Hon. Bruce Baird AM

Chairman | Tourism & Transport Forum

Bruce Baird’s professional career has spanned the Australian Trade Commission service and the NSW and Federal Parliaments. He was a Federal member for Cook for nine years and during that time he was Chairman of both the Trade Committee and the House Standing Committee on Economics. He previously held roles as NSW Minister for Transport, Tourism, Roads and Minister for Sydney’s Olympic Bid. Prior to this he was Australia’s Assistant Trade Commissioner in Germany and Trade Commissioner in New York. Prior Board positions include Chair of the National Rail Corporation, Chair of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Chair of the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator and Board Member of Sydney Theatre Company.

Bruce is currently Chair of BE Sydney, Trustee of Sydney Opera House, Chair of Advisory Board of Screen Producers Australia, Chair of Kamay Project, Heart Research Institute Board and Member of International Advisory Board of Cubic Transportation Systems.

Dr Michael Brand

Director | Art Gallery of New South Wales

A global cultural leader and art scholar, Michael’s commitment to the arts is evident in his significant contribution to Australian and international art, architecture and gardens. His work spans art museums and academia as well as government, philanthropic and community sectors.

As director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales since 2012, Michael is leading the Gallery’s transformation through the largest expansion in its almost 150-year history. Now under construction and due for completion in late 2022, the Sydney Modern Project, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects SANAA, is Australia’s first art museum to achieve a 6-star Green Star sustainable design rating. Michael’s vision for a new cultural campus incorporating two art museum buildings and an 24/7 outdoor art garden is to amplify the values and ideals of the Gallery today: a public space that is open, sociable and egalitarian, a place that has a better balance than in the past of gender and diversity, and a place that is full of curiosity, reflection and dialogue, about the shared world around us.

Central to Michael’s curatorial philosophy for the Gallery is the view that the art of the past is crucial to understanding the art of our own times; that Aboriginal art is a core element of Australian art; and that contemporary Australian art should be viewed alongside international contemporary art.

Prior to returning to Australia from North America in 2012 Michael’s international directorships included the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.

Earlier in his career, positions included assistant director, curatorial and collection development, Queensland Art Gallery and curator of Asian art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. From 1988 to 1993 Michael was also co-director of the Smithsonian Institution Mughal Garden Project in Lahore, Pakistan.

Matt Cameron-Smith

Chief Executive Officer | Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia

Matthew Cameron-Smith commenced as CEO of Voyages in August 2020. Matthew has an extensive and highly successful background in national and international tourism, joining Voyages from The Travel Corporation, where he spent almost 10 years leading the Trafalgar Guided Holidays brand as well as his most recent position as Global CEO of AAT Kings.

His prior experience has included roles with Tourism Australia – promoting the country in the UK and Europe markets, global roles with Rydges Hotels & Resorts, South Bank Parklands and Dreamworld.

Matthew is a director of Ultimate Winery Experiences of Australia, the Anangu Community Foundation and was recently appointed to the Torrens University of Australia Hospitality Industry Advisory Board comprising both Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School and William Blue College of Hospitality Management.  He was previously a director of the Council of Australian Tour Operators.

Matthew holds an Associate Diploma in Human Resource Development and a Master’s degree in Business Administration and Management.

Matt Carroll AM

Chief Executive Officer | Australian Olympic Committee

Originally from the construction industry, Matt Carroll’s career as a sports executive stretches over 24 years’, taking in all aspects of sports administration. He has worked in three sports as a senior manager, including Chief Executive Officer, with roles encompassing grass roots sport development, professional leagues, national and international organisations and global sporting events.

Leanne Coddington

Chief Executive Officer | Tourism and Events Queensland

Leanne leads Queensland’s tourism marketing, experience development and major events agency to achieve its vision of ‘inspiring the world to experience the best address on earth’. Leanne’s broad industry experience includes senior executive roles with the Hyatt Hotel Group and a number of senior positions at Tourism Queensland, before being appointed CEO of Tourism and Events Queensland in 2013. Leanne has represented industry on the Australian Government’s Reimagining the Visitor Economy Expert Panel and is an Adjunct Professor at the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a graduate with the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Steve Cox

Chief Executive Officer | Destination NSW

Steve Cox is the CEO of Destination NSW. As a passionate and energetic champion for Sydney and regional NSW, Steve’s focus is spearheading the strategic direction of Destination NSW including the delivery of the Visitor Economy Strategy 2030 to ensure NSW is the premier visitor economy of the Asia Pacific by 2030.

