Advisory Committee

 

Former Australian of the Year (2013) Ita Buttrose AC, OBE and former Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). 

She created the ground-breaking Cleo magazine, was the youngest ever editor of The Australian Women’s Weekly, the first woman to ever edit an Australian metropolitan newspaper in Australia as Editor-in-Chief of the Sydney Daily & Sunday Telegraphs, and the first woman director of News Limited Australia. 

She has had a long interest in health and ageing issues and is one of Australia’s busiest health advocates. She is Chair of the Advisory Committee for the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA); Patron of Dementia Australia having served as National President from 2011-14; Patron of the Macular Disease Foundation since 2005, Emeritus Director of Arthritis Australia, an organisation she chaired from 2003- 2006. 

She chaired the Australian Mental Health Prize Advisory Group 2016-2020. She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her public advocacy as Chair of the National Advisory Committee on AIDS (NACAIDS) from 1984-88. Her committee spearheaded Australia’s national HIV/AIDS education program. She later chaired the AIDS Trust of Australia from 1990-94. 

In 2019, Ita was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for eminent service to the community through leadership in the media, the arts and the health sector, and as a role model. In 2018, she was conferred Doctor of the University - Honorary Medicine Doctorate by University of New South Wales for eminent service to health and for being an inspirational role model for aspiring women in business and those wanting to make a difference in society. In 2015, she was conferred an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Wollongong for her contribution to mental health and ageing. In 2014, Sydney’s Macquarie University conferred an Honorary Doctor of Letters on Ita in recognition of her contribution to the arts. 

She has written 11 very successful books including Eating for Eye Health – The Macular Degeneration Cookbook which she co-authored with Sydney chef, Vanessa Jones.

Joseph D’Agostino is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW and High Court of Australia, admitted to practice in 1994. He is the Principal of D’Agostino Solicitors and has extensive experience in Property Law and Commercial Litigation. In fact, many of his key clients from the very inception of the firm are still clients of Joseph today. 

Joseph lives and breathes property having strong ties to his property developer, investor and building clients. Joseph lives in the Sydney suburb of Hunters Hill with his wife Roseanna and their 3 children. 

After his father’s diagnosis with dementia Joseph has taken an interest in raising public awareness of raising awareness of dementia in order to find a cure for this terrible disease. 

Professor Kimberlie Dean was appointed to the Inaugural Chair in Forensic Mental Health at UNSW in 2011, a joint appointment with the Justice Health & Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN). She also holds a Clinical Academic appointment as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and is Academic Program Director for the Masters Forensic Mental Health. She is Head of the Discipline of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UNSW.

Kimberlie trained at the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital in London, completing clinical training in Forensic Psychiatry and a PhD in Epidemiological Psychiatry. Her research interests include understanding links between mental illness and offending behaviour including violence and testing interventions in mentally disorder offender samples. She is currently involved in a range of research projects involving survey methodology, data linkage and intervention evaluation.

John Gray is a senior corporate and commercial lawyer who has specialised in technology and intellectual property for 30 years. He is a partner in the Corporate and Commercial team at Hall & Wilcox. John’s expertise covers all legal issues associated with the use of technology in business and government, including licensing, privacy and data protection, copyright, branding and e-payments. John is a seasoned practitioner in the IT market and often acts for governments and financial institutions in relation to major IT projects. 

He is widely recognised for his expertise, having been ranked in the The Best Lawyers in Australia every year since 2009, noted as one of Business Today’s 2023 Top 10 Influential Information Technology Lawyers in Australia, being named Sydney's 'Lawyer of the Year' for Information Technology Law (2021 edition) and for Outsourcing Law (2018 edition). He is also a recommended lawyer in Doyle’s Guide to the Australian Legal Profession in their 2019 list of Leading Technology, Media and Telecommunications Lawyers, and is a ranked lawyer in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2020 for TMT: Information Technology.

He has acted for CHeBA as Deputy Chair of its original Advisory Committee and provided significant pro bono trademarking expertise for CHeBA, The Dementia Momentum and Wipeout Dementia.

Anita Jacoby AM is one of Australia’s most awarded television producers, a media executive, company director and author. 

