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Event Overview
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Speakers 
Mr Russell Airey,
Acting State Coordinator Community Risk Management,
NSW Fire Brigades
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Mr Edward Balfour,
Director,
Safecall
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Mr Graeme Browning,
GIS Technical Specialist, Emergency Services,
ESRI Australia
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Mr Jeremy Conversi,
Victorian State Manager,
ESRI Australia
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 Mr Ian Cumming,
Chief Executive,
Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust
Ian started his career as a trainee Biomedical Scientist at Manchester Royal Infirmary. After qualifying, Ian studied for his Fellowship examinations whilst working as a Research Scientist at the Haemophilia Centre in Manchester. In 1989, Ian made a career change into General Management in the NHS and held a variety of hospital posts including Operating Theatre Manager, and General Manager (Surgery) before moving to a more strategic post at the Mersey Regional Health Authority.
Following the merger of the Mersey and North Western Regional Health Authorities in 1994, Ian was appointed as Assistant Chief Executive to the new Region.
In 1995, Ian was appointed as Chief Executive of the Royal Lancaster Infirmary becoming, at the age of 30, the youngest Chief Executive in the NHS. In 1998, Ian oversaw the project to merge 3 hospitals to form the Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust to which he subsequently became its first Chief Executive. Ian led the team that provided the successful local response to the 3rd largest outbreak of Legionnaires' Disease in the world in 2002. Ian's particular interests are in leadership development of clinical staff, in team building, and in management/leadership in times of crisis. Ian was awarded the OBE for Leadership in the NHS in 2003.
In addition to local commitments, Ian is currently President Elect of the National Association of Theatre Nurses (UK), and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town.
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 Ms Debbie Cunningham,
Risk and Emergency Management,
Kestrel Group
Debbie Cunningham recently joined Kestrel Group after six years as Emergency Management Officer with Greater Wellington Regional Council, in Wellington, New Zealand. Kestrel Group provides risk and emergency management planning and consulting services to New Zealand’s public and private sectors. Debbie’s background includes risk assessment, contingency planning, EOC management, as well as public education and training.
Following the introduction of new emergency management legislation in December 2002, Debbie was appointed project manager to develop a joint agency strategic and operational Civil Defence Emergency Management Plan for the Wellington Region. In developing this Plan, Debbie facilitated the involvement of over 100 agencies through the process of risk identification and analysis, developing a strategic direction and agreeing operational plans.
Debbie has been involved in management of significant floods and rural fires in New Zealand and Australia. She has a Bachelor of Science and Diploma in Emergency Services Management. She is currently carrying out her Masters research in the area of risk assessment for emergency management planning.
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Mr Jack de Lange,
Chief Operating Officer,
Australian Spatial Information Business Association
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Mr Edwin Earl,
National Sales Manager,
Globalstar
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Mr John Edwards,
Manager Environmental Health and Building,
Shire of Northam, WA
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Mr Norm Free,
Emergency and Safety Planning,
Shire of Yarra Ranges
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Ms Elayne Grace,
Sustainability Research Manager,
Insurance Australia Group
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Mr Barry Hanstrum,
Regional Director,
Bureau of Meteorology
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 Mr Pearse Healy,
Head of Security,
Victorian Workcover Authority
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Mr Peter Hiam,
Manager, Systems Development,
Queensland Department of Emergency Services
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 Commissioner Jim Higgins,
Commissioner,
Queensland Ambulance Service
Jim Higgins was appointed Commissioner of the Queensland Ambulance Service in April 2003, after serving as a Paramedic for more than 22 years in communities across Australia and the UK. He started his career aged 19 in the New South Wales Ambulance Service transferring after two years to the Victorian Ambulance Service where he worked in a number of senior positions. . Jim was seconded to the Northumbria Ambulance Service in the United Kingdom where he held the position of Acting Director of Human Resources. Once in Queensland Jim held senior roles with the Queensland ambulance Service, including Assistant Commissioner for the Greater Brisbane Region and Deputy Commissioner, before being elevated to the Commissioner's role. The Commissioner has a Master of Health Administration through the University of New South Wales, a Master of Public Sector Management gained at Griffith University. He's a member of the Australian College of Health Service Executives, the Australia College of Ambulance Professionals and is a Certified Health Executive.
