The Board
AusHeritage is managed by a Board of Directors comprising:
Vinod Daniel OAM
Chair
Vinod Daniel is the Chairman of the Board for AusHeritage, Vice Chairman of the International Council of Museums-Committee for Conservation, President of the Board for the Australian operations of the Centre for Environmental Education, Director of Brien Holden Vision (India) Pvt Ltd, CEO of India Vision Institute, CEO of IndHeritage Pvt Ltd and CEO of Daniel Heritage Services Pvt Ltd.
He was a Board Member of the Australia India Council (part of the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade) for the period 2005-2011, Head of Cultural Heritage and Science Initiatives Branch at the Australian Museum (2004-2011), Head of Centre for Material Conservation and the Built Environment (1996-2004) and a Senior Fellow at the Getty Conservation Institute (1991-1995)
He has a Masters Degrees in Chemistry from the Texas Christian University and Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney (2011), Adjunct Professional Associate at the University of Canberra (2005-07) and a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (2005-07)
He was awarded the 2009 Indo-Australian Award for Meritorious Service by the Indo Australian Association and the 2011 International Relations Award by the International Council of Museums (Australia). He has worked on projects in over forty countries, published and presented over 70 professional papers and has been regularly interviewed by the media especially in India.
Roger Beeston
Deputy Chair
Roger Beeston is the founding director of the award winning, Melbourne-based private practice, RBA Architects + Conservation Consultants, which was established in 1994. Roger has been a member of AusHeritage since 1998 and a Board member and Deputy Chair for over 8 years, during which time he has participated in several missions, including to India, Myanmar, Brunei and China.
Roger is a Registered Architect and an Associate of the Australian Institute of Architects(AIA) where he has served as a Jury Chair and Member for the AIA Awards, as well as being a past recipient of the AIA John George Knight Award for Heritage Architecture on multiple occasions. Roger is also a long standing member of The Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, the National Trust of Australia and Australia ICOMOS and served for several years on the Cultural Heritage Academic Advisory Board at Deakin University, Geelong.
With over 20 years experience as a conservation architect and heritage management consultant, Roger has worked on a wide variety of heritage places, including lighthouses, railway stations, town halls, hospitals, goals, large scale and modest residences and entire municipalities. Past projects have involved sites ranging in scale from Melbourne’s famous late 20th century Vault sculpture through to the major refurbishment works at Parliament House of Victoria. By continuing to engage in the contemporary building industry as well as the field of heritage conservation and management, Roger has acquired detailed expertise in traditional and new building technologies, enabling him to develop authentic and sustainable remedial conservation strategies.
Alex Marsden
Deputy Chair
Alex is the Principal of Alex Marsden Cultural Services. She is a strategic designer, arts and cultural policy expert, and cultural advocate and adviser. She has a diverse background in public policy, strategic thinking and cultural heritage management, linked by a primary focus on people, culture and values. Trained as an historian, she has worked in museums, the non-government sector, heritage agencies and key national public policy departments, including 8 years at the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C). She has tertiary qualifications in history and museum studies, and holds a Masters of Management from the ANU.
From 2015 to 2020, she served as National Director of the Australian Museums and Galleries Association (AMaGA), the national membership association and peak industry body, where she designed and delivered major national projects on digital access to culture, and the ground-breaking 10-year Roadmap to radically improve Indigenous participation and representation in the sector. Her publications cover numerous presentations, reports and submissions to Inquiries.
After almost six years in the role, and having successfully led AMaGA during COVID-19, Alex stepped down at the end of 2020 to contribute in different ways to cultural policy and practice throughout the region. She is a Board member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canberra’s Institute for Governance & Policy Analysis (IGPA).
Alex’s expertise lies in cultural policy advice and development, museum and heritage practice, negotiation and advocacy, organisational leadership and strategic planning, and workshop development and facilitation.
David Gole
Deputy Chair
David Gole is a practicing Heritage Architect (registered in Queensland and Victoria) with over 30 years experience working across a broad range of building typologies. David leads the JDA Co. heritage/ adaptive reuse team (of 12) encompassing Queensland, interstate and international projects. He is a leader in the field of heritage conservation, master planning, adaptive reuse and contemporary additions to heritage buildings and sites.
David’s expertise is supported by a Bachelor of Architecture (1st Class Honours) from Queensland University of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts – History Double Major from the University of Queensland, where he now teaches as an Adjunct Professor. In 1997 David was a US ICOMOS Intern with the Historic American Building Survey and the Historic American Engineering Record. In 2000, David was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to further his study of built heritage conservation in Italy and the UK. In 2012, he undertook further training with UNESCO in undertaking Heritage Impact Assessments for world heritage sites. David was awarded a Getty Conservation Institute Guest Scholar position to undertake research on conservation of modern heritage in 2020.
David was formally a Principal of Conrad Gargett and Architectus for over 12 years. He was also Senior Heritage Architect for the Yangon Heritage Trust in Myanmar. In this capacity he supported over 60 projects in the heritage lead development initiative for downtown Yangon. David also secured grant funding, arranged and facilitated trade skills training programmes in Yangon including conservation of brickwork, plaster, render, terracotta tiles, cast iron, encaustic tiles and timber joinery.
Penny Tripp
Secretary
Penny Tripp is a cultural collections and engagement specialist with over twenty years’ experience in the education, heritage and creative industries. She has worked in state and regional cultural organisations and managed large corporate heritage collections including the Melbourne Cricket Club and Victoria Racing Club.
She has senior executive experience in project management, operations, marketing and commercial growth and has managed large infrastructure redevelopments, major event and exhibition programming, collection relocations and conservation programs, fundraising campaigns, partnership programs, membership and consumer sales for tourist attractions, heritage properties, museums and major international sporting events.
