2022 ASSEMBLY SPEAKERS
Natalie Browning
Natalie Browning was elected as a Director of the CBH Board in February 2018 and appointed as Deputy Chair in April 2020. She is currently Chair of the Network and Engineering Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee.
Natalie runs a continuous cropping operation on her property in Kondinin. She is currently a Director of Hockey WA, Chair of the Narembeen District High School Board and a member of the Asia Pacific Regional Board of the International Cooperative Alliance.
Natalie has completed the Executive Leadership Program Co-operatives and Mutuals facilitated by University of Western Australia Business School and the Australian Institute of Management and is also a former member of the CBH Growers’ Advisory Council.
Natalie is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is currently studying a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Business Law) at Curtin University.
Trent Bartlett
Trent has been involved in the CME Sector for over 20 years as CEO, Independent Director or Board Chair.
With a specialty in member owned/member governed businesses – Trent currently sits on five commercial boards, chairing three of them. Two of those boards are BCCM members.
Trent is a former independent Director of Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH) and his last executive role was CEO of Capricorn Society for 10 years.
Trent is a Fellow and Faculty Member of the AICD and an INSEAD University certified director and a mentor for their global alumni.
In 2020, Trent was inducted* into the Honour Roll of BCCM.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla
Professor Veena Sahajwalla is an internationally recognised materials scientist, engineer, and inventor revolutionising recycling science. She is renowned for pioneering the high temperature transformation of waste in the production of a new generation of ‘green materials’ at the UNSW Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) Centre, where she is Founding Director. Professor Veena is the inventor of polymer injection technology, known as green steel, an eco-friendly process for using recycled tyres in steel production. In 2018, Veena launched the world’s first e-waste MICROfactorie TM and in 2019 she launched her plastics and Green Ceramics MICROfactoriesTM, a recycling technology breakthrough. Veena is the director of the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for ‘microrecycling’, a leading national research centre that works in collaboration with industry to ensure new recycling science is translated into real world environmental and economic benefits. Professor Veena has also been appointed hub leader of the national NESP Sustainable Communities and Waste Hub. In 2021, Professor Veena featured in the ABC’s Australian Story and named the 2022 NSW Australian of the Year.
Roz Henry
Roz Henry was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Cooperative Business NZ in August 2019. In this role, she has developed and implemented a strategy to take Cooperative Business NZ into the future. She is passionate advocacy and ensuring New Zealand’s co-operatives and mutuals continue to thrive for decades to come.
Roz has strong leadership and commercial experience working across multiple sectors and industries, both domestically and internationally. Prior to her role as CEO, Roz was Head of Operations at Auckland Unlimited (previously known as ATEED). She has also worked as a Management Consultant for a number of firms in New Zealand and internationally as well as spending time at the New Zealand Dairy Board, now Fonterra, in roles including Supply Chain Director.
Hon. Mick Veitch
Mick Veitch was born in Gundagai, NSW, and has lived most of his life in rural south-western NSW. Mick worked for many years as a shearer and for the railways and then undertook further studies and worked in the disability employment sector. Mick joined the Labor Party in 1989 and served as a Shire Councillor with Young Shire Council from 1995 to 2007.
In 2007, Mick was elected to the NSW Legislative Council as a Country Labor candidate. Mick has been on the front bench in Opposition from 2011 to 2020. Mick has held the shadow portfolios of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services, and Regional and Rural Affairs, Primary Industries, Lands, Western NSW, he is the Shadow Minister for Regional NSW, Agriculture and Western NSW
Mick recently helped to form the Parliamentary Friends Group for co-ops and mutuals in the New South Wales Parliament.
Emma Griggs
Emma is a proud Wiradjuri Woman; her family descends from Sofala, Central West NSW.
With 20 years of experience working in different Government sectors including the arts, emergency response, and healthcare. Emma left it all behind to follow her passion working in and for community.
Emma specialises in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (identified and targeted) human resource development, administration management, cultural inclusion and awareness facilitation. Starting at Tranby 18 months ago, Emma lead the Burawa National Indigenous Careers Centre as the Projects and Relationships Director.
Just recently stepping into the role of Acting Chief Operations Officer, Emma is overseeing all aspects of operations at the Tranby Campus.
Quote:
“Work Hard - Do Good - BE INCREDIBLE”
Jon Steinman (Canada)
JON STEINMAN is the author of Grocery Story: The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants (New Society Publishers). Following the book’s release in 2019, Jon completed a 130-stop tour across the US and Canada and was hosted by established food co-ops and 23 in their development stages. In 2021, Jon published THIS COULD BE OURS – a PHOTO ALBUM to inspire your food co-op dream www.grocerystory.coop.
