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, the Centre's Managing Director, is also a Director. Six of the 11 current Directors are involved in the minerals industry, and another three undertake work related to this 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 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.
Professor David Doepel, BSC, BD(Hons), STM
Professor David Doepel is the Director of the Research Institute for Resource Technology at Murdoch University: the institute's focus include minerals, hydrocarbons, renewable energy and water. Professor Doepel has a BSc (biology/biochemistry) from Murdoch University, a Bachelor of Divinity (Hons) from Melbourne College of Divinity and a Master of Sacred Theology (STM), Pastoral Counseling from Boston University. He was a Uniting Church parish minister in Perth between 1984-1986. He subsequently worked in the US from 1989-2005 as President of three companies: Echobridge Inc (a multi-media and internet technology company focused on the life and social sciences), Web Efficacy Inc (an Internet application development company serving the medical device and biotechnology sectors) and Abel Gower Enterprises (a marketing and sales company promoting Australian products in the US). Following these positions, he was appointed the inaugural Regional Director, the Americas for the Western Australian Trade and Investment Office in 2005. He returned to Western Australia in 2008 to serve as a Principal Policy Adviser and speechwriter to the WA Premier for six months until joining Murdoch University in October 2008. Professor Doepel joined the Parker Centre's Board as a Research Director in May 2009.
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.
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 is an Industry Director on the Parker Centre's Board and is also the Chair of the Parker Centre Alumina Technical Panel.
Mr Andrew Jenkin, BEng, MBA
Mr Andrew Jenkin is the General Manager - Technology and Innovation at Rio Tinto Ltd. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Chemical) at the University of Melbourne in 1987, and undertook an MBA at Melbourne Business School from 1995-1996. Following employment as a Senior Research Engineer with Comalco Ltd (now Rio Tinto Auminium) from 1988-1996, he worked for WMC Resources Ltd between 1996-2005 in a number of strategy and operational management roles. These roles included Senior Business Analyst; Manager Strategy Development and e-business - Fertilisers; Plant Manager for HiFert Pty Ltd and then HiFert's General Manager - Operations. Mr Jenkin joined Rio Tinto in 2006 as the General Manager - Technology for Rio Tinto Iron Ore. He leads a team that has a mandate to source, assess and progress step-change operational technologies. In January 2009, his team transferred into Rio Tinto's corporate Technology & Innovation group. Mr Jenkin joined the Parker Centre's Board as an Industry Director in May 2009.
Dr John Kildea, BSc(Hons), PhD, MRACI
Dr John Kildea is the R&D Manager, Mining & Metals Group - Pacific with Nalco Australia Pty Ltd. This role involves setting up and managing Nalco's mining research operations within Australia. The focus of the group's operation is on the alumina industry but it also covers all aspects of general mining and minerals processing. Dr Kildea has a BSc with 1st Class Honours in physical and inorganic chemistry, and a PhD, from the University of Western Australia (UWA). After completing his PhD in 1988, he worked as a Ferdinand von Muller Bicentennial Research Fellow at the University of Tübingen, Germany for a year. He was subsequently employed as a Senior Tutor and then a Research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at UWA until he joined Nalco Australia in 1990. He held the positions of Research Chemist, Senior Research Chemist, Staff Scientist and Research Group Leader over the next ten years he was with Nalco, where his work focused on R&D of reagents and products for the minerals industry. In 2000 he moved to Convé Ltd (a company developing a variety of products and applications in the industrial, agricultural and medical fields) as Technical Manager. Dr Kildea re-joined Nalco Australia in 2006 to take up his current position. He has been a member of the Parker Centre Alumina Technical Panel since February 2008, and was elected as an Industry Director on the Centre's Board in May 2009.
Mr Hendrik Postma
Mr Harry Postma joined the Parker Centre's Board in November 2009 as the Independent Director - Financial. In a career spanning 40 years, he gained extensive accounting, finance, secretarial and senior general management experience during his employment with John Deere Ltd, SGIO Insurance Ltd and Bristile Ltd. He retired from Bristile Ltd in December 2004.
Dr Steve Rogers, BSc, MSc, DIC, PhD, GAICD
Dr Steve Rogers commenced as the Parker Centre's CEO (now known as the Managing Director) 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 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 Parker Centre Board's Independent Director - Industry Knowledge.
Dr Natalia Streltsova, PhD, MSc, MCIM
Dr Natalia Streltsova is Director Technology – Department of Mineral Projects Development with Vale. She has over 20 years experience in the minerals industry in Australia, Russia and Central Asia. Dr Streltsova was elected as an Industry Director on the Centre's Board in October 2009.
Mr Anthony Tate, BSc, DipMet, GradDipAdmin, GAICD
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 an alternate Director of CMTE Development Ltd, the legal entity for CRCMining. Mr Tate recently completed the Company Directors Course offered by the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). He is a Research Director on the Parker Centre's Board.