After graduating in Commerce from the University of Western Australia, Warwick commenced his working career with international accounting practice Coopers and Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers).

Following further studies in property he pursued a successful career in property and finance which culminated in Warwick being Managing Director, CEO and a substantial shareholder in a national ASX listed company. He is a Certified Practising Accountant, Fellow of the Australian Property Institute and Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

After 18 years in a CEO role Warwick has focussed on a range of activities including Chairman of WA Opera, Council Member and Chair of Finance, National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), Member, Curtin Business School Advisory Board and Chair of Anglicare’s Winter Appeal Committee.

Warwick is a Past President and Life Member of the WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Past Chairman Australia Day Council (WA), Past State Chairman of Kids Helpline Australia, Past Chairman Housing Industry Forecasting Group, Past Council Member St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls, Past President and Life Member Urban Development Institute of Australia (WA) and Past Rear Commodore, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club.

He is a Life Governor, National Gallery of Australia Foundation and Benefactor, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation.

Mrs Holmes à Court assumed sole ownership of The Holmes à Court Collection and the Holmes à Court Gallery in December 2008. She is Chairman of the John Holland Group, one of Australia’s leading construction and engineering companies; the West Australian Symphony Orchestra; the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and the Urban Design Centre of WA.

She is also a Board Director of Vision 2020 Australia and Board Member of the Rio Tinto WA Future Fund, the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG).

Mrs Holmes à Court is a founding patron of the Black Swan Theatre Company and has received numerous awards recognising her contribution to the community and to business, the most prestigious being the Order of Australia.

Helen is the Partner in charge of KPMG’s Energy and Natural Resources Group and has over 20 years of corporate and commercial experience in managing accounting and law professional services firms, with a focus on the energy and natural resources for most of those years.

She has combined her focus in the resource sector with a love of the arts and is a Board member of the Perth Theatre Trust and immediate former Chairman of the Art Gallery of Western Australia – serving on the Board for over 6 years to July 2010. In addition Helen has recently Chaired the Cultural Chairs Group in Western Australia and was closely involved in transitioning into the new Chamber of Arts and Culture WA.

Helen is Chairman of the KPMG Art Advisory Board, which is leading the building of a contemporary art collection for the Perth office of KPMG. She is a former Council member of the “Friends of the Festival” (Perth International Art’s Festival) and holds several other Board and advisory positions in the community including the Advisory Board at UWA for Mining Energy and Natural Resources Law., the Board the Perth Theatre Trust and the Australian Energy Alliance.

Past roles in the community include Board member of the Petroleum Club of WA, a Council member for the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, State Chairman of the Australian Marketing Institute of WA and Board member of the Volunteer Task Force (WA) and the Australian Heart Foundation (WA).

Margaret Seares is a former Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at The University of Western Australia.She holds a PhD from UWA in Music, with her specialty being keyboard music of the 18th century. She has extensive experience in arts administration, having held the position of CEO with the Western Australian Department for the Arts (now the Department of Culture and the Arts) from 1995-7, and Chair of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory board., from 1997-2001. In addition to membership of the Australia Council, she was member of the Foreign Minister’s Australia International Cultural Council and a Director of the Australia Business Arts Foundation.

Since completion of her term as Chair of the Australia Council, she has been a member of a wide range of boards, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Arts Advisory Committee and the Expert Advisory Committee for Humanities & Creative Arts for the Australian Research Council. She is currently on the board of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, the Perth International Arts Festival, the Creative Industries Innovation Centre, and the Centre for Creative Industries.

As Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiian, Russell Gibbs oversees one of Australia’s largest privately owned property groups.

After several years teaching, Russell’s career within the property industry started in 1989 when he joined international real estate firm, Jones Lang Wootton.
At Jones Lang Wootton, over a period of seven years, he worked in a variety of roles including property management, leasing and sales. He was promoted to senior management early in his employment with the company.

In 1996, Russell was approached to join Hawaiian, an emerging privately owned property investment company, to oversee acquisitions and the asset management of the Group’s commercial property portfolio.

After four years in this role, Russell was promoted to Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hawaiian in March 2000.

Hawaiian has also formed substantial business partnerships with some of Australia’s leading companies including The Satterley Group and Brookfield Multiplex.

As well as placing importance on business relationships, Russell has ensured Hawaiian also values their role in working closely with a number of community groups, to promote the Arts, support Youth and assist those in need. Some of these community partners include Youth Focus, His Majesty’s Theatre Foundation, West Australian Opera and The Perth Wildcats.

Over the past 20 years, Russell has held numerous senior Board and committee positions in a variety of industries including property, tourism, education, the Arts and charity organisations.

Jude van der Merwe is a former Executive Director of Artsource, the peak membership body for the visual arts in Western Australia. She has worked in the arts sector for over twenty-five years, initially as a practitioner, and for the past eighteen years in arts management. Under-pinning her work is an absolute commitment to the key role that arts and culture play in developing a successful society.

An inaugural member of the WA Arts Federation and of the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA boards, Jude brings a wealth of knowledge about the sector. She contributes to the Heirisson Island Sculpture Park Committee and the Mundaring Arts Centre Board.

