The Hatchery

Leigh Sales AM is a multi award-winning author and journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and currently anchors the network’s prime time current affairs program 7.30.  

She is the face of the ABC’s major events coverage, including federal election and budget nights.  She has interviewed every living Australian Prime Minister and innumerable world leaders and celebrities from Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair to Paul McCartney and Elton John. 

Leigh has held numerous roles at the ABC, including as Washington Correspondent, and is a three-time winner of Australia’s highest journalist prize, the Walkley Award.  

She’s the author of three books, the most recent being national bestseller Any Ordinary Day.  

Leigh also co-hosts a wildly popular podcast with Annabel Crabb called Chat 10 Looks 3.  It attracts hundreds of thousands of downloads monthly and has an associated facebook group with almost 40,000 members.  

In 2018, Leigh was awarded the Order of Australia for her services to Journalism. She has a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master of International Relations and was awarded Deakin University’s 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Anna Cronin is Victoria’s first Commissioner for Better Regulation (appointed in 2015) and also Red Tape Commissioner (appointed in 2018).

Anna started her career as an economist in the Federal Government and has also held senior executive positions in the Victorian and Western Australian Governments. 

She has considerable experience in regulatory issues across many policy areas, including in agricultural and mining regulatory and approvals frameworks. Anna was CEO at the National Farmers’ Federation for 5 years and was responsible for the management and co-ordination of the regulatory approvals for some of the world’s biggest iron ore and oil and gas projects when she was a senior bureaucrat in the Western Australian Government.  In 2019, Anna led the Victorian Government’s review into planning and building approvals and is now chairing the Expert Panel advising the Victorian Government on the current review of the building system, including legislation and regulators.

Anna was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for services to rural leadership. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Melbourne School of Government at the University of Melbourne.

Sarah has 16 years’ experience in energy policy and regulation. Currently, she serves as a Commissioner at Energy Safe Victoria, and as a Board Member at Sustainability Victoria. Prior to these appointments, Sarah was the Energy Executive Director at the Essential Services Commission (Victoria), where she was responsible for overseeing the transformation of its energy regulatory functions. From 2014 to 2017, she served as the Senior Policy Adviser to the Victorian Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. During this time, Sarah worked with the Minister to deliver the state-wide energy reforms including the Victorian Renewable Energy Target Scheme.

Rose worked for regulators for most of her career including ASIC, the ACCC and the Commonwealth Environment Department. In 2014 she went to Hong Kong to assist setting up their Competition Commission where she was CEO. From 2017 to the end of 2021 Rose was Deputy Secretary of the Better Regulation Division in the NSW Department of Customer Service looking after a range of regulatory agencies including NSW Fair Trading, SafeWork NSW and Liquor and Gaming NSW. Rose is now semi-retired but is still participating in a number of regulatory projects including her role as Chair of the National Committee of the ANZSOG National Regulators Community of Practice.

Sasha is an experienced leader in Finance and Operations having held senior leadership roles within the UK Financial Services industry for nearly 20 years. Sasha brings a breadth of experience in financial management, business transformation and process improvement, change management, risk management and corporate governance. Sasha is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Margaret Sexton leads the development and implementation of NRAR’s innovation and technology strategy. Her work is crucial to the development of organisational capability in intelligence and innovation, research, data analytics, remote sensing and technology.

Margaret has extensive experience in strategy development, executive development, learning and development initiatives and data insights research and policy. Margaret has worked across a variety of aspects of the public sector including executive leadership, education, child protection, disability services and most recently water.

A seasoned C-suite corporate services leader, Janelle has forged a successful career over the past 15 years, having progressed through a series of executive leadership roles advancing the strategic growth objectives of organisations in the resources and technology sectors across Australia, the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia (EMEA), from start-up to small and medium-sized enterprises, corporates, and listed and unlisted multinationals.   Playing a lead role in supporting an energy company’s growth from an early-stage Queensland business into a 500-strong multinational diversified corporation, to being headhunted and relocating to San Francisco to support technology disrupter Nitro Software to prepare for its Initial Public Offering, she has developed a well-rounded executive skillset while building a truly collaborative approach to leadership.

Commander Kelly Haywood joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1997 as a Combat Systems Operator. After achieving the rank of Leading Seaman, Kelly changed over to a commissioned Maritime Logistics Officer in 2005. Outside of Navy, Kelly is extremely passionate about raising awareness about suicide, depression and mental health and is a Lifeline Ambassador. Through her initiative ‘Choose to Live, Love your Life’ Kelly actively fundraises and speaks in the community about her own personal experiences with suicide. Kelly won the Western Australian and National Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year Award in 2013 and in 2015 was named as one of Business News 40under40 entrepreneurs, taking out the Intrepreneur category. Kelly was selected as the Navy Women’s Strategic Advisor in May 2019.

