Speakers

Tony Thomas is a Rotarian from Central Melbourne Rotary Club and a life time journalist. He has published many articles on the Climate Change issue. He has a record of writing articles challenging the validity of various publications reporting on climate change. 

Elaine has been the CEO of Encompass Community Services since 1995. 

Encompass is a quiet achiever in the Geelong community. For over 30 years, they have been actively engaging with people with physical, intellectual, sensory and psychological disabilities; as well as other individuals who are disadvantaged such as disengaged youth, long-term unemployed and those facing financial, social or learning barriers. By working together with the community, they aim to end damaging stigmas and stereotypes; and open doors of opportunities for all people – whatever background, whatever ability. 

The career of Sal Perna AM spans four decades of fighting crime and corruption.

He started his working life as a Commissioned Officer of the Victoria Police, achieving the rank of Detective Inspector, and the position of Officer In Charge, Crime Courses Unit. His 20-year police career included everything from undercover duties to the extradition of the ‘Nuclear Warrior’ from Los Angeles. He was commended on four occasions, awarded the National Medal in 1990, the Police Service Medal in 2014 and twice served in the Homicide Squad.

His corporate background includes senior executive roles heading two of Australia’s largest corporate security and investigation groups, firstly at Australia Post and then at Telstra, making him responsible for the national operations of teams whose role was to provide strategic and tactical corporate security/risk management and protecting the brand, business, staff and infrastructure of the country’s largest postal and telecommunication companies.

In 2007, Sal established Calibre International Pty Ltd which provided corporate consultancy service in areas such as leadership training, coaching, mentoring, staff selection, business planning, issue and incident analysis and specialising in security risk, anti-corruption, development of professional standards and the conduct of major and complex investigation/reviews.

He was appointed as Victoria’s inaugural Racing Integrity Commissioner on March 1^st, 2010. Reporting to Parliament, he provided independent oversight of integrity of the state’s multi-billion-dollar racing industry and had his initial appointment extended a total of four times, completing his tenure in March 2021.

In 2019 Sal was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. 

His presentation will cover the major parts of his career (Policing/Homicide investigation) + Australia Post + Telstra + Racing Integrity Commissioner and, as such, is entitled “From Murder to Mail: Mobiles to Mounting Yards”.  

 

Preston is a hospitality professional with 20 years of hotel management experience. He is currently the General Manager of the newly-opened Holiday Inn hotel in Werribee.

In the past he has specialised in running several areas of the business including Rooms Division and Food & Beverage. He also has a strong understanding of hotel financial and revenue management fundamentals.