Emily Davis

Partner | L.E.K.

Emily Davis is a partner in L.E.K.’s consumer practice and is a specialist advising executives and clients in the travel and tourism, aviation and airports and entertainment sectors. Emily is based in Sydney and has more than 15 years of experience leading strategy, organisation development and mergers and acquisitions projects across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the USA. Emily is passionate about understanding consumer behaviour and trends and has published and presented L.E.K.’s consumer strategy and insights survey and thought leadership over many years. Emily holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Chemistry from the University of New South Wales.

Stuart Diver

General Manager | Thredbo

Stuart Diver is the General Manager of Thredbo Alpine Resort. Located in the beautiful Snowy Mountains of NSW, Thredbo is Australia’s best snow resort and premier year-round alpine destination, and is part of The EVT Group – Australia’s premier entertainment, hospitality and leisure company.

Stuart holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Hospitality Studies). He has been in the alpine resort industry for most of his career, ranging from roles in Snowsports, Environmental and Guest services, Hotel Operations, being in the position of Customer Service Executive Manager 2010 – 2013, Resort Operations Manager 2013 – 2019, and ultimately his current position of General Manager.

Stuart has endured unspeakable trauma in his personal life, as the sole survivor of the 1997 Thredbo landslide that killed 18 people including his wife Sally, and again in 2015, losing his second wife Rosanna to breast cancer.

Resilience derived from personal trauma, together with his love of Thredbo has established Stuart as a positive, strong and inspirational leader professionally. During his time as General Manager, Stuart has successfully led Thredbo through the bushfires of January 2020, followed by the Covid pandemic of 2020/2021, which crippled the resort and reliant businesses.

Currently, Thredbo employs over 1,200 staff and has a turnover of over close to $100 million. Stuart is confident about the future of the ski industry post-pandemic and reflects positively on how the resort was forced to pivot and adapt to overcome the challenges of the past two years.

Suellen Fitzgerald

Suellen Fitzgerald | Chief Executive | Greater Sydney Parklands

Suellen is the inaugural Chief Executive for the Greater Sydney Parklands agency, having been the inaugural Executive Director of Western Sydney Parklands Trust since 2008 and leading the administration for Parramatta Park Trust from 2013. Suellen has worked in private and public practice across Australia working with open space planning and design, nature-based tourism and recreation.

Suellen is a respected authority on strategy, financing public lands, organisational establishment and development, and has presented nationally and internationally on these issues.

Over the last two years Suellen has been instrumental in the development of the Greater Sydney Parklands Trust legislation, passed by Parliament in March 2022. Sydney now has its first ever legislated city-wide urban parks agency to be the voice for parks within Government, take ownership of new parks as they are established, and to help coordinate the implementation of the Blue Green Grid for Sydney with other key landowners and stakeholders.

Rodney Harrex

Chief Executive | South Australian Tourism Commission

Rodney Harrex is the Chief Executive of the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC). Leading the team charged with growing the state’s dynamic tourism sector, Rodney is committed to driving South Australia’s visitor economy to the ambitious $12.8 billion by 2030. He successfully led the SATC to achieving the record high $8.1 billion visitor economy in early 2020 – achieved 12 months earlier than projected.

Under his direction, South Australia has established unprecedented growth –and set even bolder targets for the next decade through the SA Visitor Economy Sector Plan 2030 – despite the recent challenges of COVID-19 and bushfires.

During this period, the SATC has won the right to host many world-class events, conferences and exhibitions. The SATC has also invested $20 million in growing tourism offerings across the state through its Tourism Industry Development Fund and delivered the Great State Voucher initiative, which has injected more than $94 million in economic stimulus to accommodation and experience operators across SA.

