About Us
Board of Directors
Board of Directors & Office Holders
President: Steve Vamos
Vice-President: Alex Malley
Secretary: Vacant
Treasurer: Warwick Watkins, Director General, NSW Department of Lands
Directors: Tracey Fellows, Neil Emerson, Sally Herman
Chief Executive Officer (Acting): Dr. Christina Boedker
Steve Vamos
President of the Society for Knowledge Economics
Steve Vamos is the founding President of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE), a not for profit think tank established in 2005, supported by Westpac, Price Waterhouse Coopers, EDS, Microsoft, CPA Australia and the Australian Government Consultative Committee on Knowledge Capital.
Previously, from January 2007 to September 2008 Steve lead Worldwide Sales and International Operations for Microsoft Corporation's Online Services Group (OSG). He was responsible for the organization's international business in more than 30 countries around the world.
Steve was Vice President of Microsoft in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for the relationships with customers, governments, and business partners from 2003 to January 2007.
Between 1998 and 2002, Steve was Chief Executive Officer of ninemsn, the on line joint venture between Microsoft and Australian media industry leader Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.
Other roles Steve has held include, Vice President and Managing Director of Apple Computer Asia Pacific (1996 to 1998), Managing Director of Apple Computer Australia (1994 to 1995) and 14 years with IBM Australia in a number of sales, marketing and general management positions.
In 2004 and 2005, the Australian Financial Review included Steve in the top five listing of the most influential members of the Australian technology industry.
Steve holds a degree in Civil Engineering (with Honors) from the University of New South Wales.
Warwick Watkins
Treasurer
Warwick Watkins is the Director General of the Department of Lands, Surveyor General and Registrar General of NSW.
Warwick received a Dip Ag with Honours from Hawkesbury Agricultural College (now UWS) and gained further postgraduate degrees and diplomas from the University of New England, including a Masters Degree in Natural Resources. He also studied at the Harvard Business School in Boston, USA.
Positions Currently Held:
- Norfolk Island Surveyor General
- Pro Chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney
- President of the Board of Surveying and Spatial Information (BOSSI)
- Chair of the Geographical Names Board (GNB)
- Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC)
- Advisory Board Member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultra-High Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS)
- Deputy Chair of the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC SI)
- Deputy Chair of the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship Advisory Council
- Member, National Land and Water Resources Audit Advisory Council
- Member, Australian Government's Consultative Committee on Knowledge Capital
- Honorary Associate of the Graduate School of Government
- Fellow of the Australian Property Institute
- Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors of NSW
Previous Positions:
Commissioner, NSW Soil Conservation Service; Director General of the Department of Conservation and Land Management; Director General, State and Regional Development; Chief Executive Officer, Waterways Authority; and Director General of the Department of Information Technology and Management.
He also headed the NSW Electricity Reform Taskforce. He is a former Vice President of the World Association of Soil and Water Conservation and a former Deputy Commissioner of the Murray Darling Basin Commission; former Director of the CRC for Smart Internet Technology, former Director of Land and Water Australia and a past foundation Director of Landcare Australia Limited.
Tracey Fellows
Managing Director
Microsoft Australia
Tracey Fellows was appointed as Microsoft Australia's Managing Director in February 2007. She is also a board member of the Australian Information Industry Association and the Business Council of Australia.
With a staff of more than 750, she is responsible for meeting the needs of Microsoft's customers, which include governments, businesses and consumers, as well as the 14,000 partners and independent software vendors who produce leading edge technology solutions for Australian businesses based on Microsoft's platform.
Prior to her Managing Director role, Tracey was the Director of Business and Marketing Operations for Microsoft Australia and New Zealand, overseeing the subsidiary's corporate and product marketing functions.
Tracey joined Microsoft in September 2003 as Director, Server Business Group. Prior to this, she held a variety of senior positions at Dell and IBM, including General Manager of Dell's Home and Small, Medium Business Division. During her 14 years in IBM, Tracey worked in a range of Enterprise sales and leadership roles, and she was General Manager of IBM's PC Division.
Tracey emigrated to Australia from Canada during her high school years and has more than 20 years experience in the Australian IT industry. She holds a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University and a postgraduate Diploma of Banking Management from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.
