Board of Directors

Intersect’s Board of Directors are:

 

Emeritus Professor Wainwright AM

Emeritus Professor Wainwright is currently an Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales following his retirement from the position of Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of New South Wales which he held for two years from April 2004.  He was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and International), from January 2001 and prior to that was Dean of the Faculty of Engineering from June 1991.

Professor Wainwright’s activities in higher education span more than 40 years since his appointment as Tutor/Demonstrator in the School of Chemical Technology at the then South Australian Institute of Technology. He currently holds a number of positions in the research and higher education sectors, including:

  • Chair, National Computational Infrastructure Steering Committee ANU (2007-    )
  • Chair, Intersect Australia Limited (2008-    )
  • Chair, New Horizons Project Collaboration Committee Monash University / CSIRO (2009-    )
  • Member, Queensland University of Technology Council (2009-    )
  • Chair, TAFE NSW Higher Education Governing Council (2009 -  )
  • Chair, NSW Selection Panel, General Sir John Monash Awards (2006- )
  • Director, Engineering Aid Australia
  • Member, Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council (2009 - )
  • Member, Smart Services CRC Board (2009 -   )
  • Member, Astronomy Australia Limited Board (2009 -    )

He has chaired the Australia-China Council since 2006.

Professor Wainwright holds an Honours Degree in Applied Chemistry and a Master of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Adelaide, a PhD in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University in Canada and a DSc for his research into skeletal catalysts from the University of South Australia. In 2007 he was awarded a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) by the University of New South Wales.

In 2000 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in research policy and management and engineering education. In 2004, Professor Wainwright was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to chemical engineering as a researcher and academic, and to tertiary education.

Professor Neal Ryan

Professor Neal Ryan is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at Southern Cross University and has worked in management and public policy in the higher education sector for 20 years.

Professor Ryan has undertaken major research activity within Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs) and manages Southern Cross University’s relationships with several CRCs: Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment; National Plant Biosecurity; Sustainable Production Forestry; Regional Economic Participation; and Rail Innovation.  For the Rail Innovation CRC he leads the projects investigating high speed rail and climate change issues in the rail industry.

Professor Ryan is a Director of Connecting Southern Gold Coast (a company owned by the Gold Coast City Council), and an Executive Member of the International Research Society for Public Management. He holds several editorial board positions on academic journals.

Professor Ryan has a PhD (Public Policy), Master of Philosophy (Science and Technology Policy – venture capital), Master of Science (Science, Technology and Society) and Bachelor of Science in Physical Mathematics, all from Griffith University.  His areas of interest and expertise are public policy, technology transfer, innovation, business strategy, industry policy, industry futures, and government-business research linkages.

Mr John Masters

John is a former partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Australia. He retired from PwC in December 2009 after 25 years as a partner. John is a qualified chartered accountant and lawyer.

John has specialised in financial services throughout his professional career. He held a number of leadership and management positions in his career with PwC, including Global Financial Services Tax & Legal leader, and Financial Services practice leader in Australia and Asia. Over the years, John has undertaken major policy consulting to the Commonwealth and NSW Governments on Investment attraction, taxation, the establishment of government agencies, and financial services generally. He was a member of the Commonwealth Government’s AXISS Advisory Board. John continues to be retained formally by Government for advice and assistance in this area.

As a Director of Intersect Australia Limited, John chairs the Board’s Audit and Risk Management Committee. John is a Director of Sirca which funds and supports post-graduate applied financial services research by its Australian University members. 

John is currently a Director of ING Bank (Australia) Limited and chairs the Board’s Audit Committee. John is also Chairman of the Board of IP Payments, a payments software company. John is President and Chairman of the Board of the Art Gallery Society of NSW. John is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation.

Professor Sally Redman

Professor Redman is CEO of the Sax Institute. The Sax Institute is funded by NSW Health to increase the impact of public health and health services research on policy and practice.  It is responsible for the 45 and Up Study, Australia’s largest study on health and ageing, and has developed innovative approaches to increasing the use of evidence by policy agencies.

Professor Redman was previously the inaugural Director of the National Breast Cancer Centre, funded by the Australian Federal Government to improve evidence-based care & outcomes for women with breast cancer.  She received the Centenary Medal, for service to the health and welfare of Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer, 2003. Professor Redman is a public health researcher with an interest in evaluating programs designed to improve health and health care. She has over 150 publications in peer review journals.

