Australia Day Council of NSW Members

National Pride

The Australia Day Council of NSW is the premier organisation in Australia delivering inspirational events and programs which celebrate being Australian. The ADCNSW Council Members are as follows:

Angelos Frangopoulos

Angelos Frangopoulos was appointed Chairman of the Australia Day Council of New South Wales on 1 December, 2010.

Angelos Frangopoulos is the Chief Executive Officer of Australian News Channel Pty Ltd, the leading provider of 24 hour digital news services in Australia and New Zealand.                           

He joined the company in July 1996, 5 months after the channel's inception.

After serving as Chief of Production, he was appointed Managing Editor in 2000 and then in 2004 to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Australian News Channel Pty Ltd is a joint venture of PBL Media, Seven Media and British Sky Broadcasting.

ANC produces a wide range of digital news services, including Sky News Australia, Sky News New Zealand, Sky News Active, Sky News Now for mobiles, Sky News Podcasting and Sky News Online.

Before joining Australian News Channel, he held positions at British Sky Broadcasting, the Nine Network and Prime Television Canberra.

He began his career in the media at Mid State Television Orange after completing a Bachelor of Arts in Communication at Mitchell College, Bathurst and was actively involved in the developing years of Community Radio in Sydney, Bathurst and Orange.

Mr Frangopoulos is a member of the Council of Charles Sturt University.

John Biffin

Marine Pilot and Master Mariner.

John has been involved with Australia Day for twelve years and been on the Australia Day Council since 1996.
 
He very much enjoys being involved and seeing all Australia Day events including those on and around the Harbour going from strength to strength.

Jim Carroll

Jim Carroll has been Network Ten's Head of News and Public Affairs since 2005.

Jim joined the Network in 2000 stepping away from a long career in journalism to take an executive role managing Ten’s corporate affairs and investor relations strategies.

He began his media career as a newspaper reporter before moving to radio and ultimately into television news where his former positions included European Bureau Chief, Foreign Editor and an award winning Executive Producer.

Along the way Jim completed an economics degree and served as a senior political advisor to the New South Wales Government.

Jim is a Director of the Australian Science Media Centre and involved in a range of community activities having been president of his local school council and junior rugby club, a sport in which he is a qualified coach and referee.

Dr Clio Cresswell

Dr Clio Cresswell has established a diverse career as a mathematician, author, writer and presenter. Clio is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at The University of Sydney. She is celebrated as the author of Mathematics and Sex; and features regularly on television, radio and press.

Clio has interviewed personalities on The Panel; delivered serious book reviews for the Science Show on ABC’s Radio National; has been a not-so-serious host on breakfast radio on Triple M; has given relationship advice on Beauty and The Beast and, for several years, in her column in New Woman Magazine; has made jokes on The Glasshouse; and has been needed for her general expertise as a member of The Brains Trust on The Einstein Factor.

After growing up in Greece and the South of France where she studied Visual Art, at eighteen she simultaneously discovered the joys of Australia and mathematics. This led to winning a University Medal, completing a PhD in mathematics and even enjoying a stint as an actuary. So today, Clio has proudly been involved with the Australia Day Council since 2001.

David Field FAICD

David Field, FAICD has extensive Board Chairmanship, Non Executive Director & Chief Executive experience gained from a 40 year Corporate Career at both National and International level.

Current Board Appointments

*   Managing Director, Field & Associates Pty Ltd (07-Present). Providing Consulting Services in a range of areas of Corporate Governance
*   Non Executive Chairman Norton White Lawyers & Notaries (2007-Present). Trade & Transport, Banking & Finance, Corporate Recovery, Insurance & Property.
*   Australia Day Council of NSW (2008-Present Appointment Premier of NSW) 
*   A Group Chairman within the CEO Circle (2004-Present).  Brings together CEOs from large companies for peer group mutual advice and support.
*   Director, The Merchant Navy War Memorial Fund Ltd (2004-Present Appointment by NSW Government Executive Council).  A Company Limited by Guarantee providing financial assistance for Memorials to Merchant Navy Personnel throughout Australia.
*   Director, United Way Sydney (2008-Present).  A Public Company Limited by Guarantee / Part of Global network that Partners with a range of corporates to deliver Employee Engagement Strategies via UW Corporate Community Involvement Program.
*   Director, of The Royal Exchange of Sydney (1998-Present).  A Company Limited by Guarantee operating the Exchange Club of Sydney & Promotion of Commerce in NSW.
*   Trustee, The Sydney Bethel Union (2004-Present Appointment by NSW Government Executive Council). Public Charitable organization Est 1851 by Act of NSW Parliament to provide for welfare of Seafarers of all nationalities visiting the Ports of NSW.

