Our own unique ecology

QTFN welcomed Bruce Cowley to the Board in 2022.

Bruce brings an incredible depth of experience as a governance professional, board member, author and speaker. He has served in a range of board positions and written books on corporate governance in Australia (Duties of Board and Committee Members (2017), and Directorship in Context (2022)). His service to directorship and governance is recognised by the Australian Institute of Company Directors and he was awarded their Gold medal in 2021.

Bruce has had an outstanding career of nearly 40 years in corporate law specialising in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets work and corporate governance. Bruce has many major corporate achievements including serving as the Global Chair of Minter Ellison from to 2013 to 2019. In 2022, he was awarded the Queensland Law Society President’s Medal for services to the legal profession.

Bruce is currently a director of the Australian Retirement Trust, the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service and Klarna Australia Pty Ltd, as well as a member of the Takeovers Panel, Chair of Griffith University Business School’s Strategic Advisory Board and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors Not for Profit Chairs Forum.

Sian Sinclair joined the board in 2023.  She is a Tax Partner, Brisbane Office Chair and National leader of Real Estate & Construction at Grant Thornton Australia.  Her expertise draws on over 25 years’ experience in taxation, accounting and general business consulting.  Sian has extensive experience with businesses in the property development and construction industries and advises a number of key industry participants on tax matters.  She currently sits on the Qld Divisional Council with the Property Council of Australia and also contributes to the ATO’s Property and Construction Stakeholder Forum.

QTFN welcomed Antra Hood to the Board in 2020.

Recognised as one of Australia’s top lawyers, Antra specialises in front end environment and planning law and infrastructure transactions, and has worked on many of Queensland’s landmark property and infrastructure developments.

Antra has a particular interest in biodiversity offsets, advising both public and private sector players in the resources and property industries on how to structure environmental offsets to achieve commercially sustainable agreements with positive environmental outcomes.

A Partner with Minter Ellison, Brisbane, Antra was formerly the General Counsel and Company Secretary for Springfield Land Corporation and General Counsel for South Bank Corporation. She is the immediate past Chair and current committee member of the Property Council of Australia’s Infrastructure Committee, and an active member of the Queensland Resources Council Environment Committee.

A long-term pro bono partner of QTFN, Antra has also served as a planning expert to the Queensland Government’s Koala Expert Panel and is currently a pro bono director for the Dreamworld Wildlife Foundation.

Jim McKnoulty has been a member of the QTFN Board of Directors since 2018.

Known in the Brisbane business community for his passion for sustainability, Jim is Chairman of Enviro sand leading the way in recycling waste glass.

Jim was also the Chairman of RPS Australia-East until 2016.

He is Past Queensland and National President of Greening Australia and represented Premiers Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman on the board of the Queensland Reconstruction Authority. Jim’s leadership role in Growth Management and Sustainable Development was recognised when he was awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia and Life Membership of Greening Australia.

Jim’s contribution and commitment to sustainability was further recognised though the Premier’s Award for Leadership in Business Sustainability and EY’s Queensland Entrepreneur of the Year.

Jim describes himself as a natural capitalist and has dedicated his career in industry and not for profit sector to creating economic models which recognize the value of our natural environmental assets. As a consultant, a developer, entrepreneur and leader in the Not for Profit Sector, Jim has worked to establish links between industry and the environment movement to create economic wealth from conservation of our natural environment.

Dan Clowes joined the QTFN Board in 2020.

An experienced consultant, lecturer and researcher in the field of Environmental Science, Dan brings a wealth of expertise in environmental assessment and approvals strategy, stakeholder engagement, botanical and fauna studies, and economic modelling and assessment.

Dan established Litoria Consulting in 2003 as a specialist ecological and planning consultancy founded on the philosophy of an evidence-based approach to informing policy and decision-making. His clients include some of Australia’s largest and most prominent development companies, non-profit organisations, agriculture and mining sector companies, and governments.

As an academic and consultant, Dan has provided advice to Local, State and Commonwealth Governments on matters ranging from catchment management and water quality to koala conservation, bushfire planning, environmental offsets and the design of market-based instruments for environmental policy.

He is a member of the Environmental Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ), Ecological Society of Australia and the International Society for Arboriculture.

Appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Queensland Trust for Nature in 2019, Dr Liz O’Brien stepped down from her position on the board in to join the team in QTFN and was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in 2022.

Liz spent her early years amongst the sugar cane, reefs and rainforests of the Whitsunday region and is passionate about applying her expertise to support the enhancement of biodiversity to deliver a range of returns – environmental, economic, social and cultural. Her multi-sectoral career has spanned industry-applied research, Queensland public sector policy and investment roles, and university research management, partnership brokering and strategy development. Liz also serves a Non-Executive Director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre. 

Appointed as a Non-Executive Director of Queensland Trust for Nature in 2019, Dr Liz O’Brien stepped down from her position on the board to join the team in QTFN and was appointed as Chief Executive Officer in 2022.

Liz spent her early years amongst the sugar cane, reefs and rainforests of the Whitsunday region and is passionate about applying her expertise to support the enhancement of biodiversity to deliver a range of returns – environmental, economic, social and cultural. Her multi-sectoral career has spanned industry-applied research, Queensland public sector policy and investment roles, and university research management, partnership brokering and strategy development. Liz also serves a Non-Executive Director of the Reef and Rainforest Research Centre. 