Mr Damien Israel

Damien Israel is Deputy Vice Principal (Finance & IT) at the University of Wollongong. Appointed to the position in 2007 he leads and manages information technology strategy and service delivery, financial planning, financial control, management accounting, legal and commercial activities and policy management in the areas of finance and IT.  As such he holds a key advisory role on all financial matters, capital works and major commercial activities.
Before joining the University of Wollongong Damien was Director of Finance for the South Western Sydney Area Health Service, and responsible for all aspects of financial strategy and control for the health service.
Damien holds a Bachelor of Business, Master of Accountancy from Charles Sturt University and is a Certified Practicing Accountant.

Professor Andrew Cheetham

Professor Andrew Cheetham is currently the Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at University of Western Sydney. He has a PhD in plasma physics (1976) and spent 15 years working in the field of plasma diagnostic systems in nuclear fusion energy research laboratories in Germany, Switzerland, Australia and the UK. In 1990, he returned to Australia to lecture in physics and electronics engineering at the University of Canberra. During his time in that institution, he held the roles of Head of School of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering, Deputy Director of the Division of Business, Law & Information Sciences and finally Pro Vice-Chancellor Research & Information Management (2003-2007).

Professor Cheetham is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and a Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He has published over 60 refereed articles and presented over 90 conference papers in the fields of: plasma and fusion physics, computer controlled instrumentation and data analysis. Professor Cheetham is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. One of Professor Cheetham’s enduring interests has been the use of information and communication technologies to support, enhance and extend collaboration in both research and teaching.

Mr Michael Kirby-Lewis 

Michael Kirby-Lewis (known as ‘Kirby’) has worked in the IT industry for 35 years. He studied Computer Science at Canterbury University, Christchurch (New Zealand) in the 1970s and his Masters at UNSW. Kirby has also undertaken executive programs at the Harvard Business School. Kirby has worked in health, manufacturing, distribution, consulting and education across both public and private sectors. Kirby’s background is in application development, user training and project management. Most of his work in the past 20 years has been related to education (schools, vocational and higher education).

Kirby has worked at the University of New South Wales for the past nine years, heading UNSW’s IT for the past five years and has overseen the establishment of Shared IT Services; updating underlying infrastructure; increasing capacity; modernising UNSW’s core systems and establishing governance of IT. Currently Kirby, as UNSW’s Chief Information Officer, is focused on closer alignment of IT with the core teaching and research needs of the University. Kirby is involved in a number of university sector forums or initiatives, including invited membership of the Academic Board; the UNSW eResearch Committee. He is also on the CAUDIT Executive and Chair of the Greater Sydney Basin Network Project Board.

Ms Anne Bell

Anne Bell was appointed to the role of University Librarian at the University of Sydney in 2012 and has over fifteen years’ previous experience working at Director and University Librarian level within multi-faculty research-intensive institutions. Before coming to Australia Anne worked at the University of Warwick and King’s College London in the UK. Anne was Chair of the M25 Consortium of Higher Education Libraries (2001–03), a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for England Shared Services Advisory Group (2008-10), a Trustee of the Board of Eduserv - a not-for-profit technology solutions company that supports education, health, and other public sector organisations (2009–2011). Anne was also Vice Chair and then Chair of SCONUL (Society of College, National & University Libraries) from 2004-08, a member of the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) Sub-Committee on Content Services from 2006–2009 and the JISC Sub-Committee on Networking from 2000–2005 and is currently a member of the CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians) Research Advisory Committee.

Dr Ian Gibson

Dr Ian Gibson is Chief Executive Officer of Intersect Australia Ltd. Ian has extensive experience at executive level R&D management. He has a strong track record in the research, development and commercialisation of new technology across a broad range of electrical engineering, computer science and digital imaging.

Previously Ian was a Division General Manager at CiSRA, the Australian R&D lab for Canon. There he built research capability over several years to deliver original, world leading technology into a wide range of Canon's major product groups.

Ian has a PhD from the University of New South Wales in Computer Science, a BE in Electrical Engineering (Hons) and a BSc, is on several industry advisory boards at Australian universities and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland.