Board Members 2007/2008
Appointed at the Annual General Meeting 20 September 2007
Additional appointments:
Consultant for Community Development - Susan Abbott
Mr Richard Thwaites - President
Richard Thwaites had a 15-year career with the ABC in radio and television current affairs, including five years as a foreign correspondent in Japan and China, and periods as Executive Producer of national radio current affairs programs and later as Head of Radio Current Affairs.
In 1988 Richard moved to Canberra to take up a senior executive position in Broadcasting Policy in the then Commonwealth Department of Transport and Communications. In following years he filled a range of senior communications policy roles, including chairmanship of a number of significant international organisation working groups on communication policy. In 2003 he left the public service to undertake consultancy for private and public sector clients, specialising in international communication policy coordination issues. With life-long connections to music, literature and fine arts, Richard is keen to support ArtSound's great role in promoting the arts within the Canberra community.
Mr Chris Deacon - Senior Vice-president/General Manager
(Engineering & Development)
Chris Deacon is the Managing Director of Deacon Communications Pty Ltd, an international telecommunications and broadcasting consultancy group specialising in satellite communications. Chris graduated from the ANU in 1974 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Physics. He has over 30 years of experience in the communications field. This included major satellite planning assignments for Telstra and Optus and 15 years with the former Department of Communications and the Australian Space Office where he held senior policy advisory positions in broadcasting and telecommunications. He has represented Australia on international technical and regulatory work, with a major emphasis on satellite policy and radiocommunications spectrum issues. He was also the Commercial Manager of CSIRO’s Cooperative Research Centre for Satellite Systems, and Director of its spinoff, Satellite Systems Pty Ltd. over a five year period. Since the early 1970s Chris has been a radio producer/presenter, and a broadcast and recording engineer. A former President, Chris has personally designed and constructed much of ArtSound FM’s facilities. He was a foundation Board member, has been on the board since 1983, and was awarded life membership in 2000. As ArtSound’s General Manager, Engineering & Development he has overall responsibility for keeping ArtSound on the air and supervision of a range of projects including the Manuka studio development and transmission site upgrades. Chris is a regular presenter on ArtSound FM.
Dr Nick Seddon - Junior Vice President and Legal Counsel
Nick Seddon is a Special Counsel in the Canberra office of Blake Dawson Waldron, lawyers, having formerly spent some 25 years at the Australian National University Law Faculty. Prior to that he taught at the University of Papua New Guinea. He is a joint author of Seddon and Ellinghaus, Cheshire & Fifoot's Law of Contract (8th Aus ed 2002) and the author of Seddon, Government Contracts: Federal, State and Local (2nd ed 1999), as well as many articles and conference papers on the law of contract, government contracts, trade practices, property and torts. He served as a part-time Commissioner on the Australian Law Reform Commission during the late 1980s and early 1990s and has provided advice to governments and the private sector on a range of issues. In 2000 he was the legal panel member for the racks government's Audit Review of Government Contracts which reported to the Victorian government in May 2000. He is a board member of CARE Inc Financial Counselling Service as well as ArtSound FM 92.7.
Mr Robert Swainson - Treasurer
Robert (Bob) Swainson has had a long career in finance and budgeting areas of government departments, agencies and in the private sector. He has been/is Treasurer for a range of organisations including an ACT licensed club and several arts/cultural/heritage organisations. He has been Treasurer of ArtSound since mid 2006.
Mr Gerry Kay
Gerry Kay has recently retired after spending more than 30 years in uniform, firstly as a private soldier doing national service, then as a commissioned officer in the Royal Australian Air Force. In his spare time he has been involved in theatrical productions and radio work, and he was the second President of Katherine Community Radio (now 8KTN) in the Northern Territory. Apart from presenting programmes to air, Gerry was involved in organising the procurement of the station’s transmitters, and the submission to the then Department of Communication for the licence to broadcast. Gerry is an active member of ArtSound’s Audio Services Department. When not slaving over a hot tape recorder, he enjoys digital photography and keeping his 1963 Morris Mini in concourse condition.
Ms Harriet Elvin
Ms Elvin is Chief Executive Officer of the Cultural Facilities Corporation. Formerly she was General Manager, ACT Bureau of Arts and Heritage, and a recipient of the inaugural ACT Government/Australian National University MBA Scholarship (1997). Harriet was formerly a Board Member of the ANU Institute of the Arts and of the Centre for Australian Cultural Studies, and a former Member of the Tourism Training ACT Regional Board and the Canberra City Heart Business Association Management Committee. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, and was 2001 ACT Telstra Business Woman of the Year. Harriet was a judge of the 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006 ACT and Region Tourism Awards and of the 2003 and 2004 ACT Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Awards. She is a Member of the ANU Chancellor's Awards Committee, and was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in business leadership. Harriet is a member of ArtSound FM’s Advisory Council as well as a Board member.
