Parker Centre

The Board of Directors

The Parker Centre’s Board is the Board of Parker Centre Limited, which manages the company pursuant to the company’s Constitution, the Commonwealth Agreement and the Participants Agreement. The Board currently has three Research Directors (nominated by Centre Research Participants), four Industry Directors (nominated by Centre Industry Participants) and three Independent Directors (including the Chair). Dr Steve Rogers, recently appointed as the Centre’s CEO, will also be a Director when he commences on 1 September 2008. Eight of the 11 Directors work in the minerals industry. Mr Michael McGilvray, the Parker Centre’s Finance & Centre Development Manager, also acts as Secretary to the Board and the Company Secretary. The Board Directors are:

Mr Julian Perkins, MSc, DIC, ACSM, FAusIMM, MAIME, MAICD (Chair)
Mr Jules Perkins is a Director and Principal Consultant of RRI Pty Ltd, a private company providing management, research and technology advisory services to the minerals industry. He was previously the Manager - Mining & Technology (Australia) for AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, one of the world's largest gold mining companies. His career includes underground mining engineering in South Africa before a move into mineral processing operations on the Zambian Copperbelt. He led the mineral processing research department of the Shell Company at its Arnhem Laboratory in the Netherlands for three years before moving into corporate management with Shell. He moved to Australia with Shell in 1989, where he was involved in the management of mining and metallurgical operations and technology. Similar roles followed with Acacia Resources Ltd and AngloGold. Mr Perkins was an Industry Director on the Boards of the Parker Centre, CRC Mining and the Australian Centre for Mining Environmental Research until March 2006 when he retired from AngloGold Ashanti. He is one of the Parker Centre Board's Independent Directors and also the Chair of the Board.
Dr Richard (Ted) Bearman, ACSM, BEng, MCSM, PhD, FIMMM, CEng
Dr Ted Bearman is the General Manager Innovation - Surface Mining & Ore Body Knowledge for Rio Tinto Ltd. He holds an Honours degree in mining engineering and a PhD in the area of comminution. His career started in the UK working on the design and manufacture of comminution and processing equipment, including the management of major projects into expert system control and innovative crusher designs. In 1994, he moved to Brisbane, Australia to join the Cooperative Research Centre for Mining Technology and Equipment (CMTE). He led a variety of rock breakage and processing projects at the CMTE, before joining Rio Tinto in 1997. During his career with Rio Tinto, Dr Bearman has worked in operational support, technical consulting and technology development for all the main Product Groups and at most major operations. He currently is the Chair of the Management Committee of the Rio Tinto Centre for Materials & Sensing in Mining, and joined the Parker Centre's Board as an Industry Director in July 2008.
Dr Bart Follink, BSc, MSc, PhD
Dr Bart Follink is Chief of CSIRO Minerals. Educated at Wageningen University in the Netherlands where he completed an MSc and a PhD in physical and colloid chemistry, he has worked in The Netherlands, Australia, Singapore and Japan. He has experience in senior research and general management roles, both in industry and the public sector. Prior to joining CSIRO in 2004, he worked at Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, most recently as General Development Manager of Mobile Display Systems, and earlier as Head of the Physical Chemistry Department and Senior Research Scientist with the company's Research Unit. His research with Royal Philips Electronics ranged from electrochemistry and rechargeable battery management to electrowetting and quantum effect physics. During his time with Philips, Dr Follink was seconded to Singapore's Gintic Institute, where he was Surface Technology Group Manager. Earlier in his career, he undertook research on various mineral processing R&D topics during a Research Fellowship with the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia. He is a Director on the Board of the CRC for Sustainable Resource Processing and a Honorary Adjunct Professor at the University of South Australia. Dr Follink is also a Research Director on the Parker Centre's Board.
Mr Tom Gibbons, BSc, FAusIMM, CP(Met)
Mr Tom Gibbons is the Group Metallurgist with Barrick Gold of Australia Ltd. He is the Chair of the Parker Centre Gold Technical Panel, and joined the Parker Centre's Board as an Industry Director in November 2007. Mr Gibbons has a strong background in technical and operational metallurgy, and has held several corporate roles in this capacity. He has specialised in gold, but has operational experience in base metals and other commodities. He has operating and project experience in Australia, South Africa, Fiji, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Argentina and Russia. In recent years, he has held positions as Chief/Principal Metallurgist for North Limited, Delta Gold Ltd and AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, providing such services as feasibility studies, project management and due diligence studies, as well as operational and technical support to operating sites.
Dr Ian Harrison, PhD
Dr Ian Harrison is the Director of R&D for Alcoa World Alumina's Global Refining System. He is based at Kwinana, Western Australia in the Technology Delivery Group which carries out all of the R&D for Alcoa's refining operations. He received his PhD in photoelectrochemistry from the University of Western Australia in 1985. Following a period of five years in the Kodak Research Laboratory in Victoria where he managed the Dispersion Technology Program, he took up a position in the (then) CSIRO Division of Mineral Products as Program Manager for Alumina Products. He subsequently joined the Alcoa Australia R&D laboratory in Kwinana where he specialised in sodium oxalate chemistry. Following a four-year term as Precipitation and Oxalate Manager at the Wagerup Alumina Refinery, he then was appointed to his present position within Alcoa. Dr Harrison is currently the Chairman of the Australian Alumina Industry Technical Panel and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. He was also the Chair of the Parker Centre Alumina Technical Panel until June 2007. He is an Industry Director on the Parker Centre's Board.
