Australian Employers Network on Disability

Chairman; John Bennett, Engineering Director, Benbro Electronics

John is one of the founders of Employers Making a Difference, Inc.  He is a Principal and Director of Engineering of Benbro Electronics Pty Ltd.  John has extensive expertise in the employment of people with a disability both within his business and as a board member of Shore Personnel.  He is also involved at the committee level across a range of community organisations and charitable foundations.

Secretary; Paul Cutrone, Partner, Sparke Helmore Lawyers

Paul Cutrone is a Partner at Sparke Helmore Lawyers.  Paul has over 15 years experience in occupational health and safety law.  Paul currently heads the occupational health and safety law team nationally at Sparke Helmore Lawyers.  Paul acts for and advises a large number of government and private sector corporations. 

Treasurer; Lindon Egan, CFO, IBM Australia & New Zealand Ltd

Lindon is Chief Finance Officer of IBM Business Consulting Services in Australia and New Zealand.   His responsibilities include budgeting, forecasting and financial management of IBM Australia's consulting and systems integration business.  Lindon has 15 years accounting and finance experience both within IBM and other companies.

Sally Herman, GM BT Advice, Westpac

Sally is the General Manager of BT Advice.  Sally first joined Westpac Institutional Bank in 1994 as Chief Manager, Corporate Relationships.  In 1997 she moved to New York with the bank to be the Country Head, Americas, in a role she held for two years.  When she returned to Australia in mid 1999 she managed the Private Bank until early 2000, when she left Westpac to establish an internet business.
Sally returned to Westpac as General Manager eBusiness in 2000.  In this role she led the growth in WBC internet banking channel to be the market leader, introducing a broad range of Consumer and Business applications.  During this time, more than 90% of WBC online customers told the bank they were satisfied or very satisfied with the service.
Sally is also the Westpac’s representative on Executive Boards: Westpac Lenders Mortgage Insurance, Westpac General Insurance Services Ltd, Westpac Equity Pty Ltd, Westpac Financial Consultants Limited and Investment Portfolio Services Pty Ltd.  Sally holds a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in history.  Sally is also the Bank’s sponsor of the Accessibility Action Plan.

Belinda Curtis, Diversity Professional, Qantas

Belinda is the Manager People Relations, Corporate Groups of Qantas Airways.  Her previous experience includes Human Resources/Organisational Development Manager at AMP Ltd where she led the development of that organisation’s Work and Family strategy. 
Belinda is an active participant in professional networks which include the National Diversity Think Tank and the NSW Equal Employment Opportunity Practitioners’ Association.  She has held Chair/President positions in both of these organisations.

Frank McManus, Vice President, McDonalds Australia

Frank is the Vice President and Director of People Resources for McDonalds Australia.  He is responsible for developing and guiding the company’s strategies on human resources, industrial relations, talent management, and executive development. 
Frank has 30 years experience with McDonalds both in Europe and Australia.  He started his career working in its restaurants in Germany. 

Peter Sullivan, Director Rights & Responsibilities, Department of Defence

Peter is the Director Rights and Responsibilities in the Department of Defence.  Peter worked for many years in microbiology, genetics and biochemistry working for the Australian National University, CSIRO and Intellectual Property Australia before discovering that there was more to life than the double helix. Peter has wide experience in the public sector having worked in Customs, Centrelink and the Australian Public Service Commission.  Peter is a qualified naturopath and is an inaugural Koomarri Champion encouraging organisations to employ people with an intellectual disability.  His current role is responsible for developing policy and strategies in the areas of diversity, equity, unacceptable behaviour and privacy for some 92 000 military and civilian personnel in the Department of Defence. 

Kevin Figueiredo, Group Safety, Health & Environment Manager, Group Risk & Safety, Woolworths Ltd

Kevin is the Group Safety, Health & Environment Manager of Woolworths Limited, one of Australia’s largest retailer employing over 180,000 employees. With over 3000 sites, Woolworths operates in Australia, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and Shanghi. Woolworths is self insured in all states and territories in Australia except the ACT. Its New Zealand operations are also self insured.
Kevin has over 10 years experience in safety management in Airport Safety, Food Manufacturing, Logistics and Retail Operations. Prior to Woolworths, Kevin worked for Goodman Fielder in Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Masters of Science in Safety Management from West Virginia University in the US and is a member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and the Safety Institute of Australia.

Ms Adrianne Kern, Managing Consultant, Text 100 Australia

Adrianne has eighteen years’ public relations and marketing communications experience across a number of industries. Her corporate experience has included developing strategies for clients such as IBM, the Commonwealth Bank, Telstra Mobile, AAPT, Optus, Mitsubishi Electric, Microsoft Corporation, Gartner and others.

Her award-winning corporate campaigns include: the 2006 PRIA National Gold Target Award for best “business to business” campaign for IBM; the 2005 PR Week Asia Award for best “corporate campaign” for AAPT; as well as regional and international awards for a Microsoft Australia Government lobbying campaign. She also led the locally and regionally award-winning launch of the Windows XP campaign for Microsoft Australia.

Adrianne has a combined BA (Hons) degree in English Literature and Theatre and a Grad. Dip in Communication.

Ms Inge Saris, Manager Diversity & Inclusion, Australian National University

Inge has experience in working around EEO in Europe where she was an Equal opportunities coordinator and a ministerial advisor in Belgium in the nineties. In her current role she develops and implements strategies to enhance staff diversity so that people with disability encounter less barriers and obstacles while applying for or working at the university.  

She has a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Criminology both from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium and a Postgraduate Diploma in Gender, Sexuality and Human Rights From Keele University, UK.

Mr Max Boudan, National Key Priority Groups Manager, MEGT Australian Apprenticeships Centre

Max has over 10 years experience in the recruitment industry and has extensive experience in assisting people with a disability in gaining meaningful employment outcomes. In addition, Max has five years experience within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) Sector. Max’s current role involves raising the profile of Australian Apprenticeships within the general community with a particular focus on increasing participation of people with a disability within Australian Apprenticeships.

Mr Richard Barnett, General Manager, Paxus

Richard is General Manager for Paxus, one of Australia’s largest national recruitment organisations for the IT sector. Paxus makes over 5,000 staff placements each year, for many of the country’s leading corporate and government organisations. Paxus has been a member of the Employers Network on Disability for 5 years and actively promotes the organisation’s aims internally and across Paxus’ wide client base. Richard has been with Paxus since 1988 in a variety of senior management roles, and currently manages a $150m annual recruitment budget. In late 2008 he also completed a 7 year period in an out-of-work-hours voluntary capacity in youth services, and is keen to combine that experience with his intimate knowledge of the Australian recruitment and IT sectors to encourage employment opportunities for candidates with a disability.