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CIT Board

Canberra Institute of Technology is a territory authority established under the Canberra Institute of Technology Act 1987 (CIT Act).

The CIT Act was amended in 2014 to replace the CIT Advisory Council with a governing board to better enable CIT "to meet the twin objectives of operating as a public provider of vocational education and training and operating with greater commercial and entrepreneurial focus in an increasingly contestable training marketplace" (Minister for Education and Training, ACT Legislative Assembly, 30 October 2014).

Governance of territory authorities is regulated by the Financial Management Act 1996 (FMA) and many elements of the operation of a governing board established under territory legislation are provided for in the FMA.

The CIT Board commenced operation on 1 July 2015.

The functions of the CIT Board are prescribed in section 77 of the FMA and are:

  • setting CIT policies and strategies
  • governing CIT consistently with the authority's establishing Act and other relevant legislation
  • ensuring, as far as practicable, that CIT operates in a proper, effective and efficient way
  • ensuring, as far as practicable, that CIT complies with applicable governmental policies (if any).

Membership of the CIT Board consists of at least nine and no more than 11 members, and is defined in sections 10-12 of the CIT Act. Part 9 of the FMA prescribes the requirements for appointment to the CIT Board and all appointments are made under section 11 of the CIT Act by the ACT Government Minister for Tertiary Education. Membership of the CIT Board includes an elected CIT student and staff member. Current members are listed below.

The CIT Chief Executive Officer is a member of the CIT Board in accordance with section 80 (4) of the FMA.

The inaugural meeting of the CIT Board was held on 29 July 2015. At the meeting the CIT Board agreed to publish a communique following each Board meeting as a public summary of matters considered by the CIT Board. The communiques are available below.

The CIT Board will be meeting a minimum of five times per year and may establish sub-committees from time-to-time to assist the Board to deal with complex or specialised issues more effectively.

If you would like more information about the Board or to raise issues on any matters, you can contact the CIT Board directly by email: CITBoard@cit.edu.au.

Membership of the CIT Board
Kate-Lundy

Ms Kate Lundy
Chair

Kate retired as the Senator for the ACT on 24 March 2015, having been first elected to the Federal Parliament in 1996. This included roles as the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister Assisting for the Digital Economy, Minister for Sport, and Minister Assisting for Industry and innovation.

Kate is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Kate is actively involved in a number of community and sporting clubs which reflect her broad range of interests. She is Board Chair of the Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, a director of Electro Optic Systems, the National Youth Science Forum, the Geospatial Council of Australia and a director of the NRMA.

Kate has been recognised with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the Australian National University for her contribution to policy and advocacy in the information and communication technology sector and is an Honorary Associate Professor at the ANU Research School of Physics.

Kate brings to the CIT Board her interest and experience in skills development, social, economic and cultural policy issues and governance.

Natalie-Howson

Ms Natalie Howson
Deputy Chair

Natalie has 25 years’ experience in senior executive roles in the state and federal public service. She started her working life as a teacher in Queensland. Natalie has established and lead a commonwealth statutory authority and been Director General of two ACT Government Directorates – Education and Community Services. Natalie now chairs the board of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute, and the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) Solutions company, and is the Deputy Chair of the CIT. In 2023 Natalie was appointed to the National School Funding Agreement Reference Group by the Minister for Education, Jason Clare. Natalie is a member of the ACT Reconciliation Council and has supported Aboriginal -led projects to develop the governance and professional capability of their people.

Natalie held senior executive roles in several Australian Government agencies including Defence, the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare Australia), and Centrelink. She was recognised throughout her career for skills in public sector leadership, policy development in social services, housing and education, stakeholder collaboration, effective change management and service delivery. Natalie has established successful partnerships in many diverse sectors and has been a member of international and national policy and regulatory committees. She represented the Australian government, advocating for global change in the fight against drugs in sport in the lead up to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

In 2021 Natalie completed Research Master’s degree in International Education Leadership.

