About Us

Phone: +61 2 8079 2576
Email: satish@intersect.org.au

Phone: +61 2 8079 2500
Email: craig@intersect.org.au

Craig has thirty years experience in Consulting, Engineering, Architecture and Product Management, across private, government and Higher Education organisations.  From architecting and leading the engineering team that built the number one online retail  shop of its time  in Australia, to rolling it out to two other countries, Craig has proven experience in designing, building and operating scalable, secure systems.  As an Enterprise Architect for multinational companies, Craig developed global strategies around Identity Management, cross-border ordering, and multi-faceted Customer Relationship Management. At Macquarie University Craig also designed their first Enterprise Service Bus, reducing integration between complex systems from weeks to minutes, and built their primary Data Hub, with integration and Master Data Management across a number of core subjects.  Since joining Intersect in June 2016, Craig has been helping Researchers manage and share their data, projects and knowledge, working with tools such as OpenStack, DMF, Mediaflux, AAF and software technologies, such as Java, Php, Python, R, Ruby & Matlab. 

Phone: +61 2 8079 2501
Email: liang@intersect.org.au

Phone: +61 2 8979 2500
Email: ghulam@intersect.org.au

Dr. Ghulam earned his PhD from UNSW in 2015, shortly before joining Intersect and served in multiple different roles in his first stint. He most recently served as Digital Research Manager, overseeing consulting relationships with key stakeholders at member universities and playing a key role in onboarding new institutions. Starting as a Digital Research Analyst, Ghulam developed broad expertise across multiple areas. Prior to joining Intersect again as Head of Members Engagement and Services, he was a Senior Technical Business Analyst at Bunnings, where he led various projects from inception to completion, collaborating with cross-functional teams and utilizing diverse technology stacks.

Phone: 0405 299 207
Email: alison@intersect.org.au

Alison is a seasoned HR leader with 25 years of experience, most recently as the Manager of Employee Experience at Waverley Council. Her career also includes national HR Manager positions at Assetlink Group and Caltex Australia.

She possesses a proven track record in managing end-to-end employee lifecycles, implementing large-scale HR initiatives, and providing strategic guidance to senior leadership. Alison consistently fosters positive workplace cultures and ensures legislative compliance. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Relations and Sociology from UNSW.

Over the last 18 years, Emeritus Professor Mike Calford has held a number of esteemed roles in Australian universities, including Provost at the ANU, Provost at the University of Tasmania, DVC R at Newcastle and PVC (Health & Medical Research) at Wollongong. He has also served as Director/CEO at two institutes: Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute and Hunter Medical Research Institute.

 In addition to his distinguished university leadership career, Mike has been an eminent researcher in the field of neuroscience. After receiving a doctorate at Monash University, Mike held research and teaching roles at the Universities of Queensland, Newcastle and Melbourne and at the ANU. He also worked overseas at the University of Oxford, the University of California Irvine and City University of New York.

Mike has had a long interest in the ethics and conduct of research, and has contributed to national policy in this area. He has championed high standards of practice in research generally, through both his employed positions, as a university and institute leader, and through representational roles at State and National levels.

Mike spent 4.5 years as a Member Director on the Intersect Board in its developing years (2009-2013) and returned as an Independent Director and Chairman in late 2020.

Kate is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Kate has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry with extensive knowledge of finance and risk. As a former Partner with PwC, Kate has worked in both Australia and the UK providing assurance and advisory services to clients.

Kate was appointed as a Director of Intersect Australia Limited in December 2020 and is Chair of the Board’s Audit and Risk Management Committee.

Kate is currently a Director of Australian Ethical Investment Limited and Australian Ethical Superannuation Pty Limited, Chairs the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, is a member of the Product Disclosure Committee, is a member of the People, Remuneration and Nominations Committee, and is a member of the Insurance Benefit Committee. Kate is a director of the Australian Ethical Foundation and Kate is also the Treasurer of a not-for-profit organisation in the education sector.

Paul lectured in banking and risk management at The University of Sydney and UNSW until his retirement in 2019. Paul was Chief Financial Officer at the Securities Industry Research Centre of Asia-Pacific (SIRCA) until 2011 and is currently Company Secretary of Intersect Australia Limited, the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship Limited and the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre Limited

With over twenty years experience in international financial markets, Paul has extensive experience in the banking industry having worked for a number of banking organisations, including Advance Bank of Australia, the Australian Financial Markets Association, HongkongBank of Australia Limited (HSBC), Australian Bank Limited and the Commonwealth Banking Corporation following commencing his working career with the Sydney Water Board. Paul has also worked with a number of start up organisations with activities in financial services product development and risk management services.

As Chief Financial Officer of SIRCA, Paul was responsible for all aspects of the management and operation of SIRCA Limited, including liaison with SIRCA’s key industry sponsors; the ASX, the Sydney Futures Exchange and the Australian Financial Market Association. In 1997 when SIRCA was established as a Public Company, his responsibilities included the development and implementation of legal arrangements and overall responsibility for all administrative and accounting functions.

Prior to this, Paul held a succession of increasingly senior positions in HongkongBank of Australia Limited (HSBC), including Senior Manager of Treasury Financial Services, Associate Director of Treasury, Divisional Director of the Futures Broking operation and Assistant General Manager, Financial Markets Division as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Midland Bank plc Australia. Paul has also been consulted by the Advance Bank and the Australian Financial Markets Association, the latter where he co-authored AFMA’s submission to the Wallis Committee.

