BOARD MEMBERS
Australian Science Innovations’ mission is to enhance the value that the community places on science through advancing the enthusiasm and capability of Australian science students. The core programs operated by ASI are designed to provide teachers and students with exciting material that will promote scientific passion and understanding. The ASI Board is committed to ensuring that the organization is faithful to this mission. The current Board consists of eight dedicated professionals with a range of expertise in education, management, business and commerce sectors.
Read more about our current Board Members:
Peter Russo (Chair of the Board)
Peter Russo is the Chair of the Board of Australian Science Innovations. He was elected to the ASI Board in 2003.
Peter is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Science Teachers Association (ASTA), the peak body for science teachers and educators in Australia. He has only recently taken up this position. Previously he was the senior Science Policy Officer for the Department of Education and Children’s Services in South Australia. In this capacity he was responsible for developing and implementing policy for school curriculum particularly in the area of science K – 12.
Peter has been a passionate supporter of science education over the last 30 years having been a past President of ASTA and a member of the ASTA Board for nearly ten years, a past President of the South Australian Science Teachers Association (SASTA), a recipient of the SASTA Medal for outstanding service to science education, and a recipient of two ASTA Distinguished Service Awards for his services to the Australian Science Teachers Association. In 2002-3 he was the inaugural Chair of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science Teaching, the most prestigious professional teaching prizes in Australia.
He has also represented Australia internationally, delivering his paper Science for all: Curriculum Structure and Practice in Australian Science Education to the international Program for International Student Association (PISA) Conference in Zurich in 2002. Peter was trained in the United States as a peer assessor for science professional standards through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) in 2000 as part of an Australian national professional standards project.
Dr Mark Toner (Deputy Chair)
Dr Mark Toner is a former Managing Director of Kvaerner E&C Australia, a subsidiary of the international engineering & construction group Aker Kvaerner. His background is in technical marketing and management with a career focus on science, engineering and Internet Technologies. He is Chair of the Co-Operative Research Centre for Sensor Signal and Information Processing, Deputy Chair of Melbourne IT Ltd and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at Monash University.
Mark is a past President of the Business/Higher Education Round Table and a Fellow of the following organisations: the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Engineers Australia, the Institution of Chemical Engineers in Australia (and former Chair) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Mark is a Management Consultant with Toner & Associates and an accredited Myers Briggs trainer.
Based in Melbourne, Mark's interests are rugby, golf and yachting. His eldest son Ben is an ASO alumnus and research physicist, and his daughter is completing a science degree.
Ms Jan Althorp
Jan has a background in science education, science policy and curriculum development at a national and state level. Through her work in strategic planning, along with leadership roles as Executive Director of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in Australia (IChemE) and previously as Executive Director of the Australian Science Teachers Association, Jan has expertise and a broad network across Australia and internationally in science, education and chemical engineering.
In her current role with IChemE she has responsibility for the management and strategic direction of the Australian operations of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. IChemE is a UK based professional institution within the chemical and process engineering community with 27000 members worldwide. There is a great deal of synergy with ASI goals and her role with IChemE. This synergy exists in developing and initiating regional initiatives, accrediting university chemical engineering programs, promoting exciting and rewarding careers in science and within the global chemical engineering community and in her work enhancing the profile of the profession and the role of science.
Mr. Wayne Burns
Wayne is a Director of Economics and Policy for the Allen Consulting Group as well as Director of the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs. He joined Allen Consulting Group in 2005 following more than 20 years in corporate public affairs, journalism, politics and publishing. Wayne leads the Public Affairs practice and is Director of the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, which is managed by Allen Consulting Group.
Wayne's background includes work with The Australian Financial Review, former Federal Employment, Education and Training Minister The Hon John Dawkins, Hill & Knowlton's public affairs practice, The Millenium Group (his own public affairs company), Australian Republican Movement's Constitutional Convention on Constitutional Change, the 1999 Republic Referendum and Yes Committee, and Insurance Australia Group (NRMA Insurance).
Wayne is a former chair and deputy chair of the NSW Cancer Council, a former member of the NSW Ambulance Service Board and a past member of the advisory board of the Redfern Legal Centre Publishing Service. He was an inaugural Mitchell Foundation Scholar at Mitchell College in NSW, (now Charles Sturt University), where he earned his communications degree in print and broadcast journalism. In 2005, Wayne graduated from the postgraduate certificate program in corporate citizenship at Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, which operates the Centre for Corporate Citizenship. He advises the University of Sydney and Charles Sturt University on their public affairs degree programs.
