The Board of Governors represents a blend of skills and experience in a range of areas relevant to the operation of the International Skills and Training Institute in Health (ISTIH). The Board has responsibility for the corporate governance of the Institute, and for the objects of the Institute as detailed in its Constitution. Accordingly, the Board has ultimate responsibility for the conduct and activities of the Institute.
Board of Governors
Adjunct Professor Henderson’s current appointments include: Chairman of MEDSCI International Healthcare (a not-for-profit healthcare advisory service), the Australian Institute for Radiochemical engineering (AIRE), the Technology Industry Advisory Council (TIAC)
Adjunct Professor Henderson is a strong promoter internationally of healthcare, education and research. He has played an integral role in assisting Australian universities to set up ties with South East Asian & global universities in the areas of health, law, agriculture, engineering, skills & training. In addition, he has been pivotal in the creation and development of a number of national and international research institutes, bringing with him strong commercial skills and corporate governance. His network and introductions of professional associates to these institutes has been invaluable in their development and ongoing sustainability.
Mr Harold Clough graduated from UWA in 1947 with Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (First Class Honours). He was awarded the US Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 and attended the University of California where he completed a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering. Upon his return to Perth in 1954, Harold joined his father’s engineering and construction company (Clough Engineering Group). He served as Managing Director of Clough Limited until 1988 and Chairman of Clough Limited until late 2002. Harold is currently the Chairman of McRae Investments Pty Ltd.
His awards include the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1979, WA Citizen of the Year in Industry and Commerce in 1983, Officer of the Order of Australia and an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering, both in 1990, the James N Kirby Award in 1993 by the Australasian Regional Board of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal by the Institution of Engineers Australia. In 1994 he was honoured with the inaugural gold medal for his contribution to engineering, industry and commerce by the WA Division of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 1997 he was jointly awarded the International Business Corporation Business Award and also an Australian Constructors Association Award for over 50 Years Service to the Australian Construction Industry. In 2005 he was awarded the Sir Edward “Weary” Dunlop Medal for long term commitment to enhancing the quality of life in the region and improving Australia-Asia relations.
His professional associations include past President of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (1995), past President of Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia, past Senate member of the University of Western Australia and member of the Australia-Indonesia Institute. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering Australia, Fellow Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering, Fellow Australian Institute of Management, Fellow Australian Institute of Company Directors.
John Langoulant is the Chief Executive of Oakajee Port and Rail (OPR). He previously served as Chief Executive of Australian Capital Equity, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia and Chief Executive of the Western Australian Government Treasury department.
Mr Langoulant is Chair of GESB, Chairman of the Board of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Deputy Chair of the Board of The Western Australian Ballet, Senator at the University of Western Australia, member of the Council of Australian Governments’ Reform Council, Chair of the Board of Leadership WA, and on the boards of the Committee for Perth and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Bret Mattes is currently CEO and President Director of OTP Geothermal and President of Origin Energy in Indonesia; Chairman of ChemCentre (WA); Chairman of New World Energy Pty Ltd; Chairman of EcoCarbon Incorporated; Chairman of APGAS Pty Ltd; Chairman of The Association of Low Carbon Businesses in Indonesia (ALBI); immediate Past Chairman of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts; a Director of PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk; a Director of the International Skills and Training Institute in Health; a Director of The National Centre for Asbestos Related Diseases;
a Director of the WA State Library Foundation Inc; a Director of the Australia/Indonesia Business Council; a Director of the Berndt Library Foundation; a Director of the Australian Energy Research Institute; Managing Director of matma Pte Ltd; and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Bret has a long history in management of international business, strategy development, mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance and marketing through senior positions that he has held with companies such as Shell International and BHP Billiton. After leaving Australia as a post-graduate student to study in Canada and the US, Bret taught at universities in North America, ran his own business in Florida and travelled extensively. Throughout the eighties and nineties he lived and worked in various parts of Europe, the Soviet Union, Scandinavia and Asia. He has always been closely involved with the arts in each of the communities in which he has lived and worked. Bret and his family have now settled permanently in Perth.