QTFN’s external Chief Financial Officer, Brenton Lazzarini, is an experienced Chartered Accountant with over 16 years’ experience in tax and business advisory.   

A Director with SBB Partners, Brenton drives strong financial management and governance at QTFN. In addition to this, Brenton oversees the financial reporting and audit relationship with the Queensland Audit Office. Brenton is passionate about applying his skills to support QTFN’s ongoing conservation work and biodiversity impacts. Away from the office, Brenton enjoys spending time with his family and going to the beach and camping. 

Sarah is a highly experienced Stakeholder Manager Professional and has worked across agriculture, business, energy, transport and Not-for Profit sectors. She grew up on the family farm in Victoria and after a quick stint in Melbourne while at University she moved to Queensland. Living and working in rural, regional and remote Queensland and the Northern Territory, Sarah recognises the strength of a community is built on connections and by those people willing to get in a make a difference. She is passionate about the productive use of land and sea which balances the values of people, profit and planet as an integral part of business operations.

As a Human Resources Consultant, Brendan and his SBB People team supports QTFN’s employees to grow and thrive in concert with the work they do, the land holdings they manage and the community partners they engage with. Brendan is a member of the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) and has spent the past fifteen years in corporate, government, and SME business advisory.  

Brendan is passionate about helping businesses build smart and healthy workforces from the inside out by supporting people to be their best at work, and all other arenas of life. He works with QTFN’s senior leadership team to ensure the right people with the right skills are in the right roles at all times, supports learning and development planning, and is involved in facilitation of team culture building initiatives. This is all built on strong foundations of HR systems and processes to allow QTFN to go from strength to strength in the future. 

In February 2021, Ben joined our team as QTFN’s first Ranger. As an experienced land manager and a lover of the outdoors, he brings a wealth of knowledge to our operation delivery team. From Queensland’s inshore islands to the outback, Ben has worked with a range of stakeholders (State and Federal Government, Indigenous groups, and private landholders) and across land tenures to deliver conservation outcomes. He has developed extensive skills in people and project management as well as fire and emergency management. 

Kayleen joined Queensland Trust for Nature in March 2022 from her previous role as Carbon Neutral 2030 (CN30) Coordinator at Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA). 

Since joining MLA in 2017, Kayleen’s passion for and dedication to continuous business process improvement and impactful innovation was instrumental to the growth and success of the Environmental Sustainability Program. Kayleen supported MLA to attract significant funding for research, development and adoption of technologies, practices and tools for industry in the areas of dung beetles, weather and climate forecasting and numerous other products under the CN30 Roadmap. 

Kayleen’s interest in water inspired her appointment as the Initiative Portfolio Coordinator for the University of Queensland Water Initiative and a postdoctoral fellowship working on desalination membranes in the School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Queensland.   

Kayleen‘s lifelong love of science is reflected in her diverse range of work experiences in Australia in Universities, industry and State and Commonwealth Government and overseas in the UK, Ireland and The Netherlands. Kayleen has also supported impact evaluation of products and has been a member of the Australian Evaluation Society since 2016. 

Kayleen is one of our Accounting for Nature Accredited Experts (Provisional).

Georgie has a love for our Aussie wildlife and is passionate about promoting positive human-wildlife interactions. Georgie finds wildlife photography a great way to get out into nature and constantly learn something new! She has just completed her Master of Conservation Science at the University of Queensland, where she built a habitat model for the threatened brush-tailed rock wallabies found on Aroona. Georgie joined the ecology team in 2020 managing properties to deliver environmental, social, cultural and economic benefits.

Georgie is one of our Accounting for Nature Accredited Experts (Provisional).

Susie joined QTFN in October 2022. Susie has over 10 years’ experience in Queensland conducting field-based research including targeted, baseline, and comprehensive fauna surveys. She has worked closely with bridled nail-tail wallabies, giant barred frogs, and koalas, and most recently spent 4 years living and working in western Cape York co-developing and implementing research programs on the northern quoll, palm cockatoo, and red goshawk. Susie is interested in the positive impacts science-based management can make to protect our environment, and is passionate about achieving this.

Dave has over 25 years of experience in the environmental and horticultural industry. He is currently a Restoration Project Officer in the Koala Habitat Restoration Partnership Program. Dave has extensive botanical knowledge and technical capabilities within the restoration ecology and nursery trade. He brings his knowledge of habitat requirements, ecological restoration principles, and project management skills to this role. Dave’s career has had the driving focus of habitat enhancement, diversification of flora, and fauna conservation.

Nicola is passionate about incorporating people-focussed solutions in addressing environmental issues. Her final year capstone project focussed on native grass species survival after wildfire at Aroona Station, and is when she first met QTFN. Nicola has previously worked in scientific education and outreach over the last four years, through affiliations with Queensland University of Technology, CSIRO Education and Outreach, National Youth Science Forum, CoralWatch, and Careers with STEM. Nicola also hosted a Ready STEM Go season, where she interviewed QUT researchers and alumni about their work.