David Lloyd is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of South Australia. A Dublin-born and educated chemist who specialises in computer-aided drug design, Professor Lloyd joined the university at the beginning of 2013, re-focusing it as Australia’s university of enterprise and shaping its activities to better meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Professor Lloyd was a member of the South Australia Economic Development Board (EDB) from 2014 to 2018. A past Chair of the Australian Technology Network group of technology-focused universities, he now sits on the board of Universities Australia, the peak body representing the university sector where he is the lead Vice-Chancellor for research and innovation. He was also recently appointed to the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Advisory Council to provide advice to the ARC on key research policy issues, to lend independent strategic guidance and experience that will strengthen the ARC’s ability to support research and innovation in Australia.

Before joining the University of South Australia, Professor Lloyd was Vice-President for Research and later Bursar and Director of Strategic Innovation at Trinity College Dublin. Professor Lloyd was Chair of the Irish Research Council and prior to academia, worked in the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. He holds an honorary Professorship from Tianjin University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Professor Lloyd qualified with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Applied Chemistry and a PhD in Medicinal Organic Chemistry from Dublin City University. He additionally holds an MA (j.o.) from Trinity College and an Honorary Doctorate from the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s Unseen University.

Mr Luke Sheehy commenced as the CEO of Universities Australia in February 2024. He is a highly skilled leader with more than 20 years’ experience shaping the agenda of higher education.

Prior to UA, Mr Sheehy led the Australian Technology Network of Universities for almost five years. He has also held key education roles in government, worked as an education and strategy consultant for the Asian Development Bank and held senior management roles at Swinburne University.

As the first member of his family to graduate from university, Mr Sheehy knows first-hand the power of education to transform lives and is driven to ensure that opportunity is provided to as many people as possible.

Professor Adam Shoemaker has extensive experience in the Australian University sector and is one of the nations leading researchers in Indigenous literature and culture.   

He commenced as the Vice-Chancellor and President of Victoria University in December 2020 after four years as Vice-Chancellor of Southern Cross University. 

Before these roles, Professor Shoemaker was a senior leader at a number of other Australian universities, including Academic Provost at Griffith University, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) at Monash University and Dean of Arts at the Australian National University.  

He spent his formative years in a diverse range of fields, such as reviewer and columnist for The Australian, an ABC Canberra radio series contributor, and a member of the National Press Club. He served as chair of the Brisbane Writers Festival in the mid-1990s and spent three years with the Delegation of the Commission of the European Committees. He was Deputy Director of the European Community pavilion at World Expo 88 in Brisbane.  

Professor Shoemaker also had positions on the advisory board of Monash University Publishing and the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), and Director of Open Universities Australia.   

Canadian by birth, Professor Shoemaker holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Queen’s University and a PhD from the Australian National University. 

AWARDS

• Arrived in Australia as a Commonwealth Scholar  
• Winner of the Walter McRae Russell Award 1990 – Association for the Study of Australian Literature   
• Highly commended in the Human Rights Awards – Australian Human Rights Commission for Paperbark: A Collection of Black Australian Writings (1990) and Black Words, White Page (1989, 1992, 2004) 

PUBLICATIONS

Professor Shoemaker is the author or editor of nine books focused on Indigenous Australian Literature and Culture, including:

• Aboriginal Australians: First Nations of an Ancient Continent (2004)  
  Authors Professor Adam Shoemaker and Stephen Muecke trace the richly diverse and longstanding origins of Australia’s First Nations people through to the present day. 
• Black Words, White Page (2004)  
  This award-winning study – the first comprehensive treatment of the nature and significance of Indigenous Australian literature – was based upon Professor Shoemaker’s doctoral research at The Australian National University and was first published by UQP in 1989.
• A Sea Change: Australian Writing and Photography (Editor, 1998)  
  Commissioned by Andrea Strelton of SBS, Artistic Director of the Olympic Arts Festivals of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, this anthology brought together 25 of Australia’s finest writers and photographers to explore the transformation that took place two years before the Games. 
• Mudrooroo: A Critical Study (1993) 
  A study of all of Mudrooroo’s (Colin Jackson’s) books up to The Kwinkan – his poetry, criticism and unpublished novels. 

Professor Attila Brungs is the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW. He was previously Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Technology Sydney and has held senior positions with CSIRO and McKinsey & Company.

Professor Brungs is a Rhodes Scholar with a Doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry from Oxford University and a University Medal in Industrial Chemistry from the University of New South Wales.