Mr Mario Pirone, BBus(Accounting), DipInsMgt, FCPA, ANZIIF (Fellow)
Mr Mario Pirone has 15 years experience in holding senior executive roles in large and complex organisations in the areas of insurance, funds management and financial services. He is currently Executive Director with corporate advisory firm Sky Capital Pty Ltd and a non-executive Director of SAS Global Ltd and the Elders Financial Services Group. He completed a Bachelor of Business degree (majoring in accounting) at Edith Cowan University (WA) in 1985 and a Graduate Diploma in Insurance Management at Macquarie University (NSW) in 1993. He is also a graduate of Harvard Business School 's Advanced Management Program. Mr Pirone was the Chief Executive Officer of CGU Insurance Ltd, one of Australia 's largest commercial underwriters, from 2004 to 2008. He had previously been Group Executive of IAG (Insurance Australia Group) Asset Management Pty Ltd from 2002-2004; IAG's Chief General Manager, Strategy from 1999-2002 and General Manager Investments & Company Secretary with SGIO Insurance from 1993-1998. He is a Fellow of CPA Australia and a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF). Mr Pirone joined the Parker Centre's Board as the Independent Director - Financial in August 2008.
Professor Jim Reynoldson, BSc(Hons), PhD
Professor Jim Reynoldson was appointed the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) at Murdoch University in 2007, after a five-year term as Executive Dean of Murdoch University’s Division of Health Sciences. He has worked at Murdoch University since 1982, and has held a number of managerial positions within Murdoch's Division of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences. He is a pharmacologist, and since gaining his PhD from Monash University in 1976, has worked in a diversity of areas from the central control of blood pressure (Baker Medical Research Institute) and analysis of the toxic cardiovascular effects of pesticides through to the development and testing of new compounds for Giardia, Cryptosporidium, malaria and sleeping sickness therapy. He has acted as a consultant to industry and semi-government bodies in basic pharmacology, veterinary pharmacology and veterinary and agricultural chemicals. Professor Reynoldson was on the interim Board of the Western Australian Biomedical Research Institute (WABRI) and was the Deputy Director of the Institute for Molecular Genetics and Animal Disease (IMGAD) from 1995 to 2001. He became one of the Board’s Research Directors in November 2007.
Dr Stephen Rogers, BSc, MSc, DIC, PhD, GAICD
Dr Steve Rogers will commence as the Parker Centre's CEO in September 2008. He was previously the CEO of another CRC, CRC LEME (Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration), from October 2005 until the end of June 2008 when CRC LEME ceased operations. He has a PhD in environmental microbiology from the University of Kent in the UK, a MSc in environmental technology from Imperial College London and a BSc Environmental Studies degree from Sunderland Polytechnic (UK). He also holds a Company Directors Course Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Dr Rogers has a research background in biogeochemistry and pioneered the application of bacterial molecular gene expressions to the study of environmental biogeochemical function. Prior to his appointment as CRC LEME's CEO, he was LEME's Program Leader for Environmental Applications of Regolith Science and a Principal Research Scientist with CSIRO Land and Water.
Dr Mark Schapper, PhD, FIEAust, FTSE
Dr Mark Schapper has run his own mining consultancy business since 1997 when he left Rio Tinto Ltd (formerly CRA Ltd) after many years in senior management. His career before joining the then CRA in 1980 included employment as a research engineer for Plessey Pacific Pty Ltd and as Research Manager and then Director of Research for RTZ Ore Sorters. Dr Schapper's positions during his subsequent employment with CRA/Rio Tinto included Managing Director, Advanced Technology Development; Vice President Corporate Strategy - Technical; Group Consultant for the Hamersley Iron Technical Project and Vice President Production Systems Analysis. Before leaving Rio Tinto in 1997, he headed a comprehensive review of the company's global technological resources. Dr Schapper has also served as a Monash University Council member, a member of the Australian Research Council and the Chairman of the Technical Advisory Panel of the CRC for Mining Technology and Equipment. He is the Board's Independent Director - Industry Knowledge.
Mr Anthony Tate, BSc, DipMet, GradDipAdmin
Mr Tony Tate is the Director, Research and Development at Curtin University of Technology. The first 15 years of his career were as a meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, followed by 13 years leading consultancies in oceanography and meteorology. In 1994, he was appointed Managing Director of South Metropolitan College of TAFE and in 1999 Executive Dean of the Division of Science and Engineering at Murdoch University. In 2001, he joined Curtin University as the Executive Director of the Australian Technology Network and then became the Director, Strategic Research and Development Projects, before taking up his current position. He is a Director of CMTE Development Ltd, the legal entity for CRCMining. Mr Tate is a Research Director on the Parker Centre’s Board.