Global Speakers

Garry has held executive positions in Local Government since 1977 including his current role as Chief Executive Officer of the City of Joondalup, and prior to this the City of Perth and City of Melville, both for eight years.

In the period 2002 to 2005, he specialised in overseas consulting and completed assignments in South Africa and Malaysia. He also acted as an adviser to the business sector in relation to Local Government activities.

He has held executive positions with the Institute of Municipal Management (now Local Government Professionals Australia) and the International City/County Management Association based in Washington DC, USA.

He was awarded a Public Service Medal in 1998; and in 2004 was awarded the Local Government Managers Australia (WA) Medal in recognition of his contribution to the local government profession.

He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the City of Joondalup in 2005 at the time the Council was suspended and the Inquiry into the City of Joondalup was under way. The City of Joondalup has been transformed since the Inquiry and it is now recognised as a benchmark local government in Australia.

He served as a member of the Senate of Murdoch University from 2004-2013 and also served as a member of the local Government Advisory Board for eight years up to 2004.

Dheeren is an experienced AI professional and a tech-savvy business leader. Avidly focused on guiding large enterprises and organisations in adopting Cognitive Computing & A.I. technologies to implement innovative and game-changing solutions. He helps strategize, design and lead their future expansion of the AI and Cognitive platforms across multiple industry domains like Public Sector, Telco, Supply Chain, and BFSI.

Dheeren is a Former IBM Watson Cognitive Solutions Leader and a key contributor to some of the earliest AI implementations in Australia.

Marnie Ireland has significant executive experience working in Government, non-profit and private sectors with organisations including Yarra Valley Water, National Native Title Council, Indigenous Business Australia, Bush Heritage Australia, Power and Water Corporation (NT), Department of Sustainability and Environment (VIC), Royal Botanic Gardens (research adjunct: Australian Research Centre for Urban Ecology) and Melbourne Water. A key competency focuses on facilitating collaborative strategic planning processes that effectively engage with key stakeholders and communities. In applying the highest ethical standards and an uncompromising approach to OH&S, Marnie fosters cultures focused on equity, innovation and continual improvement with particular expertise in business development, Integrated Water Resources Management and Indigenous economic development.

In her current role as current role is Divisional Manager – Sustainable Growth Planning at Yarra Valley Water, Marnie is applying a collaborative sub-catchment approach to deliver Integrated Water Management outcomes with a range of key stakeholders including Local Government, Catchment Managers, Traditional Owners and local communities through a structured adaptive scenario planning framework.

The structured and pragmatic IWM framework embeds well researched and applied methodologies such as Cultural Flows Assessments, adaptive planning and scenario planning to support transparent decision making and engagement processes. The result is an ongoing, iterative framework of sub-catchment servicing schemes that optimise outcomes generated through Planning and development conditions and infrastructure investments incorporating the integration of economic, environmental, social and cultural considerations.

Charles is an accomplished senior executive serving the people of Western Sydney as Chief Executive of WSROC through advocacy, contributing to Government policy and making local Government more effective in delivering services to its communities.

Charles successfully contested the 2011 State Election as a Liberal and was declared the Local Member for Strathfield on the 5th April 2011. He served under two outstanding Premiers, the Hon Barry O’Farrell and the Hon Mike Baird.

Charles was appointed as the Chair of the NSW Legislative’s Assembly Committee on Transport and Infrastructure. His committee has completed one inquiry “The Utilisation of Air Space Over the Rail Corridor and Adjacent Lands” that recommended improvements to the process of promoting and realising major developments along rail corridors. The committee’s later inquiry into “Road Access Pricing” attracted much interest.

Charles was also the Deputy Chair of the Legislative Assembly’s Review into The Transport Management Centre and many of its recommendations were adopted by Government.

Charles has held a number of senior executive appointments in the public and private sectors, including agencies representing both the State and Commonwealth governments. His experience has been gained in diverse industries including the military, transport, roads, emergency services, telecommunications, financial, OH&S, market research, professional services and retailing.

David has a real passion to create great places for people. Director and Principal of David Lock Associates Australia, he has over 25 years’ experience in the planning and design industry. David specializes in bringing together teams and managing industry leaders to deliver outstanding outcomes in urban development, town planning and urban design. David has worked on significant projects nationally and internationally for state and local governments, as well as the private sector.

David is driven to produce great planning and urban design outcomes, education and training. He regularly presents at conferences both in Australia and Asia and teaches at universities and for the Planning Institute of Australia.

Passionate in technology innovation to make people’s life easier and with over 25 years of experience in software development, Gus has been working in various industries from 3D/Animation, Games Development, Desktop Software, mobile apps and very recently Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Well-known for unorthodox ways of solving difficult problems, Gus currently works at Carsales as the Head of AI, leading and working together with the team inventing and building many cool AI projects such as Cyclops Image Recognition and providing technical direction to various teams across Carsales on AI.

Gus has an extensive experience in Deep Learning, Convolution Neural Network, Tensorflow, Keras and also loves speaking on AI and future tech related topics at various AI conferences.

George is a proven, multi-disciplinary senior Sales & Operations professional with an extensive history in the technology sector across multiple theatres of operations, and a proven track record of driving growth through inter-departmental collaboration spanning well over 25 years at the likes of Dell and Red Hat. His experience covers both direct and channel based sales and is in place to help us expand our team to incorporate the Australian east coast, giving our partners and customers easier access to our team.

Bernadene is the founder and former executive director of a successful Loyalty Marketing and IT Company, and has an undergraduate Arts Degree from University of Monash and a Masters in Virtual Communications from RMIT. Bernadene spent 6 years as the director of the Port Melbourne Family & Children’s Hub, a unique initiative between Department of Education, City of Port Phillip and community. She was elected a Councillor of the City of Port Phillip in October 2012, and appointed Mayor in November 2015. This is her third term as Mayor.

Bernadene focuses her time on understanding the needs of the community and working towards better infrastructure, networks and improving services so that all can thrive in this inner urban environment. A major achievement has been the opening in 2018 of the new Ferrars Street School, catering to demand for primary and secondary schools in the rapidly growing municipality. Bernadene serves on the board of the Bubup Womindjeka Family & Children’s Centre, and is a member of the Fishermans Bend Mayors Forum reporting to the State Government’s Development Board.

Bernadene is married with three children, and has lived in Port Melbourne for almost 20 years. Bernadene has a strong interest in schools, education, health, sport, creative arts, local history and the urban environment. If she is at home she is spending time with her family, friends and her dogs.

Stewart is a qualified civil engineer who has project managed a broad range of civil and structural projects. He also has a PhD in Environmental Science in the field of Ecological Engineering. He has over 25 years experience in the design, construction and management of various water and wastewater related projects. He has experience both nationally and internationally in the design and application of appropriate environmental technologies with a focus on constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment.

Recent projects in Perth have focussed on bringing alternative water supply schemes to service non-drinking water requirements for developments at a range of scales. These include the pioneering Grove project in Peppermint Grove through to large-scale urban developments including the Wungong Urban Water Project, Alkimos-Eglinton and WGV land developments.

Stewart is able to bring his training and experience in Civil Engineering along with his research capability in Environmental Science to create innovative solutions in the area of integrated water management. Stewart is familiar with the regulatory environment for land development, is abreast of the evolving technologies in water and wastewater recycling and reuse, and is committed to the pursuit of meaningful sustainable development.

Stewart is both an academic and private consultant who provides expertise on innovative water efficient and water recycling initiatives for both developers and industry.

Samira is the chief operations officer at Smart City Solutions, which offers a pioneering approach to providing a smart, connected waste management solutions for smart and sustainable cities of tomorrow. Smart City Solutions empower councils, smart city planners and service companies to provide innovative IoT-based solutions that dramatically improves the efficiency of waste collection, all the while making the environment greener andc ommunities cleaner. Prior to this, she served as the national development manager for Solar Bins Australia.

David Singleton is a non-executive director and expert advisor on resilient leadership and practice, specialising in sustainable solutions for the infrastructure and built environment sectors. With a proven history in outcome-driven innovation in leadership, David has developed a reputation for his pragmatic interest in enterprise sustainability.

In 2018 David was recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to engineering, particularly through creating sustainable infrastructure for cities and communities.

David holds several non-executive roles which are underpinned by his experience as chair or director of several corporate entities and industry association boards in Australia, Asia, Africa and the United Kingdom (1981 – present).