Louise Herron AM

Chief Executive Officer | Sydney Opera House

Louise Herron was appointed Sydney Opera House CEO in 2012, having previously been a lawyer and corporate adviser. She was Chair of Sydney’s Belvoir theatre for 10 years. Louise has led the development and implementation of the Opera House’s Renewal program to ensure the World Heritage-listed icon and one of the world’s busiest performing arts centres will continue to inspire generations of artists, audiences and visitors. This includes more than $300 million in capital works to upgrade performance halls (including the Concert Hall and Joan Sutherland Theatre) and open new spaces to the public, as well as improving the visitor and artistic experience for the 10.9 million people who visit the precinct in a normal year and the 1.4 million who attend performances. Completed projects include the new Centre for Creativity, Yallamundi Rooms function centre and ballet rehearsal room, as well as upgrades to entry and foyer areas.

Michael Issenberg

Chairman | Tourism Australia

Michael Issenberg has worked for Accor for more than 25 years, most recently as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of AccorHotels Asia Pacific based in Singapore. He grew the group to more than 1250 hotels, building a $4 billion business over 23 countries that was number one in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. With multi-national experience in the US, Australia and Asia, he is known for building strong teams and inspiring them towards a shared vision and is a lifelong champion of diversity and inclusion. He has a deep understanding of Asian cultures and the Asian consumer.

Prior to that Michael spent five years at Mirvac Hotels, including three years as CEO. He holds a degree in hotel administration from Cornell University in the US and is a Lifetime Member of Tourism and Transport Forum Australia. He was named Asia Pacific Hotelier of the Year in 2012, 2015 and 2019 in the Hotel Management Awards and International Hotelier of the Year at the China Hotel Investment Conference in 2014.

Paul Jones

Chief Customer and Digital Officer | Virgin Australia Group

Paul Jones is the Virgin Australia Group Chief Customer and Digital Officer and leads the airline’s customer value proposition and digital experience. Originally hailing from the UK and with an MBA from the Melbourne Business School, Paul is a globally accomplished senior strategic business and technology leader who has worked in aviation, fast moving consumer goods and technology businesses across the UK, USA and Australia.

Prior to joining Virgin Australia in 2021, Paul held numerous executive leadership positions in a variety of technology, customer and operations roles including the Chief Operating Officer at Qantas and Chief Information Officer and Vice President of Integration at Mars Inc., based in the US.

Paul will combine his technology, information systems and strategic business knowledge from prior roles to reshape Virgin Australia’s digital and customer experience.

John Kotzas AM

Chief Executive | Queensland Performing Arts Centre

John Kotzas AM is Chief Executive of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), one of Australia’s most successful centres of live performance. Since joining QPAC in 1989, John has undertaken various creative and management roles, directing the inaugural Brisbane Festival, and establishing the Out of the Box Festival.

Under John’s leadership, QPAC has established itself not only as a major presenter, producer and investor, but also as a significant public space and centre for arts education. Since 2009, the QPAC International Series has presented exclusive seasons from some of the world’s leading arts companies. John led the organisation’s successful bid to build a new theatre, which on completion will make QPAC Australia’s largest performing arts centre.

In recognition of his distinguished service to the arts, John was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2021. He has also been awarded the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy) for his commitment to Italian arts, culture and community in Australia and he holds Honorary Doctorates from Queensland University of Technology and Griffith University.

Lyn Lewis-Smith

Chief Executive Officer | BESydney

Lyn Lewis-Smith is CEO of BESydney and leads a global team who are charged with securing international meetings of strategic, economic and social benefit to Sydney, Australia. The organisation works across sectors which include infrastructure, technology, professional services, advanced manufacturing, education and health.

Lyn has led transformation globally, passionately advocating for Australian business, scientific and cultural achievements on the world stage. She received the Destination International’s Humanitarian Award for her co-authored and published research, with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Business School, into the social legacies of hosting international business events: Determining Business Events Legacies beyond the Tourism spend.

An experienced non-executive director, she is a Fellow of the UTS, Adjunct Professor and Co-Chair of the UTS Business School, Director of Committee for Sydney, Association of Australian Convention Bureaux, the Women’s Resilience Centre and Asia Pacific Chair of DestinationNEXT. Lyn is also a Women in Leadership Ambassador for the UTS, a member of the International Women’s Forum Australia and a Minerva Network Mentor.

