Rowena Danziger recently retired as headmistress of Ascham School (1973-2003). She has been a Member of the Board of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) since 1997 and is a Director of Crown. She is currently Chairman of the Art Gallery Foundation, has been a Director of Opera Australia since 1989 and was Chairman of the Board from 2001-2003.
Paul Donovan
Paul Donovan is the Managing Director of Allen & Unwin, the independent Australian book publisher. He joined Allen & Unwin in the late 1970s and was one of the directors who bought the Australian company when the original British firm was sold in July 1990.
Peter FitzSimons
Peter FitzSimons is a bestselling biographer and has been a columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and London Daily Telegraph for over a decade. He is also a television presenter on Fox Sports and broadcaster on Radio 2UE.
He has played rugby for Australia and written 12 books, including biographies of World Cup winning Wallaby captain, Nick Farr-Jones, and former Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley. In 2001 he released biographies of both John Eales and Australia's most decorated war heroine, Nancy Wake, which stayed on the bestseller lists for 29 weeks between them, and have sold 220,000 copies to date.
In 2003 he released his book on the Kokoda Track, which was Australia's #1 selling non fiction book of the year, and he followed that up with Tobruk in 2006. In 2007 he was the Books Alive author with his biography of Les Darcy.
Stephen Loosley
Stephen Loosley holds a senior executive role within Babcock & Brown, acting as Principal Strategic Adviser to the firm.
Stephen was the General Secretary of the NSW branch of the Australian Labor Party (1983-90), prior to being elected to the Australian Senate in 1990, where during his term he served as Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. He also served a term as ALP National President (1991-92).
Currently, he is the Chairman of the Committee for Sydney, the premier business advocacy group for the city and is a Councillor on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute in Canberra. In addition, Stephen also serves on the Boards of the Partnership Executive of the National Rugby League and Australian-American Leadership Dialogue.
Shona Martyn
Shona Martyn is the Publishing Director for Australia and New Zealand for HarperCollins. Having started her career in the rough-and-tumble world of daily newspapers, Shona was named New Zealand Journalist of the Year in 1981. She subsequently worked in newspapers and magazines in the UK and Australia – where she worked for Vogue as a feature writer and edited Good Weekend before launching the much-lauded HQ magazine. In 1996 she moved to books, being appointed Publisher at Transworld publisher before moving to HarperCollins in 1999.
Tim Peach
Tim Peach has been a bookseller for over 30 years and has managed or part-owned shops or small chains in Sydney, Adelaide, Fremantle, Newcastle and Parramatta. He has been active in the retail book industry at both a state and federal level. His service on the executive of the Australian Booksellers Association included a term as president.
In 1988 Tim established a specialist Australiana bookshop, The Library Shop, for the State Library of NSW he continues to run that Shop and in his position as Merchandising Manager he oversees a range of commercial activities for the State Library.
Michael Sexton
Michael Sexton SC is Solicitor General for New South Wales. He is the co-author of the Australian text on defamation law as well as the author of several books on Australian history and politics and a novel.
He has reviewed books for various journals, most particularly The Sydney Morning Herald for 30 years. He was a member of the NSW Library Council from 1987 to 1991 and between 1996 and 1998 Chairman of the State Rail Authority and a member of the NSW Public Transport Authority. He is currently a member of the Council of the University of Technology Sydney.
Annette Shun Wah
Annette Shun Wah is an author, actor and broadcaster. Her extensive career credits include SBS TV programs Imagine, The Noise, Eat Carpet and The Movie Show; and a range of documentaries, live telecasts and weekly series for ABC TV including The Big Picture, Studio 22 and Media Dimensions. She has published essays, articles and reviews and has been a regular contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald. Annette currently serves on the board of Theatre 4a.
Bret Walker
Bret Walker SC has practised as a barrister mainly in Sydney since 1979. His principal areas of advocacy and advice are public (Constitutional and administrative) law and commercial law. Appointed Senior Counsel in 1993.
Roger Wilkins
Roger Wilkins AO is Head of Government and Public Sector Group Australia and New Zealand with Citi. Mr Wilkins was the Director-General of The Cabinet Office in New South Wales from 1992 to 2006. Mr Wilkins was also the Director-General of the Ministry for the Arts from 2001 to 2006.
Sandra Yates - Chair
Sandra Yates joined the board of SWF in 1999 and has been Chair since 2000. She is a former Chair of Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and the NSW TAFE Commission Board, and is currently Chair of Books Alive.