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Major General Hori Howard,
Director, State Emergency Management Committee,
NSW Office of Emergency Services
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 Mr Alan March,
Assistant Director General,
AusAID
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Mr Greg Nance,
Chief Executive Officer,
Surf Life Saving Australia
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Mr Guy Perkins,
Vice President Asia Pacific,
Earth Resource Mapping
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 Mr Nathan Rabe,
Director International Operations,
Australian Red Cross
Nathan Rabe has been the Manager of International Operations Department in the Australian Red Cross since June 2001. Born and educated in India he has advanced degrees in South Asian Studies and Asian History from the University of Minnesota, USA. He has always had a special interest in the Indian sub-continent and has published a variety of scholarly, journalistic and fictional works on various aspects of the region over the last twenty years. He began his professional career with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan in 1988 where he served as Resettlement Officer for Iraqi and Iranian refugees and asylum seekers. His work with the UNHCR took him to Iraq after the 1991 war and Africa where he set up a large resettlement program for African refugees throughout east and central Africa. Since 1993 Nathan Rabe has managed a diverse range of development and emergency projects in Nepal, Angola, Tanzania, Afghanistan, North Korea, the Balkans and Tajiksitan. During this time he has served in senior field positions with Save the Children Fund (UK), Oxfam GB and Oxfam Community Aid Abroad, CARE International and Mercy Corps. In addition to his professional activities, Nathan Rabe is an avid amateur photographer and writer with a special interest in South Asia and the Islamic world. His first novel, The Book of Accounts, was published in London in June 2000. In November 2003 he produced a coffee-table book, The Hindustan Way.
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 Ms Melissa Rebbeck,
Leader Climate Risk Managament Unit,
South Australian Research and Development Institute
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Mr Karl Sullivan,
Manager Group Crisis Planning & Response,
QANTAS
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Prof Tony Taylor,
Emeritus Professor, School of Psychology,
Victoria University
Tony Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at Victoria University of Wellington, having previously held a Chair there in Clinical Psychology. Earlier he had been a Probation Officer and Prison Psychologist, Head of a University Student Counselling Service, and at different times an honorary Consultant in the Department of Psychiatry at Wellington Hospital and in the West Coast Health Forensic Psychiatric Unit. Initially he was concerned with the reactions of people of all sorts to captivity and isolation, but after the Mt Erebus air accident he made clinical studies of the needs of different groups that had been exposed to different kinds of disasters. Since then he has worked on stress prevention and reduction with a number of Ministries and Government Department, and has often been invited to present conference papers. He has published a few books and about 240 professional articles, and is on the editorial board of a couple of international journals. In 2002 the New Zealand Psychological Society awarded him the Sir Thomas Hunter Prize for his recent research publication, and in 2003 he was elected a Companion of the Royal Society of New Zealand. His academic and professional qualifications are: MA(NZ) Cert.Soc.Sci &Admin.(London), PhD(VUW), DHC(Reims), FBPsS, FNZPsS.
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Mr Tony Wheeler,
Project Director,
Sinclair Knight Merz
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Mr Rodney Wilks,
Channel Manager, Optus Mobile Satellite,
Singtel Optus
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Ms Helen Willoughby,
Group General Manager Communications,
Railcorp
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 Mr Hans Zimmermann,
Senior Advisor - Emergency Communications,
United Nations
Hans Zimmermann retired from the post of Senior Officer in the UN in 2004. His role included the co-ordination of international humanitarian assistance and the implementation of the mandate of the Operational Coordinator under the "Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations". From 1994 - 2003 he chaired the Inter-Agency Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), and he regularly represented the United Nations and the humanitarian community in major international and intergovernmental conferences. Mr. Zimmermann frequently writes for publications on humanitarian affairs and on regulatory aspects of telecommunications, and chairs the editorial board for the "Handbook on Disaster Communications for Developing Countries" published by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Mr. Zimmermann's professional assignments with the United Nations included long term posts in Lebanon, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Liberia, and he led assessment and evaluation missions to Somalia, Zambia, Pakistan, Nepal, the Balkan Region and to other countries affected by natural disasters or major humanitarian crises. From 1989 to 1991 he served with the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, as Special Delegate for the operations in Namibia. Mr. Zimmermann is a former trustee of the International Institute of Communications (IIC), and is a member of the Pacific Telecommunication Council (PTC) and of other international and regional institutions. He is a Swiss national living in France, and his academic background is in political science.
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