Bret has a passion for the arts and in particular ballet and has built an enduring relationship with the Company. He was instrumental in facilitating the sponsorship of West Australian Ballet by BHP Billiton. He has a strong track record in fundraising for the arts and for education, and a deep involvement in various art forms – for example, as a Board member of PICA for many years, as a Director of AMPAG, as a Director of the Berndt Museum Advisory Board and as Chairman of Berndt Museum Fundraising. He has a broad network of relationships in government, business and the arts and within indigenous communities throughout the country.
David Singleton became the CEO & MD of Poseidon Nickel in July 2007. David was the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Clough Limited between August 2003 and January 2007. Prior to joining Clough, he was the Group Head of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions for BAE Systems (formally British Aerospace) based in London. Mr Singleton spent three successful years as the Chief Executive Officer of Alenia Marconi Systems and was based in Rome, Italy.
Mr Singleton has served as a member of the National Defence Industries Council in the UK, and as a board member and Vice-President of Defence for Intellect. He is a non-executive Director of Triton Gold which was one of the few successful resource IPO’s on the ASX in 2009 and is also a non-executive Director of Quickstep Holdings, which is a technology based GRP manufacturer to the Defence industry. Mr Singleton has over 20 years international business experience in senior executive roles, primarily in Europe, USA and Australia.
Mr. Singleton has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University College London.
Michael Schoch joined Shell Australia in 1986, having graduated with an Economics Degree (Honours) from Murdoch University. Early roles with Shell were primarily operational, working with Shell’s Retailers and Wholesale Distributors in Western Australia, including 3 years as an Area Manager, and then as a Strategist for the Downstream business (Melbourne). Michael spent several years with Shell International in London in the Shareholder’s office for Central & Eastern Europe, followed by 2 years in Prague as the Acquisitions Manager for Shell’s Retail business across Central & Eastern Europe. He then served as the Development Manager for the Retail business in Australia and New Zealand.
Following his return to Perth in 2000, he joined Shell’s oil & gas business working on various assets including the Sunrise Gas Venture in the Timor Sea, China’s West to East Gas Pipeline Project in Beijing, and the North West Shelf, in either commercial or governance roles.
Michael is currently Vice-President Production, accountable for Shell’s equity interests in the North West Shelf and Woodside, as well as the Operations Readiness for the Prelude Floating LNG facility.
Dr Robertson is the Deputy Chief Health Officer and Director of Disaster Management, Regulation and Planning within the Public Health Division of WA Health. He is also a Captain in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve and Chair of the Defence Health Services’ Chemical Biological and Radiological (CBR) Defence and Disaster Medicine Consultative Group.
His involvement in disaster medicine has included leading the Australian Medical Relief team into the Maldives post tsunami and the WA Health team into Indonesia after the Yogyakarta earthquakes in June 2006. Since 2007, he has coordinated the WA Health responses to various remote incidents, including Cyclone George, the Varanus Island gas explosion, the Learmonth air incident, the Manjimup bus crash, the Mumbai terrorist attack, and the Ashmore Reef incident.
Dr Robertson was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 1999 while serving in the Royal Australian Navy and the Public Service Medal in the 2013 Australia Day Honours.
International Outreach Advisory Committee
Clinical Professor Allan Kermode graduated in Medicine from the University of Western Australia in 1984 and was awarded the Prizes in Medicine, Surgery, and the Australian Medical Association Gold Medal. Post graduate awards include the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Foundation Fellowship, the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Sandoz Australia Prize, the Royal Australian College of Physicians Merck Sharp and Dohme Travelling Fellowship in Infectious Diseases, and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia CJ Martin Fellowship.
He is a former Honorary Secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists, Member of the Specialist Advisory Committee of the Royal Australian College of Physicians, and Coordinator of Advanced Training for Neurology.
He is currently a member of the Central Scientific Committee and Deputy Secretary of the Pan Asian Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, and a Member of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Australia Clinical Trials Network Executive.
Currently he is Clinical Professor of Neurology, University of Western Australia, Director of the Demyelinating Diseases Centre in the Centre for Neuromuscular and Neurological Diseases, Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute, Consultant Neurologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, and in private practice at St John of God Hospital Subiaco.