Former Board Appointments

*   Immediate Past Chairman Sydney Ports Corporation (1998-2006 serving three consecutive terms). A State Owned Corporation)
*   Director Sydney Sea Pilots (2000-2006)

Corporate Career Australia & Overseas

*   Consultant in Executive Search & Selection (98-07) with two International Search & Selection Companies. This included two years as Australian Head of an Interim Executive Practice and a simultaneous period as Managing Partner of that firm’s Korean office.
*   Interim Managing Director & CEO (Apr–Sept 1999) of Tourism & Leisure Division of the Australian publicly listed company, Amalgamated Holdings Limited (AHL) with Board of Director responsibilities.
*   Managing Director / CEO Blue Star Line (Aust) Pty Ltd (96-98) a subsidiary of The Vestey Group, UK

Container Shipping Trades: Australia, Far East, South East Asia, Sub-Continent, and the  Middle East and shared responsibility for the company’s substantial East and West Coast North American shipping interests.

*   Chairman Blue Star Line (Asia) Pty Ltd (96-98) Container Shipping Trades: Australia, Japan, South Korea & China

Neil Flett

Neil Flett is the Executive Chairman of Rogen International.

Neil's background before Rogen is in journalism and PR. Within Rogen, Neil specialises in pitching for major accounts and consulting to senior management in all aspects of interpersonal communication.
 
Neil has been involved with Australia Day since 1997 and is involved because he is proudly Australian and is fascinated in watching and supporting the growth of our national spirit. He is particularly interested in how the Australia Day Council of NSW, through its communication, can be best used to create an environment in which the Australian character can shape the way our pride develops.

Kris Neill

A former journalist and senior political adviser, Kris Neill has almost 20 years of media and issues management experience and is currently the Head of the Corporate Communications Division at Macquarie Bank.

Kris has responsibility for the Bank's issues management and internal communications strategies in Australia and internationally.  She has oversight of the Bank’s brand and marketing and media relations functions and responsibility for government relations. 

Previously, Kris was Director of Corporate Affairs at News Limited and Chief of Staff to the former Premier of New South Wales, the Hon. Bob Carr, for whom she worked for 12 years.  Kris has also held senior advisory roles to ministers including former Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Brian Howe and former NSW Minister, the Hon. Frank Walker.

Kris is a Director of the Tourism and Transport Forum;  a Member of the NSW Australia Day Council;  a Director of the Macquarie Bank Foundation and Macquarie Bank Sports and a Director of the Australian Science and Media Centre.

David O’Connor AM

David O’Connor has had over forty years experience in the NSW Public Service. He has previously been Director General and Commissioner for fair Trading.

David has worked for the government on a number of events including the Captain Cook Bicentenary 1970, Opening of the Sydney Opera House 1973, the 1988 Bicentenary and the Olympic Games Bid.

He is a member of the Australia Day Council of NSW and a member of the Senate of the Australian Catholic University. Most recently. David was Executive Director, World Youth Day 2008 Secretariat and has been involved in all three previous Papal Visits.

Bruce Phillips

Bruce Phillips’ 26 years of audit and advisory experience with KPMG has involved working with clients in a broad range of industries such as telecommunications, broadcasting, publishing, e-commerce, banking and finance, energy, mining and manufacturing.  Bruce sits on KPMG’s National Executive Committee and has responsibility for the National Accounts program, a program which involves monitoring services to some of the firm’s largest clients.

Bruce holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants a well as the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

Bruce is enthusiastic about Australia Day because it brings together so many values that Australians respect and want to see flourish.  He has been with the Australia Day Council since 1999.

