Board of directors

Sam is Chairman of Altium Limited, Deputy Chairman of GLG Corp Limited, and a non-executive director of Oroton Group Limited, IPGA Limited and Breville Group Ltd. Sam has more than 30 years experience working in the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific with leading consumer companies including: Nike, Gateway computers and Sheridan. He devotes considerable time and energy to education, the arts and disadvantaged communities through his work as the President of The Benevolent Society and as a director of The Sydney Festival. Sam is also a former President of the Harvard Club of Australia.

Professor Adam Shoemaker is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at Monash University. He has a strong background in higher education management and prior to joining Monash University held positions at Australian National University (ANU) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT). His sustained research interest is in Indigenous Australian history, literature, culture and politics, and he has been published extensively in these areas.

Professor Shoemaker is active in community engagement and has held a variety of national and international appointments, most notably as Chair of the Brisbane Writers Festival, President of the Association for Canadian Studies in Australia and New Zealand (ACSANZ) and President of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH).

David de Campo is currently a professional Director with a demonstrated track record of growing shareholder wealth in the small to medium company sector.  His primary focus in recent years has been the Australian Operative of a New Zealand based private equity fund. This role involved him in numerous acquisitions/divestments (public and private), Board Membership (public and private), capital raising, company management, "group company roll-ups", company financial/operational restructures and shareholder negotiations.

Prior to that David de Campo had a very successful career with three world leading computer and telecommunications companies, roles that included Asia Pacific Sales & Marketing Director, Australian MD and Australasia Business Development Director. These roles involved significant international exposure particularly in the Asia Pacific region and America.

Success in the international technology sector coupled with broad experience in guiding (financial, capital and business process) small business growth demonstrates an ability to link the key business fundamentals to the broader market requirements in a focused and constructive manner.

David Phillips is a Director and Chair of the Board of PhillipsKPA, a specialist provider of consultancy services to the education and training sectors and related industries.

He is widely acknowledged as one of Australia's foremost experts in higher education management and policy and has provided consultancy services to all of Australia's public universities. He also had a distinguished career in government, including positions as the head of the Higher Education Division in the Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training and Senior Advisor and Consultant to two Commonwealth Ministers for Employment, Education and Training.

Professor David Wood is Deputy Vice-Chancellor International at Curtin University in Perth.  Prior to his current appointment, David was pro Vice-Chancellor of Humanities at Curtin University where he initiated significant curriculum reform enabling greater flexibility within the Faculty and the possibility of undertaking double majors with the Curtin Business School.

David is an accomplished researcher in urban and regional planning and tourism development and leads one CSIRO Flagship Cluster Project and another CSIRO Flagship Cluster examining barriers to the implementation of climate change science.

He also recently served: on the Boards of the Deans of Arts, Humanities and Social Science and the Australian Sustainable Development Institute; as Chair of the Ningaloo Sustainable Development Committee; and as a member of the Heritage Council of Western Australia.

Professor Ian O'Connor became the Vice Chancellor and President of Griffith University in January 2005, taking the helm of one of Australia's largest and most innovative tertiary institutions.

Following completion of degrees of Bachelor of Social Work and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Queensland, he held various academic appointments there including President of the Academic Board before moving to Griffith.

Professor O'Connor is widely published in the field of juvenile justice, child welfare and the future directions of social work and the human services. During his academic career he held visiting fellowships at the United Nations and Asia Far East Institute, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Professor O'Connor is Chair of the Advancing Quality in Higher Education Reference Group. He is a board member of Open Universities of Australia; the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and the Foundation for Australian Studies in China.

Professor Judyth Sachs is the DVC (Provost) at Macquarie University. Before taking up this position she held various positions at the Universities of Sydney, Griffith and Queensland.

Professor Sachs holds a BA and a PhD from the University of Queensland and an MA from Western Michigan University. In 2001 she was appointed as a Special University Professor in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham and was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators in 1997.

Her research interests are in the areas of teacher professionalism, teacher professional development, women and leadership, and higher education policy and she has published books on these subjects.

Professor Sachs is also a member of the Higher Education Advisory Committee of the Department of Education and Training, Executive of HERDSA and a member of the Council of Newington College. She is also on the editorial boards of 5 international education journals.  She is a former President of the Australian Association of Research in Education and a former member of the council of the Australian College of Educators.

Professor Sachs is an Auditor for both AUQA and the New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit.

Professor Margaret Gardner was appointed as Vice-Chancellor in April 2005, having previously held the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Queensland. She has extensive academic experience, having held various leadership positions in Australian universities throughout her career.

She has been a member of Committees in the areas of the arts, education and industrial relations, and is currently a member on various federal government and state government committees, advisory boards and reference groups.

Professor Gardner currently chairs the Museums Board of Victoria, RMIT International University Vietnam Pty Ltd and RMIT Vietnam Holdings Pty Ltd, and holds a directorship on the Australian Teaching and Learning Council.

In 2007, Professor Gardner was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to tertiary education, particularly in the areas of university governance and gender equity, and to industrial relations in Queensland.

Paul Beard is Chief Operating Officer at the University of South Australia with responsibility for finance, facilities, IT, planning and institutional analytics. Paul has been a member of the UniSA senior executive since 2001 and prior to that he held senior finance roles in both the private and public sector. Paul is a Chartered Accountant and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 2007.

From 1996 to 2001 he worked in the electricity industry in South Australia, during a period of significant organizational and industry change, in roles including Chief Financial Officer of ETSA Power and Manager Finance with the new private sector owner, AGL.

Prior to that Paul worked as a Senior Manager with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Adelaide and the United Kingdom, and worked in a senior finance position with Vision Systems, a publicly listed technology company in Adelaide.

Paula has worked predominantly in the superannuation and investment management industry for over 20 years. Having a significant background in strategy and planning, mergers and acquisition, turn-arounds', finance and systems, her later corporate leadership roles have spanned the spectrum from CEO to Director to Chairman. Today she provides strategic consulting services, coaching advice to 'C' level executives, serves as a Business Advisory Member to ASIC and as a Member of the Professional Misconduct Tribunal for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Paula also serves as the President of the CFA Society of Melbourne and as a Director of Open Universities Australia.

Her strategic insight and leadership has been recognised in the practical, sustainable improvements in businesses she has lead. This has resulted in listings in the BRW Top 500 companies, as well as the 'Rising Star' award in the superannuation industry.

Having lived and worked internationally, Paula has experience across various cultures and business environments and has studied extensively, including being a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder and a Fellow Chartered Accountant.

Stephen Beall was appointed Vice-President (Student & Corporate Services) Swinburne University of Technology in 2007, prior to this Stephen held the position of Vice-President (Resources).

Stephen is responsible for all aspects of the university's resources management as well as services that support university operations and student services. Other responsibilities include corporate governance for the University. As a member of the senior management team the Vice President (Student & Corporate Services) works collaboratively in order to establish clear corporate goals for the University and then initiate, plan and manage student and corporate service strategies required to achieve those goals.

Stephen has extensive management experience, he has been with the University since 1996 having held the position of Director (Human Resources) and Director (Facilities & Services). Along with previous executive roles held at Australia Post in the areas of employee relations, workers compensation, occupational health & safety and business development.