The Environmental Defenders Office is governed by a skills based Board of directors with a commitment to the mission of the organisation.
The Board provides strategic direction, oversees the organisation’s performance and compliance and ensures the effective governance, culture and leadership of the company.
EDO is also led by our First Nations Strategic Advisory Committee, a representative national group of people from six different First Nations/Countries, who bring their lived experiences and knowledges of being a First Nations person to guide EDO in its areas of work which involve First Nations peoples and communities, including internally. The Committee is highly respected within EDO.
Board
Brent Wallace – Chair
Brent has over 40 years’ consulting experience in consumer-led advocacy firms, from leading an internationally recognised multi-national advertising agency to establishing his own brand development & strategy insights business and then finally co-creating a globally recognised strategy & insight consulting firm working with many of Australia’s and South East Asia’s blue chip companies and their leadership teams.
Brent holds a Bachelor of Commerce, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD), and was most recently a Non Executive Director & Chairman of the Board of Blackmores Ltd (ASX Top 200).
Brent has also been an advisory board director of a software as a service customer experience (CX) technology start-up and is a current Governor and past Board Director of the global environmental group – WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature).
Deb Nesbitt
Deb Nesbitt is a former EDO ACT Deputy and Public Officer. She completed a Master of International Law at ANU focused Indigenous human rights and graduated with BA sociology and communications from the University of Wollongong. Deb has been a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery for around 25 years reporting on environment and climate law and policy, finance and tax for Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg Industry. As a former reporter, broadcaster and executive producer for ABC NT, Radio National (Law Report, Science Show, Health Report), Radio Australia, Triple and the Parliamentary Bureau she reported on social justice, law and foreign affairs. She’s provided communications and public affairs advice for government and non-government organisations and taught political communications and broadcast journalism at the University of Canberra. Deb is a Founding Member of the Australian Asia-Pacific Media Initiative and a former director of the Australian Union of Students and University of Wollongong Union Board.
Ganur Maynard
Ganur is a Kamilaroi man and a lawyer practising in the Northern Territory.
He has published research into the requirements for Indigenous peoples’ free, prior and informed consent to renewable energy development with the Australian National University and in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities and Energy Research & Social Science. He has also presented this research to conferences hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Technology Sydney and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
Prior to moving to Darwin, Ganur was an Associate at the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne and, before that, he worked as a solicitor in class actions and environmental law at a top tier law firm in Sydney.
Ganur holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales, each with First Class Honours and several academic prizes, including the University Medal in History and first place in Environmental Law.
Lesley Hughes
Lesley Hughes is Professor Emerita in biology at Macquarie University. Her principal research interests have been the impacts of climate change on species and ecosystems and the implications for conservation. She is a former Lead Author in the IPCC’s 4th and 5th Assessment Report, a former federal Climate Commissioner, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and a Councillor and Director of the Climate Council of Australia. She has recently been appointed as a member of the Climate Change Authority.
Phil Vernon
Phil is an experienced financial services CEO and was the Managing Director of Australian Ethical Super for over 9 years. Phil brings to the Board skills in superannuation, investments, sustainable finance, strategy, and business transformation. Phil is also a not-for-profit company director focused on climate change and positive environmental solutions. In addition to the Environmental Defenders Office, Phil currently sits on the Board of Beyond Zero Emissions.
Phil is passionate about transforming the corporate model and financial system to better serve society and the planet.
Sarah Southwell
Sarah Southwell’s most recent role was with Graincorp as General Manager, Human Resources, and she has worked in People & Culture roles in Australia and the United Kingdom for 25 years. Sarah brings experience in corporate leadership in international ASX listed matrixed businesses and across multiple sectors including Commodity Supply Chain, Financial Services, Media and Not-For-Profit. Sarah’s skills include leadership coaching and development, transformation, employee experience, and strategic planning alongside her technical HR expertise. Sarah is currently a representative on the GrainCorp Reconciliation Action Planning Committee and has formerly held a position with the GrainCorp Community Fund Committee. She holds undergraduate degrees in Commerce from the University of Wollongong and a Master of Commerce (Human Resources) also from the University of Wollongong. Sarah is a proud volunteer as a Youth Mentor.