Mr Ian McLean
Ian McLean joined the Australian Army in 1969 at age 15 and served as a professional musician for almost 35 years. His service included duty in Vietnam, Bougainville and East Timor, as well as a three-year posting to the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, in London. He achieved the pinnacle of his military career in 1993 when appointed to command the band of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. During his eight years with the band he initiated the still popular "Music at Midday" concert series. Ian left the Army in 2001 to accept appointment as CEO of the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and after six successful years he stood down in April 2007 to devote his energies to managing and conducting the Canberra Pops Orchestra which he founded in 2005. He is a renowned musical theatre conductor and has directed over 20 productions for the Canberra Philharmonic Society and the Canberra Theatre Trust including "Cats" and "The Producers" in 2007. Ian is Musical director of the Blamey Street Big Band, plays drums with numerous jazz bands, teaches music at Radford College, and is a judge for the Canberra area theatre awards. Ian McLean was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in the 1996 Australia Day honours list, the Centenary of Federation Medal in 2003, and has twice been awarded the Canberra Critics Circle Award for Music for his "outstanding contribution to the musical life of Canberra". Ian became an ArtSound on-air presenter in February 2007 and regularly presents the Saturday morning "Sounds Early" program.
Mr Bill Wood
A former teacher, Bill Wood has retired after serving 15 years as a member of the ACT Legislative Assembly. He served as a Minister in two governments, particularly enjoying the role of Minister for the Arts. This was very compatible with a long-standing interest (through no great skill, he says) in all areas of the arts.
Ms Barbara Byrne OAM
Barbara Byrne had more than 38 years service in the Commonwealth Public Service and for more than twelve years has worked in voluntary positions in the strategic management of clubs and non-government community organisations. She recently retired as President of the Canberra Labor Club, a position she held for seven years, and as a member of the Board after thirteen years service. Ms Byrne is currently on the Regional Board of ACT AFL, President of the Weston Creek Lions Football Club, and Patron of Hockey ACT. She is a past Vice President of both Volunteering ACT and Clubs ACT. In 2002 Ms Byrne was awarded the Outstanding Service to the Club Industry Award and in 2003 a Centenary Medal in recognition of her many years of voluntary work in the community. In April 2004 she was appointed an Honorary Ambassador for Canberra in recognition of her personal contribution in assisting Canberra to develop a significant business base. Ms Byrne was appointed a Director of ACTEW on 22 January 2004 and elected as a Board Member of ArtSound in August 2006.
Dr Geoffrey Lancaster AM
Geoffrey Lancaster is at the forefront of the historically informed performance practice movement both in Australia and internationally. As fortepianist, pianist, harpsichordist and conductor, he is much in demand in concert halls and recording studios throughout the world.
Geoffrey is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of La Cetra Barockorchester Basel. He has appeared as conductor or soloist with all of the Symphony Australia orchestras and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and shares a particularly close relationship with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and the Queensland Orchestra. As a recording artist, Geoffrey has an ongoing association with the label ABC Classics. His 30 CDs have won many prestigious awards including a Gramophone award for Best Recording, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Best Classical Recording, and a Soundscapes Editor’s Choice. He has also recorded for Tall Poppies, Sony Classical, and Supraphon. Geoffrey is currently recording the Complete Keyboard Sonatas of Joseph Haydn for ABC Classics.
He studied with Larry Sitsky at the Australian National University, and with Stanley Hoogland at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He holds a doctorate from Sydney University, and has undertaken extensive postdoctoral research in the major Early Music research centres of Europe.
The National Australia Day Council named him "Australian of the Year 2006" for the Australian Capital Territory, recognising his distinguished personal contribution, as musician and mentor, to the cultural life of Australia.
For service to the arts as a keyboardist, orchestral director and music educator, Geoffrey Lancaster was appointed Member of the Order of Australia (AM).
Mr Peter Field
Peter moved with his family to Canberra from Sydney in 1974/75 and has lived in Canberra ever since. His career includes private enterprise in the fields of market research and corporate planning, and Australian Government service in The Treasury and as a member of the Senior Executive Service in the departments of Industry & Commerce, Transport & Communications and Communications & the Arts. In the mid-1980s, and before Canberra had self government, he was the Executive Director of the Canberra Development Board. Peter is a strong believer in voluntary community service, and has been a volunteer at the Australian War Memorial for many years as well as a Guide at the National Gallery of Australia. He is keenly interested in all forms of music except rap, heavy metal and ultra-modern "classical". Peter wants to see ArtSound grow and prosper, taking its unique message to an ever growing audience.
Mr Tony Miller
Born in England in 1938, Tony met and married his Australian wife in London before moving to Australia in 1964. He is a journalist and photographer with more than 45 years experience in newspapers and radio and as a public affairs officer with Australia’s Overseas Information Service. He worked on newspapers and BBC Radio in the UK, on the China Mail in Hong Kong, on the Mount Isa Mail and then the North-West Star in Mount Isa and on The Canberra Times before joining the Overseas Information Service. During the next 24 years Tony Miller served in postings at Bangkok, Wellington, Brussels and New York, where He was responsible for planning and maintaining Australia's public affairs programs in those countries. In recent years Tony has free-lanced as a journalist and photographer. He joined the ArtSound Board in 2006.
