Mr Philip Bullock (Chair)

Mr Philip Bullock (Chair) brings an impressive combination of high level leadership skills, a strong industry background and a commitment to education and training to the position of Chair of Skills Australia. Mr Bullock has more than 25 years experience working with IBM, culminating in his appointment as Vice President, Systems and Technology Group IBM Asia Pacific Region. Prior to this Mr Bullock was CEO of IBM Australia and New Zealand.

He also served on the Board of the Australian Information Industry Association, the Business Council of Australia, where he also chaired their Skills and Innovation Taskforce, the Victorian Schools Innovation Commission and the Advisory Committee to the Australian Graduate School of Management. He is currently a non-executive of Perpetual Limited, a major provider of financial services and CSG Limited, which is one of Australia’s leading IT and print services companies. He was previously a non-executive director of Healthscope Limited a significant provider of private health services.

Professor Gerald Burke

Gerald Burke was formerly executive director and a professorial fellow in the Monash University-ACER Centre for the Economics of Education and Training (CEET) and now has an adjunct appointment as professor in education at Monash. From 2007 to 2010 he was a member of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority. From 2004 to 2007 he was chair of the Victorian Qualifications Authority, a member of the Victorian Learning and Employment Skills Commission and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. He is a member of the editorial board of the National Centre for Vocational Education Research.

Ms Ged Kearney

Gerardine (Ged) Kearney commenced as ACTU President on 1 July 2010, and is the third woman to hold the position following the departure of Sharan Burrow to the Brussels-based position of General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation.

Ged believes that unions should not just be concerned with the experience of people at work but they should be advocates for change to improve all aspects of Australians lives. She wants to ensure that unions continue to be at the forefront of public debate in Australia.

Ged’s ambition as ACTU President is to build respect from political leaders and the broad community for the values of fairness and role played by unions in delivering social change so that people feel the need to join.

Ged was elected the Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation in April 2008. The ANF represents more than 200,000 nurses and midwives, and is one of Australia’s fastest growing unions.

She had been an elected official with the ANF since 1997, also serving as Assistant Federal Secretary, Federal President and Victorian Branch President.

Ged became a registered nurse in 1985, and has worked in many settings across the public and private acute sectors, predominantly in Melbourne, and has also been a nursing educator, including manager of the Clinical Nursing Education Department at Austin Health. She has a Bachelor in Education.

As Federal Secretary, Ged saw substantial membership growth of the ANF and the first national combined strategic growth campaign in the private sector aged care industry. Her background in nursing and industrial experience advanced the profession and industrial rights of ANF members.

In collaboration with ANF branches in every state and territory, Ged has worked to improve the working lives and conditions of dedicated nurses, midwives and assistants in nursing throughout Australia.

Ged now strives to improve the working lives and conditions for all Australian workers.

Ged is a director of CBUS Super Fund.

The second youngest of nine children, Ged grew up in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond, where her father was a publican. She was brought up in a household where the importance of the collective, both in politics and society, was emphasised from an early age.

The year after qualifying as a registered nurse, she took part in the famous Victorian nurses’ strike of 1986 which resulted in substantial improvements to pay and conditions.

Ged is a mother of four children aged from 16 to 23, and lives in Melbourne.

Dr Michael Keating AC

Dr Michael Keating AC is a member of the South Australia Training and Skills Commission, the South Australian Economic Development Board, and Chairman of the Community and Clinicians Expert Advisory Council for Health in NSW. Until recently, he was also the Chairman of the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal in NSW.

Dr Keating’s principal fields of research interest include the integration of social and economic policy, particularly as it relates to improving labour market outcomes, and research into the factors affecting governance, including how governments, institutions and policies are responding and how relationships between the citizens and the state are changing.

Dr Keating is a former Secretary of the Federal departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance, and Employment and Industrial Relations. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) from the University of Melbourne and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Australian National University. He is an honorary Doctor of the University (DUniv) at Griffith University, a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Ms Marie Persson

Marie Persson has broad experience in government policy, education and training reform, organisational development and leadership and management.  She has advised Australian State and Federal governments on national and international issues and has participated in a range of delegations including to China, India, Canada, South America and Germany.

