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| SEGRA Speakers |
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| SEGRA 2008 Keynote Speakers |
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| Dr Jim Cavaye, Director, Cavaye Community Development |
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Jim Cavaye is a leading practitioner and educator in community development with 25 years experience working with rural and regional communities. He is the Director of Cavaye Community Development and has assisted over 100 communities across Australia. He has worked with a wide range of local governments and major organizations in every state. He has a Ph.D. from the United States in community development and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Institute for Sustainable Regional Development at CQU. |
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| Dr Geoff Cockfield, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland |
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Geoff Cockfield is Deputy Dean, Faculty of Business at University of Southern Queensland. Previous to academic life, he worked as a farmer and rural journalist. His Masters degree research was on rural adjustment and his PhD thesis was an examination of farm forestry policy. He teaches Political Ideas, Environmental Policy, Government, Business and Society and Introductory Economics. His research interests include rural policy and sustainable production landscapes policy. He has undertaken funded research work on farm forestry, regional economic development frameworks and sustainable wool production.
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| Lea Corbett, Executive Director, Infrastructure, Regional Development Victoria |
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Lea has held the position of Executive Director, Infrastructure with Regional Development Victoria (RDV) since March 2007. Lea manages the Victorian Government’s $580 million Regional Infrastructure Development Fund and advises more broadly on water, energy and transport policy as it impacts on regional Victoria.
Lea has had extensive experience working at senior levels in both the Commonwealth and State Government, holding positions in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Victorian Departments of Premier and Cabinet and Infrastructure. Lea has also spent time in the private sector as a management and policy consultant, was General Manager, Industry Skills with ANTA, and holds a Master of Public Policy from the Australian National University.
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| Dr Wendy Craik AM, Chief Executive, Murray Darling Basin Commission |
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Dr Craik took up her position as Chief Executive of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission (MDBC) in August 2004.
Prior to this Wendy was President of the National Competition Council, Chair of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and Chair of the National Rural Advisory Council. Other former positions include Chief Executive Officer of Earth Sanctuaries Ltd, a publicly listed company specialising in conservation and eco tourism, Executive Director of the National Farmers Federation, and Executive Officer of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. She has also worked as a consultant for AcilTasman Consulting.
Wendy is a member of the Board of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal and the World Fish Centre. She has been a member of a variety of other Boards and advisory councils.
Wendy was awarded an AM in 2007 for her contribution to natural resource management and rural policy. |
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| Oliver Freeman, Managing Director, The Neville Freeman Agency |
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Oliver Freeman has been championing scenario planning in Australia since 1992 and is acknowledged as having done more for its uptake than any other practitioner by guiding hundreds of people and organisations through hands on scenario building projects and simulation training programmes. He is the founding Director of the The Neville Freeman Agency, a future-focused consultancy, and is Adjunct Professor in Scenario Planning at the University of Technology Sydney.
He embraces uncertainty as an internet entrepreneur and complexity as the father of seven children. He is a career publisher, and was the fourth or fifth person in the world to read the Female Eunuch as the book's first sales manager in 1970. His current publishing venture is www.homepagedaily.com
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| Associate Professor Ian Gray, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University |
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Ian leads a group of social researchers in Charles Sturt University’s Institute for Land, Water and Society. He has written several books, including A Future for Regional Australia, published by Cambridge University Press in 2001 and Politics in Place: Social Power Relations in an Australian Country Town, also published by Cambridge University Press, in 1991. He is currently engaged in a research project on regionalism and federalism funded by the Australian Research Council. His other research projects, over the last 15 years, include a study of farm coping strategies and another on experience of drought funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, a study of farming practice for the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation, a project on structural adjustment and catchment management for the Murray-Darling Basin Commission, research on small town sustainability and environmental management funded by the Australian Research Council. He has also done research on rail transport for the NSW Local Government and Shires Association.
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| Professor Bob Miles, Executive Director, Institute for Sustainable Regional Development, Central University Queensland |
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Prof Miles is currently the Executive Director of the Institute for Sustainable Regional Development (ISRD) at Central Queensland University and President of the University’s Academic Board. The ISRD has research, teaching and community relations functions and is the University’s flagship for collaborative research. Prof Miles is a cofounder of the National Climate Centre which specialises in the socio economic assessment of risk and the impact of climate change.
Prof Miles has more than 20 years experience in research related to the sustainable use and management of Australia’s Natural Resources. Prof Miles was awarded his PhD in 1993 following extensive research into the processes of land degradation in the Mulga Lands of south west Queensland. Since then he have held a range of senior management positions within Queensland’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI). These include General Manager of the Office of Rural Communities (a whole of Government portfolio) and Regional Director for DPI.
Prof Miles has served on many Boards including DEST International Centre of Excellence, National Research Institutes, Agricultural Colleges, NRM Regional Planning Associations and Queensland Forestry Associations. Prof Miles was the Chairman of CQ a New Millennium, the regional growth management framework for Central Queensland. Prof Miles initiated the South West Strategy for the Mulga Lands of Western Queensland, and facilitated the establishment of the Queensland Centre for Climate Applications. Prof Miles is a Fellow of Australian Institute Management. Over the past two years Prof Miles has been the Principle Consultant to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs on their Poverty-Environmental Nexus, Institutional Reform and Engaged Government project portfolio in Central and Southern Asia. |
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| Bob Shead, Partner, BDO Kendalls |
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Bob Shead FCPA FAICD is a Partner at BDO Kendalls where he specialises in providing financial management and governance advice to public sector clients, including on infrastructure projects ranging in size from the LinkWater grid in South-east Queensland to waste water treatment plants in Tamworth and Toowoomba. In addition to these Alliance projects, he has advised state and local governments on public-private partnerships and on the capability and financial viability of firms tendering for major projects generally. Before joining BDO Kendalls in 2000, Bob gained 26 years experience in the public sector, including at Queensland Treasury where he was closely involved in developing and implementing financial management and micro-economic reforms. From 2003 to 2005, he was the Asian Development Bank’s lead financial management advisor to the Government of Fiji. |
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| Associate Professor Peter Waterman, Environmental Science and Coordinator, Climate Change, Coasts and Catchments (C4@USC), University of the Sunshine Coast |
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Peter Waterman is an Associate Professor in Environmental Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast and coordinates the activities of staff and adjuncts working in the fields of Coasts and Climate at the University. This includes the delivery of articulated accredited professional development programs (Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Masters) in Climate Change Adaptation, Integrated Coastal Zone Management and Environmental Change Management. Additionally, Peter is also involved in demonstration projects on climate change adaptation at regional and local scales in South East Queensland. Peter has some twenty five years professional experience in the field of regional engagement and development including policy formulation, analysis and implementation for governments and business. Peter was the foundation Director of the Institute for Regional Development at the University of Western Australia.
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