Ms Sue Houghton
Sue Houghton is the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Insurance Manufacturers of Australia Pty Limited (IMA). IMA is a partnership between NRMA Insurance and RACV in Victoria to manufacture insurance products for NRMA Insurance, RACV, SGIO and SGIC. In her role Sue leads, directs and administers the financial and business development activities of IMA.
Sue has worked for IMA since 2000 and prior to taking on the role worked in a number of senior management roles in financial services in the UK and Australia.
Prof. Gary Monroe (Treasurer)
Professor Gary Monroe is a Professor of Accounting in the School of
Accounting and Business Information Systems at The Australian National
University. He is a past President of the Accounting and Finance
Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ).
Gary received a PhD in Business Administration (accounting and information systems) from the University of Massachusetts in 1978. He has extensive teaching experience in Australian and US universities: prior to taking up his appointment at ANU, he lectured at Edith Cowan University, the University of Western Australia, University of Hawaii, Duke University and the University of Massachusetts. Gary has received several teaching awards for his undergraduate teaching and PhD supervision.
Gary’s research has mainly concentrated on auditing with an emphasis on audit judgement and the economics of auditing. He has published over 40 articles in a wide range of academic finance, business and accounting journals.
Ms Anne Semple
Anne Semple has many years experience as a teacher of science, specialising in Biology. She is passionate about her profession and throughout her long career gained extensive expertise in writing online and print materials including major contributions to award-winning texts. She has designed and delivered numerous professional learning programmes and sessions on many aspects of teaching, learning and professional issues.
Currently she is an education consultant specialising in general and science–specific curriculum development; professional learning programmes for state and national government and non-government education authorities and schools, and organisations and agencies such as Curriculum Corporation and Cooperative Research Centres. As a former Research Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Research Anne worked in test development for the Assessment and Reporting Research Program and in research into professional learning for the Teaching and Learning Research Program.
Anne is a past president of the Australian Science Teachers’ Association (ASTA) and former office bearer of a number of other professional associations. She was a member of ASTA’s National Science Standards Committee that developed the National Professional Standards for Highly Accomplished Teachers of Science (2002). She has been awarded fellowships and a number of state and national certificates for Outstanding Service in recognition of her contribution to her profession.
Anne continues to be excited about scientific endeavour and discovery but still on her wish list is more time with her three grandsons and more opportunity for travel and creative pursuits.
Dr Matthew Sorell
Dr Matthew Sorell is Senior Lecturer in Telecommunications and Multimedia Engineering at the University of Adelaide, and was a member of the first Australian Physics Olympiad team in 1987. He has received numerous faculty and university awards for excellence in teaching, and is an active researcher in forensic analysis of digital multimedia and consultant to the telecommunications industry and regulators around the world. In 2008 he launched the annual e-Forensics conference on Forensic Applications and Techniques in Telecommunications, Information and Multimedia, and he is an Associate Editor of the International Journal on Digital Crime and Forensics.
Professor Michael Vitale
Michael Vitale is a Professor at Monash University and the Director, Commercialisation, of the Monash Asia-Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation. In this role Michael provides educational courses related to the transformation of science into wealth for biomedicine, science, and business students and for scientists and business people throughout the Asia Pacific. He also undertakes research into the creation of wealth from science, and works with Monash scientific researchers, commercialisation professionals, and external venture capitalists and business people in applying the Centre's skills and theory to the practical conversion of Monash scientific research output into wealth. Prior to joining Monash, Michael held a joint professorial appointment at the Melbourne Business School and the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). At MBS, he was the director of the innovation research program and focused his teaching, research, and consulting on commercialisation of innovation, particularly in biotechnology. At ANZSOG, Michael focused on IT governance and innovation in the public sector.
Michael is the former chairman of a publicly listed biotechnology firm and a member of the advisory board of a private biotech. He was Dean and Director of the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) in 2001 – 2002 and was formerly a Professor in the Centre for Management of IT at the Melbourne Business School and the Foundation Professor of Information Systems and Head of the Information Systems Department at the University of Melbourne. Prior to coming to Australia, he was a Fellow at the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation in Boston and an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His industry experience includes four years as Vice President of Technology and Corporate Services at the Prudential Insurance Company of America. He holds a PhD (Dartmouth College) and an MBA (Harvard Business School).
Updated 6 March 2008