Robbie Sefton

Robbie Sefton operates a national communication organisation that develops public relations and marketing campaigns for large corporate and government organisations that need to reach people living and working in rural, regional and remote Australia.  Robbie also co-owns a farming and grazing property at Manilla in North-West NSW.

Most recently Robbie has had board positions on the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation; Australian Wool Services (the Woolmark Company) and is a member of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Regional Women’s Advisory Council.

Having her roots in rural Australia, Robbie is in a unique position to drive change from within the industry and is passionate about running a high level, strategic national consultancy from the bush which creates career opportunities for young people. 

Mark Warren

As Manager, Commercial Office for NSW and ACT, Mark Warren is responsible for sales and marketing of products and services to our domestic and business customers.

He is also responsible for the performance of our channels to those markets i.e. Post Offices, Business Centres, Call Centre and Bulk Mail Acceptance Units.

Mark has been with Australia Post since 1993, commencing as an executive in the operations side of the business.  In 1998 he was promoted to the position of Manager Retail NSW/ACT, and then in October 2000 he was again promoted to his current position.

In the last 5 years he has focussed the commercial business unit on its four key consumer segments, ensuring that the commitments we make to customers are met by the channels through which they are serviced.

As the largest commercial business unit in Australia Post, the team have been instrumental in driving the continually improving results, both in financial and quality measures, as reported by our organisation.

Widely travelled, Mark enjoys reading Autobiographies and playing competitive golf.  He is a member of the Organising Committee of Juvenile Diabetes NSW, and is a board member of "The Best of The Best" Charity.  He is also on the VisAsia Council of the NSW Art Gallery.

Elka Whalan

Elka Graham spent the best part of a decade at the top of Australian swimming. A dual Olympian (both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004), she won Olympic silver in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay and has come home with medals from World Championships, Commonwealth Games, the World Cup (Gold!) and Pan Pacific championships as well as World Short Course Championships
 
Elka has clocked both Australian and Commonwealth records including the Australian 400m Freestyle short course record, which she held for over five years.

Elka spent almost 7 years at the top of Australian swimming. A dual Olympian, she won Olympic silver in the 4 x 200m Freestyle relay in Athens 2004 and has come home with medals from World Championships, Commonwealth Games, the World Cup (Gold!) and Pan Pacific championships.
 
Elka has clocked both Australian and Commonwealth records including the Australian 400m Freestyle short course record, which she held for over five years. In 2001 she recorded the world’s fastest swim for the 200m Freestyle and was officially ranked Number 1 in the world. Between 2001-2004 she was consistently in the Top 3 in the world for both the 200m and 400m Freestyle.

In 2003, Elka survived a month in hospital after being diagnosed with a worrying heart condition. Yet her positive mindset saw her win Gold in the 200m, 400m and 800m at the World Cup just a month after her release from hospital, marginally missing world record times.
 
Elka ended her swimming career with no less than 10 Australian Championship Gold medals (both long and short course). She came home with a medal from every meet in which she ever competed apart from Athens (when she finished 4th in the 4 x 200m relay).
 
Reflecting on ‘now and then’ Elka says: “I was so happy with everything I achieved in swimming and it’s still amazing to know I reached number one in the world for my pet discipline. I still remember the day I received that confirmation in my letterbox… I couldn’t actually believe it. Now it’s time to move on to new, exciting ventures and to take the opportunity to show everyone Elka Graham the person… not just the swimmer!”

 Since retiring from competitive swimming, Elka has made a smooth transition into journalism and the media and has also been in great demand on the speaking circuit. She has appeared on all major free to air television stations (7, 9 and 10) as well as subscription TV’s Fox Sports. Elka also appeared in Channel 7’s smash hit series, DANCING WITH THE STARS in late 2007.
 
Elka has also agreed to modelling contracts and has appeared in many magazines, notably Marie Claire, Cleo, FHM and Alpha. She really enjoys modelling, especially when it can help a good cause, but the focus of her career moving forward will be the media.
 

Elka was the face of the AJC spring racing carnival in 2004, has written for Marie Claire magazine and currently writes frequent articles for the The Sun-Herald and New Idea magazine (see samples in the Media section of the site).
 
