Our Committee

• Phillip Hartshorne – President
• Martin Ruane – Vice President
• Brian O’Dea – Club Secretary
• Ian Cohen – Treasurer
• ​Ellis Janks – Commitee Member
• Charlie McConnell – Committee Member
• Nicholas Gleeson – Committee Member
• Ben Gibb – Committee Member
• Nicole Tillotson – Committee Member
• Niamh Martin – Commitee Member
• Joe Griffin – Commitee Member

Our Patron – Suzanne Colbert AM

Suzanne was the founding Chief Executive of the Australian Network on Disability and stepped down from that role in December 2020. Suzanne developed the organisation from 2 employers with 40 employees to 310 members who collectively employ 1.75 million Australians.

Under Suzanne’s leadership, AND initiated many innovative supports for employers including publications, policies, facilitated learning sessions, and developed the Access and Inclusion Index and the Disability Confident Recruiter recognition program.

She pioneered many programs such as the internationally acclaimed Stepping into Internship Program, mentoring programs and the highly effective and successful Intellectual Disability Business Administration Traineeship II program. Suzanne also developed the ground breaking ‘Engage, Equip and Deliver’ model that was piloted during the NSW ‘High Growth Jobs’ project and the Victorian Employer Enablement Project.

Suzanne specialises in encouraging and nurturing Executive Champions and commenced the first Champions network in Canberra in 2008. Since then, Executive networks have extended to Sydney and Melbourne with over 80 senior executives championing inclusion of people with disability in their own organisations. Suzanne continues to support executive champions with briefings and networking meetings.

Suzanne’s significant experience combined with her foresight to create systemic change, led her to contribute to many Federal and State Governments advisory committees including the National People with Disability and Carer Council; the Australian Human Rights Commission Reference Group on Willing to Work: A National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australian and Australians with Disability; the NSW Disability Employment Advisory Committee (Advisory to NSW Public Service Commission); the Disability Employment Service Reference Group and the City of Sydney’s Inclusion (Disability) Advisory Panel.

In 2010, Suzanne was awarded an AM in the Australia Day Honours list. In 2013, she was inducted into Disability Employment Australia’s Hall of Fame and was included in the AFR/Westpac 100 Women of Influence. Suzanne is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Patron of Achilles Running Club in Australia.