Marie has held senior executive positions in the Australian public sector at state and national levels for over 20 years. From 2005 to 2010 Marie was the head of NSW TAFE and Community Education, the largest public sector education and training provider in Australia, employing over 10,000 staff. During this time she led a major reform of the organisation’s strategic direction and structure: TAFE in the 21st Century.  Marie has been a member of the Federal government’s Board of Skills Australia since its inception in 2008.

 Marie is the recipient of several awards recognising her skills and contributions including the NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year (2003), the Australian Telstra Community and Government Award (2003) and the International Literacy Year medal (1990).

 Marie has a Masters of Education from the University of NSW, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. As a Board member and reviewer, she has brought her policy and leadership skills to the NSW Board of Studies, the YWCA, the NSW TAFE Commission, the University of Melbourne LH Martin Institute of Leadership and Management in Higher Education, as well as the Australian Government’s Expert panel on Australian Apprenticeships. 

Mrs Heather Ridout

Heather is a leading figure in the public policy debate in Australia. She heads an organisation committed to helping Australian industry with a focus on building competitive and sustainable industries through global integration, skills development, productive and flexible workplace relations, infrastructure development and innovation.

She is a member of a number of key national policy setting and consultative groups including the National Workplace Relations Consultative Committee; Infrastructure Australia; and Skills Australia.

She was also a member of the Henry Tax Review, Business Roundtable on Climate Change, the Prime Minister's Business Taskforce on Flood Recovery and chaired the Productivity and Prosperity Advisory Panel of the Population Strategy Task Force.

Mrs Ridout has various other appointments including Director of the Australian Super Trustee Board, Sims Metal Management Ltd and the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth.

Mr Keith Spence

Keith Spence is Chair of the WA State Training Board which provides policy advice to the Minister for Education and Training on matters relating to vocational education and training in Western Australia.

He is a member of the Board of Skills Australiia.

With over 30 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry, including 18 years with Shell, Mr Spence has a broad knowledge of the industry. He retired from Woodside in 2008 after a 14-year tenure in top executive positions in the company.  Mr Spence held many roles during his period with Woodside, including Chief Operating Officer, Acting Chief Executive Officer, Director Oil Business Unit, Director Northern Business Unit and Exploration Manager North West Shelf. Most recently, he was Executive Vice President Enterprise Capability.

Mr Spence is a member of the National Carbon Capture and Storage Council   and chairs the Board of the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, the Australian Institute of Management (WA), the State Training Board of Western Australia and the Industry Advisory Board of the Australian Centre for Energy and Process Training. He is a member of the Curtin University council.

He is a Non-Executive Chairman of Clough Limited and Geodynamics Limited and a Non-Executive Director of Verve Energy.

Mr Paul Howes

Paul has more than a decade of union activism behind him – as an ordinary union member, a union delegate, working for a peak trade union body and as an AWU official.

He was born in Sydney, and grew up in the Blue Mountains. Paul left school at age 14 and became active in his workplace as a union delegate.

At the age of 17, he became a Research Officer with the Labor Council of NSW (now Unions NSW). Paul worked closely with the AWU in organising workers at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and in 2002 as an official with the New South Wales Branch of the union.

In 2003, he joined the AWU National Office as National Organiser and organised the Aluminium, Mining and Steel industries for the union across the country.

In 2005, Paul was elected National Vice President, becoming the youngest person in the history of the union to hold a national leadership position. He worked on reforming the union's internal structure – implementing new strategies to organise non-union workplaces and grow membership in the union’s traditional industrial bases.
Paul was elected National Secretary in 2007 and was re-elected in 2009.

The AWU now has more than 135,000 members and 250 staff across Australia. Established in 1886, the AWU is the country's oldest and most diverse union, with more than 45 offices across non-metropolitan Australia.

Paul was elected Vice President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 2008. He is a member of the National Executive of the Australian Labor Party and represents the Asia-Pacific Region as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Metalworkers’ Federation.