I am passionate about dedicating my time to those in need. That’s why I support several incredibly good causes.
 
Recently I’ve lent my support to the Nelune Foundation, co-founded by an inspirational cancer patient, Nelune Rajapakse. Nelune set up the Foundation to help those patients who may not have the support or financial resources needed to cope with this life threatening illness.
 
I have been a long-time supporter of the Heart Foundation (even before my own much-publicised heart scare). The Foundation does an incredible job of creating awareness about the world’s biggest killer and is utterly dedicated to reducing the dreadful effects of the number of people living with, or dying from heart, stroke and blood vessel disease.
 
I have also become an Ambassador for new online sport community DoubleDrummer.com in return for their support with a new ‘swim for safety’ program I’m setting up in Papua New Guinea through Double Drummer alliance partner, Australian Volunteers International… more on this later.
 
Finally, I believe in and support other causes including:

• Amnesty International
• Compassion Australia
• The Humpty Dumpty Foundation
• National Breast Cancer Foundation

Elka is not daunted by the expectations for future success that many people have placed upon her. She is energetic, vivacious and articulate, with an infectious smile and a great sense of humour. She sees life as a challenge, thrives on pressure and uses her enthusiasm to turn any situation into a positive.
 
With maturity and experience beyond her years, Elka Graham remains an asset to Australian sport as well as the wider community and is an inspirational role model for all. Her simple credo has always been: "Attitude, Effort and Persistence".

Greg Daniel AM

Greg is one of Australia’s most experienced marketing communications executives. He has been CEO of the country’s most awarded ad agency, The Campaign Palace, and CEO and Deputy Chairman for 10 years of Clemenger BBDO.

Greg has also been a director of Tourism Australia, British American Tobacco and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the order of Australia for his role as Chairman of the Communications Commission for the Sydney Olympic Games.

A long-time investor in the internet communications sector Greg is Executive Chairman of SR7, Australia’s leading social media intelligence and research firm which is in partnership with Aon, the world’s largest risk management group.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla

Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla, Director Centre for Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW)

Scientia Professor Veena Sahajwalla is the leader of research into Sustainable Materials as the Director of Sustainable Materials Research & Technology (SMaRT@UNSW) at the University of New South Wales. She is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Veena’s research interests include sustainability of materials and processes with an emphasis on environmental and community benefits. Through this interest, Veena has invented an environmentally friendly process of recycling plastics and rubber tyres in steelmaking. Veena is an international award winning scientist and engineer who has presented on her research and experiences throughout the world.

She has collaborated with Australian companies and overseas companies/institutions. She has established excellent working relationships and a deep knowledge of industrial processes and issues/problems. She has published in excess of 200 papers in journals and conference proceedings.

As the Director of UNSW’s Centre for Sustainable Materials and Research and Technology (SMaRT), she has provided leadership in the research programs on sustainable materials a strong emphasis on the skills and knowledge that are urgently needed to enhance sustainability. Central to this have been her insights into the fundamental theory of high-temperature reactions, from the molecular level to industrial-scale applications, and the strong collaborative relationships she has established with industry in Australia and internationally.

In 2005, she received Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. She also received the 2006 Environmental Technology Award from Association of Iron & Steel Technology in the United States for her research into recycling waste plastics in steelmaking. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) in 2007. In 2011, she received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award given by the Government of India for her outstanding achievement in the field of Science and in recognition of her valuable contribution in promoting the honour and prestige of India. This is the highest honour for Overseas Indians.  In 2011 she gave talk at Tedx Sydney event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wMbdwfplBk . In July, 2001 she was one of judges for the Google Science Fair. In November, 2011 Veena won the National Nokia Business Innovation Award at Telstra NSW Business Women’s Awards, awards website. She is also one of the judges for 2011 The Australian Innovation Challenge.

She received BTech, Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; MASc, Metals and Materials Engineering, University of British Columbia, Canada and PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, USA.

She is passionate about science and engineering. She encourages young people to consider science and engineering as a career path; and is very active in communicating her ideas to students. She is one of the judges on the ABC TV show, “The New Inventors”