Phone: +61 2 8079 2576
Email: satish@intersect.org.au

Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research Infrastructure), Division of Research - University of New South Wales

Prof. Grainne Moran provides strategic leadership and support to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Enterprise) in overseeing the centrally managed shared research facilities and equipment at UNSW. Grainne is also responsible for strategy and policy relating to research infrastructure, including internal and external infrastructure funding schemes and effective operation, development and financial sustainability of infrastructure.

The Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Infrastructure) portfolio includes the Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre  (the central unit managing major shared experimental research facilities across UNSW), Research Technology Services (including HPC, data management and community initiatives/training),  Research Imaging NSW (a partnership between UNSW and the SESLHD to provide researchers with state-of-the-art MRI capabilities), cold storage services, and research infrastructure projects more broadly across the University.

Kirby has over 30 years IT experience, with over 20 of those spent in senior roles for university and postgraduate vocational education and research sectors. This includes nine years (2007-16) as UNSW’s Chief Information Officer. During that time Kirby established the “Research Domain” governance group that initiated and oversaw establishment of investment in research infrastructure and systems in conjunction with the University Library and the PVC Research.

Kirby was heavily involved in the broader HE sector including instigating and later chairing the Greater Sydney Basin super-science high bandwidth research network project (including facilitating the right-to-use for regional NSW universities); President of the council for ICT in Australasian Universities (CAUDIT); AARNet Advisory; University benchmarking committee and chair of NAUDIT (NSW Universities).

After leaving UNSW in 2016, Kirby continued various voluntary HE roles including reviews of university centres of research and as faculty and later Director of the HE Leadership program for senior Library and ICT staff in Universities and Research institutions (2013-19). From 2017 Kirby served as Chief Information Officer for GP Synergy which conducts training of medical doctors, work-force management (NSW&ACT) and primary healthcare research (NSW, VIC & Tasmania), before retiring in 2023. During this time Kirby was successful in GP Synergy’s certification against the international security standard (ISO 27001) from 2018.

Kirby has been an active member of the Intersect Board (2014-16 as Member representative and Independent Director since 2020) and the Intersect BARM (since 2014).

Pro Vice-Chancellor Research Operations & CSO - University of Adelaide Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Research) Division of Research and Innovation

Prof. Bruce Northcote is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Operations), a senior management position within the Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) responsible for providing leadership in achieving the University’s strategic goals in relation to research infrastructure and building of research capacity. He is also Chief Security Officer, with the responsibility of ensuring the University complies with essential regulatory requirements and best practice in relation to defence, national security and foreign influence and interference regulations and guidelines.

Previously he was CEO of TelAri Analytics - a commercial spin out from research in his prior roles as Director of the Teletraffic Research Centre and the Centre for Defence Communications Information Networking, within the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering & Technology (SET). In those SET roles he brought his considerable private industry communications engineering consulting experience to the Commercial and Defence sectors. For 2 terms he was an Associate Member representative on the RPDE Board, primarily focused on improving the engagement between RPDE and the academic community.

From 1994 until 1996 he worked at Bellcore (NJ, USA) as their lead consultant in Signalling System Number 7 and Advanced Intelligent Network congestion control research and Personal Communications Services performance analysis. In 1996 he joined Ascom Nexion to develop for them a coordinated performance benchmark test plan for multi-service switching platforms. After acquisition and promotion he became a Consulting Engineer in Fujitsu Nexion, working on broadband technology assessment, product definition and standardization activities for the Fujitsu broadband product range, actively participating in various standards forums (IETF, ATMF, ANSI T1S1 & ITU-T SG13).

Between returning to Australia in December 1999 and his current employment, he was a consultant for BSN Consulting Pty Ltd and Telic Australia Pty Ltd, working on projects for customers ranging from Vodafone Australia, Telstra, Telcordia (USA), Viridien (USA), to the Victorian Department of Justice. He has published over 20 refereed journal and conference papers, written numerous technical contributions for a variety of international standards bodies, is a senior member of IEEE and was an accredited ATM Forum Ambassador for several years.

Professor Ian Anderson leads the Research and Enterprise Division at Western Sydney University as the Pro Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise. 

Professor Anderson previously led Western Sydney University’s prestigious Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment between 2011 and 2024 as its Inaugural Director, shaping it into a world-leading research institute for terrestrial ecology and climate change sciences. Ian is a leading microbiologist whose research has pioneered a deeper understanding of soil fungal ecology and the role of microbes in regulating the soil carbon cycle. 

As Director of the National Vegetable Protected Cropping Centre, co-located with the Institute, Ian has pioneered the University’s industry-engaged research footprint in agriculture and food security – an approach that extends to international water management through the Australia India Water Centre, training and innovation for protected cropping through the Australian Research Council Training Centre for Smart and Sustainable Horticulture, and climate resilience through the New South Wales Bushfire and Natural Hazards Research Centre.

Professor Phil Parker is the Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research (an executive role within the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Research and Enterprise) and Interim Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education and Arts (an executive role within the Office of the Provost) at Australian Catholic University. He serves as Deputy Chair of the AI Council, the University Research Council, and the Foreign Interference and Transparency Committee. He is also a member of the University’s Enterprise Clinic.

Professor Parker earned his doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Sydney, followed by a Jacobs Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He has previously held roles as an ARC DECRA Fellow, Deputy Director of the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Dean of Graduate Research, and Acting Pro Vice-Chancellor – Research Impact at Australian Catholic University.

His primary research interests include educational inequality, developmental transitions, and educational attainment. His work focuses on secondary data analysis of large-scale international education datasets.