Jon was a board director at the Kootenay Co-op (2006-2016) – the largest food co-op in Canada specializing in natural foods - serving as Board President in his final two years www.kootenay.coop
Jon will join our Federation Assembly on Saturday 30th of July at 11.30 am to discuss How co-operatives can challenge the supply and grocery chain stores to transform the food system for the better.
Gary Williams
Gary is a Gumbaynggirr/Bundjalung man who grew up in Nambucca Heads in his mother’s country. He realised the importance of maintaining cultural knowledge and spent as much time as he could learning from Elders such as Tiger Buchanan and Uncle Charles Moran. He went to the first Gumbaynggirr classes at Muurrbay and has worked on Gumbaynggirr language reclamation for over twenty years.
Gary played a central role as regional language researcher, supporting the revival of seven languages, including Bundjalung, his father’s language. Gary’s language and cultural knowledge and his deep understanding of linguistics underpins Muurrbay’s support of NSW coastal languages.
Professor Andrew Beer
Professor Beer holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Adelaide and a PhD from the Australian National University. He is a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the Regional Australia Institute. He has served on the College of Experts for the Australian Research Council and as Chair of the Regional Studies Association. Andrew’s research interests encompass a range of issues including the impacts of structural change within the economy, place-based policy, the strategies needed to sustain businesses in the regions, population dynamics and demography, the operation and functioning of Australia’s housing markets, and the impacts of an ageing population. He has published widely in academic journals and has authored several books.
Clr. (Waskam) Emelda Davis
(Waskam) Emelda Davis is the first Councillor of diverse indigenous heritage to serve on the Lord Mayoral governing team to the City of Sydney Council in its 180-year history. Emelda is a passionate resident of Pyrmont with strong links to her local community, as well as a strong advocate for cultural diversity and greater inclusion. Emelda is a second generation born descendant of Australia’s Pacific slave trade which started with NSW in 1847. For well over a decade Emelda has spearheaded a social justice campaign as a volunteer and founding chair of national representative organisation Australian South Sea Islanders (Port Jackson). Having worked for federal, state, community, and grassroots organisations Emelda exhibits a deep respect and diverse insight with sound expertise and lived experience in community capacity building, education and training. With a strong commitment to challenges we face with climate change Emelda has received numerous awards for her advocacy and commitment to advancing marginalised community groups at large and support for Pacific nations affected by cyclone devastation. Elected in 2021 Emelda serves our city as the Deputy Chair of ‘Resilient Communities Committee’, Lord Mayor Delegate (LMD) on the ‘Indigenous Advisory Panel’, LMD on the ‘Multicultural Advisory Panel’ and is the Alternate Chair (AC) Local Pedestrian Cycling & Traffic Calming Committee as well as Council representative to City Business events and Community Advocacy Groups. More recently Emelda work this year saw the City of Sydney Council bipartisan vote for the recognition and support for Australian South Sea Islanders in Sydney with a follow-up to all councils across Australia to adopt in solidarity all or parts of the resolution by our City.
Dr. Rāpata Wiri (NZ)
Dr. Rāpata Wiri is the Chair of the Ngāti Ruapani ki Uta ki Tai Co-operative Society Ltd who are the first Māori Co-operative in New Zealand. Dr. Wiri taught Māori language, culture and history at the Universities of Auckland, Hawai’i and Waikato before establishing his own online Certificate courses in Māori language in collaboration with Learning Cloud (Australia). Dr. Wiri will discuss the "Indigenous Ways of Doing Business in New Zealand" alongside his colleague Mr. Simon Phillips (Māori business advisor and former professional rugby league player). For more information please visit www.reoora.com and www.ruapani.nz
Marissa Costello
Marissa is the General Manager of Killarney Co-operative Ltd, a multi-departmental retail Co-op in Killarney, South-West Queensland. Marissa was appointed to the position of GM in 2018 after 18 years as the Administration Manager. Marissa holds a Diploma of Management and believes strongly in the potential of retail as a career opportunity to offer local employment opportunities. Marissa has served on a number of a number of regional boards and local committees and served two terms as Chair of the Queensland Co-op Federation.
Louise Crabtree-Hayes
Louise is a social scientist whose research focuses on the social, ecological and economic sustainability of community-driven housing developments in Australia; on housing innovation in practice and policy; on complex adaptive systems theory in urban contexts; and on property rights, institutional design and democracy. She is currently the lead investigator on an Australian Research Council grant on Australia’s affordable rental housing co-operatives with a team across Western Sydney University, University of Newcastle, and Swinburne University of Technology. The project has received funding from, and is partnering with, Common Equity Housing Ltd, Common Equity Housing South Australia, Common Equity New South Wales, Co-operation Housing, and United Housing Co-operative.