Christine-Robertson

Ms Christine Robertson
Interim CEO
Canberra Institute of Technology

Christine has held a wide range of tertiary teaching and senior executive leadership roles in public and private Education and Training Institutes and dual sector Universities across Australia. Her recent roles include Executive General Manager Education and Training at Open Colleges, one of Australia's oldest and largest providers of fully online VET qualifications, and Executive Director Quality and Performance at Holmesglen, one of Australia's most innovative TAFE Institutes. Before this she was the Pro Vice-Chancellor Vocational Education and Training at Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory, with responsibility for building a strong and skilled workforce to service major regional infrastructure projects and community and economic development needs across the Northern Territory and South East Asia.

Christine is a Director of the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN) and the VET Development Centre, a member of the ASQA Stakeholder Liaison Group, and a former Deputy Chair of TAFE Directors Australia.

Prof-Francis-Shannon

Prof Francis Shannon
Member

Professor Frances Shannon PhD had a successful 25-year career in biomedical research before moving into senior leadership roles in higher education, first as Director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University (ANU) and then as Deputy Vice Chancellor Research at the University of Canberra (UC). She provided national leadership in the medical research field through involvement in the NHMRC and as President of a number of national societies. As Deputy Vice Chancellor Research at UC, she devised and implemented strategies that led to growth in both the quality and quantity of research and UC achieving an international research ranking as a young university for the first time.

Since retiring from full time work in higher education in 2018, Professor Shannon has been a Senior Associate with the Melbourne-based academic consulting firm Outside Opinion, providing strategic and funding advice to the higher education and research sectors. She is an experienced Board member in the higher education and research domains as well as in secondary education (Deputy Chair, Canberra Girls Grammer School Board). She is currently Chair of the Governing Board for the Phenomics Translation Initiative at the ANU - a Medical Research Future Fund project. As an Emeritus Professor at both the ANU and UC, Professor Shannon continues to contribute to academic life in Canberra.

Tahlia-Rose Vanissum

Tahlia-Rose Vanissum
Member

Tahlia-Rose Vanissum is a proud Woppaburra woman who works across her community and the public sector to improve outcomes for First Nations women, girls and people with disability. She is currently undertaking a Master of Culture, Health, and Medicine at the Australian National University (ANU).

Tahlia-Rose’s is passionate about building understandings and identification of intersectional and systemic discrimination through truth-telling. Tahlia-Rose is passionate about inclusive, respectful and reciprocal leadership that amplifies the strengths of cultural ways of being by building the capability of others to identify and address discrimination across national frameworks, jurisdictional priorities and institutional settings.

Tahlia-Rose is the Chair of the ACT Government’s Ministerial Advisory Council on Women, Sisters in Spirit Aboriginal Corporation, and a Board Director at CIT’s wholly-owned subsidiary CIT Solutions.

In her spare time, Tahlia-Rose is completing the AICD’s Company Directors Course as a 2023 Disability Leadership Scholar. Tahlia-Rose also holds vocational qualifications in government, business, leadership, and human resources management and a Bachelor of Criminology from the ANU.

Paul McGlone

Mr Paul McGlone
Member

Paul is the leader of one of the Australian Capital Territory's largest private employers, Seeing Machines, and has extensive experience in logistics, supply chain management and technology driven businesses developed over several decades. Paul held roles as CEO of Force Corp, an Elevated Work Platforms business, and Group Vice President of Strategy, Planning and Innovation at Australian listed company Brambles, a global supplier of pallets, containers and returnable crates across a range of industries.

He has extensive experience as a public and subsidiary company board member including appointment to sub-committees ranging from Risk and Audit, Remuneration, People and Culture, and Corporate Actions.

Paul holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of New England and a Masters in Applied Business Research from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Keith Brown

Mr Keith Brown
Staff Representative

Keith Brown has been working at the Canberra Institute of Technology for over thirteen years. He started teaching Work Health and Safety before moving to the High Risk section to deliver within the Global Wind Organisation safety program. He has gone on to take on the positions of Senior Teacher within the High Risk section and most recently the Head of Department for Construction and High Risk.

Keith has a long history with the CIT starting in 1988 as an apprentice mechanic and further study in various vocational disciplines including Business, Marketing, Human resources and Work Health and Safety.

