Professor Margaret Abernethy holds the Sidney Myer Chair of Commerce and the Chair in Managerial Accounting at the University of Melbourne. As Dean since 2004, she has been an integral part of the implementation of the Melbourne Model at the University, which included the creation of the GSBE (formerly the Melbourne Graduate School of Management) for the provision of graduate business and economics education. In 2008 she was named Telstra Business Woman of the Year for the Community and Government sector in recognition of her contribution to higher education.

Diana Alarcón is Senior Economic Affairs Officer at the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and for the last two years she served as Cluster Leader for Inclusive Development at UNDP. Diana has extensive experience as a development economist through her work at the International Labour Organisation, the Inter-American Development Bank, UN DESA and UNDP. During a previous assignment at UNDP in 2002-2003, Diana contributed to shape UNDP’s work agenda on the Millennium Development Goals. Diana holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California and the emphasis of her publications has been on employment, poverty and inequality, mainly in the context of Latin America.

Dennis Altman is a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. This book, which has often been compared to Greer’s Female Eunuch and Singer’s Animal Liberation was the first serious analysis to emerge from the gay liberation movement, and was published in seven countries, with a readership which continues today. [In 2010 it was published in Japan] Since then Altman has written eleven books, exploring sexuality, politics and their inter-relationship in Australia, the United States and now globally. These include The Homosexualization of America; AIDS and the New Puritanism; Rehearsals for Change, a novel (The Comfort of Men) and memoirs (Defying Gravity). His book, Global Sex (Chicago U.P, 2001), has been translated into five languages, including Spanish, Turkish and Korean. Most recently he published Gore Vidal’s America (Polity) and Fifty First State. Altman is Professor of Politics and Director of the Institute for Human Security at LaTrobe University in Melbourne.

Channel Nine News in Brisbane. Formerly the female face of the ABC in Brisbane as a newsreader and host of the state’s only locally produced current affairs program, Stateline. Prior to that she was a a senior reporter at Channel 10.

James Batley joined AusAID in February 2011 as Deputy Director-General of the Asia Pacific and Program Enabling Group. Mr Batley has extensive experience working in the Pacific, having held positions in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Indonesia. He was also Australia High Commissioner to Solomon Islands, Deputy Leader of the regional Truce Monitoring Group (TMG) in Bougainville and Chief Negotiator of the TMG's successor, the Peace Monitoring Group. Mr Batley also served as Australia's senior diplomatic representative in Dili, East Timor, and was appointed Australian Ambassador to East Timor. Following this, Mr Batley was Australia's High Commissioner to Fiji. Mr Batley has held a range of positions in Canberra, most recently as First Assistant Secretary of the Consular, Public Diplomacy and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2002.

Bill Bell is Head of Child Protection at Save the Children UK where he heads a team delivering technical support, policy analysis, and advocacy on child protection issues. His team provides strategic directon and technical guidance to Save the Children UK’s programme of work on child protection that reaches 3.7 million children in over 40 countries, as well as supporting the organisation’s child protection response in emergencies. Prior to working at Save the Children Bill was a lecturer in Latin American Studies at various UK universities. Bill is a former Chair of the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and was Co-Convenor of the Child Rights Caucus set up to represent NGO views at the 2002 UN General Assembly Special Session on Children. He is the co-Chair of the Better Care Network and was previously Chair of the Child Rights Information Network.

Fiji Islander Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is known as a "suitcase radio" pioneer. As founder of the feminist-based non-government organisation femLINKPACIFIC, she has enabled women's voices and perspectives to be heard by political leaders using a simple mobile radio kit. Sharon has an acute interest in media and women, peace and security policy. She is Vice President of the National Council of Women in Fiji, in 2010 was appointed to the UN Civil Society Advisory Group on UNSCR1325/Women, Peace and Security, and in 2011 was appointed as co-chair of a Pacific Working Group for a Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security.

Dr Shirley Bowen is currently the Acting Executive Director of Fremantle Hospital and Health Service and previously acted as the North Metropolitan Area Chief Executive during the latter half of 2009. Dr Bowen originally trained as an Infectious Diseases and Sexual Health Physician which led her into the area of Public Health and an early career appointment as Chief Medical Officer of the ACT and Chair of the National Communicable Diseases Network. Following this appointment she returned to Western Australia to become the Director of Communicable Diseases overseeing infectious diseases outbreaks, immunisation and sexual health and blood borne diseases policy in Western Australia. Dr Bowen has a passion for community and home based medical care and following this auspiced the Western Australia Ambulatory Care Strategy which enabled an expansion of “hospital in the home” services. Subsequently she was a recipient of a Harkness Fellowship and attended the US to examine models of care for chronic diseases. For the last few years Dr Bowen has been managing in the hospital sector returning to Fremantle Hospital as the Director of Clinical Services and more latterly as the Executive Director. Dr Bowen has an ongoing interest in public health and infectious diseases. She remains committed to demonstrating healthy authentic leadership in a caring environment.

UNICEF’s Chief of Water, Environment and Sanitation, Ms Brocklehurst brings extensive experience in project design and management, and policy-level research and analysis. She has previously worked as a consultant, with the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Program, and as WaterAid’s Country Representative for Bangladesh. With expertise in both urban and rural contexts, Ms Brocklehurst has a strong focus on issues of access for poor communities, particularly for women and children.

Dr Laura Beth Bugg (PhD and MDiv, Harvard University; MURP, University of Sydney) is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Her areas of research include religion and urban planning, religion and social welfare and religion and migration. Her most recent project is a multi-site study of transnational Hindus and informal development aid in Gujarat, India. She is part of a multi-disciplinary group that has received grant funding to examine the creation of migrant spaces in Australia, and was recently awarded a fellowship to participate in an international consortium of Early Career Reserchers on transnational religion at the WZB Social Science Research Centre in Berlin.