Board Member Profiles
Brad Webb, President
Brad Webb is the Managing Director of BM Webb Group, based in Townsville. BM Webb Group started in 1979 as a transport company. BM Webb Group now specialises in the construction and leasing of large Industrial Warehouses, and has branched out in the past 10 years to include a Concrete Plant, Quarry, Precast Panel Factory, Transport Fleet and Civil Division.
Brad helped establish and is still heavily involved in Food Relief NQ, and BM Webb Group is proud to support many other local charities. Brad was born in Townsville and still resides there with his wife, Robyn, and three daughters. Brad was also named in Sunday Mail's "Queensland's Top 100 Rich List".
Professor Sandra Harding, Vice President
B Sc (Hons), M Pub Admin, PhD, FAICD, FAIM
Professor Sandra Harding is Vice Chancellor and President of James Cook University. Her key scholarly interests reside around the sociology of work, industry and organisation. She has a keen professional interest in education policy and management and has undertaken a wide variety of external roles within the higher education sector and the business community.
She is currently the Chair of the Innovative Research Universities (IRU) Alliance and a Board Member of Universities Australia. She has also served on a number of review panels and accreditation committees within the Higher Education Sector. Professor Harding is also a Director of the Australian Institute of Commercialisation Pty Ltd, Townsville Enterprise Limited, Advance Cairns, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, TropLinks Inc, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, and the Queensland Premier’s Smart State Council.
Debra Burden, Treasurer
Debra Burden is an experienced business manager who understands the importance of community based enterprises. Her career has been largely shaped by her extensive involvement in the member owned credit union movement throughout Australia.
Debra’s background includes having held five separate Chief Executive Officer roles including, the Chief Executive Officer role of Queensland Country Credit Union and Queensland Country Health Fund. Railways Credit Union was awarded the 2006 Australian Human Resource Institute National People Management Award, whilst Debra held the role of Chief Executive Officer.
She is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Managers, has a degree in Accounting and Business Management and was named the 2005 Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award (Corporate Sector) and won the 2007 Queensland Business Review Women in Business Award.
Debra is the General Manager of ASX listed, Townsville based, dental company 1300SMILES Ltd and is the Chair of tec-nq (formerly known as the Australian Technical College of North Queensland).
Debra joined the Board of TropLinks in December 2009, as she has a particular interest in tropical sustainability and believes that North Queensland has the potential to be a world leader in tropical environmental services.
Dr Ian Watson
BScAg, PhD
Dr Ian Watson is based in Townsville with the CSIRO and has a background in agricultural science and rangeland ecology. He is Program Leader for CSIRO's Tropical and Arid Systems Program (with staff in Townsville, Atherton, Cairns, Darwin and Alice Springs), as well as being the CSIRO Site Leader in Townsville and Director of the Tropical Landscapes Joint Venture (TLJV), a partnership between James Cook University and CSIRO.
The TLJV draws on the expertise of JCU and CSIRO scientists to improve natural resource science and knowledge brokering in the tropics.
Mario Pennisi
Mario is the Chief Executive Officer of Life Sciences Queensland Ltd (LSQ), and has extensive experience in the operational aspects of industry organisations - being the CEO of QCTN (a Qld based entity with over 100 members). Prior to his activities with industry organisations he was involved in the management of laboratory medicine services - with particular focus on business development. In order to service international trials in the Asia-Pacific region, in the mid 1990s, in affiliation with US and German-based organisations, he established the first Queensland-based 'central laboratory'. He was also a founding member of Queensland's first dedicated Contract Research Organisation.
Later, as National Business Development Manager for an Australian multinational pharmaceutical/diagnostics company, he collaborated with numerous international sponsors and service providers to achieve significant clinical trials growth in Australia. This involvement provided Mario with the insight into opportunities across all aspects of the life sciences sector - and the realisation of the genuine world class standard of Queensland's stakeholders
Mario believes that the comprehensive range of high quality services available, together with the relatively untapped potential of our capabilities across the state - but particularly in the tropics, provide many exciting opportunities for the further development of knowledge based industries in Queensland.
Dr Geoff Garrett
Dr Geoff Garrett AO took up the position of Queensland Chief Scientist in mid January 2011. In his role as Queensland Chief Scientist, Dr Garrett acts as a champion for tropical science, R&D and innovation opportunities. Dr Garrett has been a member of the Board of TropLinks for the past year.
Previously, Dr Garrett was the CEO of CSIRO for eight years. He is a recipient of the Centenary Medal for services to Australian science, and served on the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in Australia for eight years. He is also a founder of the Global Research Alliance, a group which brings together some of the world's most significant R&D organisations, spanning five continents.
Ian McLeod
Mr Ian McLeod, has been a vocational education and training expert and a consultant to industry on training and safety management developments since 1993. In 2009 the MTO Group Pty Ltd was formed of which Ian McLeod is the Managing Director. This group of four companies now provides accredited qualifications in Australia and overseas.
Ian has extensive experience internationally including very remote areas in South America, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands, PNG and Indonesia. Ian is work fluent in Bahasa Indonesian, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands Pidgin.
Ian is a sector council member of Forestworks, and Transport and Logistics Industry Skills Councils and voluntarily provides expert industry and educational advice to industry and Government.
Ian was chairman of Australian Tropical Expertise Consortium (ATEC) which prepares businesses for export readiness and matches businesses within the Tropics to business opportunities. Ian is a member of the Chamber of Commerce Cairns, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Port Moresby and Lae PNG.
As a member of Troplinks, Ian's primary goal is to develop a globally competitive tropical economy by establishing Australia as a world leader in tropical science, knowledge and innovation. He has been very active in the TropLinks Education and Training Industry Group and is a Steering Committee Member.
Keith Noble
Keith is an agricultural scientist who has worked throughout Australia in Natural Resource Management, culminating in declaration of the Ngaanyatjarra Indigenous Protected Area - Australia's largest terrestrial protected area. Keith is also a Certified Practising Planner, Fellow of the Australian institute of Company Directors, and MSc in Tropical Environmental Management from JCU. He is a partner in Townsville-based Insideout Architects P/L, and operates a tropical fruit farm near Tully, where he established the industry's first central packing shed (Australian Tropical Fruits P/L) and a grower-owned marketing company (Australian Tropical Marketing P/L) exporting to Japan.
Keith has served two terms on the board of Growcom -horticulture's peak industry body, and is Industry Director for Terrain NRM - the wet tropics regional NRM body; as well as a Regional Council Review Panel member for the Queensland Government.
Previously Keith has chaired: the Tully Murray Floodplain program (a collaborative industry/CSIRO/government project delivering water quality outcomes), the agricultural industry contribution to FNQ2031, Qld Farmer's Federation Environment Committee; and served on the Qld Farmbis State Planning Group, the Qld Vegetation Management Planning Group, and two Ministerial Regional Communities forums. Recently Keith managed Growcom's Banana Waste to Energy project which has opportunities for extension into the carbon farming market.
Keith is committed to appropriate regional development for north Queensland - adopting a responsive person-centred approach that delivers desirable outcomes for residents whilst attracting new residents, without destroying the region's intrinsic values, and avoiding the mistakes made elsewhere.