Harvey Lister AM

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | ASM Global (APAC)

Over the past 50 years, Harvey Lister has been involved in the presentation of over 48,000 events spanning sports, arts, conventions, exhibitions, and live entertainment and is a prominent figure in the major venues and events industries.

Dedicated to the positive development of his hometown of Brisbane, the State of Queensland, and of the tourism and leisure industries in general, Mr Lister currently holds the following positions: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ASM Global (APAC) – currently managing some 40 major venues throughout Australia and across Asia and the Middle East, leading a team of over 20,000 employees; Advisory Board Member, Tourism and Transport Forum (TTF) – Australia’s peak tourism industry group; Adjunct Professor, University of Queensland Business School (Tourism, Events and Hospitality); Advisory Board Member, the Committee for Brisbane and Advisory Board Member, Courier Mail Children’s Fund.

Rohan Lund

Chief Executive Officer | NRMA

Rohan Lund has been the Group Chief Executive Officer of the National Roads and Motorists’ Association (NRMA) since January 2016. He has an extensive background in digital technology and strategy innovation, bringing a wealth of experience in delivering sustainable transformation across a range of customer-focused companies.

An energetic and customer-focused leader, Rohan provides strategic and commercial expertise to the NRMA – Australia’s largest Member-owned organisation. Rohan has led the transformation of the NRMA to an electric future while concurrently developing the agenda to expand into sustainable domestic tourism. This includes the growth of the NRMA Parks and Resorts portfolio and the creation of the Marine and Expeditions business.

Before joining the NRMA, Rohan was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Foxtel, Australia’s largest subscription business. His previous roles also include COO of Seven West Media, CEO of Yahoo!7 and Strategy Director for SingTel Optus. Rohan holds a Master of Laws.

Rob Marcolina

Group Executive - Strategy, People and Technology | Qantas Group

Rob Marcolina is Group Executive – Strategy, People and Technology at the Qantas Group. Rob joined Qantas in 2012 and has expanded his responsibilities over the last 9 years. Rob has groupwide responsibility for driving strategy, the ongoing transformation program as well as HR activities, including leading the Diversity and Inclusion program. Rob also has responsibility for groupwide technology and driving ongoing innovation across the business. He is a member of Qantas’ Group Management Committee.

Prior to joining Qantas, Rob was a Partner with Bain & Company in Los Angeles and Sydney working across multiple industries, with an emphasis on media, technology and telecom clients.

Rob holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Economics) from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the USA.

Rob is a previous Chairman of Basketball Australia and Helloworld Limited and board director of GLAAD (LGBT advocacy) in the USA.

Simon McGrath AM

Chief Executive Officer | Crown Sydney Group and Head of Hospitality | Crown Resorts

Simon McGrath is Chief Executive Officer of Crown Sydney and Group Head of Hospitality of Crown Resorts.

Mr McGrath has over three decades of experience in the hotel sector across the Pacific region and is one of Australia’s most accomplished Hoteliers.

Prior to his role at Crown, Mr McGrath was the Chief Executive Officer of Accor Hotels Pacific and led the growth of Accor Hotels Pacific to almost 400 hotels across the region and leading a team of over 18,000 employees.

Prior to his role at Accor Pacific, Mr McGrath held senior executive positions in hotel groups including Southern Pacific Hotels (SPHC) and Rydges Hotel Group.

Throughout his career, Mr McGrath has played a major advocacy role in advancing Indigenous employment in hospitality and wider economic employment. He has also championed and taken a lead role to greatly improve gender diversity in the tourism sector.

Mr McGrath has been recognised for his contribution to the hospitality industry with numerous awards however most recently he was recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2019 for his significant work in promoting Australian tourism internationally.

Margy Osmond

Chief Executive Officer | Tourism & Transport Forum

Margy Osmond is the Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism & Transport Forum, assuming the role on 1 October 2014. Margy has extensive experience in policy development and advocacy, politics, membership organisations, management, media and public relations.