Some of Professor Brungs’ present key appointments include ATN Chair; Chair of the National Priorities and Industry Linkage Fund Working Group, member of the NSW Government Tech Central Industry Advisory Group; the NSW Innovation and Productivity Council; the Committee for Sydney Board; and ATSE fellow. His experience includes many distinguished past board and committee memberships, including not-for-profit organisations, in addition to numerous state and federal government and institutional appointments.

Professor Carolyn Evans is Vice Chancellor and President of Griffith University.  Carolyn graduated with degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne and a doctorate from Oxford where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Prior to commencing at Griffith, Carolyn held the positions of Dean of Law, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Graduate and International) at the University of Melbourne.  In 2019, Carolyn was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and became a member of the organisation, Chief Executive Women.  She is President of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association, was Chair of the Innovative Research Universities from 2021-2022, former board member of Open Universities Australia from 2019-2023, and current Board member of Universities Australia and the Australian-American Fulbright Commission and Chair of the State Advisory Board for the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.

Professor Margaret Sheil AO was appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of QUT in February 2018, having previously been Provost at The University of Melbourne (2012-2017) and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Council (2007-2012).

Professor Sheil has been an academic in chemistry and held a number of senior roles at the University of Wollongong, including as Dean of Science and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (AAS), the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), and the Australian and New Zealand Society for Mass Spectrometry (ANZSMS).

Professor Sheil is Chair of the Board of the Queensland Museum Network, Deputy Chair of the Board of Universities Australia, the lead Vice Chancellor for Research for Universities Australia, and a member of the Australian Space Agency Advisory Group. She was a Director of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) from 2015-2019, and the Advisory Board for Coursera from 2013-2016. She was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Innovation and Engineering Council, the National Research Infrastructure Council, and the Cooperative Research Centres Committee from 2007-2012.

In 2017 Professor Sheil was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her distinguished service to science and higher education as an academic and administrator, through significant contributions to the national research landscape, and to performance standards. Professor Sheil holds a Bachelor of Science and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from The University of New South Wales and was presented with the Science and Technology Alumni Award from UNSW in 2016.

Before joining Swinburne in 2020, Professor Quester was Deputy Vice-Chancellor and President (Academic) at the University of Adelaide (2011–2020).  She had previously held various roles at the University of Adelaide, including Executive Dean of the Faculty of the Professions (2006–2011), Associate Dean of Research for the Faculty of the Professions (2001–2006), and inaugural Professor of Marketing in the Adelaide Business School (2001–2020).

Professor Quester is an active and respected researcher in the areas of consumer behaviour and marketing communications. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Business Administration from her native France, a Master of Arts (Marketing) from Ohio State University in the United States, and a PhD from Massey University in New Zealand.  In 2012, Professor Quester was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite (National Order of Merit), one of France’s highest honours, in recognition of her contribution to higher education in both France and Australia. A Distinguished Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy since 2009, she has held several visiting professorial appointments, including at La Sorbonne, Paris II, ESSEC Business School, and the University of Nancy in France.

A graduate from the AICD, she has held a variety of advisory board positions, including Defence SA (2016 to 2019) and Audencia (2020-). She was chair of the Go8 DVC(A) from 2015 to 2018, and a member of the DVCA UA executive.

 Professor Renée Leon is the Vice-Chancellor and President of Charles Sturt University, a role she commenced in September 2021. 

 Professor Leon holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University and a Master of Laws from the University of Cambridge, which she attended as the Menzies Foundation Law Scholar in 1995. 

 Prior to her role in the higher education sector, Professor Leon had extensive experience in Commonwealth and State public administration, covering policy, program management and service delivery.  She was the Secretary of two Commonwealth departments between 2013-2020, and was appointed National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia in 2022. 

Professor Leon was awarded a Public Service Medal in 2013 for outstanding service to public administration and law in leadership roles in the Australian Capital Territory and the Commonwealth. 

Professor Leon is a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and a member of Chief Executive Women Australia.  

Professor Zlatko Skrbis became the fourth Vice-Chancellor and President of Australian Catholic University in January 2021. He previously held senior leadership positions at Australian Catholic University, Monash University, and The University of Queensland.

He holds a PhD in sociology from Flinders University and undergraduate degrees in sociology and philosophy from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

As Vice-Chancellor and President of ACU, Professor Skrbis is leading an ambitious program of transformational change across the university, while displaying an unwavering commitment to ACU’s traditions, values, and Catholic mission.

It is his ambition to ensure that ACU is globally recognised as an institution that adheres to its strong Catholic principles and makes a tangible improvement to the lives of others through excellence in education, research and engagement.