He serves on a number of both National and International Scientific Advisory Boards for both industry and academia. His past appointments include the Oxford University Nuffield Department of Medicine, the Institute of Molecular Medicine Oxford, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square London UK, the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda Maryland USA, and the Heidelberg Kopf clinic in Germany.
He has lectured extensively and has strong collaborations within the Asian region, and has been invited to visit many health and academic facilities in countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan. He has published widely in international peer reviewed scientific journals and has received well over 2000 citations.
Prof. Barry Marshall has managed a Helicobacter pylori research group almost since his discovery of Helicobacter pylori with Robin Warren in 1982. Prof. Marshall has received many honors for his work on Helicobacter pylori, most notably they include, the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 2005, The William Beaumont Prize in 2006 (American Gastroenterology Association), in 1995 the Albert Lasker Award (Albert & Mary Lasker Foundation), and in 1998 the Dr. A. H. Heineken Prize for Medicine (The Alfred Heineken Foundation, Amsterdam).
In 2007 Prof. Marshall was awarded the honour of Western Australian of the year and The Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC). Prof. Marshall holds professional memberships with the Australian Academy of Science, the British Royal Society, the Institute of Medicine (USA), the American Gastroenterological Association, the Australian Gastroenterological Society and the Australian Medical Association to name a few.
In the past few years Prof. Marshall’s laboratory has developed enhanced methods for non-invasive studies on the molecular epidemiology of H. pylori, notably rapid breath test methods and retrieval of the organism (and culture) from a swallowed string. The H. pylori laboratory has produced seven Microbiology Honors graduates and currently has one Honors and three PhD candidates enrolled. Prof. Marshall has also recently succeeded in drawing investor funding from international and national sources for the creation of Ondek; a small biotech company focused on developing new biologic delivery systems for vaccines and therapeutics, utilizing the unique characteristics of genetically modified Helicobacter pylori.
Winthrop Professor Fiona Wood is a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon specialising in the field of burn care, trauma and scar reconstruction.
Fiona is the Director of the WA Burns Service of Western Australia and a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Princess Margaret Hospital and Royal Perth Hospital.
Her research as Chairperson through the Burn Injury Research Unit UWA and the McComb Foundation is focused on scarless healing.
In bringing basic science to the bedside the aim is to build a unique capacity to facilitate direct research collaborations between researchers and practitioners across basic science, clinical care and clinical outcomes.
The research includes all facets of burn care, from injury prevention to acute care on to long term outcomes undertaken in collaboration with the multidisciplinary burn care teams, is essential to provide a clear evidence-based practice.
Fiona has also been involved in a number of education and disaster response programmes associated with her interest in burns and has presented and published a variety of papers over the years.
In addition, she has been the recipient of the 2003 Australian Medical Association ‘Contribution to Medicine’ Award and an Order of Australia Medal for work with Bali bombing victims. Fiona was named West Australian of the Year for 2004, and was nominated as a National Living Treasure and Australian Citizen of the Year in 2004.
Fiona was again named West Australian of the Year for 2005, and received the honour of being named Australian of the Year in 2005.
Fiona and Marie Stoner, co-founders of Clinical Cell Culture, won the 2005 Clunies Ross Award for their contributions to Medical Science in Australia.
Winthrop Professor Christobel Saunders has been Professor of Surgical Oncology at the School of Surgery, University of Western Australia since November 2002. Her clinical interests are in the diagnosis and management of breast cancer and melanoma.
Professor Saunders is a Board Member of Cancer Australia, President of The Cancer Council of Western Australia and on many local and international research and charitable committees such as the Breast Cancer Network Australia and the national cancer genetics consortium kConFab.
Her research interests include many aspects of clinical research in breast cancer, including endogenous and exogenous hormonal risk factors, familial aspects of breast cancer, survivorship issues including fertility and menopause, psychosocial research, minimally invasive treatments and new diagnostic modalities. Prof Saunders has published over 60 scientific papers, 16 book chapters and a book.
She is involved in cancer policy both at a State and National level and chaired the WA Cancer Taskforce which developed a State plan for Cancer and thus was first A/Director of the State-wide Cancer Network in WA.
