Board and Management Structure
Board Members
Jerry Ellis
Chairman
Mr Ellis is Chairman of MBD Energy Limited and Landcare Australia, is a director of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited and holds various directorships in the fields of finance and mining.
Mr Ellis was elected as a Rhodes Scholar in 1959, and completed the degree of Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours at the University of Oxford.
He began his career with Imperial Chemical Industries in the UK and in Australia and in 1967 joined the then Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited where he rose through the company’s management structure before serving as Chairman from 1997 to 1999.
Mr Ellis was Chancellor of Monash University during the period 1999 to 2007.
David Burt
David was a founding Board member of a district school. He served as a volunteer solicitor with the local Citizens Advice Bureau for twenty years. David was also a member of the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital Animal Research Ethics Committee, for the period of fifteen years. In this capacity he participated in the ethical supervision, in accordance with the relevant Code of practice, of the use by the Hospital researchers, of animals for scientific purposes. The ongoing development of the bionic ear was an integral part of this experimental work.
David Pitt
David Pitt was appointed as Vice President (Finance) and CFO of Monash University in August 2005. He oversees the financial management, funding and capital works programs of Monash world-wide. David previously held several senior positions at Telstra, most recently ad Director of Strategic Projects where he was responsible for strategic analysis, mergers and acquisitions, business restructuring and evaluating major investment proposals. During his time at Telstra, he developed the strategy for implementing the early rollout of Telstra's Pay TV cable network. His experience as a company director includes the boards of various high technology and communications organisations, international start-ups and joint ventures.
David is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia and has a First Class Honours Science Degree majoring in pure mathematics and statistics, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from RMIT.
Helen Bloustein
Helen Bloustein was appointed VicSuper’s Executive Manager Sustainability and Education in February 2008. Her role involves implementing sustainability as VicSuper’s central operating principle and advising on strategic sustainability directions for the organisation. This includes understanding the importance and implications of climate change and other environmental, social and governance issues as material investment risks and opportunities. Helen has worked at VicSuper since September 2006.
Prior to joining VicSuper, Helen worked at EPA (Environment Protection Authority) Victoria managing the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) activities in Australia. This included a stint in the program’s head office in Geneva, where Helen worked with financial institutions on environmental, social and governance projects delivered by the initiative’s Asia Pacific, Central and Eastern European and Asset Management Working Groups.
Helen also has extensive experience working as an Australian Equities Analyst and Portfolio Manager for both AXA and the Colonial Group.
Noeleen Bieske
Noeleen’s career as a teacher of the deaf spans more than 40 years.
Noeleen has worked in educational settings for deaf and hearing impaired students in England, Canada and the United States of America. Noeleen retired in 2008 as Principal of St Mary’s College for Hearing Impaired students after 15 years in that position. Noeleen was the past President of the Australian Association of Teachers of the Deaf Victoria branch and is currently a committee member and Treasurer of the National Association of Australian teachers of the Deaf. Noeleen is a board member of the Deafness Foundation Victoria.
Noeleen works part time for Better Hearing Australia (Vic).
Jennie Brand-Miller
Professor Jennie Brand-Miller holds a Personal Chair in Human Nutrition at the University of Sydney. She is recognised for her work on carbohydrates and diabetes, particularly the glycemic index (or GI) of foods. She received the 2003 Clunies Ross Medal for contributions to science and technology in Australia. Her books under the series title The New Glucose Revolution have made the GI a household word and sold over 3.5 million copies world wide in 12 languages. She is the current Chair of the National Committee for Nutrition of the Australian Academy of Science and the President of the Glycemic Index Foundation Ltd, a not-for-profit company that administers a food symbol program for consumers in partnership with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (Australia). Jennie is the proud recipient of two Nucleus® bionic ears.
Graeme Clark
Director
Professor Graeme Clark AC, initiated and led research at the University of Melbourne , with support from the Bionic Ear Institute, resulting in the multi-channel cochlear implant (bionic ear) for people with severe-to-profound hearing loss. The device has been developed industrially by Cochlear Limited. It is the first clinically successful method of restoring brain function, and the first advance in helping deaf children to communicate in the last 200 years. It was the first cochlear implant of any type to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as sage and effective for use on children.
Peter Kentley
Peter flew as an airline pilot for 25 years with Ansett in Australia. During this time he served as both a Training Captain and Simulator Manager. For seven years he flew overseas, including service as a Commander on long haul international operations with Air Mauritius and Singapore Airlines. Peter also served as an air safety development specialist with the International Federation of Airline Pilots and the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Since the early 1980's Peter pioneered and developing Christian fellowship groups in the airlines both in Australia and overseas.
Since leaving flying in 2002 Peter has been engaged in developing new spheres of marketplace ministry.
Peter is the CEO of Australian Marketplace Connections incorporating Integrated Leadership Groups which provides facilitated peer mentoring for CEO’s, managers and directors of both Public Listed Companies and Small to Medium Enterprise companies.
Peter is married to Robin and they have three adult children. They worship at St Hilary’s Anglican Church Kew.
Brian Pyman
Brian Pyman was born in 1942 in Melbourne and entered the Medical Faculty, University of Melbourne in 1962. He qualified MBBS and trained at hospitals in Melbourne. In 1974 he qualified in Head and Neck Otolaryngology as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and with the Post Graduate Diploma of the University of Melbourne.
His contribution to the early cochlear implant research included matters of surgical safety, insertion of the electrodes with minimal trauma to the cochlea and radiological examination. The Cochlear Implant Clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital became internationally important and he was made an Associate Professor. As a surgeon he had the role of teaching ENT surgeons how to assess people with severe to total deafness, not a subject that was included in ENT training till the 1990’s. As a member of the Clinic he devoted time to parents of deaf children that they had realistic expectations for outcomes and the role of the family.
The experience has been deeply rewarding because he saw the commitment made by parents who had been through the clinic, and the reawakening of conversation skills in people who acquired deafness. In the meantime access to the facility of University life has encouraged him to exploit information technology for the purpose of teaching generally and for creation of simulations of ear surgery skills. He is a member of the board of the Deafness Foundation Australia (Vic).
Brian Smith
Brian Smith's background is in Engineering, where received his honours degree from the University of Melbourne and subsequently a PhD from Cambridge University. Returning to Australia he has taken on several director roles at both RMIT and Consolidated Electronics before holding the position of Foundation Vice-Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney. More recently Brian has held chairman positions with the Board for the Cooperative Research Centre for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems and Technologies as well as UniSuper.
