The current Environment Tasmania Inc. Management Committee is:
- Vanessa Bleyer (Chairperson)
- Jodie Epper (Deputy Chairperson)
- Gerard Castles (Secretary)
- Mark Harrison (Treasurer)
- Paul Smith (Membership Officer)
- Andrew Lohrey (Committee Member)
- Robert Kelman (Committee Member)
- Frank Giles (Public Officer)
Biographies
Vanessa Bleyer (Chairperson)
Vanessa Bleyer is the Principal solicitor at Bleyer Lawyers. Vanessa specialises in commercial and conservation law and was the President of Lawyers for Forests Inc from 2003 to 2007. Since 2000, Vanessa has worked towards protecting Australia’s remaining native forests, including through applying the law to environment protection campaigns. Vanessa brings legal skills to the management committee of Environment Tasmania.
Jodie Epper (Deputy Chairperson)
Jodie Epper has worked in landscape restoration and community development for over 20 years. Her work has mainly been across the private land tenure, working with farmers and rural communities. She has a Bachelor Science and Education and was awarded the Centenary Medal for Services to Australian Society and Rural Industries. She was the founder of the Tasmanian Landcare Fund and is passionate about community engagement and volunteer management.
Gerard Castles (Secretary)
Gerard Castles is a strategic communication consultant. He works with his clients to help them develop strategies to engage their stakeholders during times of major change. He has worked with clients in Australia, Asia, New Zealand, the US and the United Kingdom. Prior to setting up his own business, Gerard worked in Sydney as a communication consultant with McKinsey & Company.
Gerard was also a member of the Tasmanian Community Leaders Group established under the Bacon Government to develop a long-term vision and strategic plan for Tasmania. Through that process Gerard learned that Tasmanians saw a brave future for Tasmania as an icon for the rest of the world – not just in words but in reality.
He is currently Vice President of Headway Support Services – an organisation that assists people with acquired brain injury rebuild their lives.
He lives in Hobart (and sometimes on Bruny Island) with his partner and two children.
Mark Harrison (Treasurer)
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Mark Harrison is an accountant by profession, and is also a serving Lieutenant with the Army Financial Services Unit in the Army reserve. An Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Practicing Accountants Australia, he believes that conservation and ecosystems are important not only for the long-term viability of the Tasmanian economy but to arrest the effects of climate change. Mark believes in a progressive environmental and sustainability movement which offers alternatives to unsustainable modern living practices, as opposed to being seen to simply be ruling out any so called development whatsoever. His approach to environmental action is to work towards environmentally friendly business and living tendencies being seen as the social-norm.
Paul Smith (Membership Officer)
Paul Smith completed a Bachelor of Science in forestry at Australian National Univeristy 1965. He worked from 1966 to 1990 for the (then) Tasmanian Forestry Commission, in forest management, planning and district administration. In 1970 Paul was seconded to the Papua New Guinea Forestry Department, working in West New Britain. On returning to the Forestry Commission in Tasmania, he was active in his spare time with the Tasmanian Conservation Trust and the Launceston Walking Club. In 1976, Paul rafted the Franklin River with Bob Brown to see if it was possible to make a movie of the trip, to assist the campaign to save it. In that year they also met with a few other environmentalists at Liffey to launch the Tasmanian Wilderness Society (now the Wilderness Society). The following year, with the help of three others, Paul and Bob rafted the river again and filmed the journey. This gave good publicity and was followed by other movies of the Franklin. I attempted to get Forestry to understand and value wilderness by defining it as a mixture of naturalness and remoteness. That definition was accepted by the Institute of Foresters of Australia and used for the mapping of wild character by Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick at University Tasmania and the National Wilderness Inventory of Australia. In the 1980's Paul took a guiding role in the Wilderness Society campaign in the north of the state to save wild country from being logged. This produced successes in the upper Mersey (Lees Paddocks), Little Fisher, Forth (Lemonthyme) and Liffey valleys. Paul holds a Master of Science in political science. He is currently writing a book to propose a new political institution, designed to improve the ability of democratic governments to produce competent long-term policy. He hopes the book will improve environmental outcomes of many types – including action on global warming and sustainability in general.
Andrew Lohrey (Committee Member)
Andrew Lohrey has a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Technology, Sydney. Prior to returning to university in 1988 he was a Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly for fourteen years in which time he served as a Cabinet Minister and Speaker of the House. As Minister for National Parks he played a major role in saving the Franklin River from being dammed. He is the current President of the North East Tasmania Land Trust and continues to work to protect the Tasmanian environment.
Robert Kelman (Committee Member)
Robert Kelman has more than twenty years experience working on sustainability issues. He has a mixture of front line experience, community sector campaigning, global connections and corporate insights. He has worked for more than a decade as a full-time global Greenpeace campaigner (in Australia, New Zealand and the UK) and for seven years as Corporate Sustainability Strategy Advisor with Ecos Corporation and engineering firm, Evans & Peck. Robert is currently self-employed, as well as working on NGO campaigning and corporate sustainability advisory and advocacy.
Frank Giles (Public Officer)
Frank Giles is a member of Save our Sister