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Background
Networking the Nation consisted of a five-member independent Board responsible for managing and allocating Networking the Nation funds. A list of funded projects is available separately.

Board members had a wide range of experience and knowledge in communications as well as rural, regional and remote issues, and are well placed to make informed and fair decisions about the allocation of Networking the Nation funds.

Board members were:

• The Rt Hon Doug Anthony (Chair)
• Professor Gerry Anderson, Adjunct Professor from the University of Ballarat in Information Technology and Business Applications
• Mrs Lindsay MacDonald, a Queensland wool grower and telecommunications activist
• Ms Johanna Plante, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Communications Industry Forum Limited
• Ms Eleanor Scholz, manager of a regional South Australian telecentre)

Members
The Right Honourable Doug Anthony (Chair) - a former Deputy Prime Minister well known for his years in political office, including his leadership of the Australian Country Party (now the National Party of Australia). His experience ranges across portfolios from Primary Industries, Trade and Industry to Natural Resources and Minerals, and Energy. Post politics he has been a farmer in the Tweed Valley in NSW for many years. He has also been a director of a number of public and private companies and public institutions.

Professor Gerry Anderson - currently Pro Vice Chancellor, Educational and Academic Services and Executive Manager of Information Services at the University of Ballarat in Western Victoria. Professor Anderson was instrumental in setting up the IBM Global Services Data Centre at the University of Ballarat Technology Park and developing the Ballarat Regional Network, as a federation of common interest subnetworks. He has been active in promoting access to and training in communications technologies and services in regional and rural Australia. Professor Anderson is also the Chairman of the Regional Adult and Community Education Council for Central Highlands/Wimmera and Director of the University Centre for Electronic Commerce and Communications (CECC).

Mrs Lindsay MacDonald - represents remote telecommunications consumers on National Consumer Councils and was National Secretary of the Rural Telephone Subscribers' Association until 1992. A partner in a family grazing business near Blackall in Central Western Queensland, Mrs MacDonald's involvement in a number of community-based organisations includes the establishment of a Telecentre and Open Learning Centre in Blackall and four years as President of the Barcoo Communication and Education Network Inc.

Ms Johanna Plante - inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Communications Industry Forum - a company established in 1997 to implement and manage communications self-regulation in Australia. Ms Plante has worked in the telecommunications industry for almost thirty years after graduating from the University of Western Australia with a first class honours degree in Electrical Engineering in 1972. She has held senior management positions with Telstra, Coopers and Lybrand, KPMG and Infonet as well as being an inaugural full-time Board Member of AUSTEL - the previous telecommunications Regulator from 1989 to 1993, and an Associate Commissioner of Trade Practices Commission. Ms Plante has recently been appointed in a personal capacity as a Member of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council.

Ms Eleanor Scholz - manager of the Wudinna and Districts Telecentre in South Australia, Ms Scholz was formerly involved in family wheat farming interests on the Eyre Peninsula about 500 km from Adelaide. Ms Scholz has been involved in a number of innovative service delivery trials and developments with South Australian and other government agencies.

May 2005
More information
phone: 1800 674 058 (toll free)
email: ntn.mail@dcita.gov.au

• Document ID: 6388 |
• Last modified: 6 February 2008, 1:36pm