Rev Dr Stephen Robinson

Stephen Robinson works across Australia and the Pacific, supporting faith leaders and congregations in response to disasters, and developing disaster recovery chaplaincy networks through AVECA and UnitingWorld. Forming an interest in crisis response as a NSW RFS member and chaplain (from 1996 to 2014), his doctoral research “Ministry in Disaster Settings” gathered lessons from faith leaders affected by major Australian disasters. In 2022 Stephen travelled on a Churchill Fellowship to NZ, the USA and England studying “Faith Leaders’ Responses to Violent Attacks on Houses of Worship”.

He lives in Kiama on the NSW South Coast with his wife, Jenny.

Dr Mark Crossweller

Mark has 38 years of experience in crisis, national security, and emergency management, leading major strategic reform in governance, strategy, policy, operations, and capability. Between 2012-2020 Mark was responsible for briefing the Prime Minister and Cabinet on disaster management and providing strategic policy advice on climate and disaster risk reduction and resilience. Mark is now the Founder and Director of Ethical Intelligence; Senior Advisor and Luminary to KPMG advising on disaster management, resilience, and leadership ethics; and Associate Professor of Practice in National Security Leadership at the National Security College - Australian National University. Mark’s ongoing research interest is in relational leadership ethics in national security and disaster management.

Darren Hill

With a client book of Fortune 500 and ASX Top-20 companies, Darren Hill is one of Australia's most in-demand strategists whose culture change programs have rolled out across PepsiCo, Laminex, REST super, Suncorp Bank and the Australian Federal Government to name a few.

Rather than simply teach theory to his client base, Darren has also founded and built a company, Pragmatic Thinking, that listed 3 consecutive years on the Australian Financial Review FAST 100 : so it’s probably fair to say Darren knows a thing or two about business success and the role that leadership and culture play in achieving it.

Darren's a best-selling author whose work has appeared regularly across the Fairfax Group (including the SMH & The Age), News Limited and is a return guest on The Today Show and Sky Business News for his views on business leadership and workplace culture.

Equally comfortable delivering keynotes to thousands of people, deep strategy work at a board level or delivering world-class virtual experiences, Darren’s clients consistently describe him as grounded and refreshingly real – something that’s reflected by his ongoing re-engagement rate with clients nearing 100%.

Darren was inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame being awarded the 2018 Educator of the Year…an impressive feat given his handwriting is harder to read than Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Alison Moad

An emergency management specialist working with both NSW Rural Fire Service, NSW State Emergency Service previously and Transport for NSW currently. Crisis and Response Management for both the 2009 Black Saturday Bushfires in Victoria, 2015 January Fires in South Australia, 2016 & 2017 Floods in Lismore. 2019/20 Bushfire Season and compounding flood events in 2020, 2021 & 2022. In 2021 I led the TfNSW Disaster Recovery Taskforce across the whole of NSW, pivoting to focus in July 2022 – on Northern NSW and advocating to get improved outcomes with stakeholder agencies for the local government transport network.

Cameron Edgar ASM JP

Cameron has been a Paramedic since 1994. He has worked as an Intensive Care Paramedic, Critical Care Paramedic, Helicopter Paramedic and member of the NSW Special Casualty Access Team, having responded to cliff, canyon & remote area incidents and provided support to Police tactical units, including as a member of the Papal, US Presidential and US Vice-Presidential Medical Teams during Australian visits. He has deployed as a Medical Strike Team Leader to National disasters such as the 2009 Victorian ‘Black Saturday’ Bushfires. Cameron’s current role sees him hold responsibility for state-wide ambulance rescue helicopter operations, with seven bases and 340 staff. For the last three years, Cameron has been the Incident Management Team Commander for the Aeromedical response to the 2019 Bushfires, COVID-19 and recent NSW Floods. Cameron was awarded the Ambulance Service Medal in 2019 and has recently completed a Master of Leadership specialising in high-performance teams."

Dr Claire Cooper

Claire has recently joined Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) in the role of Director Policy and Planning. ESTA provides Victoria’s 24-hour emergency call-taking and dispatch services for police, fire, ambulance and VICSES. This new role oversees the areas of corporate planning, strategy, investment, reform implementation, reviews and inquiries.

Claire has worked in the emergency management sector for over 15 years, starting off as a PhD researcher with the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre. Her PhD research applied human factors principles and organizational psychology concepts to decision making and incident management in bushfire emergencies. Claire then joined Country Fire Authority, working on multi-agency common doctrine, incident management training and leadership programs.

Claire moved to Emergency Management Victoria in 2014, where she established complex multi agency policy and operational projects, including the development of Victoria’s first lessons management framework and establishing the operational function of State Lessons and Evaluation. More recently, she has overseen a variety of reform programs and projects including the Learning Review of the June 2021 Extreme Weather Event, Operating Model Review Implementation, State Control Centre Workforce Implementation and Australian Fire Danger Rating System Implementation.

Claire is passionate about people, continuous improvement and organisational culture. During her career in the emergency management sector, she has typically taken on opportunities to design and direct complex projects that deliver tangible benefits to the sector and the community. Claire has been involved in operational response, led reviews and facilitated post-incident debriefing of many large and small emergency events. This has afforded her a unique perspective into the emergency management system and the factors that support successful organisational change in this sector.

Des Hosie

Des Hosie is a career firefighter and 40-year veteran of the NZ Fire Service and Fire and Emergency New Zealand.

