Ben Wyatt is the former Western Australian Treasurer and has had ministerial responsibility for Finance, Energy, Aboriginal Affairs and Lands. He was the first Indigenous treasurer of any Australian parliament and he has held various shadow cabinet portfolios, including responsibility for Native Title, the Pilbara and Culture and the Arts. He retired from the Western Australian Parliament in March 2021.  

Ben holds a Masters degree with Distinction from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor of Laws from The University of Western Australia. Prior to entering Parliament, he practised as a lawyer in both private practice and with the Western Australian Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.   

Ben also sits on the Boards of the West Coast Eagles, Woodside and Rio Tinto.  

Rowena Albones has had a series of leadership, financial and project development roles at Rio Tinto since joining the company as a Commercial Analyst for Hamersley Iron in 1999. She was appointed the Managing Director of Pilbara Projects in February 2024. In this role she leads development and construction of major mine and infrastructure project investment for Rio Tinto’s Pilbara Iron Ore business.

Before returning to project development, Rowena was Chief Financial Officer for Rio Tinto Iron Ore and oversaw financial and business performance. She has held other senior finance leadership and project development roles across Rio Tinto with responsibilities including major stakeholder relationships, joint ventures and business development.

Rowena holds a Bachelor’s degree majoring in Economics and Finance and a Masters in Business Administration, both from Curtin University, Australia.

Professor James Arvanitakis is the Director of the Forrest Research Foundation based at the University of Western Australia and an adjunct professor at Curtin University. He moved to Perth, Western Australia to take up the position and was formerly the Pro Vice Chancellor (Engagement and Advancement) at Western Sydney University and Executive Director of Fulbright Australia.

After a successful career in finance and human rights, he has worked with universities for more than 15 years establishing innovative education and research programs including The Academy at Western (awarded the Australian Financial Review Excellence in Education Award) and was awarded the Prime Minister’s University Teacher of the Year Award (2012).

He has a regular segment on ABC News 24, has various Board positions including the Perth Festival and is the inaugural Patron of Diversity Arts Australia. He is a Fulbright alumnus, having spent 12 months at the University of Wyoming as the Milward L Simpson Distinguished Fellow and in 2022 he founded Respectful Disagreements, a brave spaces project.

Paul Downie is a globally experienced strategic communications advisor and manager, with a career spanning nearly 40 years.  

Paul most recently served as the Asia Pacific Chairman of FTI Consulting Strategic Communications division. FTI is a NYSE listed, global corporate advisory firm based in Washington DC. Paul has lived in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and New York leading teams to advise clients on multi-faceted corporate and regulatory matters. While with the firm, Paul was co-leader of the broader Australian business, leader of the Singapore office and sat on global leadership committees. 

Paul studied Business at Edith Cowan University and Journalism at Curtin University before being offered a cadetship in 1983 at West Australian Newspapers. He is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Business Advanced Management Program and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has advised and sat on Boards of numerous not-for-profit organisations. 

Delwyn Everard is a strategic thinker, lawyer and advocate.  

As a partner of global firm Spruson & Ferguson, she specialised in patent and trademark litigation, acting for some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical, manufacturing and mining companies. She then spent 10 years as the Deputy Director of the Arts Law Centre, Australia’s national community legal centre, managing the delivery of its legal advice service to the creative sector. In 2017 she founded Everard Advisory, a boutique legal firm focusing on the arts.  

Delwyn has served on the board of the Australian Art Events Foundation, which produces Sydney’s much loved contemporary art festival Art Month Sydney, and she is currently on the boards of The Lester Inc which delivers an annual portrait prize and The Farm Margaret River offering annual residencies to artists whose practice is connected to place and environment.   

She has worked extensively with Indigenous artists and art centres in remote Australia, assisting with governance and business advice and major public projects. Her COVID-19 lockdown project was a podcast ‘Running the Show’ which discusses the legal and business issues confronting arts organisations and others working in the creative sector. 

Michelle Tremain is current CEO of Fini Group and has 27 years experience in the assurance, financial advisory and consulting sectors.

Michelle is highly respected across the business community and has a demonstrated passion for the arts and education.

She has been proactive in her personal support for local emerging artists and academics and is currently a board member of the Arts and Culture Trust, Deputy Chair of the Perth Festival and Forrest Research Foundation independent governor.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Murdoch University (double major Accounting and Asian Studies), is a CPA and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and the Tax Institute. Michelle also has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.

Simon Yeo has worked in the financial services industry since 1993. In November 2000 he established and managed the Private Client division of Euroz Securities Limited before moving to a specialised role within the Institutional Sales division from 2013 – 22 and is now in the Private Wealth division. Simon was formerly an Executive Director of Euroz Limited and Euroz Hartleys Securities Limited.  

Simon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Western Australia and was previously a chartered accountant.  He was on the board of the ACO for 10 years from 2014 to 2024. He was the Executive Producer of The Reef, being instrumental in conceptualising, financing and arranging logistics, when the ACO first launched the project in 2012 and also for The Reef redux undertaken in 2015 for the 2016 The Reef tour of the USA. He was previously a Director of Tura New Music.