The NCCARF Advisory Board
The operations of NCCARF are overseen by the NCCARF Advisory Board. The ten members of the Board are drawn from Federal and State government, business and community, as well as the NCCARF partnership and Director. Its role, as set out in the Board Charter, is to guide NCCARF through its current Operational Phase.The Board members comprise a cross-section of influential decision-makers representing local, state and federal governments, business and research.The board provides a responsive, flexible and independent governance structure to ensure NCCARF generates the information decision makers most need, and delivers it in the most effective manner.
The NCCARF Advisory Board is:
Ian Carruthers - Chair
Ian recently retired as Division Head in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency after 40 years in the Australian Public Service. He played key roles in negotiating the UN Climate Change Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and their implementation rules; in setting up Australia’s ability to measure emissions of greenhouse gases in all sectors (a notable case being the world-leading National Carbon Accounting System for the land sectors); in communication on climate change; and in framing national climate change response strategies, in concert with the States, Territories and local governments through COAG.
Chris Cocklin
Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Innovation, James Cook University Chris is a member of the Queensland Premier’s Advisory Council on Climate Change. He is a Director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre Ltd and has served as a Director of Greening Australia (Vic) Ltd and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. Professor Cocklin is a member of the International Scientific Advisory Council of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and a member of the Steering Committee of the Great Barrier Reef & Torres Strait Hub of the National Environmental Research Program. In 2004 he was appointed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a Lead Author of the Fourth Assessment Report.
Allan Jones
Chief Development Officer, Energy and Climate Change, City of Sydney.Prior to his appointment Allan was Chief Executive Officer of the London Climate Change Agency and prior to that Woking Borough Council’s Director of Thameswey Ltd. During his time at Woking, Allan reduced CO2 emission by 77.5% from 1990 levels to 2004 and undertook work on energy efficiency, tri-generation, renewable gases from waste, alternative fuels for transport and renewable energy.
Amanda McCluskey
Amanda McCluskey is a Senior Investment Manager and the Co-Head of Sustainable Funds with First State Stewart. Amanda is responsible for leading the Sustainable Funds team and supporting the investment strategy and research process.
Previously Amanda was Head of Responsible Investment at Colonial First State Global Asset Management and has had Funds Management experience at Portfolio Partners and BT Financial Group.
Amanda holds a Bachelor of Economics with Honours in International Relations from the University of Sydney. Amanda was the founding Deputy Chair of the Investor Group on Climate Change a is a non-executive director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility.
In recognition of her leadership, Amanda was named one of Sydney’s most influential people in 2009 and a Boss Young Executive of the Year in 2010 and a World Economic Forum Young Global leader in 2012.
Jean Palutikof
Director, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
Jean took up the role in October 2008, having previously managed the production of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report for Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability), while based at the UK Met Office. Prior to joining the Met Office, she was a Professor in the School of Environmental Sciences, and Director of the Climatic Research Unit, at the University of East Anglia, UK, where she worked from 1979 to 2004.
Ned Pankhurst
Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research) and Provost (Gold Coast), Griffith University
Ned has served as Pro Vice Chancellor (Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology) at Griffith University and prior to that at James Cook University. His research interests lie in the area of the biology of fishes includingthe reproductive physiology and endocrinology of fishes; broodstock management and induced spawning of fishes in aquaculture; and the effects of climate change on fish reproduction.
Jim Piper
Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Macquarie University
After completing his PhD in Atomic Physics at Otago University, Jim worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Laser Physics at Oxford University before joining Macquarie University in 1975. He was Director of the Australian Research Council Special Research Centre for Lasers and Applications and Dean of Information and Communications before taking up his current position. He has substantial experience with the Australian Research Council, including Research Training and Careers, and National and International Cooperation Committees. He is inventor or co-inventor of 12 awarded patents, and has had substantial experience in commercialisation of research-derived IP including by way of licensing and start-up companies.
Benedikte Jensen
First Assistant Secretary, Adaptation, Science and Communications Division, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency.
Benedikte joined the Department in October 2012 from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet where she was a Project Director in the Strategy and Delivery Division.
Benedikte has also held senior management roles in the New Zealand government, most recently as Deputy Secretary, Work Directions, for the New Zealand Department of Labour. She was seconded from the New Zealand Treasury to be the Economic and Financial Advisor to the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Helen Clark, during the Global Financial Crisis. Her management roles have spanned economic strategy, immigration policy, labour market regulation and tax policy. Benedikte was Research Director at the independent think tank, the New Zealand Institute, in 2009, and worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Country Analysis Unit during a sojourn in the United States in 2005. Benedikte has a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University.
Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee is currently the Manager of Impacts and Adaptation in the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and leads NSW policy development in Climate Change Adaptation. Chris has been working on climate change policy for the past three years. He has lead the development of methodologies and implementation of Integrated Regional Vulnerability Assessments in regional NSW, and the ongoing development of an Adaptation Strategy for metropolitan Sydney. He has had a leadership role in the development regional climate projections for NSW and driving end user engagement to deliver locally relevant information.
Chris has represented NSW on a range of inter-jurisdictional forums on Adaptation. He is currently the NSW representative to the Select Council on Climate Change Adaptation Working Group.