Currently the National Operations Advisor for Safety, Continuous Improvement and Lessons Management based in Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s National Headquarters - Des has extensive operational firefighting and rescue experience.

Through the AFAC partnership, Des has contributed as a lessons management practitioner on a number of major reviews in both New Zealand and Australia.

He leads a Lessons Management Community of Practice in New Zealand called LessoNZ. Its function is to share lessons from incidents and exercises across the All of Government, Emergency Services, Defence, and key infrastructure sectors.

Joe Buffone PSM

Joe is the Deputy Coordinator General of the Emergency Management and Response Group of the newly formed National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). He previously held the position of Director General of Emergency Management Australia (EMA) since October 2020 having been with EMA since December 2016 and had held multiple roles within the organisation. As Deputy Coordinator General, Joe is responsible for overseeing the Australian Government National Situation Room and Coordination of Australian Government Disaster Assistance (non-financial).

Joe has more than 30 years’ experience in security and disaster management and has held a number of key senior positions.

This year, he was appointed co-lead of the Exotic Animal Diseases Preparedness Joint Interagency Taskforce to undertake planning and preparedness across federal government, jurisdictions and industry in response to a possible incursion of foot and mouth disease or lumpy skin disease. Joe was deployed to Victoria in 2020 to establish and lead the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre to coordinate the response to COVID outbreaks in the Aged Care sector. Joe led the centre for 3 months until the situation was stabilised and transitioned to recovery.

Joe has held several senior executive positions over the past 15 years, such as Chief Officer of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, Deputy Emergency Management Commissioner Victoria, Deputy Emergency Services Commissioner, Victoria.

Joe has had direct involvement in coordinating and responding to major emergencies in Australia and internationally, at the Strategic, Operational and Tactical levels. Some examples are; Leading the 2022 Floods response, Victorian Aged Care Response Centre 2020, Black Summer 2019-20, Far North Queensland Floods 2018-19, Cyclone Debbie 2017, Tasmanian Bushfires 2016, Wye River Bushfires 2016, Nepal Earth Quake 2015, Somerton Building Waste Fire 2015, Hazelwood Mine Fire 2014, NSW Bushfires 2014, 2011 Victorian Floods and 2009 Black Saturday Fires in Victoria. He was deployed internationally to support an AUSMAT team deployment post the 2017 earthquake. Joe has also served in the Australian Defence Force.

Joe holds a Masters of Business, Graduate Diploma in Disaster Management, and a Diploma in Security Management.

Brett Aimers

Associate Professor Brett Aimers provides expert advice to governments, the private sector and academia relating to disaster management and resilience; including contributions to the World Health Organisation and British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Brett has an extensive disaster and resilience background, including working with government and agencies in preparing for, responding to and recovering from major disruptive events, including a lead agency role throughout COVID-19.

Associate Professor Aimers is the immediate past Chief Professional for St John Ambulance Australia and is sought to speak on disaster management and resilience concepts.

Amanda Leck GAICD

Amanda Leck is the Deputy Commissioner - Capability and Risk with Emergency Management Victoria. She is responsible for building capability across the emergency management sector for incident management, marine search and rescue as well as community and volunteer capability. Her portfolio also includes risk planning at the State, Regional and Local level and critical infrastructure resilience.

Prior to that Amanda was the Executive Director of the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) where she led a program of work on behalf of the Commonwealth Government to support a disaster resilient Australia.

Amanda is a strategic leader with an established reputation across the fire and emergency management sector, with more than 25 years’ experience in the industry. She is a community development and engagement professional with a proven ability to provide leadership and strategic direction in the planning, implementation and delivery of programs, in a complex environment. Amanda has previously worked with CFA Victoria, local government, and the national fire and emergency services council, AFAC.

Amanda has strong stakeholder engagement and relationship management skills, with demonstrated experience in establishing partnerships, building and sustaining networks, and influencing outcomes with fire and emergency services agencies and all levels of government. This includes excellent collaboration and facilitation skills, with a strong focus on achieving outcomes and impact.

Dr Steph Rotarangi

Steph’s early career was in forestry and firefighting, in other words anything to be outdoors. Steph was the Principal Rural Fire Officer for the Otago region in New Zealand before moving to Australia in 2016 to take on the role of Chief Fire Officer for Victoria’s public lands. More recently she was the Deputy Chief Fire Officer for the CFA and Deputy Emergency Management Commissioner for Victoria. With three children, husband Ants, and Covid-19 making everyone homesick, Steph and her family returned to New Zealand in 2020 where she took up the role of the Chief Executive of Napier City Council. More recently she has returned to her roots in Fire and Emergency New Zealand to undertake the role of Deputy Chief Executive and rank of Deputy National Commander.

Oliver Costello

Oliver Costello is a Bundjalung man from the northern rivers of NSW, with a diverse range of personal and professional expertise in culturally connected stewardship of Country. He is currently focused on First Nations knowledge and practice in caring for Country through regenerative cultural practices that support preparedness, recovery and resilience in relation to fire, floods and storms. He has extensive experience working within the Indigenous land and sea management, conservation and cultural heritage management sectors and has been particularly interested in empowering Aboriginal perspectives on fire, threatened and culturally significant species. Oliver set up the Firesticks initiative in 2009 and was a founding Director of the Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation in 2018. He currently serves as a director of the Jagun Alliance Aboriginal Corporation and is the Vice President of the Northern Rivers Fire and Biodiversity Consortium. Oliver is on the Centre's Board and is a member of the Centre's Reconciliation Working Group.