Marcus is an experienced healthcare executive and company director with 20 years of clinical and commercial experience in startup and publicly listed organisations.
A Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners with an Executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, Marcus has held senior management positions as Medical Director and Managing Director for a national clinic group and a health management consultancy.
A Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Australian Institute of Management, Marcus has chaired and held director roles for over a decade with the Divisions of General Practice, GP Networks and Medicare Locals. He currently serves on the executive council of the Australian Medical Association (WA) and is a director and data/eHealth Lead for the WA Primary Health Alliance, chairing the Metro South WA Primary Health Network.
Marcus is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Health Leadership & Management at Curtin University and was previously a member of the Governing Council for the South Metropolitan Area Health Service in Perth.
Marcus supports the startup eco-system as Managing Partner of Future Health Ventures, an angel fund investing in Health Tech startups. He is currently the CEO of one of its portfolio companies, HealthEngine, a consumer health site used by over 6 million Australians a year. A previous organiser of Silicon Beach Perth and Aurelius Digital, Marcus has mentored and judged for Founder Institute, Startup Weekend, Curtin Ignition, Pinnacle Awards and the WA Innovator of the Year. He also co-founded Sync Labs, WA’s premier tech startup community co-working space in 2012.
Marcus supports the social and community sector through his involvement as Deputy Chair of The Meridian Global Foundation, a charitable foundation he co-founded in 2005 and as a board member of Perth Modern School. He was previously a director of Giving West.
Chris has over 25 years of experience in Human Service Management including Disabilities Services, Aged Community and Mental Health but particularly in Primary Health Care. Chris led the largest of the Commonwealth Co-ordinated Care Trials in the late 1990’s and was Director of Primary Health Care for the South Australian Government. He was Chief Executive Officer of Noarlunga Health Services which incorporates a private hospital, public hospital, mental health service, emergency department and an extensive primary health program incorporating five primary health care centres.
Before moving to Western Australia in 2007 he was the Executive Director of Population and Primary Health Care for the Southern Adelaide Health Service and oversaw the construction and commissioning of the first of South Australia’s GP Plus health care centres – a key strategy in South Australian health reform agenda.
Medical Advisory Committee
Winthrop Professor Bruce Robinson’s current appointments include: Professor in Medicine at the School of Medicine & Pharmacology at the University of Western Australia , Consultant Respiratory Physician and Director at the Department of Respiratory Medicine at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and Director at the National Research Centre for Asbestos-Related Diseases. He is also the Chairman of the State Health Research Advisory Council, Department of Health Western Australia and Chairman of the Asbestos Working Party of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC)
As a part of ISTIH, Professor Robinson has served in a Tsunami Medical Relief Team in Aceh, Indonesia delivering medical care, providing training in respiratory medicine, bronchoscopy skills and disaster preparedness in Banda Aceh, Meulaboh and Jakarta. His role for ISTIH has also involved him serving in Sumatra and Haiti after their devastating earthquakes. He has previously worked in other developing countries, including Papua New Guinea and Nepal.
Professor Robinson was award a Member of the Order of Australia on Australia Day 2013
Dr Robertson is the Deputy Chief Health Officer and Director of Disaster Management, Regulation and Planning within the Public Health Division of WA Health. He is also a Captain in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve and Chair of the Defence Health Services’ Chemical Biological and Radiological (CBR) Defence and Disaster Medicine Consultative Group.
His involvement in disaster medicine has included leading the Australian Medical Relief team into the Maldives post tsunami and the WA Health team into Indonesia after the Yogyakarta earthquakes in June 2006. Since 2007, he has coordinated the WA Health responses to various remote incidents, including Cyclone George, the Varanus Island gas explosion, the Learmonth air incident, the Manjimup bus crash, the Mumbai terrorist attack, and the Ashmore Reef incident.
Dr Robertson was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 1999 while serving in the Royal Australian Navy and the Public Service Medal in the 2013 Australia Day Honours.
Dr Aled Williams’s current appointments include: Director of Emergency Medicine Peel Health Campus, Consultant Emergency Physician at Sir Charles Gardiner Hospital and Clinical Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the University of Western Australia.
