Board of Directors

Board of Directors & Office Holders

President & CEO: Steve Vamos

Treasurer: Warwick Watkins

Directors: Tracey Fellows, Sally Herman, David Caspari, Merran Dawson

Director Delegates: Professor Richard Petty, Professor Alec Cameron

Steve Vamos

President & CEO of the Society for Knowledge Economics

Steve Vamos is the founding President of the Society for Knowledge Economics (SKE).

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.

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.

Sally Herman

General Manager
Corporate Affairs & Sustainability

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.

David Caspari

Vice-President
HP Enterprise Services, South Pacific

David Caspari is vice president for HP Enterprise Services, South Pacific. In this role, Caspari is responsible for business growth in HP's core areas of infrastructure services, business process outsourcing and application solutions across Australia and New Zealand. Caspari reports directly to Kevin Jones, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Japan.

Caspari was previously Vice-President for Sales in Technology Solutions Group (Asia-Pacific & Japan) at HP, where he led a team serving customers from the enterprise and public sectors across 14 countries in the region. Caspari's responsibilities included driving the growth agenda, initiating and executing strategies to secure market leadership, building on sales capabilities, and developing a team focused on sales excellence.

Caspari joined HP in August 2007 from Cisco Systems where he was a senior member of the Asia Pacific leadership team. At Cisco, Caspari was Vice-President of Service Provider Sales and Operations for Asia Pacific, responsible for driving the company's overall business with Service Providers. In 2006, Caspari also assumed leadership of India as President of Cisco India.

Prior to Cisco Systems, Caspari worked for Nortel, Bay Networks and Alcatel. At Nortel, Caspari was Vice-President, Wireline Networks, Asia Pacific and led Nortel's overall Voice, Data, Broadband and Convergence business for the region. During his time in Nortel, he held various other roles in services, sales, strategy and operations.

He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, and holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia. He completed additional postgraduate studies with the Australian Graduate School of Management and the Richard Ivey School of Business (University of Western Ontario, Canada).

Caspari is an Australian citizen and now lives in Sydney, having previously lived for extended periods in China, India and South Korea. He is married with two children.

Merran Dawson

Director

Merran is a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers who specialises in the provision of risk advisory services, predominantly in the financial services sector. As well as experience in the Australian market Merran has spent two years in the North American market.

She has held numerous leadership roles in PwC including leading the internal audit practice, the risk and control practice and innovation. She is currently a member of PwC's Leadership Council and is a member of PwC's Corporate Responsibility Advisory Council.

She is married with two children and supports charities focused on disadvantaged children, particularly in indigenous communities.

Professor Richard Petty

Director Delegate

Richard is Professor and Associate Dean at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management where he teaches finance, accounting and economics. He is a Partner in Enright, Scott and Associates, a strategy consulting firm with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, and in that capacity Richard frequently consults to leading companies and to governments on a range of economic and financial matters. Professor Petty is also President and Chairman of the Board of CPA Australia; Chairman of the judging panel for Hong Kong’s Best Annual Reporting Awards, and Chairman of an investment company that is headquartered in Hong Kong but has interests throughout South East Asia, North America and in Australia. Richard also serves on several other Company Boards as well as on the Boards of several charitable foundations.

Richard commenced his career as an analyst in the late 1980’s. Since then he has advised a broad range of multinational firms, and several governments, on financial and strategic issues. After spending some time at Ernst & Young (Sydney), Richard established and then sold several profitable companies. Originally from Sydney, Richard has been based in Hong Kong for more than 12 years.

Richard appears regularly in the media and has been interviewed and profiled by channels including CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald, Business Review Weekly, CFO Magazine, The Australian, The South China Morning Post, Business Spectator, The Standard, Hong Kong Economic Journal, China Daily and many others.

Richard has been a faculty member at the University of New South Wales, the University of Sydney, the University of Hong Kong, the Australian Graduate School of Management and the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Richard is on the Management Board of the Australian Accounting Review, and on the Editorial Board of The Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, The International Journal of Accounting Literature and The Journal of Intellectual Capital. Richard has authored over 100 academic outputs and is a frequent keynote speaker on topics relating to the economy, the accounting profession, corporate governance, and financial management. His academic work has appeared in The Australian Accounting Review, The Journal of Management Accounting Research, The Journal of Intellectual Capital and The Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal.

Richard has since 1993 developed a large number of corporate and executive education programs for leading companies throughout the world. He is the recipient of several awards for excellence in tertiary and corporate and executive education.

Richard was awarded the University Medal for his undergraduate studies. He graduated with first class honors in Accounting and Finance (B. Bus, UWS). He holds a Masters degree (with honors) in Commerce from The University of New South Wales, and a Ph.D. from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Richard is a qualified CPA (Fellow), and also holds the CMA and MFP professional designations.

Professor Alec Cameron

Director Delegate

Professor Cameron is the inaugural Dean of the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales. He was appointed to his role in August 2006, having been responsible for managing the integration of the Australian Graduate School of Management with the Faculty of Commerce and Economics, leading to the creation of the Australian School of Business. He previously held the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources and Infrastructure) at UNSW since September 2003, with responsibility for the planning and management of the University's financial, property and technology resources to support the achievement of the University's mission.

Prior to this role, he held senior corporate positions in the IT and telecommunications industry, including National Manager for Products and Infrastructure Solutions at Sun Microsystems Australia, General Manager of the Telstra Account at Alcatel Australia, Director of Technology at COMindico, and several General Manager roles at Telstra, including in Telstra Research Laboratories.

Previously, Alec was the inaugural Program Manager for the Australian Graduate School of Engineering Innovation, an advanced engineering centre jointly established by Australian government, university and corporate sponsors. This followed a period overseas, which comprised postgraduate study at Oxford University and four years at the Research Laboratories of Philips Electronics in New York. He has also worked with the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) in Sydney.

A Rhodes Scholar, Alec holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Science and a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering with First Class Honours and the University Medal from the University of Sydney, a Doctor of Philosophy degree in robotics from Oxford University, and a Master of Science degree in the Management of Technology from Polytechnic University, New York. Alec is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and serves as a director on the boards of Uniseed Ltd and NewSouth Innovations Pty Ltd, and is a member of the Council of Knox Grammar School.

A former first grade Rugby player, Alec represented Combined Australian Universities and received a Blue in Rugby from Oxford University.

Alec is married with two children, aged 16 and 14.