In August 2014 David retired from a career of 40+ years with Arup, where he spearheaded sustainable business growth through a variety of senior executive roles including CEO and Chairman of Arup Australasia, Chairman of Global Infrastructure (based in UK) and Global Planning leader. From 2004-2011 he was also responsible for global strategy development on diversity and sustainability.

A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia, David has received many awards for his work, including five times as one of the 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia (Engineers Australia) award and as Finalist, CEO of the Year (Equal Opportunity in the Workplace).

Rebecca has a background in government, industry and the ‘not for profit’ sector. She has held senior roles with responsibilities including international engagement, government relations, corporate diplomacy and major projects, together with policy development and implementation.
Rebecca moved from the UK/USA to Australia in 2009 and was appointed CEO of the Committee for Geelong in January 2013. She has since become an Australian Citizen.

Rebecca is a Director of the Victorian State Government’s agency, Development Victoria and a Trustee of the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust. She is also a member of the state-wide Visitor Economy Ministerial Advisory Committee.

In the UK/USA Rebecca held the position of Executive Director of the British Committee for Jamestown 2007, an eminent group comprising representatives from the House of Lords, House of Commons and Buckingham Palace, together with business and academic leaders and media identities. The group was formed to strengthen UK/USA relations and facilitate economic development through the commemoration of America’s 400th Anniversary, a major event in history held only once every 50 years1.

Rebecca has worked across all tiers of government and notably as a chief of staff for Kent County Council – the largest local government authority in the UK comprising 84 councillors and a population of over 1.8 million. Her portfolio included economic development, inward investment, international engagement, tourism, planning and urban development, environment, business development, branding and marketing, further education and skills, waste management, highways, emergency planning, trading standards and coroners.

Rebecca holds an MA by Research in Politics and Government (through International Relations) from the University of Kent (UK) and is currently undertaking a PhD. She is the author of a range of published work, including a book on paradiplomacy23 Rebecca is an opinion piece writer for NewsCorp and is a regular guest speaker on radio.

Majid Sarvi is the chair in Transport Engineering and the professor in Transport for Smart Cities at the University of Melbourne. He is the founder and the director of the AIMES (Australian Integrated Multimodal EcoSystem). AIMES is the world’s first urban testing ecosystem for implementing and testing of emerging connected transport technologies at large scale and in complex urban environment which involves 37 partners from government and leading Australian and global industry partners.

He has over 22 years of professional, academic and research experience in the areas of traffic and transport engineering. His researches are multidisciplinary with international outlook and both theoretically oriented and applied in nature. His fields of research cover a range of topics, including: connected multimodal transport network modelling and analysis, crowd dynamic modelling and simulation and network vulnerability assessment and optimization. He has been the author/co-author of over 250 refereed publications in top transportation journals and various conference and symposia proceedings. This includes over 140 ISI publications listed in Scopus and 7 papers in the International symposium of Traffic and Transportation Theory (ISTTT). He currently serves on the editorial board of several journals including Transportation Research Part C, Transportmetrica, and Journal of Transportation Letters.

He has served on several international research committees, the Network Modelling Committee (ADB30), Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee (AHB45), and the Emergency Evacuation Task Force of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the U.S. National Research Council. He is also the co-founder and co-chair of the Crowd Dynamic Modelling Subcommittee AHB45(2) of TRB.

Sarbeswar Praharaj is an Associate at the Smart Cities Cluster, University of New South Wales (UNSW). He teaches the Master of City Planning and Urban Development and Design students at the UNSW Faculty of Built Environment.

Sarbeswar is the Coordinator of the Australia India Smart Cities Knowledge Exchange Network sponsored by the Australian Government. He was the UNSW designated Global Tech Fellow in 2017 for spearheading research collaboration with the member institutions of Global Alliance of Technological Universities. Sarbeswar has been the recipient of the prestigious Australia India Council Grant in 2016 and the Australia Korea Foundation Grant in 2018.

Sarbeswar’s experience spans over a decade in the urban development sector. He specialises in the research and development of collaborative technologies for measuring, visualising and augmenting urban infrastructure and environment. He has consulted for clients such as The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Cities Alliance, the Global Land and Tools Network, Government of India and the Australian Government.