Paul is a director of the nation’s largest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper. He is also a director of the National Workforce and Productivity Development Agency, a director of The McKell Institute and a member of a number of Government Boards.

Paul lives in Sydney with his wife Lucy and three children.

Mr Peter Anderson

Peter Anderson is Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry where he is responsible for management, strategy and national and international advocacy on behalf of State and Territory Chambers of Commerce and affiliated Industry Associations representing the breadth of economic activity.

Peter has more than twenty-five years of experience at the forefront of policy and advocacy in both private and public sectors. Prior to joining ACCI in 2002, his expertise was honed in senior roles, including as Executive-Director of the Retail Traders’ Association of South Australia; Partner of leading commercial law firm Fisher Jeffries; Chief of Staff to former South Australian Premier Hon. Dean Brown and Senior Adviser to Commonwealth Employment and Workplace Ministers. His public policy expertise includes employment, workplace relations, small business, superannuation, trade practices, retail trading and federalism. He has written and taught on constitutional, administrative and international law. In 2011 he was a member of the Government’s Business Roundtable on Climate Change.

Peter is the Australian business representative at regional and global forums such as the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Organisation of Employers. He is an elected representative of Asian employers on the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation. He is also a director of the Australian Made, Australian Grown Campaign and the International Institute for Labour Studies.

Dr John Edwards

John Edwards is a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute, an Adjunct Professor with the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy at Curtin University, and a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia. From 2009 to 2011 he was Director for Economic Planning and Development for the Economic Development Board of the Kingdom of Bahrain. From 1997 to 2009 Dr Edwards was Chief Economist for Australia and New Zealand for the global financial group, HSBC. In 2008 he was given leave of absence from HSBC to accept a secondment to the Australian Treasury as Chief Adviser, Financial Markets. At the same time the Minister for Trade, Simon Crean, appointed Dr Edwards to join chairman David Mortimer AO in a two-member Review of Australian Trade and Investment Policies. From 1991 to 1994 John was principal economic adviser to Treasurer and then Prime Minister, Paul Keating. In that role he had particular responsibility for international trade issues, labour market reform, and monetary policy.

Earlier in his career he was a political and economic journalist in Sydney, Canberra, and Washington. He joined Australian Financial Review in 1970, and his subsequent roles included Political Correspondent of The Australian, and Economics Editor of Bulletin magazine. Immediately prior to joining Mr. Keating, he was the Sydney Morning Herald’s correspondent in Washington, DC.

After leaving Mr. Keating’s office in 1994 John was an adviser at Macquarie Bank, and then Chief Economist for Société Generale in Australia, before joining HSBC. From 1994 to 1996 he was also appointed by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs as Adviser to the Australian member of the APEC Eminent Persons Group and to the two Australian members of the APEC Business Advisory Council

His articles on economic issues have appeared in The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the Financial Times and other publications. He has given evidence on economic issues before parliamentary committees, and presented briefings for government officials and ministers.

He has published four books, including a narrative history of the MX missile program Superweapon, (Norton 1982) and an account of Australian economic policy making under the former Treasurer and Prime Minister Keating – the inside story (Viking 1996). His most recent book is Curtin’s Gift: Re-interpreting Australia’s greatest Prime Minister (Allen and Unwin 2005), an analysis of changes in Australia’s economic framework in the Second World War.

He holds Ph.D. and M Phil degrees in economics from George Washington University and a BA from Sydney University. In his doctoral dissertation he created and tested a model of the Australian monetary policy mechanism to examine the impact of financial deregulation on the effectiveness of monetary policy.

Mr Robin Shreeve - Skills Australia CEO

Mr Robin Shreeve began his new role with Skills Australia in October 2009 and is based in Sydney.

Mr Shreeve was previously the CEO of the City of Westminster College, London. This college provides vocationally orientated education and training for over 7000 students across 300 courses. Mr Shreeve has a distinguished history within the tertiary sector including, Deputy Director-General, Technical and Further Education and Community Education, NSW Department of Education and Training.