Andy Fergus
Andy Fergus is an emerging urban designer and housing advocate with a number of concurrent roles including Head of Urban Design at Assemble Communities, Advocacy Lead at Urban Design Forum, Co-director Melbourne Architours and sessional teacher at Melbourne and Monash University. Andy has worked across a broad range of innovative social affordable and market housing models and has been a recipient of the LMCF Affordable Housing Grant for an innovative leasehold or rental house in prototype as well as a finalist in the City of Sydney Alternative Housing Ideas Challenge.
Dr. Sidsel Grimstad
Dr Sidsel Grimstad is Senior Lecturer in the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle in New South Wales. She is a Norwegian-born researcher on co-operative housing and co-operative business solutions. Prior to moving to Australia nineteen years ago, Sidsel worked as an adviser for environmental and international development aid organisations in Norway and for the United Nations. She also had lived experience from living in housing co-operatives in Norway. She is Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council and housing co-operative sector funded project: Articulating Value in Housing Co-operatives (2021-2023). This ARC project is led by Ass Professor Louise Crabtree-Hayes, from Western Sydney University.
Neil Hockley
Although relatively new to the Co-op my work life has been within the construction industry having worked at a State Management level with Bunnings Trade for the past ten years and prior to that I held positions as State Manager for GWA/Caroma and Fletcher Insulation. I am very honoured and excited to lead the team at the Co-op, moving forward with a focus on the core values of your Co-op. We have strategies in place to ensure maximum benefits and returns to our members and look forward to the future ahead with your Co-op.
Annette Maguire
Annette Maguire is a PhD scholar at the University of Newcastle whose research centres on the connections between care work and the dynamics of civic reactivation towards progressive change. In this she draws on a rich background as an educator, facilitator, artist and award winning journalist. Annette is an advocate for housing justice, and a firm believer in the potency of housing co-operatives as a people powered solution, that also contributes to social and environmental regeneration. Annette has been an active co-operator in an inner city housing co-op for nine years. She is currently a Research Assistant on an Australian Research Council and industry-funded national research project, Articulating Value in Housing Co-operatives.
Gurmesh Singh
Gurmesh Singh is a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Coffs Harbour for The Nationals.
He is a third-generation Coffs local and has worked in various industries from digital marketing to design, as well as agriculture. He is dedicated to ensuring small industries aren’t forgotten and there is less red tape so such businesses can thrive.
Gurmesh is passionate about representing the constituents of the Coffs Harbour electorate in the State Parliament and ensuring that the Coffs Harbour electorate gets is fair share of State Government funding
Read all about his path to Parliament that began 120 years ago with the decision made by his great-grandfather to migrate to Australia and his vision for growth and opportunity
Jack Wilkinson
Jack Wilkinson joined the Co-operators board in April 2007 and is chairperson of the sustainability and citizenship committee. In addition, he has served as vice-chairperson of the board, as chairperson of the member and cooperative relations, resolutions, and democratic structure review committees, and as a member of the CEO Search, Sustainability, and Executive committees. Jack was a delegate to the Co-operators representing the Ontario federation of agriculture bracket (OFA) from May 2002 to April 2007.
Jack serves as chair of the Nipissing-Sudbury Coop and is a member of the Co-operative Development Foundation of Canada board of directors. He served as president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the International Federation of Agriculture Producers and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Jack also previously served as representative for the Co-operators on the board of Cooperatives and Mutuals Canada. He is the recipient of an Honorary Professional Agronomist designation and an Honours Doctorate of Laws from the University of Guelph.
He is a retired Captain from the Canadian Armed Forces and an inductee of the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame.
Carmen Osborne GAICD
Carmen has been a Non-executive (Technical) Director on the Board of Common Equity NSW from November 2013. She has been Chairperson since her election at the 2015 AGM.
Common Equity NSW is a registered Community Housing provider established to manage social housing cooperatives and coordinating the provision of community development and property management to 32 housing cooperatives in NSW. Common Equity has co-designed new Cooperative housing projects in Croydon and Cabramatta.
Carmen is passionate about the diverse needs and social wellbeing of housing co-operative tenants throughout NSW. She believes that cooperative living options can provide secure and supportive affordable housing opportunities. She would like to see cooperative housing to be a mainstream option for others in mixed equity and affordable housing projects.
Nayce Dalton
Yenda Shareholder since: 1985, Director since: 2008, Chair since: 2017 (December)
Nayce Dalton, a Binya broadacre primary producer and irrigator, has been managing a successful mixed cropping and livestock business since 1986.
Nayce holds an Advanced Diploma of Agriculture and is a member of the Rice Growers’ Association and NSW Farmers’ Association.
Nayce also formally held the position of Chairman of Murrumbidgee Irrigation (MI) from 2019 until 2021 and was on the board of Murrumbidgee Irrigation for 8 years, stepping down in November 2021.
Nayce brings with him a good understanding of who agriculture integrates within the Co-operative environment and the local community.
