Guest Speakers

Jo's experience as a speaker, live television interviewer, media trainer and presentation skills specialist brings credibility, professionalism and humour to conferences and events.

A television newsreader and journalist for more than a decade, Jo has empowered thousands of corporate clients through entertaining and dynamic media and communication skills, presentations and workshops.

Jo adds a distinctive, polished and entertaining edge to the role of M.C., debate facilitator, trainer or keynote speaker.

Jo's specialty is providing valuable insights into the importance of ‘getting your thinking right and putting your heart in your mouth.'

Her years of experience as a journalist, communicator and trainer combine to provide entertaining and interactive insights into the emotional, psychological and strategic imperatives of good message management and communication skills.

Paul Gardner – Speaker

Adventurer extraordinaire - name one other Chairman who has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Paul is one of Melbourne's leading businessmen and has a background in senior creative and account service positions.

Outside of Grey, Paul is Chairman of the Melbourne Football Club and Playbox Theatre.

Harold Mitchell

Harold Mitchell is Chairman of Mitchell and Partners. He left his position as National Media Director of DMB&B in 1976 to start the company that is now the largest media agency in Australia. He is director of emitch, Australia 's largest planner and buyer of internet advertising, and owner of Stadia Media, Australia's largest sports ground advertising contractor.

He remains actively involved with all clients and finds time for a large number of community roles including President, Museums Board of Victoria; Board Member of Opera Australia Council, Chairman CARE Australia Corporate Council, Honorary Councillor ABAF, Chairman, ThoroughVision. He was also Chairman National Gallery Australia and President of Melbourne International Festival of Arts.

In December 2000 he launched the Harold Mitchell Foundation. This is a philanthropic foundation to distribute funds between Health and the Arts. In December 2002 Deakin University conferred on him an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In 2003 he delivered the Andrew Olle Memorial Lecture on Media.

In January 2004 he was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia for his services as a benefactor and fundraiser in support of artistic and cultural endeavour.

On 28 July 2005 , he was awarded the Richard Pratt Business Leader Award given by the Australian Business Arts Foundation in recognition of excellence in arts leadership.

Stephanie Alexander O. A. M.

Stephanie Alexander has owned and operated important Melbourne restaurants for more than 30 years. She has written twelve books including the best-selling Cook's Companion first published in 1996 with a revised and expanded edition published in 2004.

She is currently working with The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, established in 2004 to expand the successful project she initiated at Melbourne's Collingwood College, so that young children can learn about growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing delicious and healthy food.

I n the July 2006 budget the Victorian State government announced a grant to the Foundation of $2.5million over 4 years to part-fund the establishment and delivery of Kitchen Garden programs into an additional 39 schools over that period.

Ian Lowe AO

Professor Ian Lowe AO is emeritus professor of science, technology and society at Griffith University in Brisbane , an adjunct professor at Sunshine Coast University and QUT, an honorary research fellow at the University of Adelaide and a consultant to the CSIRO Division of Sustainable Ecosystems.

Professor Lowe was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for services to science and technology, especially in the area of environmental studies. In 2002 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for contributions to environmental science and won the Eureka Prize for promotion of science. His contributions have also been recognised by the Prime Minister's Environment Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement, the Queensland Premier's Millennium Award for Excellence in Science and the University of NSW Alumni Award for achievement in science. Professor Lowe was named Humanist of the Year in 1988.

Professor Lowe studied engineering and science at the University of NSW and earned his doctorate in physics from the University of York . He is the author or co-author of 10 Open University books, 6 other books, 40 book chapters and over 500 other publications or conference papers.

From 1983 to 1989 Professor Lowe was a member of the National Energy Research, Development and Demonstration Council, chairing its standing committee on social, economic and environmental issues. He was Director of the Commission for the Future in 1988, and chaired the advisory council that produced the first independent national report on the state of the environment in 1996. He is a member of the Environmental Health Council and the Radiation Health and Safety Advisory Council. He is a member of the Sydney Olympic Park advisory committee and chairs the Queensland Government task force implementing the reform of science education. He is deputy chair of the Queensland Sustainable Energy Innovation Group, which advises the State government on energy innovations. He has conducted consultancies for all three levels of government as well as companies and peak organisations in the private sector.

Professor Lowe has been a referee for the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, attended the Geneva and Kyoto conferences of the parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and was a member of the Australian delegation to the 1999 UNESCO World Conference on Science. He was on the steering group for the UNEP project Global Environmental Outlook, an invited participant in the 2000 workshop on Sustainability Science and a referee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program's 2004 book on planetary science.

Professor Lowe has made countless contributions to newspapers, radio, television and periodicals since 1991. He gave the ABC's Boyer Lectures in 1991 and was a member of the advisory group for Brisbane 's Ideas at the Powerhouse for the four years of that event. He is a member of the board of Major Brisbane Festivals Ltd and is President of Queensland Academy of the Arts and Sciences.

In his spare time, Professor Lowe plays cricket, as probably the oldest serious outswing bowler in Queensland club cricket, sings tenor in choral groups, walks in the Australian bush and overseas mountains, reads voraciously, watches films and is trying to improve his golf game. He lives on the Sunshine Coast with his partner, Patricia Kelly. Between them they have three adult sons, aged between 20 and 30.

Paul Cooling

Paul Cooling is the International Judge for the 2007 Yates NGI Awards. Paul and his family own and operate a 14 acre retail nursery in Knockholt , Kent , in the UK.

Paul and his family grow in excess of a million plants a year, all of which are sold from the retail nursery and garden centre. The garden centre display area alone covers over two acres.

The Coolings Garden Centre and Nursery are frequent award winners, having won the prestigious Garden Centre of Excellence Award from the Garden Centre Association five years in a row. Other awards garnered over the past 12 months include Garden Centre of the Year, and Retail Nursery of the Year.

Rob Gell

Rob Gell is a geographer and specifically a coastal geomorphologist with a Science Degree from Melbourne University. In his professional life he works as an environmental and communications consultant. He is Executive Chairman of Access Environmental Pty Ltd and director of his own companies Breakthrough Productions Pty Ltd and Gellignite Pty Ltd.

Rob taught Environmental Science and Physical Geography at Melbourne State College and Melbourne University. In 1979 Rob Gell’s Four Day Forecast revolutionised the way television weather information was presented. For twenty-five years he brought innovation, information, credibility, and authority to television news introducing satellite image sequences, integrated pressure analyses and explanation and accountability rather than simply a presentation of Weather Bureau forecasts by a personality. He presented on National Nine News for sixteen years from 1988 and previously on Eyewitness News. He currently presents weather information with the Seven Network.

He is a published author and photographer. He has been a local government councillor and was a councillor of the Australian Conservation Foundation for almost a decade.

For further information contact ACF on 03 9345 1111.