TWS Inc Committee of Management

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.

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.

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.

James Johnson at Port Stephens

James Johnson

James has a strong passion for the natural environment and is excited to be part of the team that is rebuilding The Wilderness Society. Based in Sydney, James is a barrister practising mainly in planning and environmental law.

James has a long history as a solicitor then Director of the Environmental Defender’s Office in Sydney between 1990 and 1999, where he worked with numerous conservation and community groups in conducting public interest environmental litigation, developing environmental policy and conducting community legal education in Australia and the Pacific. For four months in 2001 he was manager of UNDP’s infrastructure programme in East Timor.

James has significant experience with voluntary management committees and directorships, serving on the management committee of the Total Environment Centre and as a Commissioner of the Legal Aid Commission of NSW which oversees an annual budget of $100 million.

He is currently on the panel of barristers for the Refugee Review Tribunal Legal Advice Scheme run by the Federal Court. James brings fresh eyes, a sharp mind and legal acumen to help TWS pursue its WildCountry vision to protect our wilderness and wild places.

Christo Norman

Christo Norman has worked in both the private sector and government as an executive responsible for strategic development and governance reform. As such he is highly experienced in major organisation-wide projects, policy and governance.

Christo has a deep and abiding passion for getting outdoors as much as possible. Experiencing nature at any opportunity, his many travails include kayaking several thousand kilometres down the Darling River, an adventure he undertook after leaving his role as Head of Information Systems at TWS Inc in 2008.

Christo lives in the ACT where he is the Director of Planning and Innovation for the ACT Public Service.