Scott Franks
Scott Franks is the Business Development Manager for Yamari Ochre Signs and Owner and CEO of Tocomwall Pty Limited, a supply nation certified company specialising in heritage and environment (based in Sydney) that has national reach. Over the years Scott has held community positions such as Chairperson of the Wonnarua Local Aboriginals Lands Council in the Hunter valley, Education and Cell Watch committee member for Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation and been a member of the NSW Rural Fire Service for 20 years. The NSW Land & Environment Court has recognised Scott as an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Specialist, due to his extensive in-field Aboriginal archaeological field survey, excavation and site interpretation experience. With project management experience spanning straightforward due diligence work to complex environmental projects for State and Federal Government Departments, Scott has been instrumental in developing and driving outcomes for boarder Aboriginal community outcomes and employment. Born and raised on the lands of the Wonnarua (People from the Hills and Plains) in the Hunter Valley NSW, Scott is now based on Dharawal country (Sutherland Shire NSW).
Talei Richards
Talei Richards is a highly skilled lawyer and policy expert with substantial experience as an executive, policy advisor and manager with International Women’s Development Agency, Youth Activating Youth Inc., Multicultural Affairs Office with Department of Premier & Cabinet Victoria, Australian Red Cross and in her new role as Director of Community Development with the Scanlon Foundation.
Talei has innovated new opportunities by establishing her own consultancy business and co-founding a Pasefika-led not for profit organisation the Village Response Collective Inc. Her legal career was as a criminal defence lawyer with Victoria Legal Aid and general civil law practitioner within the Victorian community legal sector. Areas of professional expertise include public policy, strategic planning and innovation, project management and community engagement. She utilises a decolonial lens in all aspects of her work to promote community-led solutions for social and environmental justice, all forms of equality.
Talei is a Mother and proud Indigenous Fijian/i-Taukei woman, born in Fiji but raised in Australia. She is driven by her familial and cultural heritage, connections to the broader Pasefika diaspora across the region and a commitment to facilitating Indigenous community voices to influence positive change at all levels.
The Hon Alan Wilson KC
Alan practised at the Queensland Bar, taking silk in 1999. In 2001 he was appointed to the District Court where, until 2009, he managed the State’s Planning and Environment Court. He was then appointed to the Supreme Court and to the presidency of Queensland’s new super tribunal, QCAT, where he served until 2013. He retired from the Supreme Court in 2015.
His admiration, and affection, for the EDO sprang from his judicial experience and the regular appearance of its highly competent and principled lawyers in the P&E Court, representing parties who would otherwise be voiceless.
In retirement he has conducted various reviews and enquiries for the State and Federal governments – into Queensland’s anti-bikie and whistleblowing legislation and, most recently, the AAT/ART restructure.
He is an Adjunct Professor and teaches advanced legal writing at Griffith Law School, and chairs the School’s Advisory Committee. He is also undertaking post-graduate studies in English literature.
Key Staff
Rachel Walmsley (Interim CEO)
Rachel has been with EDO for over two decades and is among the Country’s finest environmental policy and law reform thinkers.
She has written and presented extensive submissions and discussion papers, and advised governments, parliamentary inquiries and NGOs on a range of environmental law issues including climate policy, natural resource management and biodiversity laws.
Rachel is listed in Best Lawyers Australia in the climate change and environmental & planning law categories.
She is a member of government and non-government advisory committees on biodiversity, natural resource and environment issues, a legal advisor to the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, legal advisor to the Places You Love alliance on national law reform, and guest lectures in environmental law.
Rachel was a member of the Australian Panel of Experts on Environmental Law (APEEL) and is a member of IUCN – World Commission on Environmental Law. Rachel has also been a Co-Consulting Editor of the Australian Environment Review and Chair of the Australian Committee for IUCN.
Rachel has acted in the previous CEO’s shoes on numerous occasions during his tenure, holds widespread respect in the organisation, and the EDO team & Board are grateful to Rachel for this interim arrangement.
