Committee of Management

Convener - David Mackenzie

David Mackenzie wandered into the Wilderness Society's Fremantle office in 1992 and got straight down to the serious business of banner painting. Within a year David had resigned from his engineering job to be a full time volunteer forest campaigner, and in 1996 became the Wilderness Society's Western Australia State Coordinator.

In 1997 David proposed that the Wilderness Society adopt a continent-wide approach to conservation planning – a vision that later evolved into what we know today as WildCountry. In the 1990s David played a coordinating role in the successful campaign to save WA's beautiful old growth forests. Then he was part of a small but hugely ambitious team that kick-started Gondwana Link - linking the great wild areas of the SW through parks and restoration in the wheat belt. An unhealthy obsession with the successful Save Ningaloo Reef campaign lead the Wilderness Society WA into a wider focus on the marine environment which continues today.

David left the Wilderness Society as a staff member in 2007 and was recognised the year after with an Honorary Wilderness Society Life Membership. He has worked with the Pew Environment Group, and currently the Conservation Council of Western Australia on the Save Our Marine Life campaign.

Secretary - Stephen Porter

Stephen Porter is a Joint Honorary Life Member of the Wilderness Society with partner Jennifer Hayward. Currently employed as a public servant with the Queensland Education Department, he started volunteering in the Brisbane Wilderness Society branch and was its first secretary on incorporation in December 1991.

Stephen was elected Secretary of the Wilderness Society National Management Committee in 1995, and continued as secretary until he resigned prior to the 1999 AGM. Over these four years he continued to volunteer in campaigns, fundraising, the Brisbane Wilderness Society shop and management committees. He has continued to support the Wilderness Society since then as a member by participation in various campaigns, and the Wilderness Supporters Scheme.

Treasurer - Hilton Sentinella

Hilton Sentinella graduated in 1981 from the Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Business, major in marketing. Prior to studying, he ran an organic farm, integrating it with a health food store and health products importing business. After graduating he worked for a listed public company as a Commercial Property Manager, following this with a stint back at QUT School of Business as a Senior Research Consultant working on feasibility studies for new government and private sector enterprises. He then spent three years working for the Queensland State Government advising on marketing and finance strategies to assist new business growth, after which he joined an advertising agency as an account strategist.

Being enterprising, he opened his own agency and soon after merged with one of Brisbane's bigger agencies, making them one of the top four in town. Hilton has also been an active supporter of the Wilderness Society for 15 years, contributing to many campaigns such as the end to broadscale land clearing in Queensland, with research, creative communications and media.

Glen Klatovsky

Glen Klatovsky went to his first Newcastle Wilderness Society Wilderness Action Group meeting in 1992. After working on and winning the Barrington wilderness campaign, he was hooked. Glen left his medicine degree to volunteer for the Wilderness Society on a full-time basis, becoming the NSW Campaign Manager for a number of years in the early 2000s.

Since then Glen has been an active conservationist. Most recently he was Business Manager for Greening Australia's Carbon Business, looking to establish millions of hectares of biodiverse re-plantings to connect remnant vegetation in some of Australia's most important natural landscapes. He was WWF-Australia's Conservation Director, Advocacy and involved in the establishment of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.

Glen's greatest achievement though is his two kids and surviving in a partnership with his wonderful wife, who has demonstrated unbelievable patience, being the spouse of a greenie.

Daniel Beaver

Daniel Beaver was passionately involved in the campaign for the forests of North-East NSW from 1998 to 2004, both as North East Forest Alliance coordinator for the Hunter Region and as the branch manager of the Wilderness Society Newcastle.

Since 2004 he has been involved in the campaign for a national network of marine sanctuaries in Australia's oceans. Daniel works as an independent consultant conservation geographer, using his skills in physical geography and conservation planning to help maximise campaign effectiveness.

Coral Robinson

Coral Robinson is a Sydney-based economist whose passion for the natural environment has influenced both her private life and professional work. Her work has extended across both the private and public sectors and she has 15 years experience in policy, planning and corporate finance for the NSW water and energy industries. She has been a supporter of the Wilderness Society since 1992, a member from 1995 and an enthusiastic volunteer in the Wilderness Society campaigns to protect Tasmania's native forests since 2001.

Coral has over seven years experience on the Wilderness Society management committees – as a member of National Management Committee (including on the finance sub-committee) and a member of the Wilderness Society Sydney management committee.

Debbie Dunn

Debbie Dunn worked for many years with a multinational organisation in Sydney, holding a number of roles including Financial Accountant, Management Accountant, Company Secretary and culminating in a General Manager role with a subsidiary boasting a turnover of $400 million per annum. Moving to Adelaide brought a change in direction where she moved from contract work (mainly change management) with a number of government departments into Human Resource Management for another multinational and then into mediation and consulting work, before starting her own business in the 1990s.

A nationally accredited mediator, Debbie now lives in Tasmania, sharing her time between Hobart and Nubeena on the Tasman Peninsula where she lives with her partner on 12 acres of beautiful Tassie wilderness. She works in Hobart as Human Relationships Manager for a charity – a position she previously held at the Wilderness Society.

Stephen Lodge

Stephen Lodge is an experienced lawyer with expertise in law reform and public, human rights and environmental law. His commitment to social justice and environmental law is demonstrated by his voluntary work and membership of various NGOs.

Stephen was a board member of Community Aid Abroad Victoria (now Oxfam), member and acting Chair of the Human Rights Sub-Committee of the Law Institute of Victoria, Board member and Treasurer of Lawyers for Forests and (until February 2010) Board Member and Secretary to the Wilderness Society Victoria.