Meet our line-up of renowned governance experts

Steven Bowman is Managing Director of Conscious Governance and brings a great depth of experience facilitating Board reviews and strategic planning processes.

Steven has held numerous senior executive, CEO and Board positions in USA and Australia, as well as authoring and co-authoring over 14 books on governance, strategy, risk and executive leadership

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Graeme Nahkies co-founded BoardWorks in 1997, Australasia's first specialist governance consultancy. Since then the company has worked with over 600 clients across all sectors. Graeme came from a series of senior roles in local and central government. He is now BoardWorks Practice Leader ensuring BoardWorks stays at the forefront of contemporary practice.

Lisa Cook is the Founder and Managing Director of Get on Board Australia, supporting aspiring, new and existing board members and boards to thrive. She has thirteen years of experience serving on boards from a range of organisations in the private, public, and not for profit sectors in Adelaide, Sydney, and across Australia, including Shooting Australia, Inclusive Sport SA, West Beach Community Bendigo Bank, and Australian College of Professionals. 

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Leaning on 20 years of international governance and board appointment experience, Simon offers practical, real world governance advice. He has served on multiple privately owned business boards across sectors including construction, hospitality, software, digital and pharmaceutical. Simon is founder of the 18,000+ member Appoint Better Boards community and has made over 180 board appointments via Stimulus Consulting. 

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Chris Mene brings over 25 years’ experience as a board member, chair, independent facilitator, and engagement practitioner. Chris is a director of Mene Solutions and has held governance roles across governmental, commercial, not-for profit and philanthropic sectors. Chris is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and a Licensed Trainer for the International Association for Public Participation Australasia.

Brett Herkt is CEO and Cofounder of BoardPro. Brett is a serial entrepreneur, building several high growth businesses over the last 20 years. He's created $10M exit value in an ICT business, persevered through to a modest exit on his first startup and carried the lessons into BoardPro's burgeoning success. Brett brings tenacity, a strategic mindset, strong generalist business skills and enduring curiosity to the table.

Giselle McLachlan is a governance specialist, with an eye on the strategic horizon as well as on the ground just ahead. Giselle is all about down to earth governance and business advice, and thrives on building sustainable businesses alongside healthy leaders and lives..

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Lynda Carroll is CEO of Align Group. Lynda has over 20 years’ governance experience combined with over 30 years’ experience working with Boards, CEOs and senior managers aligning strategy, governance, culture and performance. Lynda’s experience spans the wider state sector and not-for-profit sector boards and she is also an accredited Foresight Practitioner through the Institute fo.r the Future, California, USA

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Kerryn Newton is the CEO of Directors Australia, a national board consulting and non-executive director recruitment firm. In this capacity, Kerryn advises a wide range of businesses on how to improve board and organisational performance through strategy, board structures, board composition, risk and governance systems and practices.

Debra Hall is an independent director, an angel investor, and a mentor of entrepreneurs. A successfully exited business founder herself, she now applies her strategic insights to guiding companies to build effective governance, that supports future success.

Jen Butler of Absolute Gems is a professional board secretary in both the public and private sectors. Working across a variety of industries, business types and organisations of all sizes, Jen brings a fresh and collaborative approach to governance organisation, planning and administration.

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Sonya Beyers is Director of Governance by Design, a leading consultancy and advisory firm guiding boards to evaluate the governance, processes and legal frameworks in their organisation, redefine the director-board relationship and foster leadership from the boardroom.

Dauniika Maclean is an experienced and award-winning Company Secretary with experience in legal, health, and financial services. Dauniika is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors and sits on the Board of Takapuna School and is the founder and Director of Board Administration Services. 

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Dr Susan Mravlek is a Principal in Insync's Board Advisory Practice, whose career objective is to help boards and top teams realise their organisational aspirations. Susan's expertise is in deep qualitative research that gets to the heart of what destabilises board/organisational culture.

Lloyd Mander leads DOT Scorecard, a consultancy that works with boards, executive teams and other decision-making groups to understand potential for wide-ranging diversity of thought and develop the decision-making culture that is required to realise diverse thinking

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Jo Kelly is a highly experienced Company Secretary who has worked across a range of industries including private companies, publicly listed companies, public-sector, not-for-profits, and several of New Zealand’s largest major sporting events. Jo is also a Director of University and Tertiary Sport New Zealand (UTSNZ).

Julie Garland McLellan is one of very few women to have a portfolio of boards including chairing an ASX listed company and is respected for her practical experience. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and a prized reference for journalists. She has developed and delivered director education for the Governance Institute of Australia, The Australian Institute of Company Directors, and leading international institutions. Julie works with company directors and chairs to help them to build the success they desire in the boardroom. 

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Margot Foster has experience on a wide range of boards, principally not for profit, bringing her knowledge and insights to governance education with a highly practical focus. She is a board governance specialist through her consultancy Boardroom Excellence featuring her signature program The Boardroom School  Margot is Vice President Motorsport Australia, Chair of Sports Environment Alliance, chair of two nomination committees and chairs committees for both World Athletics and World Sailing. She is a mediator and a happy ex lawyer. At the Olympic Games 1984 and Commonwealth Games 1986 Margot won bronze and gold medals, respectively, in rowing. In 2015 she was became a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to sports governance, women’s sport and as an elite athlete.. 

Georgia Henry is the Founder and CEO of HENRY REED, a specialist culture and leadership advisory business that supports Boards, CEOs, Executives and Business Owners to optimise their organisation’s effectiveness through their people and drive positive change for meaningful and measurable impact. Georgia draws on her 30 years’ experience supporting organisations to navigate the complexity of culture impact, leadership and employee behaviours, compliance issues, resistance to change, M&A integrations and changing social expectations.

Sarah Taylor has more than 25 years’ experience in meeting attendance and in particular, expertise in board and committee-level meetings. Sarah started her company Meetings Into Minutes Pty Ltd in 2016 and provides professional, independent minute-taking services to a range of companies across Australia. She also holds the position of Company Secretary with several of these organisations.

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