Tracey lives in Sydney with her husband Ian and 4-year-old son Jake.
Neil Emerson
Vice President
Application Services APJ, EDS, an HP Company
In the role of Vice President of Applications Services, Field Operations in Asia Pacific and Japan, Neil has overall leadership responsibility for all applications activities in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. This includes partnering with the regional leadership and account teams to support our existing Applications Services business and drive revenue growth and quality in the region.
Before joining EDS, Neil spent 14 years with IBM Global Services and held numerous positions of increasing leadership responsibility. Neil worked as senior executive for multiple industry segments and several large IBM global accounts, where he supported account and project transitions, led large pursuits, and remediated troubled accounts.
Before IBM, Neil was senior manager of Technology Planning at National Australia Bank in Victoria; executive manager of operations planning at Commonwealth Bank of Australia; and held multiple leadership positions at International Computers Ltd Victoria, Australia.
Neil graduated from Monash University with a diploma in electronic engineering. He enjoys spending time with his family who are with him in Singapore where he is currently based.
Sally Herman
General Manager
Sustainability, Brand and Communications, Westpac Banking Corporations
Sally Herman is the General Manager of Sustainability, Brand and Communications, with direct responsibility for all media, Government and community relations, as well as the Westpac corporate reputation and internal communications.
Sally first joined Westpac in 1994 as Chief Manager, Corporate Relationships. In 1997, she moved to New York with the Bank to be the Country Head, Americas, the first time a woman had held a country manager role for the Bank.
Sally returned to Australia in 1999 to lead the Private Bank. She left the bank briefly in 2000 to start up an Internet business, returning later that year to Westpac, as General Manager eBusiness, responsible for the development of Internet Banking. She then joined the BT Executive Team in July 2005, heading up the Advice business before moving into her current role.
Her experience before joining Westpac includes four years at Macquarie Bank as an Associate Director in the capital markets and private banking groups, three years at Colonial State Bank in the Corporate and Financial Institutions banking group and three years at Bain & Co (now Deutsche Bank) in the corporate advisory group.
Sally is on the Board of the Australian Employers Network on Disability as well as the Society for Knowledge Economics and is the Chairman for the Sydney Children's Hospital Gold Dinner. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in history.
She has a nine year old son, Sam, and enjoys the theatre and the arts, reading, jogging, skiing and yoga.
Dr. Christina Boedker
Chief Executive Officer (Acting)
Christina has over 12 years of research and industry experience with UK, US and Australian organisations. She has held positions as Department Head in operations and marketing management, and headed consulting and research projects on intangible resources, risk management, knowledge management and business strategy with organisations such as Minter Ellison, Carlson Companies, the Department of Finance, LexisNexis, Microsoft, the NSW Department of Lands, CSC, Westpac Banking Corporation, and the Centre for the Management of Knowledge Capital.
Christina has been awarded the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2006 for her research on intellectual capital. She also holds the UK Advertising Standards Authority Award; the Mindshift Consulting Group Prize; Saunders Harris’ Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement; the Carlson Companies’ Award; MGSM’s Award for Competitive Intelligence; and MGSM’s Award for Human Resources Management.
Christina is the acting CEO of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE) and the author of the Australian Guiding Principles on Extended Performance Management and other policy and industry research papers prepared in collaboration with SKE stakeholders. Since 2005, she has assisted the SKE Board and Corporate Members bring together industry practitioners, associations, policy makers and others to advance research into better workplace practices in the areas of innovation, measuring intangibles, leadership, culture and management practice. Christina is also Lecturer in Charge of three post-graduate subjects, Managing Intangible Resources, Managing Agile Organisations, and Financial Accounting, at the University of New South Wales.
Christina has published in the Journal of Human Resource Costing Accounting, the AAAJ, the CPA, and the Journal of Intellectual Capital. She is a member of the advisory editorial board of the Journal of Human Resources Costing and Accounting, and also previously the Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change. She has presented papers on intellectual capital at Parliament House in Melbourne during the 2005 GAP Congress on Knowledge Capital; the 2006 ICAA Conference; the 2005 EAA Conference; and the 2004 Congress on Intellectual Capital in Helsinki.
