: * Part of winning team for NAWIC NSW TAFE Team Award for Innovation 2008 * Winner of the Sydney University Engineering Young Alumni Award 2007 * Winner of the Future Leaders Award ACEA 2006 (Joint) * Winner of the Sinclair Knight Merz Merit Award for Development 2005 (NAWIC - NSW) * Winner of the Arup Australian Fellowship in 2002, 2003 and 2004

		Gesa Ruge Gesa Ruge, Senior Consultant with Viridis E3, has over 15 years of professional experience in the property industry in Australia and Europe. Gesa has gained her expertise working in increasingly more challenging roles ranging from development and planning, project and construction management, estate and infrastructure planning and construction to strategic business and property development advice for public and private sector clients. Gesa Ruge has worked as senior executive in the private sector and is highly respected for her leadership in assisting project teams and businesses achieve their goals. Her current focus is on environmental sustainability consulting and corporate change management in the property industry.

		Prof Will Steffen Professor Will Steffen is Executive Director of the ANU Climate Change Institute at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, and is also Science Adviser, Department of Climate Change, Australian Government. From 1998 to mid-2004, he served as Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, based in Stockholm, Sweden. His research interests span a broad range within the field of Earth System science, with an emphasis on incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis; and on sustainability, climate change and the Earth System.

		Achim Steiner Acting on the nomination of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the UN General Assembly unanimously elected Achim Steiner as the Executive Director of UNEP on 16 March 2006 for a four-year term, effective 15 June 2006. He becomes the fifth Executive Director in UNEP's history. Before joining UNEP, Achim served as Director General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) from 2001 to 2006. IUCN is widely regarded as one of the most influential and highly respected organizations in the field of conservation, environment and natural resources management. He held responsibility for the management and oversight of 1,000 staff located in 42 countries. His professional career has included assignments with governmental, non-governmental and international organizations in different parts of the world. In Washington, where he was Senior Policy Advisor of IUCN's Global Policy Unit, he led the development of new partnerships between the environment community, the World Bank and the United Nations system. In Southeast Asia he worked as Chief Technical Advisor on a program for the sustainable management of Mekong River watersheds and community-based natural resources management. In 1998 he was appointed Secretary-General of the World Commission on Dams, based in South Africa, where he managed a global program of work to bring together the public sector, civil society and the private sector in a global policy process on dams and development. Achim, a German national, was born in Brazil in 1961, where he lived for ten years. His educational background includes a BA from the University of Oxford as well as an MA from the University of London with specialization in development economics, regional planning, and international development and environment policy. He also studied at the German Development Institute in Berlin as well as the Harvard Business School.