Josh Viljoen
Josh was the former Operations Manager at Australia’s oldest Food Co-op in Canberra. He was welcomed into the role as the Co-op was in COVID recovery mode and embarking on new paths of strategic development. In navigating the craziness of the last few years, the Co-managers and the broader Co-op family have retained their strong community and continue to ensure cooperative values are instilled in everything they do. Josh is confident The Food Co-op will sail past its 50th anniversary in 2026 with flying colours! When he’s not in the Shop, he’s a 4th-year undergraduate student at the Australian National University, studying a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy & Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Arabic Language & Culture.
Dinner MC
Tommy Dean
If you have never seen Tommy Dean you are genuinely missing out on a master of the comedy language. He seems to see life as an enormous equation in front of him and solves it in an instant with a mind-bending
laugh. You would no doubt have seen this guy on countless TV shows such as Spicks and Specks and Good News Week.
He has also been the main chair on ABC Radio program TGIF every Friday for over a decade.
Tommy’s astute clean observational comedic style consistently make him a stand out winner with theatre audiences corporate clients Festival producers TV and radio shows alike. With pin sharp banter genial manner and a vast stock of broad appeal hilarious routines interweaving the foibles of his adopted home country with the dark reality of his home country Tommy never fails to
connect with and impress any audience.
Dinner Performance
Sydney Virmalised
The foundation for “Virmalised” (pronounced Veer-mah-liz-ed) was laid in folk dance performances dating back to 1934, with the name “Virmalised (Northern Lights)” being adopted by our group in 1969, representing our connection to our Estonian roots in the Northern Hemisphere and the extraordinary visual spectacle the aurora borealis display as they dance across the night sky.
The group is led by Rhys Maidla and currently comprises approximately 20 participants. Virmalised continue to carry on the cultural traditions and dances of Estonia with a contemporary twist, contributing to the diversity of multicultural artistic expression within Australia.
Our repertoire includes traditional dances alongside contemporary dances as they are developed in Estonia. Virmalised performs in traditional Estonian national folk costumes known as rahvariided, which are strikingly colourful and varied depending on regional origin and period in history when they were developed.
Dancers and interested individuals of all ages and backgrounds are welcome to join Virmalised and help contribute to our rich and varied history that continues to grow and develop.
Workshop Presenters
Jane O’Brien
Jane O’Brien (and Mel Geltch) are members of Campfire Co-op, an organisation we created so we would want to come to work! We work within the framework of the co-operative structure and values, as a decentralised self-organising team of hosts & facilitators of participatory and collaborative work. We guide other teams, organisations and communities towards more human ways of being and working together, and have our most fun supporting people to address complex challenges.
We are practitioners and hosts of the Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter and Groundwork for powerful collaboration, and love to experiment with new ways of working. What if cooperative ways of working is what we all need more of now?
Jane lives on Gamilaroi Country at Inverell, northern NSW.
Mel Geltch
Mel Geltch (along with Jane O’Brien) is a member of Campfire Co-op, an organisation we created so we would want to come to work! We work within the framework of the co-operative structure and values, as a decentralised self-organising team of hosts & facilitators of participatory and collaborative work. We guide other teams, organisations and communities towards more human ways of being and working together, and have our most fun supporting people to address complex challenges.
We are practitioners and hosts of the Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter and Groundwork for powerful collaboration, and love to experiment with new ways of working. What if cooperative ways of working is what we all need more of now?
Mel lives on Djiriganj Country at Mystery Bay on the Far South Coast of NSW.
Master of Ceremonies
Sam Byrne
Sam has been the Secretary for Co-ops NSW since 2016. He has been a member of Alfalfa House Community Food Co-operative in the inner west of Sydney for 20 years and was a director from 2008 to 2012. He is also a former Mayor of Marrickville and director of Local Government Super. Sam holds a Master of Management from the University of Technology, Sydney and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Sam is passionate about the co-operative enterprise model that delivers benefits to members and their community rather than absentee shareholders.
Sam can be contacted at sec@nsw.coop, in the office on 02 9057 5155 or on 0408 231 509.
Conference Curator and Manager
Peter Tregilgas
Peter is the Principal of Social Enterprise Services, Chair of Mercury Co-operative and a Director for Co-ops NSW
Peter Tregilgas has skills and experience in creative and social innovation encompassing regional development, arts management, festival coordination, capital projects and social enterprise. Peter is a Master of Business Arts and Cultural Management University of SA.
Peter’s specialist focus is Cooperatives and Social Enterprises and has produced the definitive publications “Social Enterprise in Australia” and “Cooperatives in Australia”. He is a champion for communication and creative events, producing Co-operatives Get Mutual for Vivid Idea 2016 & 2017. Peter portfolio has included Executive Officer Regional Development Australia, Mid North Coast, Festival Consultant for the Victorian Tourism Commission and Director for the Adelaide Festival Fringe.