Tony was appointed Victoria’s first Inspector-General for Emergency Management in July 2014, an independent Governor in Council Statutory Appointment, working closely with emergency management sector partners and the community to strengthen Victoria’s emergency management arrangements and enhance community safety.

For 41 years he has worked in intelligence, national security, emergency and crisis management spending 9 years in the Royal Australian Air Force before moving into the emergency services/management sector. He has performed senior operational roles in several Victorian emergency service organisations before moving into senior crisis coordination and policy positions. Tony has held a number of senior roles in both state and federal government including 4 years in the role of Director-General, Emergency Management Australia.

He holds Graduate and Post-Graduate qualifications in Management, Health Science, Emergency Management, and Public Administration and is a graduate of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government, Victorian Leadership Development Centre, and Victorian Leadership Academy.

Tony has dedicated his professional career to improving community safety outcomes. He is a Blue-Ribbon Day Council Board member, and through his role as Chair of the Emergency Services Foundation is a passionate advocate for improving the mental health and well-being of emergency service/management volunteers and paid staff.

Rowena Park leads the Australian Energy Regulator’s Compliance & Enforcement Branch as General Manager, focusing on making energy consumers better off. She is responsible for retail authorisations, exemptions, retail and wholesale compliance, compliance assessment and reporting and all investigations and enforcement undertaken by the AER.

Rowena has previously led enforcement teams at ASIC, focusing on financial services and credit misconduct, including as Group Senior Manager in Financial Services Enforcement.  She led ASIC’s Royal Commission Litigation Program focusing on misconduct arising from the Royal Commission into Banking and Financial Services.

Rowena has also led policy development and law reform projects including ASIC’s project team for the Treasury-led ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce. The Taskforce made a number of recommendations resulting in law reform which has enhanced ASIC’s regulatory toolkit considerably.

Rowena has 17 years’ experience in litigation, dispute resolution, regulation, compliance and enforcement both in the private and public sectors

Rachel Gualano is an executive leader with significant experience in leading change, strategic programs and operations in regulatory agencies. Rachel is passionate about developing and applying highly effective regulatory practice and influence to positively impact the community.

Rachel has worked for a number of regulators focused on prevention of harm to people and the environment. At WorkSafe Victoria, she led the design and delivery of the Work Health program, was on the executive team that implemented Victoria’s OHS Act 2004 and led a number of industry performance improvement programs at WorkSafe Victoria. Rachel was also General Manager at Medical Panels Victoria. At Transport Safety Victoria, she led Maritime Safety including key industry stakeholders to transform the regulation of marine pilotage provider permissioning in Victoria. Rachel has led Regulatory Programs at EPA Victoria, and introduced a new Waste Crime Prevention capability to the organization including a mullti-agency Waste Intelligence Network. Rachel’s current role involves leading Operations in the Melbourne Metropolitan Area of EPA Victoria, which spans compliance, enforcement, education and engagement functions. Rachel’s experience is underpinned by qualifications applied science, occupational health and safety, organizational behaviour and business management.

Aaron de Rozario joined the National Transport Commission in July 2021 and is responsible for NTC’s regulatory reform initiatives portfolio including the automated vehicle, heavy vehicle and legislative reform programs. 

Aaron has over 20 years public sector experience in both Australia and the United Kingdom and has as a strong record of achievement in the economic development, education, social justice policy and transport portfolios. He has advised the Western Australian and Victorian governments on industry reform, regulatory matters and the impact of technology on public policy. Prior to joining the NTC, Aaron was Chief Executive officer of Commercial Passenger Vehicles Victoria, where he led the Victorian government’s commercial passenger vehicle reforms and heavily influenced Australia’s policy response to the emergence of ridesharing.

Aaron’s current role with the National Transport Commissions allows him to combine his practical experience as a regulator, with the art of regulatory reform and regulatory policy-making.

Sarah Makris is a professional communicator with more than 20 years of Corporate Affairs Experience. She helps senior executives to attract their dream roles by building successful executive brands She has worked for some of Australia’s most well-known brands and high profile CEOs and Directors. and now uses her knowledge of what creates successful leaders and memorable brands to successfully coach her local and international clients.

Georgia Henry is the founder and Director of HENRY REED, Organisation Culture and Leadership Consultants, specializing in supporting boards, CEOs, and executive teams to navigate the essential elements of improving organisation effectiveness through culture and leadership.

With more than 25 years of corporate HR, organization design, culture, leadership development, and change management experience, Georgia has delivered business results for diverse and complex national and multinational organisations as an Executive, Consultant, Advisor, and Director. Georgia is an experienced culture leader who champions stakeholder engagement to deliver business results. She is passionate about people and the impact of culture on an organisation’s ability to achieve financial and non-financial results, mitigate risks, and drive competitive advantage.

Georgia is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course; a Certified Chair and an Approved Advisor with the Advisory Board Centre; a Certified Genos EI practitioner; a published thought leader and speaker.