Suzanna Sheed (Chair) Suzanna has been a practising lawyer throughout her professional career. She has worked for the Commonwealth Attorney General's Department, the Northern Territory Department of Law, city and country law firms, and has operated her own legal practice in Shepparton since 1997.
She is an accredited Family Law Specialist with the Law Institute of Victoria and also practices in Native Title law throughout south-eastern Australia.
Suzanna is drawn to her rural background (southern Riverina 'the family farm' and northern Victoria). She has an intense interest in the future for rural Australia and was a joint author of the Rural Agenda, a policy statement for regional Victoria prepared in 1999.
Director RACV
Trustee of Goulburn Valley Hospital Foundation.
Chair, Goulburn Murray Leadership Program
Member of the FoodBowl Unlimited
Glenn Bewicke (FF’05) (Deputy Chair)
Glenn was
born and bred in Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula, has two teenage
children and is married to Diane.
Having graduated from the Fairley Leadership Program in 2005, he
joined the Fairley Board in February 2006, and is the present Chairman of the
Fairley Fellows Networking Committee.
Glenn completed a Bachelor of Engineering at Monash University in
1981, a Graduate Certificate of Engineering (Water Engineering) at Deakin
University in 1993 and a Graduate Diploma of Business Administration
(Technology Management) at Deakin in 1999.
Glenn’s career has seen him employed in the water industry for the
past 23 years, including 15 years at Goulburn Valley Water where he
currentlyholds the position of
Manager, Asset/Project Delivery.
Glenn’s community interests lie with supporting aged groups, youth
issues and sport.
Lisa McKenzie (FF’97) (Executive Director) Lisa hails from Shepparton, is married to David and has two teenage children. She was a graduate of the inaugural year of the Fairley Leadership Program in 1997.
Lisa worked for a decade as a journalist on publications including the Kyabram Free Press, the Geelong Advertiser, The Weekly Times, and The Country News (Editor) and has operated her own successful business, Shepparton public relations firm Impress.
This work brought her into contact with many of the region’s leaders across wide array of business and community sectors. Clients included Goulburn Broken CMA, G-M Water, GV Health, Tatura Milk and SPC.
Lisa is currently a member of the River Connect Steering Committee and the Worktrainers Board and she is a past member of a range of community organisations including as the Parents Club president and Board of Orrvale Primary School and as an inaugural member of the GV Community Fund Board.
David Abbey
David has been in legal practice in
regional Victoria for nearly thirty years and is the Managing Partner of the
Shepparton law firm, Riordan Legal. His particular interests within the Legal
Profession are law firm management, Family Law, Mediation and Alternative
Dispute Resolution.
As a Past President and Rotary
member for twenty years and as a graduate of the Williamson Community
Leadership Programme (now Leadership Victoria) David has a history of
community involvement, initially in Echuca-Moama and for the last ten years
in Shepparton.
In addition to his position on
the Board of the Fairley Leadership David is a current member of the
Rotary Club of Shepparton Central and Chair of the Royce & Jean Abbey
Agricultural Scholarship Committee. In his spare time David is a keen golfer
and cyclist.
Katrina Mohamed (FF’98)
Katrina is a Gooreng Gooreng woman from South East Queensland. She was born in Nambour (QLD), raised in Bundaberg (QLD) and moved to Shepparton (VIC) with her family in 1988. She draws her inspiration from her family including her grandparents and her mother’s six siblings who have all achieved university degrees and work for Indigenous communities in Queensland.
Katrina embarked on a career in journalism at the Shepparton News, after graduating Year 12 and in the industry for about 10 years working her way up from cadet journalist to Acting-Editor before resigning in 2001 to start a family.