As a broadcast journalist and producer, Anita worked with all the commercial networks, the ABC, SBS and Foxtel, on news and current affairs programs including 60 Minutes, Sunday, Today, and Witness. In the independent production sector, she managed Zapruder’s Other Films overseeing original productions such as Enough Rope with Andrew Denton and The Gruen Transfer, before being appointed Managing Director of ITV Studios Australia, the local operation for one of the world’s largest TV production companies. 

From 2013-2023, Anita was an Associate Member of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). 

A leading advocate for women in media and leadership, Anita currently chairs the ABC Advisory Council, co-chairs Women in Media, and is a non-executive director of Chief Executive Women (CEW), Documentary Australia, UK Board of the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Foundation, Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) and a member of the CHeBA Advisory Committee. 

Anita has previously been a board director of headspace, NSW Alzheimer’s Australia Advisory Board, ITV Studios Australia, Granada Productions, Australian Film Institute/Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts, The Funding Network, and the Arts Law Centre of Australia. 

Peter has been in investment banking and business for over forty years, much of that time as part of the Bankers Trust Australia group.  He has been a Director and/or Chairman of many public and private companies.  

As well as pursuing his own business interests, Peter continues his “second career” in the not-for-profit sector.  He was formerly Chairman, St Vincent’s Hospital (Sydney) Ltd and subsequently appointed inaugural Chairman of St Vincent’s and Mater Health Sydney.  He was the inaugural Chairman of the Riverview College Council.  He remains Chairman of the Black Dog Institute, The Ethics Centre and is a director of Tonic Health Media.

Dagmar has been a Senior Executive for over 35 including 11 years as the CEO and State Librarian of the State Library of NSW. She has also worked as an academic at University of Technology Sydney and in the government and private sector. She has been a director on not- for-profit Boards throughout her career. 

In 2022 she joined The Book Adviser as a consultant and business brand specialist, and prior to that she was the Director of the highly successful Chief Executive Women’s Leaders Program delivering innovative leadership programs in Australia and Asia from 2009-2021. During this period more than 1300 women graduated from this program.  

Dagmar was awarded an Order of Australia in 2004 and a Centenary Medal in 2003. The University of NSW awarded her a Doctor of Letters in 1999 and the Alumni Award for Arts/Law in 2006 and in 2023 included her in UNSW The Women’s Trail honouring women graduates. Since 2019 she has been an alumni mentor for the UNSW Business School. Dagmar is profiled in ‘A Fair Go, Portraits of the Australian Dream; fifty inspiring Australians’ by Wendy McCarthy AO. Focus Publishing, 1999.  

Dagmar has been on the NSW Alzheimer’s Australia Advisory Board, was the past Chair of CHeBA’s original Advisory Committee to 2018 and to 2015 was a Chair of the War Widows Guild of Australia. 

Professor Peter Schofield AO is a highly regarded executive leader with a distinguished career in health and medical research, having served in multiple senior leadership roles. As CEO and Executive Director of Neuroscience Research Australia  (NeuRA) from 2004 - 2022, he transformed the institute into a world-leading neuroscience research institute. Other recent executive leadership roles include serving as President of the Australasian Neuroscience Society, as Interim Director of the NHMRC National Institute for Dementia Research, as Joint Interim CEO of the Mindgardens Neuroscience Network and as CEO of the Schizophrenia Research Institute, all held concurrently with his NeuRA position. 

Peter obtained his PhD in genetics from the Australian National University in 1985 and was awarded a DSc from University of New South Wales in 1998 for his work on neurotransmitter receptors. He has worked in both the biotechnology industry and in medical research institutes in the US, Germany and Australia. Prior to his role at NeuRA, he held multiple NHMRC Research Fellowships and was Director of the Neurobiology Program at the Garvan Institute. Since 2000, he has been a Professor (Conjoint) in the Faculty of Health and Medicine at UNSW Sydney. 

Peter’s research interests focus on neurogenetic contributions to brain function, to psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and to neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s. He has published over 480 papers and holds several patents. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to medical and scientific research in the field of neuroscience, and to professional institutions.