Before joining TTF, Margy was the inaugural CEO of ANRA which was established in 2006 as a lobby and research organisation to be the voice of the large national retailers in Australia. Prior to this, Margy was the CEO of the State and Sydney Chambers of Commerce in NSW for five years.

Margy has a wide range of Board experience having been Chair of the NSW TAFE Commission Board and Chair of the Australian Sports Foundation, Deputy Chair of Tourism NSW, and served on the boards of the Australian Sports Commission, Bell Shakespeare, the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, NSW Major Events, the NSW Police Minister’s Advisory Board and NSW State Transit Authority. Margy also chaired the bid and official Organising Committee for the largest non-elite sporting event in the world, the International World Masters Games, held in Sydney in 2009

Lee Tulloch

Australian journalist

Lee Tulloch is an Australian novelist, columnist, editor and award winning travel writer. She writes a weekly column for Nine Traveller and specialises is sustainable and luxury travel, contributing regularly to a number of publications including Gourmet Traveller, Travel & Luxury, T Australia and Wish.

Mike Welling

Chief Executive Officer and Founder | Hemisphere Digital

For some time TTF has been searching for a more accurate set of data available on a monthly basis and that is more current and accurate than existing sources . The data will be used to support our advocacy, our public commentary and help to maintain the profile of the organisation.  TTF is committed to generating such a data mechanism as a post pandemic legacy, to increase and strengthen the voice of industry. This is an important opportunity for the sector. TTF is partnering with Hemisphere digital to deliver this data to its members.

Hemisphere Digital provides market-leading insights on how populations move and spend. A collaborative data platform designed from the ground up, combining multiple data sources that can be accessed via a range of options, including by white-labelling your own Data Hub.

Hemisphere won a $1million grant from Australian Department of Science and Innovation: Business research and Innovation Initiative (BRII): intelligent data to transform tourism data delivery.

Using GPS data, credit card spend data and other web sourced data the platform is able to provide accurate and current insights nationally, state by state and regionally on tourism expenditure, overnight stays and their duration, daytrips and points of entry, multi-stop overs and journeys.

Hemisphere was founded by Mike Welling in Sydney. Mike’s areas of specialisation include technology solutions consulting, digital transformation strategy, content marketing solutions, digital marketing strategy, NLP and artificial intelligence, IoT data analytics and reporting, geospatial analytics and mapping & location intelligence and behavioural insights.

Susan Wheeldon

Country Manager - Australia & New Zealand | Airbnb

Susan Wheeldon has been Airbnb’s Country Manager for Australia, New Zealand and Oceania since October, 2019. Susan joined Airbnb from Google, where she spent four years in a variety of roles, including Head of Government & Performance and Head of Agency.

Passionate about entrepreneurial leadership, she has more than 20 years of experience across the tech, travel, e-commerce, legal and property sectors.

Susan has held previous positions as Vice President of Groupon and Founder & Manager of Virgin Atlantic’s International Exchange Program, as well as Head of Brand & Retail at AMP Capital, which delivered more than $5 billion in revenue from the firm’s 38 retail assets in Australia and New Zealand.

Susan has an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and holds a number of board positions, including Non-Executive Director of Centuria Capital Limited.

Deb Zimmer

Chief Executive Officer | BridgeClimb and Group Chief Financial Officer | Hammons Holdings

In June 2019,  Deb Zimmer became the Group CFO of Hammons Holdings which includes the ownership and management of BridgeClimb and Scenic World. Having gained great insights into the tourism industry through her work with these two leading tourism attractions, Deb was delighted to be offered the Joint CEO role at BridgeClimb in 2020 before taking the role independently in 2021. Deb has helped manage the business through the heartbreaking covid challenges over the past 2 years and is currently working on reinvigorating this iconic business as international tourism begins to return. Prior to the current role, Deb had gained more than 20 years experience in financial and commercial management with leadership roles across industries and around the globe including Virgin Active Australia, Vodafone Hutchison Australia, United Biscuits in London and PricewaterhouseCoopers as well as Australian listed telecommunications provider, Inabox Group.  Given her own passion for travel and adventure, Deb has embraced her move in to the tourism industry and sometimes pinches herself that she has a job that brings joy to so many people.