Through a redesign of the City of Casey leadership structure, Nicola has added to her portfolio of responsibilities. With a staff of approximately forty professionals across seven teams, the City Planning Department is responsible for forward planning infrastructure and land use for a city with a projected population of over 540, 000. In addition to strategic land use planning for the City, Nicola oversees strategy, advocacy and projects for storm water and drainage, transport network planning, emissions management, community facilities planning, recreation and open space planning, social planning, liquor and gaming, heritage, environment and natural resource management, and implementation and review of the Casey Planning Scheme.

Marimuthu Palaniswami is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) and an internationally recognised expert in Internet of Things (IoT), Sensor Networks, Automated Learning, and Computational Intelligence in large-scale complex systems. He is a named Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society over the period 2013-2015.

He has built many large-scale projects by bringing together teams of chief investigators in related areas such as the Distributed Sensor Networks Project funded by former Department of Education, Science and Technology (DEST), the Smart Environmental Monitoring and Analysis Technologies(SEMAT) project of the Queensland government’s Smart State Program and Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS)- Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System (GBROOS) for the Great Barrier Reef. He was the co-director of the Centre of Excellence for Networked Decision Systems (CENDS) funded by the Defence Science and Technology Organisation.

He is also a co-founder of the European Centred IoT forum. He served as a general Chair for over 10 IEEE Sponsored International conferences with a focus on Sensor Networks and Internet of Things (IoT). As a Chief Investigator, he was funded by various government agencies for a number of IoT projects covering Infrastructure, Smart City, Healthcare, Transport, BigData Analytics and Smart Governance. His international IoT funding for smart city covers projects such as European Union’s FP7 Smart Santander, SocioTal, and OrganiCity.

Anthony leads the Advanced Technologies Lab at the Australian Road Research Board as a consultant and researcher in the road transport industry.

With 10 years of experience in the safety, productivity and infrastructure impacts of heavy vehicles, Anthony has a strong link to industry and road managers through this experience with high productivity freight vehicles and technology, network access and the development of road transport policy and regulation

Anthony is a member of Australia Road Transport Suppliers Association, the VTA Technology Group and the ATA Industry Technical Council.

Sander is an experienced executive with proven abilities in strategy development, advocacy and shaping debates to help organisations respond in a more integrated way to future challenges and opportunities.

As Director of Policy & Research at the Committee for Melbourne, he is responsible for developing and delivering strategies for change that add value to the long-term development of Greater Melbourne as a major internationally competitive city.
Next to his role at the Committee for Melbourne, Sander is President of the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce Australia and a member of the Advisory Board of Swinburne University’s Smart Cities Research Institute.

Craig is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Director of Regional Development for the Regional Development Australia Tasmania Committee. He is also mayor of Meander Valley Council in northern Tasmania.

Craig has worked in local government (6 years) and regional development (14 years), including the last 12 years as CEO for the Regional Development Australia Tasmania Committee. Over this 20 year period, Craig has worked with communities to support their strategic development, economic growth and improving social capacity. Craig has a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and International Business), Master of Business Management, is a graduate of the Tasmanian Leaders Program, and has also been awarded a Diploma for successfully completing the AICD Company Directors course.

Craig has been an elected member with the Meander Valley Council for 9 years, including the last 7 as mayor. Craig has strong networks across Tasmania and a good understanding of the opportunities and challenges that community’s face. He is a member of the Crimestoppers Tasmania board, a member of the Rotary Club of Central Launceston and is an active Hockey player.

Dr Tahnya Donaghy is an experienced senior executive and Managing Partner at Peg Consulting – a company that provides services to all levels of government and businesses who have an interface with government. Tahnya likes to deliver outcomes and is passionate about evidence-based reform. That is why, as Deputy Chief Executive in the SA Government’s Department of the Premier and Cabinet, she was responsible for designing and implementing nation-leading data sharing legislation, for establishing the Office for Data Analytics and the Early Intervention Research Directorate and undertaking organisational reforms to establish the SA Government’s Office for ICT and Digital Government.

She previously held senior executive roles in SA Health, Department of Families and Communities and the Department for Further Education, Employment, Science and Technology in the SA Government. She now works nationally with her company Peg Consulting.

Eamon Waterford is currently the Committee for Sydney’s Acting CEO, an influential business-led urban policy think tank. During his time at the Committee, in his current role, as well as in previous roles as Head of Strategy and as Director of Policy, Eamon has led urban policy development across Greater Sydney and across diverse policy areas, including co-authoring Committee reports on density done well, value capture, road pricing, smart cities and affordable housing. Eamon is a passionate advocate for affordable housing and rebalancing jobs and opportunities across Sydney.

