Deborah Portughes is the Development Executive of Australian Wildlife Conservancy, a national not-for-profit organisation based in Perth for which she has worked since coming to Australia in 2003 from Malta. She has increased annual fundraising for this organisation from $1.2M to $21M in five years. Prior to settling in Perth she worked for one of Malta’s top legal firms. She is a qualified family and commercial Mediator and as a part-time journalist in Malta has won awards for her investigative journalism. She is an accredited instructor in Six Thinking Hats® and DATT™.
Graeme Boden is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Assoc. Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. As a manager of finance and administration functions he has extensive experience specialising in planning and evaluation, feasibility studies, mergers and acquisitions. He has contibuted to the development of not-for-profit organisations for many years, particularly in the area of education.
Ali Sumner has a Masters Degree in Management and Leadership and a background in business, arts management, marketing and teaching. She spent seven years in the WA Department of Training and then Departement of Education and Training before joining the POWA Institute as inaugural CEO. She is an Accredited Instructor in Dr de Bono's thinking tools and is undertaking a part-time PHD at Curtin University of Technology, on the impact of Dr de Bono’s methodologies within the context of leadership and management.
Susan Mackie is CEO for the Melbourne-based not-for-profit de Bono Institute (research and education) and Executive Director deBonoThinkingPlus+, the de Bono training distributor for Australia and New Zealand. A Master Trainer in de Bono methodologies and an Advisory Board Member of de Bono Thinking Systems Inc. (USA), she has initiated a wide range of innovative corporate services for organisations in Australia, South Africa and Europe.
Kathryn Payne spent nine years in the financial planning industry which included three years as Account Development Manager at MLC (National Australia Bank) before forming intelligentWealth. As a young entrepreneur she participated in the POWA Institute's inaugural rethink learning and mentoring program for small business owners and is now using Dr de Bono’s thinking tools to design the rapid expansion of intelligentWealth as a new type of financial planning service.
Graham Partridge is the Executive Director of the Australia Day Council of Western Australia and Chairman of the West Australian Sports Centre Trust. Graham has 30 years experience as a Chief Executive in Local Government; is a Past National President and State President of Local Government Managers Australia (LGMA) and has been awarded a Certificate of Merit and Local Government Medal, LGMA’s highest Honour.
Dr Wood is Director of the West Australian Burns Unit, Clinical Professor with the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia and Director of the McComb Research Foundation. She is co-Founder and Director of Avita Medical, an enterprise known throughout the world for the patented invention of spray on skin for burn victims. She was awarded the Order of Australia for her extraordinary work with 28 victims of the 2002 Bali Bombing and in 2005 she became Australian of the Year.
Dr Saliba Sassine is also Executive Chairman of S&A Capital, specialising in the fields of technology, natural and renewable resources. He is past-Chairman of the WA State Branch of the Australian Biotechnology Assoc. and has served on the Advisory Board of the Institute of Entrepreneurial Management and Innovation at UWA Business School. He is Chairman of the Perth Theatre Trust; former board member of the Art Gallery of Western Australia; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts; Artrage and the Chrissie Parrott Dance Company.
