Members appointed by Council
Mrs Helene Bender OAM
Position: Director
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2013
Ms Helene Bender is an active member of the Geelong community, Chair of the Barwon Health Foundation, Chair of Geelong Hospital Appeal and Chair of Geelong Cats Sports Foundation. Other current Board positions include Dental Health Services Victoria, Geelong Cemeteries Trust and Geelong Grammar School Council. Ms Bender is a patron of Ronald McDonald Beach House-Ocean Grove and an ambassador for Anam Cara House-Geelong.
Former appointments held by Ms Bender include: member of the City of Greater Geelong Development Board, Chair of the G21 Transportation Pillar and Geelong Transportation Taskforce, judge and Chair of the Geelong Advertiser Business Excellence Awards, Chair and member of Central Geelong City Management, Geelong Major Events Committee, Director and Finance Committee member of the Geelong Football Club, Founding Chair of Nine Lives-Geelong (Women’s Group of the Geelong Football Club) and Joint Deputy Chair Committee for Geelong.
Director and Proprietor of Pendent Pty Ltd, trading as Allabout Tours and Travel November 1, 1983 to December 31, 2012.
Helene is currently a Deputy Chancellor.Qualifications:
BCom (Melb), DipTravel & Tourism (RMIT)
Ms Helen Buckingham
Position: Retired
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2014
Helen has been a teacher, a Careers Counsellor, Local Councillor and Member of Parliament.
Helen Buckingham retired as a Member of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of Victoria in 2006. She served as the member for Koonung Province. Whilst a Member of Parliament she served on the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Education and Training. Helen also chaired the Parliamentary Review of the Body Corporate Legislation and Regulations culminating in the Owners Corporation Act 2006. Helen was an elected Councillor in the City of Whitehorse (Riversdale Ward) March 1997-2002. Serving as Mayor 1998-1999. Helen also served as a Board Member of Box Hill Hospital 1991-1995 and was a member of the Monash University Department of Physiology Animal Ethics Committee 1995-2001. Helen trained as a history and politics secondary school teacher and later as a careers counsellor. She was the Careers Counsellor at PLC for 10 years. In 1998 she was awarded the Australian Institute of Company Directors Diploma.
Helen has extensive State and Local Government experience where she developed her consultative and collaborative skills. Her teaching, careers counselling and membership of the Parliamentary Committee for Education and Training have given Helen a lasting interest and commitment to education. Helen is a member of the Victorian Institute of Teaching and she is married with two children.
Qualifications:
BA, DipEd LaTrobe, DipAICD NSW, GradDip Careers Deakin
Ms Kathy Grigg
Position: Specialist Director
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2013
Ms Kathy Grigg was previously Director Finance and Administration for Woolmark Company/Australian Wool Research and Promotion Corporation/Australian Wool Corporations.
Kathy's professional memberships include Chair of CoINVEST Ltd, Director of Navy Health Ltd, Director of Australian Pork Limited, member on Department of Primary Industries - Audit and Risk Management Standing Committee, lay member on the
Melbourne Health -
Human Research Ethics Committee.
Kathy is a member of CPA Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Qualifications:
BEc (Adel), DipEd (Adel)
Ms Philippa Kelly
Position: Chief Operating Officer, Juilliard Group of Companies
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2014
Philippa Kelly is the Chief Operating Officer of Juilliard, a private property group, which owns and manages a range of Melbourne CBD and suburban office buildings, semi-industrial sites and a regional shopping centre.
Philippa has a longstanding exposure and involvement with public boards, with a strong governance and risk management focus.
Previously she held positions with Centro Property Group, including working on the refinancing of the group, the Grand Hotel Group and Goldman Sachs JBWere, where she was involved in equity raisings, corporate structuring and acquisitions and mergers. As a lawyer, she practised for five years in both Perth and Melbourne in the areas of securities industry, corporate and commercial law, equity raisings, mergers and acquisitions and public trusts.
Philippa qualified with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Laws from the University of Western Australia. She has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investment and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is also a Non-Executive Director of 3D Oil Ltd and Treasurer of the Australian Drug Foundation.Qualifications
LLB, F Fin, GAICD
Ms Jennifer Lightowlers
Position: Solicitor, Partner of Francis Abourizk Lightowlers
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2015
Ms Jenni Lightowlers is admitted to practice in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania as well as in Victoria. Jenni graduated from the University of Melbourne with an Honours Degree in Law and has since been awarded a Masters of Law from the University of Melbourne. She is also a qualified mediator. Prior to being in the law, Jenni taught English at secondary school level in WA, SA and Victoria. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Diploma in Education from the University of Western Australia.
As a lawyer, Jenni worked initially in a major commercial law firm in Melbourne before moving on to work in-house as a corporate lawyer at both Sirotech and CSIRO. In 1993, she became a foundation partner of Francis Abourizk Lightowlers. She provides advice in the areas of corporate governance, fiduciary obligations, space law, alternative dispute resolution, intellectual property generally, mining law, establishment of international consortia, corporate restructuring, co-operative research centres and other grant funded operations including the establishment and operational issues associated with them labelling laws and comparative advertising, patent and trade mark portfolio management and agreements and assignments of intellectual and industrial property. Jenni is also a director and company secretary of International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP) Limited, a public company established by a consortia of international mining companies; and is company secretary to the Vision CRC Limited.
Jenni has drafted intellectual property statutes under the direction of the relevant intellectual property committees for the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts. This entailed liaising with various working groups established by the Vice-Chancellor, including attendance at Legislation Committee meetings and Council. Jenni is currently the chairperson of the Legislation Committee.
Jenni is currently a Deputy Chancellor.
Qualifications
BA, Dip Ed, LLB (Hons), LLM
Mr Peter Meehan
Position: Chief Financial Officer
Term of appointment: until 31 December 2015
Peter was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Group of 100 in February 2011. The Group of 100 is an association of Australia’s senior finance executives from the nation’s largest business enterprises with its main objective to advance Australia’s financial competitiveness.
Prior to this Peter had been Australia Post’s Chief Financial Officer since September 2000. His responsibilities covered financial policy and management, management of the Shared Services Division, Superannuation Group, Treasury Group, Revenue Protection and Risk Management areas. Peter was also a Board member and Trustee of the Australia Post Superannuation Scheme and a Board member of Star Track Express Pty Ltd.
Previously, Peter was the Group Finance Manager, National Mutual Holdings (now AXA), and has over twenty five years’ experience in senior finance and administration roles including Chief Information Officer.
He is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants.
Through his participation in Financial Executives International of Australia, Peter mentors aspiring young financial executives from various corporations.
Qualifications
BBus (RMIT),
Institute of Chartered Accountants (Fellow),
Institute of Certified Practising Accountants (Fellow)