Jude developed and curated the first three Mine Owne Executioner self-portrait exhibitions for the Mundaring Art Centre. She was the inaugural art consultant for the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA and the East Metropolitan Regional Council, and has worked as a public art consultant for numerous local governments and private developers in Western Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Jane King is the Chief Executive Officer of the State Library of Western Australia Foundation. She is also a practising visual artist and curator, most recently exhibiting at Heathcote Gallery (Oct/Nov 2012). She is currently undertaking a Research Masters in Creative Arts/Cultural Heritage at Curtin on contemporary Western Australia visual arts practice and is a panellist for CANWA Catalyst Grants.

Jane has extensive commercial sector experience with organisations such as ANZ Bank, BankWest, and TSA Telco Group and holds degrees in Economics, Management and Fine Arts. Jane was previously the Executive Officer of Museums Australia (WA), the peak body for the museum and gallery sector and has held board positions with Football West and the WA History Council.

Jane is an inaugural Chamber board member and Treasurer of the Chamber, and previously a WA Arts Federation board member since 2007, and Treasurer since 2008.

I have been Chairman of Strut Dance since 2009, a period where delivery of targeted increased support for contemporary dance, through the Future Moves initiative, has had meaningful impact for artists and SME’s in the dance sector. To build to the bigger picture we need to ensure the little picture is coloured in too.

With a current focus to the transport and retail sectors , my background in the cultural sector encompasses policy, management and marketing with a range of organisations.

Cathcart has a passionate interest in the arts, culture and social justice issues and this is reflected in his personal and work history. He is a strong strategic thinker with many years of experience in working at a high level in politics and a wide range of community, social service and arts organisations.

Born and raised in Tasmania, Cathcart moved to Western Australia in 1992 to work as Personal Adviser to Greens WA Senator Christabel Chamarette. In 1996 was appointed as the founding Executive Director of the Community Housing Coalition of WA – the peak representative body for non-government, not-for-profit housing providers. In that role he was a member of many State and National committees and organisations including serving a 3 year term as Chairperson of the Community Housing Federation of Australia. In 2001 he
served on the Gallop Labor Government’s State Homelessness Task Force that inquired into and proposed an action plan for resolving homelessness in WA. During this time he served over3½ years on the Board of the WA Council of Social Service.

In 2002 he undertook organisation development work for SafeCare, a small Fremantle-based counseling service that works with families where child sexual abuse is an issue and then worked as a media and membership consultant for the WA Council of Social Service.

Since July 2005 Cathcart has been General Manager of the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Fremantle. He is currently a board member of the WA Arts Federation and the newly formed national Performing Arts Touring Alliance and most recently has accepted a position on the new Live Performance Australia Policy Committee.

In January 2010 Cathcart was appointed, as the art sector representative, to the Heathway Board and, subsequently, is also the Chairperson of Healthway’s Arts Sponsorship Committee.

Pilar Kasat is the Managing Director of Community Arts Network Western Australia (CAN WA). Pilar believes in the power of community arts to engage meaningfully with communities and to inspire people to have a voice. Under her leadership CAN WA has consolidated its current position as peak body for community arts and cultural development in WA and is a role model for community arts organisations across the country. Over the past five years, CAN WA has established two Aboriginal arts and culture hubs that deliver self-determined arts and culture program to the communities of the Wheatbelt, with a focus on Aboriginal employment which now reflects 40% of the CAN WA staff.

Pilar’s passion for the power of the arts in the community is informed by the experience of growing up in Chile under the Pinochet military regime. Pilar migrated to Australia as a political refugee in 1987 and was drawn to working with under represented communities to transform entrenched disadvantage.

Her career has included diverse roles as a community artist working with artforms such as filmmaking, theatre and sculpture, and in arts management on festival coordination and cultural planning. She is currently completing a Masters degree at Murdoch University that looks at the relationship between culture and sustainability.

Pilar has presented widely at conferences and critical discussions on themes such as arts and health, multiculturalism, cultural identity and global sustainability issues. Her recent appointments include the national ADC Cities Forum on enhancing livability, and the Community Cultural Development Leadership Forum organised by the Centre of Cultural Partnerships at the University of Melbourne. Her extensive travel through Asia, South and Central America, Europe and Australia continues to deepen her understanding of the relationship between culture and community healing and wellbeing.

I have worked in arts organisations for twenty years, and have served on numerous committees, locally and nationally, including as founding President of The WA Arts Federation, CACWA’s forerunner.

My professional interest is the role of organisations in assisting creative people to establish viable careers.

I hold a Bachelor of Commerce, and am currently pursuing an MBA, both from UWA.

As an arts manager under 30 years of age, Amber is one of the younger key players in the West Australian creative industries.

She has been the ARTRAGE Program Manager over the last seven years of the organisations radical growth. As the Fringe World Festival Associate Director, she has been a key contributor to the success of one of the most important new initiatives in the Western Australian cultural ecology – the Fringe World Festival.

Amber previously worked with the Department of Culture and the Arts, and the Blue Room Theatre, where she commenced her contributions to WA culture and the arts as a 16 year old volunteer trainee mentored by Jansis O’Hanlon.