Prior to working at the Committee, Eamon was the Head of Policy for Youth Action, the Peak Body for young people, and small and large not-for-profit agencies in the human services industry. Eamon is also a Board member of the NSW Council of Social Services and has a Masters of Political Economy.

Professor Aniruddha (Ani) Desai holds a Master’s degree in Micro-electronics and PhD in Computer Architecture. He is currently a Research Professor and Director of La Trobe University’s Centre for Technology Infusion, a Tier 1 Research and Innovation Centre specialising in delivering technology-based commercial innovations to industry and government.

He has successfully led several multi-million-dollar R&D programs in socially relevant high impact application areas such as intelligent transportation systems, energy management, logistics/supply chain and precision agriculture. Nearly every major project delivered by him has involved live field use of the new technology or solution being developed, and many of his projects have been profiled on TV, radio and in print media. His work has resulted in several innovative designs and patent applications, which have underpinned a number of new start-up companies.

Professor Desai has received many prestigious industry innovation awards recognising excellence in R&D innovation at State, National and International levels, and was also winner of Vice-Chancellor’s Staff Award for Research Excellence in 2016. He has served on technical and advisory groups for a number of Government Departments and Institutions. He is also currently the Chief Technology Officer of SensaData – an innovative technology company partnering with his Centre to develop and commercialise next-generation RFID technology for logistics and supply-chain applications.

Justin Passaportis is GoGet Carshare’s General Manager for Victoria and South Australia.

He joined GoGet from Hertz Australia, where he headed fleet operations for carshare. Justin was part of the original core Flexicar carshare team which was acquired by the Hertz Corporation in 2010 and played a critical role in this transition.

Since his appointment to GoGet four years ago, the size of both the fleet and membership base across Melbourne and Adelaide has more than tripled to over 630 vehicles and 25,000 members.

His work with government and industry has helped establish carshare’s place as an integral part of the private-public transport landscape, and witnessed city councils embrace broad policy reform. The City of Melbourne is now targeting up to 30% of all households using carshare over the next decade.

Recently, Justin led the launch of an Australian first: the integration of carshare on airport in Melbourne; an initiative GoGet is looking to roll out across its nationwide network.

Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Justin holds an MBA. He is passionate about harnessing the productive disruption of the sharing economy for the benefit of the community.

Dr Hussein Dia is a Civil Engineer with three decades of experience. He has worked extensively in academia and has strong collaboration with both the public and private sectors, including strong engagement with industry research. His research interests are in smart cities and the convergence of technology, infrastructure and human elements in urban environments. His current work is focused on creating smarter mobility with meaningful tech for better user experience. His standing in this field is demonstrated by more than 100 publications including two books on Intelligent Transport Systems and Low Carbon Mobility for Future Cities. Hussein is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Fellow of Engineers Australia, and Fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He currently serves as Senior Editor for the international journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transport Systems.

Stephen has a Bachelor of Arts in Planning, Graduate Diplomas in Regional & Urban Planning and Environmental Studies and an MBA from Adelaide University. He is an adjunct lecturer at the Adelaide University Business School and has worked for the University of South Australia, Canberra University and Flinders University. He has also lectured at universities in Japan, Singapore and Thailand and is an award winning member of the Planning Institute of Australia and a member of the exclusive Academy of Urbanism.

During his time as Lord Mayor (2010-2104), his emphasis on collaboration with the private sector and State Government delivered many outcomes and saw Adelaide recognised internationally as an innovative destination by Lonely Planet, National Geographic and The New York Times. Prior to being Lord Mayor, Stephen worked in the South Australian Government and Parliament, in Local Government and internationally as a planner, researcher, educator and speaker.

His planning experience is exceptionally diverse; from strategy to implementation on many large projects dealing with most land use types and a diverse range of environment, economic, community, design and development issues.

Michael Nolan is the Director of the UN Global Compact – Cities Programme, leading the programme’s global direction, strategy, growth and partnerships.

Michael has a strong commitment and lengthy experience in building private and public sector collaboration to increase the liveability and resilience of cities and has shaped the programme’s flagship ‘City Partnerships Challenge’ initiative.

