Born in London, Brian is an experienced executive and non-executive director with an extensive background in media and advertising, spanning over 30 years.  Brian spent 15 years with The Times and Sunday Times in a variety of executive roles, gaining significant operational experience across editorial and advertising. 

From 1983, he spent several years in Cape Town, South Africa working with the largest publishing company, Media 24. 

He later returned to London and joined The Observer as a Director in 1986 and was also on the main board of the newly launched Today newspaper. During this period in the United Kingdom, he headed up the development of The Observer’s enterprise division which embraced film production, book publishing and the successful launch of new magazine titles. 

In 1990, Brian moved to Nairobi, Kenya to head up Lonrho PLC’s East African publishing interests. As Chief Executive he introduced new titles and successfully oversaw the relaunch of both The Daily Standard and the Sunday Standard. His time in Kenya involved maintaining a delicate balance of news coverage due to the political instability associated with President Arab Moi and his Government.

In 2006 Brian was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer of The Institute for Trade Skills Excellence. He is a committed proponent of vocational education and training, and is now CEO of SkillsOne Television.

Brian also holds several non-executive board positions which include Creative Communications, the Be Your Best™ Foundation in South Africa and The Australian Children’s Music Foundation.

Kevin, as the TAFE NSW – Northern Sydney Institute (NSI) Director, provides distinctive business and customer centric leadership with a strong commercial focus.  The Institute is one of the largest in Australia with over 50,000 students and conducts its business at the regional, national and international level. Northern Sydney Institute is well known for its leadership in Green Skilling, Tourism and Hospitality and ICT including vendor specific training in partnership with Cisco and Microsoft.  Kevin’s commitment to the national importance of education and skills development is reflected by his membership as a director on the boards of TAFE Directors Australia and WorldSkills Australia.

Martin Baird was appointed as an independent Member of the WorldSkills Australia Finance & Audit Committee in 2005 and was invited to join the Board in 2010. He is currently the Managing Director of Akiba Pty Limited (a supplier of passive fire protection products) and of www.office Pty Limited (a corporate governance consultancy focussing on the good governance of not-for-profit and private family companies).

Martin is a Certified Practicing Accountant, a Chartered Company Secretary and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has an ongoing interest in the good governance of organisations serving for many years on the Professional Development Committee of Chartered Secretaries Australia (CSA). Martin was formerly Chair of CSA’s NSW State Council.

Martin is a Director and member of the Finance & Audit Committee of Trainworks Limited and Company Secretary of St George Community Housing Limited.

Jeanette Allen was appointed Chair of WorldSkills Australia (WSA) in May 2007 and has been a Director of WSA since 2005. Jeanette is also a Director and Chair of the International Professional Standards Network (IPSN).

She is the Chief Executive Officer of the Service Skills Australia with responsibility for the management of the skills and workforce  development activities of the Skills Council. Jeanette is taking a leadership role in the development of international recognition of a range of vocational qualifications with a number of countries and has achieved international benchmarking of National Qualifications with South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Hong Kong.

Jeanette commenced her working life as a hairdresser and remained in the industry for many years moving through senior roles to owning 2 salons in Qld. Following the sale of her businesses, Jeanette commenced working as a hairdressing teacher and continued in a number of roles with TAFE over the next decade. Jeanette moved to the private sector in 1998 following her appointment as Executive Director of the Wholesale Retail and Personal Services Industry Training Council. In 2004 with the merging of 3 industry training councils, Jeanette was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the Services Industries Skills Council.

Jeanette holds a Master of Education (Curriculum Development), a Bachelor of Education (Curriculum Leadership), a Diploma of Teaching (TAFE) and a Certificate in Hairdressing (Sydney Technical College). In 2011 Jeanette was the Inaugural Winner of the Australian Training Award Focus category of Leadership in Quality.

Doug Wright was appointed as a Director of WorldSkills Australia in 2009. He is currently working part-time at the Australian Industry Group. Doug has studied at the University of Sydney and Deakin University where he attained a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Arts.

Doug is on the Board of the NSW TAFE Commission and the Commonwealth Study Conferences inc. Executive Committee. He is also a member of the Governing Council of TAFE Higher Education and Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee of the NSW Government Compensation Authorities.

Pat Forward was elected to the position of Federal TAFE Secretary of the Australian Education Union (AEU) in January 2004. She previously held the position of Federal TAFE President for six years, and was at the same time Vice President TAFE in the Victorian Branch of the AEU.  She has taught in Victorian TAFE Colleges, at university and in schools. She is an advocate of the public TAFE system in Australia, and a critic of the damaging effects of competition and marketisation. She is committed to maintaining and extending the status of the profession of TAFE teaching, for all TAFE teachers.

Jarrad has always had an interest in computers and design. When he was offered an apprenticeship at a local design firm he keenly embraced the opportunity presented to him. After completing several TAFE courses Jarrad's talents have resulted in success both locally and internationally. The pinnacle of this success was his gold medal in Website Design at the WorldSkills International Competition, Helsinki 2005.

In July 2007, Jarrad established Jala Design Pty Ltd - an Australian design agency with a passion for graphic design, website design, marketing and branding. Jarrad is now passing on his talents to future designers by teaching design skills at Hornsby, TAFE NSW Northern Sydney Institute.

He continues his involvement with WorldSkills Australia as a regional/national judge, regional/national project designer and international Deputy Chief Expert.

Jack Hanrahan has over 30 years of retail experience in Europe and Australia across sectors as diverse as food, fashion and department stores. Prior to joining Westfield Group as General Manager, Retailer Relations; he had his own consulting company focusing on strategy and training in Asia Pacific region. Jack brings to the role expertise in retail developed with both publicly listed retailers as well as private organisations and as owner of his own retail business.

Jack has a Masters Degree from MGSM and is the co-author of "Retail Strategy Planning & Control", a textbook. He has taught MBA & Graduate programs in marketing, retail and strategy at several Universities and a company director for a number of commercial and not for profit organisations for over 15 years.

Wayne has held various positions within TAFE Colleges in Queensland and Western Australia over the years and in 1993 Wayne completed a Masters in Education Leadership.

He was the Managing Director of Polytechnic West in Perth, Western Australia since 2004, having spent the previous 10 years in Central West TAFE in Geraldton. Under Wayne's direction the College have undergone immense changes. A commitment to providing quality training has distinguished Polytechnic West as WA Large Training Provider of the year 2011.

Wayne continues to make significant contributions to training policy development and delivery especially in employment based training and pathway for students acquiring higher qualification through a VET pathway.

Wayne was a board member of the TAFE Directors Australia board for nine years and serves the training sector on many state and national committees.

Wayne is widely regarded in a leading authority on the structure policy of the Australian apprenticeship system focusing on the needs of employers, apprentices and registered training organisations.

Wayne retired from his position as Managing Director of Polytechnic West, Perth on 15 February 2013 to launch CollyerConsultancy.

Mark Callaghan joined WorldSkills Australia in October 2005 and was appointed CEO in November 2006.

Mark is committed to continually improving all aspects of WSA’s core business – the competition process – to ensure that the WorldSkills Australia programs continue to be an essential element of skill development and contribute to Australia’s economic growth through recognition and promotion of world class skills.

Prior to WSA, Mark had extensive experience in operations and project management and major event operations – including Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Mark has a Bachelor of Construction Management and has 10 years experience as a construction project manager.