Renee Hindmarsh | Executive Director | Australian Technology Network of Universities
Renee heads the Australian Technology Network of Universities, which brings together five of the most innovative universities in Australia: QUT, UTS, RMIT, UniSA and Curtin. Renee was previously a director of Barton Deakin Public Relations in Melbourne and has worked as a chief of staff, senior adviser and media adviser to successive Liberal ministers. A graduate of Monash University, she has a very strong knowledge of the Australian higher education sector.
Connor King | Executive Director | Innovative Research Universities
Conor is a leader in policy and strategy across the education and training sectors. He has written extensively on higher education and tertiary education issues. Conor was principal consultant with Phillips KPA, a specialist education consultancy group, in 2009 and 2010. Prior to joining Phillips KPA, he was institutional strategist to Victoria University between 2006 and 2008. Conor was also director of policy and analysis with the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee from 1998 to 2005, and a senior executive with the then Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health from 1995 to 1998.
Caroline Perkins | Executive Director | Regional Universities Network
Caroline has worked as an exploration geologist in Australia and Fiji, and has 15 years’ experience as a senior public servant working for the federal government in higher education, research, science and radioactive waste management policy and programs. In February 2012 she was appointed as the first executive director of the Regional Universities Network, a group of six universities with their headquarters in regional Australia. Since then she has worked to foster advocacy, facilitate collaboration, and enhance the contribution of the member universities to regional development, the nation and internationally.
Jeannie Rea | National President | National Tertiary Education Union
Jeannie was first elected full-time national president of the National Tertiary Education Union in 2010. Previously she was deputy dean of arts, education and human development at Victoria University. Her major areas of teaching and research are in women’ s, gender and labour studies. She has decades of experience in tertiary education management and governance, and as a union advocate. Jeannie sees the ongoing impacts of the rise of a differentiated workforce on the basis of‘ ongoing’ or‘ insecure’ employment among staff undertaking similar work as the major issue for the future of the higher education workforce.
Chris Ziguras | Deputy Dean, International | School of Global, Urban and Social Studies | RMIT University
Chris is a leading authority on the social, economic and political dimensions of the internationalisation of education. This interest is carried across his higher education leadership and management roles at RMIT, his prominent research on cross-border higher education, his teaching in international development and public policy, and his active public engagement.
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