Michael has over 20 years’ experience in sustainability, climate adaptation and resilience for government and private sectors. Before joining the Cities Programme in 2015, Michael was Global Head of Sustainability and Climate Change with AECOM, global urban planning, infrastructure and environmental consultancy. In this role, Michael developed a Disaster Resilience Scorecard for cities for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction in collaboration with IBM. He has extensive experience in sustainable infrastructure, climate change adaptation and resilience in Australia, the United States, Canada, China, India, Brazil, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Michael has led over 120 climate change impact, risk assessment, adaptation and resilience projects relating to ports, roads, rail, local government, water, flood management, power, mining, buildings, facilities, coasts, states and cities.

Michael represented the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia in developing the Australian Standard AS5334 Climate Change Adaptation for Settlements and Infrastructure. Michael is the Resilient Cities lead for the United Nations R!SE initiative focused on risk sensitive investment. Michael has also supported the development of strategy tools for the 100 Resilient Cities programme pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.

John Stanley joined ITLS in July 2008 as Adjunct Professor and Bus Industry Confederation Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Land Transport. Prior to taking on this role, he had nine years as Executive Director of Bus Association Victoria, after eight years as Deputy Chairman of the National Road Transport Commission. He has been a member of the Committee for Melbourne’s Transport and Climate Change Task Forces, the Vicurban Board, the Urban Renewal Authority Victoria Board, the Victorian Alpine Resorts Coordinating Council, a Commissioner of Victoria’s State Services Authority, is past Chair of ADC Forum and current Chair of People and Parks Foundation, and a director of Road Safety Inspections P/L. He is a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee advising Victoria’s Minister for Planning on Melbourne’s new Metropolitan Planning Strategy. John chaired the Advisory Committee for the Monash University Institute of Transport Studies for many years and remains a member of that Committee. He was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to public transport and conservation.

Peter is the Director Commercial Roads, VicRoads. His team manages the CityLink, EastLink and Peninsula Link projects on behalf of the Victorian State Government, and advises VicRoads and other departments and agencies on major procurement strategy and project interface issues. Before VicRoads, Peter worked for over 12 years in private legal practice in Australia, the UK advising on major international projects in the oil & gas, transport and power sectors. He also has a strong interest in social procurement initiatives and human rights.

POON King Wang is the Director of the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), where he also heads the Smart Cities Lab and the Future Digital Economies and Digital Societies initiative.

His and his teams’ multi-disciplinary research focus on the human dimensions of smart cities and digital economies, and the impact of digital transformation on the future of work, education, and healthcare, and on society at large. He pays particular attention to how leaders of cities and companies can design strategies and policies to lift the lives of their citizens and workers, with the same technologies that are disrupting work, economy and society.

He draws extensively from his public and private sector experiences. He has served in the Economic Development Board; Ministry of Law; Agency for Science, Technology and Research (including its commercialization arm Exploit Technologies); and the Competition Commission of Singapore. In the private sector, he was head of business analytics at one of Singapore’s largest banks, and was a strategy advisor to a mobile local search startup.

He also draws on his other concurrent portfolios as Senior Director of Strategic Planning at SUTD, and Co-Director of the SUTD-JTC Industrial Infrastructure Innovation Centre. He is also on the Board of Directors of the BCA Centre for Sustainable Buildings Ltd (a collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme and Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority), and on the International Advisory Panel of IoT Asia.

Sandy is passionate about Adelaide’s ongoing journey to become a creative city. Having worked in the city for more than 20 years in senior Management roles, she is a successful activation and cultural strategist and has fostered, promoted and developed some of Adelaide’s rich cultural experiences including the Adelaide Festival, WOMADelaide, Adelaide Film Festival and the Australian International Documentary Conference. She was the CEO of the Adelaide Fringe (2006-2010) and the Executive Producer of the Adelaide Festival of Ideas 2011.

With a strong belief that Adelaide can become one of the great magnet cities of the world she will actively strive to attract more visitors, more residents and more businesses. Sandy is committed to ensuring Adelaide is a progressive, dynamic, sustainable and smart city.

She served 3 years as the General Manager for City Culture & Community Services for the City of Adelaide before returning to the Arts as the General Manager & Producer for the renown Windmill Theatre Company. She is also Chair of the South Australian Writers Centre, board member of Adelaide Festival of Ideas, the Arts Industry Council of South Australia and Women with Latitude community choir.