Anthony Mackay AM

Anthony Mackay AM is President & CEO of the Washington DC based National Center on Education and the Economy. He is also the moderator of the annual International Summit on the Teaching Profession and the Annual Global Education Industry Summit.

Anthony is Co-Chair of Learning Creates Australia, Deputy Chancellor at Swinburne University (Melbourne), and Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education.

He is the immediate past Chair of the Australian Council for Educational Research, and immediate past Deputy Chair of New Zealand’s Education Council. He was the Inaugural Chair of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and the Inaugural Deputy Chair of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

Anthony is an expert consultant to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Senior Fellow IBE UNESCO, and Council Member of Asia Society’s Center for Global Education.

Julie Sonnemann

Julie Sonnemann is the previous School Education Fellow at the Grattan Institute, a leading independent think tank in Australia. She has worked in senior research and policy advisory roles and has co-authored several high-profile reports on effective teaching and professional learning in schools.

Julie has studied high performing education systems in East Asia and consulted internationally to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Julie is an economist by training, with a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) and Master of Public Policy from The University of Melbourne.

Andrew Seeckts

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant with over 18 years experience. He currently works as the Chief Financial Accountant of Peninsula Grammar School on the Mornington Peninsula, and his previous role was as a Director at PwC in the Business Restructuring Team.

Andrew’s skills and experience including commercial negotiation, crisis management, cash flow and working capital optimisation, financial reporting and stakeholder management.

Andrew is a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and the Association of School Business Administrators. As well as being a Board member of The Song Room,  Andrew also serves on the organisation’s Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.

Jane Power

In May 2021, Jane Power became the Global Marketing and Digital Transformation Director for GenesisCare, a global leader in oncology services across US, Europe and Australia. Jane has more than 20 years’ experience in marketing, digital, loyalty and data analytics with a passion for building digital marketing capability and technical infrastructure to support growth.

Prior to her current role she was the Chief Customer Officer for Bupa’s Australian and New Zealand business, along with the Global Lead for Bupa’s brand.

Jane joined Bupa in 2013 from Suncorp Group where she held roles including Executive Manager of Direct Life and Executive Manager of Wealth Management and Direct Risk.

Ali McGregor

Ali McGregor is a Melbourne based singer and producer. She started her career as a Principal Soprano with Opera Australia, later diversifying onto the cabaret stage and was Artistic Director of Adelaide Cabaret Festival from 2016 to 2018.

She has won multiple Green Room Awards, a Helpmann Award, and has been nominated for an ARIA Award for Best Children’s Album. She has performed with Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras and is Creative Director of FLUXUS bringing new Australian work to the operatic stage, most notably the award winning Lorelei for Victorian Opera.

Hayley McQuire

Hayley McQuire is a proud Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton, Central Queensland and a passionate advocate for Indigenous social justice and First Nations-led education.

Hayley is co-founder and National Coordinator of the National Indigenous Youth Education Coalition and current Co-Chair of Learning Creates Australia. She is an inaugural Asia Pacific Obama Foundation Leader and board director of a number of non-profit organisations.

Hayley started her career in Indigenous community media, before moving into vocational training and national Indigenous affairs policy. While working and studying domestically, Hayley developed relationships globally as a member of the Youth Advocacy Group for the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative. She has experience bringing diverse groups of people together to improve education which she credits largely to her previous role with Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) working with national education coalitions in the Asia Pacific.

Dr Ricky Campbell-Allen

Dr Ricky Campbell-Allen is a researcher, facilitator and speaker. She has significant leadership experience in education, working across schools, systems and the not-for-profit sector in Australia, Canada and the United States.

Ricky is the Director of EdCapital, an education consultancy. Formerly, Ricky was the founding director of an advocacy institute – the Centre for New Public Education. She has held system leadership positions in a United States school district and spent seven years as a visual arts teacher and middle leader in Australian schools.  Ricky began her professional life as a sculptor.

Ricky holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Nottingham, was an R G Menzies Scholar at Harvard University, and holds a Master of Education from Harvard and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

Nicholas Conigrave

Nicholas Conigrave is an Advisor and business leader with over 35 years experience across 3 sectors and 4 countries. In the last 25 years he has worked with a variety of private and public sector organisations locally and globally, helping leaders to improve their organization performance.

As a partner of 6 Team Conditions Australia, he works with leaders, teams and enterprises to unleash the collaborative power of teams. He is founding member of the Global Education Leaders Partnership and consults to education systems of leading adaptive change to improve education outcomes for all.

Nicholas has a Masters in Business (Organisation change and Consulting) from RMIT, Graduate Diploma, Organisation Behaviour, Swinburne University, Bachelor Economics and Accounting Monash University and is a Graduate Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Matthew Deeble

Matthew is an executive and leader of ‘for purpose’ enterprises with wide experience in education and health and has expertise in innovation and technology. He is the General Manager, Impact & Engagement at Education Services Australia.

Initially trained as a commercial lawyer he co-led Australia’s first schools internet business (schoolsnet/myinternet) created some of the first carbon credits (Cool nrg), helped build the world’s leading systematic review software (Covidence) and was the founding Director of Australia’s first education evidence broker (Evidence for Learning) whilst at Social Ventures Australia. He is at the forefront of modern evidence systems as a non-executive Director the of Future Evidence Foundation.

Matthew has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Monash University.

Alice Gerlach

Alice has led development and marketing programs for some of Australia’s leading arts organisations, including The Australian Ballet, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, and the 2022 Ibsen Award winning, Back to Back Theatre for over 15 years.

Since 2015, Alice has been committed to increasing The Song Room’s revenue base and profile. She was appointed Chief Executive Officer in September, 2019. Alice has played a critical role in developing the organisation’s strategic approach to Arts Learning, leading the organisation successfully through the COVID-19 Pandemic, and building The Song Room’s capacity and growth agenda in order to meet its mission to provide educational equity for young Australians through the arts in schools.

She holds a Bachelor of Design (Cer. and Gl.) and a Bachelor of Communications. Alice is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and is a Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership alumni. She was previously a board member at Express Media, providing opportunities for young Australian writers.

Mary Brown

An experienced management, finance and operations professional, Mary Brown brings more than 20 years of experience in the corporate and not-for-profit sector to her role at The Song Room. She is focused on the efficient and effective use of resources to achieve The Song Room’s strategic objectives, ensuring the successful operation and future sustainability of the organisation.

Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Commerce, is a member of CPA Australia, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and a Cranlana alumni. Mary holds current and past experience as a non-executive director of NFP and community organisations.

Amelia Christo

Amelia holds a Bachelor of Laws (Murdoch University), a Graduate Diploma in Education (Edith Cowan University) and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theatre from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.

She has performed in many professional musicals – appearing in productions with Opera Australia, The Production Company, TEG Life Like Company and others.

Amelia co-created the StoryKids podcast – partnering with the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation to deliver five seasons. StoryKids was named as an Apple Podcast Editors Pick for 2021 and Amelia won the inaugural Spotify Rising Star Award at the Australian Podcast Awards that year.

She was the General Manager at Opera Scholars Australia (an emerging artist not-for-profit) for two years, driving the creation of their first Strategic Plan and Youth Outreach projects.

Amelia is a member of the National Executive of Mums4Refugees, coordinating bi-annual material aid projects with two other volunteer organisations – servicing a number of clients and agencies.