Prof Ian Dunn is a Melbourne Lawyer who has served as both President  and CEO of the Law Institute of Victoria . He was formerly a partner in the Melbourne firm Wisewoulds.

Since leaving the Institute in 2002 he has served as inaugural Chair of the Victorian  Commission  for Gambling Regulation, 2004-9 and as Ombudsman General Insurance at Financial Ombudsman Service 2010-3.

He is Adjunct Professor in Law at La Trobe University and a board member at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. He is also a nationally accredited Mediator

Chris Gallagher has held senior roles in State and local government, including Deputy Director of Major Projects Victoria, Director of City Strategy at the City of Melbourne and Ministerial Adviser to two State Government Planning Ministers. She also worked as a strategy consultant for many years.

She has been a director of the Australian Print Workshop, the Southern and Eastern Integrated Transport Authority, Monash Property Management, VicSport, the Melbourne Convention and Marketing Bureau and the John Cain Foundation.  Government appointments have included a 6 year term as  Chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria and membership of several advisory committees to the Minister for Planning.

Justin Bokor is a senior consulting professional with 20 years experience in strategy, growth and business transformation.

He has extensive international experience, having led strategy and growth programs in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, the UAE and the Philippines.

Justin is actively involved in the community and not-for-profit sector, including the Melbourne Forum, the Balibo House Trust and World Vision Australia.

Dr Sheila Nguyen is committed to industry work and research evidencing the influence sport has as a change agent for social & environmental good.

Sheila has a PhD from Florida State University (USA), specialising in corporate social orientation and stakeholder management with ongoing research interests including corporate social responsibility, environmental responsibility, measurement and research design.

She has had experience working with licensing/marketing (PGA Tour, USA), corporate consulting (William Morris Agency, Beverly Hills, USA), and she worked as part of the broadcasting team at the 2010 Asian Games (Guangzhou, China) with clients such as NHK, Al-Jazeera, KBS, and CCTV.

Sheila is an alumna of both the Committee for Melbourne’s business leadership program and Cranlana’s Executive Colloquia.

She passionately advocates for environmental leadership within the sport industry and its communities and does so in her role as Executive Director of the Sports Environment Alliance Inc (SEA), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to: EMPOWERING SPORT TO DO MORE {for the world} WITH LESS {footprint}.

Sheila is committed to using her energy to improve our environmental health for public good, and she sees her role at Melbourne Forum as an avenue to do so, starting with her city.

Andrew Stops is a lawyer of 32 years standing.  In his spare time he like’s to use his skills in community engagement activities.  Ironically almost 20 years ago the person who persuaded Andrew to do this was MF member Margaret Jackson.

The sorts of things that Andrew has achieved are:

1.     With a group of alumni (including member Michelle Beveridge) Andrew started the Melbourne chapter of the AGSM alumni.  They are completely self funded and raised more than $50,000 for a scholarship for people working in the third sector supporting disadvantaged people to do an MBA at the AGSM.  Two scholarships were awarded before the scheme was taken over nationally by the AGSM.  Andrew served 10 years on the Alumni Board of the AGSM assisting in raising the profile of these scholarships and creating similar chapters in Asia, Europe and the USA.

2.     Once in 2011 and then again in 2014 Andrew raised funds for and then walked the Kokoda Track with teenagers from disadvantaged areas and the Victoria Police.  The 2014 venture was the first time from the Wyndham area and Andrew was the only non-police member on the organizing committee.

Helen Sykes is the Director of Future Leaders, President of the Trust for Young Australians, Vice President of the Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Council Member of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation, Member of the Future Justice Executive, Summit Governor of the Hillary Institute and Board Member of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation. She has published and edited many books.

Drawing on experiences as founding principal of The Talent Advisors and with investment bank Goldman Sachs JBWere, where she was an equity partner, Dianne is skilled at guiding executives to be more astute when navigating to non-executive directorships or corporate appointments. Experience at c-suite, partner, executive, partnership committee and diversity council levels means she has a real understanding of which actions succeed in complex, networked businesses. Her focus is on improving business and leader impact by helping others prepare for the next-level, to take stock of that new role, to jump-start change, to avoid transition pitfalls, to rethink their managerial leadership, to capitalise on the advantages of diversity. She works with both individuals and organisations such as ASX and SME businesses, Melbourne Business School, Australian Institute of Company Directors, Governance Institute (pro-bono), Women on Boards and Leadership Victoria. In her spare time, she can be found in recital centres, concert halls, galleries, theatres and discussion forums.

In addition to directorships of companies in which he has a personal interest, James is a member of the Darebin Creek Management Committee and the Darebin Creek Environmental Preservation Fund. Previously CEO at measurement and advisory firm Insync, James continues his executive role there leading the government and utilities practice. He is a graduate of the AICD and Williamson Community Leadership Program, and was formerly an Australian Volunteer Abroad in Solomon Islands.

Dr Jonathan Spear is Infrastructure Victoria’s Deputy Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. He has previously held senior leadership, policy, strategy and legal roles with the Department of Premier & Cabinet, Department of Justice, Victoria Police and Slater & Gordon Lawyers. Jonathan holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Bachelor of Laws (Hons), Master of Laws, Executive Master of Public Administration and Doctor of Philosophy (History). He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Williamson Community Leadership Program. Jonathan is an experienced Company Secretary and holds a Victorian Legal Practising Certificate.

Nina Christesen is Director of CQL that develops algorithmic trading systems for financial markets and Director and Investment Manager of CBlue (Aust) that manages a number of private, family-based investment funds.

In her spare time, for over 10 years, Nina produced social issue documentaries for not-for-profit organiasations in Australia, PNG and Asia.

Prior to this Nina had over 20 years’ experience as a consultant and educator in leadership, change management and innovation. In this capacity Nina designed and managed large scale corporate change programs driven by new technology and the largest corporate culture change program in Australia involving over 90,000 employees.

Jed has an MBA and Dipeng (Aircraft) and most recently moved to develop a portfolio of non-executive director interests after a successful career in the not for profit, corporate and government sectors.  He is currently the Deputy Chair of Leadership Victoria and Chair of the Leadership Victoria Foundation and holds several private directorships.

His roles in the NFP sector were as the CEO of Independent Disability Services and the General Manager Corporate Services at Able Australia.

Before entering the NFP sector, Jed held a number of positions in the rail sector including:  General Manager Central and Eastern Regions for Gemco Rail and General Manager Engineering at Freight Australia. 

He was the Joint Managing Director of Avteq, a rail manufacturing and maintenance company that manufactured 12 VL class locomotives.

Before the rail industry, Jed’s experience was in civil aviation where he consulted to Regional Express (REX) on regulatory compliance. This followed five years at the Ansett group where he held a variety of senior engineering management roles.

Jed started his career in the RAAF as a technician. His final role was as the Senior Engineering Officer C130 fleet.  He was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 1997 for his services to RAAF Transport Aircraft engineering and logistics.

His current community involvement is as a Member of the Queen Victoria Market Committee of Trustees, President of the Essendon Canoe Club and a volunteer broadcaster at community radio station 3RRR.  He is a Past Chair of the YMCA Bridge Project Community Council and a past President of the Melbourne Rugby Union Football Club.

Lyndall Tennant commenced as the Executive Officer with the Melbourne Forum part time in May 2013. She now organises an average of 70 events per year with the Melbourne Forum and attends all committee and board meetings as the Executive Officer.

Lyndall is present at every event and balances her time between the Melbourne office and her home office. Due to the varying hours of events, she is always available via email or mobile to assist our members (and potential members) at any time.