Penny is the former General Manager Club Services (Commercial) for Victoria Racing Club; Director of Commercial Operations and Marketing for National Trust of Australia (Victoria); General Manager of Grimwade Conservation Services; and is currently Transition Manager at The University of Melbourne, managing the strategic and commercial establishment of the new Robert Cripps Institute for Cultural Conservation.
Graham Ormsby
Treasurer
Heather Brown
Director
Heather Brown is the Education and Sector Standards Librarian at the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). She was previously an Assistant Director at Artlab Australia. Heather is currently secretary of Score Sounds Pty Ltd and its subsidiary Micromem Preservation that focuses on the preservation of cultural heritage collections in libraries, archives and GLAM collecting organisations.
Heather also delivers lectures to library and archive university students and has delivered training to colleagues across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India. Heather’s research interests lie in the interrelationships between physical and digital preservation. She has co-authored the ALIA disaster management guide and template plan, and a forthcoming Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC) Guidance Note on disaster planning for digital repositories and archives. She is a co- contributor to the UNESCO disaster risk management toolkit for the Asia Pacific region and has co-delivered associated training for organisations across India and the Philippines
Heather has an enduring interest in the preservation of Indian cultural heritage, having travelled widely across India since 1990. She has a special interest and long-standing experience in the preservation of India’s extensive manuscript and documentary heritage collections as showcased by the Gyan Bharatam Mission.
Sarah Feijen
Director
Sarah Feijen is Director of ArtLab Australia and is an experienced and well-respected leader with over 30 years of experience working across state and local government and at a range of cultural and for-good institutions. Her career expertise encompasses strategic policy development, partner engagement, fostering innovation, program delivery, delivery of earned revenue services, advocacy and operational leadership.
Sarah commenced her career as a professional paintings conservator, culminating in 11 years as Assistant Director of ArtLab Australia. In this role she led all conservation disciplines across the Artlab portfolio and took the lead role in the executive team for financial planning, budgeting model review. Practical highlights included negotiation and management of the largest commercial project (at the that time in Australia) to care for the heritage collections of the State Library of Victoria; development of an enduring alliance with the University of Melbourne resulting in joint provision of preservation service and education activities throughout SE Asia; and lead of the overarching preventive conservation strategy for the South Australian’s major cultural collections as a collective.
Sarah is the former Chief Executive Officer of Guildhouse, South Australia’s peak body for visual art, craft and design.
David Huxtable
Director
David Huxtable is the Director of LookEar Pty Ltd. He has worked in the natural and cultural heritage interpretation sector for more than twenty five years throughout Australia and internationally.
Throughout this time, David has focused on developing inventive interpretation that establishes a structure between a site, its significance, its stories and the people who visit it. This involves careful and thorough interpretive planning and design, combined with an enthusiasm to foster new and innovative approaches.
David’s skills in heritage interpretive planning and design include concept development and research, creating succinct and engaging interpretive presentations from complex material, utilising both tangible and intangible objects in interpretive exhibition design, and utilising all forms of media to present the interpretive stories. David has extensive experience in communicating these ideas with key stakeholders and receiving their input, including several projects involving close consultation with local Aboriginal communities.
Keir Reeves OAM
Director
Professor Keir Reeves currently holds a research chair of at Federation University Australia and the foundation director of the Collaborative Research Centre in Australian History (CRCAH). Keir is a trustee of the Museum of Chinese Australian History and has also previously served on the board Member Goldfields Tourism Inc. He recently served as the Historian Member of the Heritage Council of Victoria for two terms and was the Chair of the Victorian Maritime Heritage Advisory Committee, July 2009 – June 2015. Other key service to the profession included acting as an Australian Research Council Assessor in heritage, history, historical archaeology and tourism disciplines, member of the board of Australian Historical Studies, Public Records Office Victoria stakeholders committee member and a member of the Forum UNESCO-University and Heritage International Network.
Keir’s previous principal teaching and research positions have been at the University of Melbourne and Monash and have been in cultural heritage, cultural tourism and Australian History. Professional positions include an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship Industry at the University of Melbourne, a five year Monash fellowship (later senior Monash Fellowship) as well as Chief Investigator roles on four ARC Projects. He has also been Visiting Fellow to Clare Hall Cambridge, a Visiting Researcher at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, a Senior Rydon Fellow and Bicentennial Fellowships at King’s College London and a pre-doctoral visiting fellowship at Green College, UBC, Canada.
Simon McArthur
Director
Simon is known across the World as The Tourism Doctor. The name came from his numerous visits to struggling destinations, where he helped stakeholders diagnose constraints and develop interventions that enhanced the competitiveness and sustainability of tourism in the area.
Simon has 30 years’ experience in the conservation and adaptive reuse of cultural heritage across the World. His focus is to create highly interpretive, transformational experiences that attract high yield visitors and generate critical funds for supporting ongoing conservation. Some of his significant heritage projects include Master Plans for Machu Pichu (Peru) sections of the Great Wall of China and Tikal World Heritage site (Guatemala); $22M Conservation and adaptive reuse of the North Head Quarantine Station, in the Sydney Harbour National Park, which included a visitor centre, immersion theatre performance, five guided tours, four education programs, as well as hotel, restaurants, conference and function facilities; $30M conservation and adaptive reuse of several haciendas on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico; and, $20M Redevelopment of three Aboriginal Art Centres in the Northern Territory.
Simon has written extensive on heritage management and how to avoid loving heritage to death (through overtourism, including four books, eight book chapter and over 30 refereed journal papers.