Keynotes 2011

Philip D. Allsopp, RIBA, FRSA

Phil is a writer, speaker and activist about improving the Resilience of our Habitats, Communities and Commerce, the issue at the core of Transpolis Global, the organization Phil co-founded in 2009 with operations in the US, the UK and the Czech Republic and serving clients worldwide.

Phil was born and educated in the UK completing his undergraduate, graduate and post graduate studies at Kingston University, London and the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology.  He moved to the United States in 1979.  After completing his Masters in Health Services Planning and Design at Columbia University, Phil spent two years as a Public Health Service Fellow assigned to both the office of the Surgeon General and the Health Care Financing Administration in Washington DC.  Returning to the private sector, he has spent most of his career focused on improving business and community resilience and effectiveness.  He has held senior leadership positions in corporate America, with prominent management consulting firms as well as in the non-profit world, most recently serving as President and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation - based at Taliesin West in Scottsdale and currently as Chairman of the Phoenix Green Chamber of Commerce.

Phil’s professional and academic backgrounds encompass the fields of urban design, public health, public policy and management consulting.  Phil is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in London and also a Chartered Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  Phil serves as a Trustee of the Sonoran Institute and is also Treasurer of Local First Arizona Foundation.

Dr.  Edward J. Blakely

Dr.  Edward J. Blakely has a more than 40 year of international experience in all aspects of urban and regional planning, disaster management and sustainable development. Until 2009 he headed the recovery of the City of New Orleans. In this role he coordinated all aspects of municipal government from planning and financing to construction of major infrastructure related to the recovery of the City from the worst modern urban disaster in the United States. He is currently the Professor of Urban Policy at the United States Study Center at the University of Sydney where he coordinates the Centers programs on global urban issues with an honorary professor appointment. Since he is not full time with the US Studies Centre he has formed BlakelyGlobal as a  strategic policy consulting group  to provide advice and direct assistance in his areas of expertise.

Dr. Blakely has held posts in the field of real estate and urban development for more than forty years.  He is a leading practitioner the fields of planning, infrastructure, transportation and local economic development.  Dr Blakely served as policy advisor to the Mayor of Oakland and advisor to the Los Angeles Public School District. He was Policy Advisor to Mayor Elihu Harris in Oakland for economic development, education and strategic planning in Oakland, CA.  He led the earthquake (1989) and fire (1991) and helped lead the New School University and Regional Planning Association community planning approach in the 9-11 terrorist attack recovery planning. He was appointed by C. Ray Nagin to lead the recovery of New Orleans where he developed and directed the implementation plans for the recovery of the City from 2007-2009. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Public Administration, A Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellow and the 2008 Eliot Richardson Award Winner for Ethics in Government from the American Society for Public Administration.

Prof Darren Bilsborough

Darren Bilsborough is Managing Director of Cminus consulting and an Adjunct Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University Sustainability Policy, Humanities Faculty. He is also a Director of the Green Building Council and a board member for the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre, based at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

Prior to his current role with Cminus, Darren was Director of Sustainability with Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) for 4 years following a 22 year stint with Lincolne Scott, a building services and environmental engineering consultancy, culminating in his role of Joint Managing Director.

Darren has extensive experience as a sustainability advisor and Green Building advocate and during his time at Lincolne Scott was the driving force behind Adelaide's first and then Australia's largest 5 star rated building - City Central Tower 1. He has been at the forefront of sustainable development issues in the built environment through his involvement with the Property Council of Australia's South Australian Division as inaugural Chair of the Sustainable Development (SD) Committee.

A/Prof Helen Berry

A/Prof Helen Berry is a psychiatric epidemiologist investigating social capital and mental health and their associations with issues in health and wellbeing. Recently, this work has expanded to place these issues in a context of climate change, particularly its impacts in rural and remote locations.

Helen’s work involves the use of advanced statistical modelling techniques to analyse large representative datasets and evaluate mental health interventions. With a substantial previous career in executive public and non-profit sector administration, Helen has a particular interest in the applications of her research findings to Australian public health policy and intervention design. Helen maintains active collaborations on social capital and mental health with Australian Government agencies, state and local government agencies, a wide range of universities, and in Vietnam and Thailand.

In addition to her position at CeRAPH, Helen is also Adjunct Associate Professor, ANU College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, and Conjoint Associate Professor, Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, The University of Newcastle.

Karlson 'Charlie' Hargroves

Karlson 'Charlie' Hargroves B.E, Co-Founder and Director, The Natural Edge Project. The focus of his new book and research undertaken (with GU and ANU) is to develop a compelling body of work to support what is being called the ‘decoupling of economic growth from environmental pressures’.  He has presented internationally the Fifth World Technopolis, Association General Assembly, Asia Pacific Cities Summit, Fifth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability, and the ASEAN Engineering Congress.

Preview a sample of the book, Cents and Sustainability: Securing Our Common Future by Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Pressure co-authored by Charlie Hargrove HERE.

Andrew McNamara

Andrew McNamara, former Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation in Qld,General Manager, Strategic and International Policy, Energy Supply Association of Australia.

Andrew McNamara is the inaugural Chair of the Yarra Energy Foundation Limited (YEFL), an independent company formed by the City of Yarra in Melbourne to drive greenhouse gas emissions reductions for its 78,000 residents. Using a mix of distributed energy generation, energy efficiency initiatives and abatement measures, YEFL is committed to making the households and businesses of Yarra carbon neutral by 2020.

He is also the General Manager, Strategic and International Policy with the Energy Supply Association of Australia (esaa). esaa is the peak industry body for Australia’s electricity and gas generation, transmission, distribution and retail companies.

Andrew was a Member of the Queensland Parliament for 8 years from 2001 and served as Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation between 2007 and 2009, and as Parliamentary Secretary for Roads between 2006 and 2007. He was a member of the official Australian delegation to the Bali round of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2007

Andrew holds degrees in Arts, majoring in economics and in Laws from the University of Queensland and is the Patron of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas in Australia.