Keith’s experience spans many years working in ACT and Commonwealth Government agencies primarily in the fields of safety and emergency management. He has also worked for several private organisations in Human Resources and work health and safety. Keith is also an active volunteer with the ACT Rural Fire Service and St John Ambulance ACT.

Keith has a Bachelor of Adult and Vocational Education and is passionate about the impact that access to education has on people lives.

Roselyn Jackson

Ms Roslyn Jackson
Member

Roslyn is a Fellow Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and has held Senior Executive positions within the Australian Government and the private sector.

Roslyn worked as an Academic in both the TAFE and University sectors before establishing her own training company where she specialised in Public Financial Management (government accounting). Roslyn has spent 30 years educating both Commonwealth and State Public Servants about their financial responsibilities and compliance with relevant financial management laws and policies. Roslyn is a very experienced facilitator, presenting internationally across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Roslyn has over 25 years’ experience as a Non-Executive Director. She is an experienced Board and Audit Committee Chair and has held positions predominantly in the not-for-profit health and education sectors.

Jane Madden

Ms Jane Madden
Member

Jane Madden, Principal of Brickfielder Insights, is a highly experienced senior executive and Chair/board director with an international track record of leading large teams in multiple geographies, cultures, and languages.

With over thirty years in Australia’s public sector and diplomatic service, Jane has held numerous senior leadership roles, including Deputy Secretary at Australia's trade and investment agency, Austrade, Chief Operating Officer of the Digital Transformation Office, and Australian Ambassador to UNESCO, Deputy Ambassador to France and Counsellor in Japan.

Jane is also a highly regarded non-executive director and member of boards and committees across government, business and the not-for-profit sector. Jane is the global Chair of the Fred Hollows Foundation, President of the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) and on the boards of Australian Business Volunteers and the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT), as well as a number of start-up ventures and advisory committees. A graduate of the University of Tasmania and ANU, Jane has also studied at Harvard, Melbourne Business School and INSEAD. She is fluent in Japanese and French.

Rosemary Bishop

Ms Rosemary Bishop
Member

Rosemary Bishop (B,A.( Hons) , MBA) joined the CIT Board in July 2023. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and brings a strong educational and business perspective. She has a background as a CEO in the Not-for-Profit Sector where she led organisational merges and service transformation. Prior to taking leadership roles in the NFP sector, Rosemary led Interdependent, a consultancy focusing on organisational development and change management. Interdependent provided nationally recognised training through the Registered Training Organisation and consulted widely to lead and implement changes in the VET sector enabling public and private sector services to improve career development and learning opportunities for their staff. Rosemary has consulted in Bhutan and Manila on skills transfer and enterprise development. Currently Interdependent provides interim CEO support and facilitates CEO performance reviews with the Board in the NFP sector.

As a Board Director Rosemary has chaired Evolve Housing to enable its early growth through merges and she has been active in community housing sector development. As a Board Director within the Primary Health Network Rosemary brought a business and community perspective during the COVID lockdown and supported the focus on social prescribing. She has also been a Board member for Rural Australians for Refugees and Afford Disability. Current Board roles include chairing Connect Child and Family Services, being a Director of Allawaw, an Aboriginal Corporation, and being a member of the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District Board Research Subcommittee.

Lucy Baranovsky

Ms Lucy Baranovsky
Chair of the CITSA Council

Lucy has a long history of student advocacy especially within the CIT space. She completed her Year 10 Certificate in 2010, going on to complete studies in Animal Technology and Pathology, whilst sitting as the Chair of the CITSA Student Council and Student Representative on the CIT Advisory Council before going on to complete a Bachelor of Nursing at ACU and sitting as the Secretary of the Signadou Student Association and completing a Graduate Certificate in Nursing Majoring in Advance Practice through James Cook University. Lucy is now studying a Certificate IV in Work Health & Safety at CIT and sits as the Chair of the CITSA student council.

Lucy has a strong passion for lifelong education, social justice and community safety and holds the belief that every student deserves to have a voice and be heard.

Further information on the appointments including the dates of appointment and explanatory statement can be accessed at https://legislation.act.gov.au/ ACT Legislation Register.

The CIT Annual Report includes information on the role of the Board, their strategic focus and their attendance at Board meetings.

CIT Board Communiques