Since 2001 Katrina has been working with the local Indigenous community in Shepparton/Mooroopna. She has applied her media and communication skills to several leading Indigenous organisations including the Rumbalara Football Netball Club, Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative, Academy of Sport Health and Education and Ganbina. She has supported and assisted in the development of several key initiatives that have strengthened the community including:
Croc Festival – Greater Shepparton 2007
Ganbina – Leadership, Driver Skills and Scholarship programs 2006-2008
Rumbalara Football Netball Club Munarra Leadership program 2004-2006
Common Fate Ltd
First Nations Foundation
The Long Walk
COAG – media strategy
She participated in the Fairley Leadership Program in 1998 and was also an Australia Day Ambassador that year. In 2005 she was a Victorian Representative to the National Indigenous Women’s Conference.
Katrina is passionate about Indigenous leadership, creating a stronger Indigenous community, helping youth realize their dreams and potential and in current role as a project officer operates a youth leadership program that aims to build future leaders for the community.
Her other Executive Committee roles have included: 1996-2008 GV Koori Women’s Resource Group 1999-2000 Rumbalara Football and Netball Club 2005-2008 Victorian Indigenous Leadership Network 2003-2008 Koori Resource and Information Centre
Carl Walters (FF’02)
Carl is the River Health Implementation Manager with The Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority. He is passionate about youth sport & development and improving the Goulburn Murray region. He graduated from the Fairley Leadership Program in 2002.
Paul Culpan (FF’07) Moving to Shepparton with his family in early 2004, Paul is highly committed to regional development through leadership and education in the Goulburn Murray region.
Paul is the CEO of Goulburn
Ovens Institute of TAFE, having taken over the reins when former CEO Peter Ryan (and Fairley Leadership founding Board Member) retired at the end of 2008. He was previously employed by Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE as their Executive Officer responsible for managing its specialist business division - Innoven. This division includes the Innoven Food Industry Centre, the Victorian government specialist centre for Food Processing education and training, the National Centre for Dairy Education - Australia (Processing), a joint venture between the Dairy Industry (Dairy Australia) and Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE, as well as Hospitality and Baking education and training across Northern Victoria.
He has over 20 years of commercial and industry experience working in marketing management and commercial roles in multinational companies managing Healthcare, Food and Household brands such as Panadol, Fountain, WhiteCrow, Gravox, WhiteKing and AmbiPur with companies such as Sara Lee Corporation, Glaxo SmithKline Beecham and Suntori Corporation.
He is currently studying a PHD in Education Leadership and Management at Deakin University, with his previous qualifications being a Masters in Education (Leadership) at RMIT and Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) at the University of Auckland.
Paul’s community interests include being a board member of Good News Counselling Service, a christian based counselling service, as well as involvement in a wide range of community education initiatives as part of his education leadership role with Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE.
Emma Dalton (FF’08)
Emma is a qualified Civil Engineer and has experience in the civil
construction industry, having worked in project management and operational
roles in Local Government for almost ten years. She spent 8 years as the Major Projects
Co-ordinator with City of Greater Shepparton before taking on the role of the
Manager of Public Works for Campaspe Shire in April 2008.
In the past Emma has been heavily involved
with the Goulburn Valley Equestrian Club, including taking on the role of President
for 2 years. The Tatura Rotary Club sponsored Emma to participate in the
Rotary International Group Study Exchange in 2007 and she intends to further
support the club in the future. On the
recommendation of colleagues, Emma completed the Fairley Leadership Program
in 2008.
Emma hopes to help community groups put
together submissions for infrastructure projects including dealing with funding
bodies, Councils to get concepts on the table, providing advice when
preparing to build, assistance with project management, etc.
Joanne McGregor (FF’08)
Joanne McGregor is a Health Information Manager and is currently
employed as the Chief Health Information Manager at Benalla and District
Memorial Hospital. Joanne also works at Goulburn Valley Health and Cobram
District Health as a Health Information Manager.
Since moving to the Goulburn Valley in 1998 Joanne has been involved in
a number of community groups, including the Shepparton Triathlon Club in
various roles since 2004 and the GV Health Murray to Moyne Cycle relay Team
Coordinator from 2003 – 2008.
Joanne completed the
Fairley Leadership Program in 2008. Joanne’s interests include
encouraging others to participate in active wellbeing by promoting health and
sport.
