Category: College Board

Darren is an educator, educational leader and educational consultant with over 25 years’ experience working in schools in the United Kingdom, Queensland and South Australia, where he has demonstrated success in delivering exceptional outcomes in learning, wellbeing and holistic education in a number of high-performance organisations.

Currently in role as Executive Project Manager at Seymour College and working with the College Board, Darren is responsible for a number of high-level projects to improve organisational efficiency, performance and stakeholder experience. Darren has also held roles as Principal of The Springfield Anglican College in Brisbane, and prior to that as Deputy Principal at Seymour College and Director of Teaching and Learning at St. Peter’s College, both in Adelaide. In 2019, Darren served as Acting Head of College at St. Mark’s College. In these roles, Darren has gained extensive experience in developing and delivering on strategy, and in improving organisational culture and business performance.

Darren has also served on a number of Advisory Boards and Executive Committees in curriculum development, wellbeing and sport, and is experienced in delivering key note lectures on education and literature in universities in England and Australia.

Darren holds a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership, an Honours degree in English Literature, and post-graduate certificates in Leadership and in Education.

Cecilia is a Director of Perks People Solutions, providing expert outsourced HR advice and support to employers across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

Prior to this, Cecilia spent nearly 10 years in private practice as an employment lawyer, advising and representing South Australian employers across a broad and diverse range of workplace and industrial disputes, enterprise bargaining negotiations, workplace investigations and workers compensation matters.

Cecilia also held a senior management role in the South Australian Equal Opportunity Commissioner for eight years, where she gained experience in discrimination and sexual harassment disputes, community and stakeholder engagement and policy development. It was during this time that Cecilia developed a passion for equity and diversity and supporting leaders to create inclusive organisations.

Cecilia is a Nationally Accredited Mediator with the Resolution Institute of Australia, a Board Member of the Victim Support Service of South Australia, and a member of the Law Society of South Australia and the Australian Human Resources Institute.

Marc Allgrove is a Director of Evans + Ayers Advisory P/L, providing strategic, governance and management services across tourism, agriculture, arts, education and local government.

Prior to joining this practice, he was the CEO of McLaren Vale winery Chapel Hill from 2009 to 2013. Over 25 years within the Australian wine industry with Chapel Hill, Constellation Wines and its predecessors has provided significant experience focusing on strategy, marketing, sales, management and exports.

Marc is a former chair and board member of Vinehealth Australia, McLaren Vale Grape Wine and Tourism Association, and the South Australian Wine Industry Association executive, and currently serves on the boards of Olivers Taranga Pty Ltd, Jericho Wines, St Mark’s College and The David Roche Foundation.

In addition, seats held on the Fleurieu Art Prize Board, Winemakers Federation of Australia Future Leaders Selection Committee, the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Contemporary Collectors Committee, Industry Leadership Fund Scholars Committee and the UNESCO Mt Lofty Ranges World Heritage Bid Economic Advisory Group demonstrate a deep and broad understanding of public and private organisational strengths and issues.

Marc attended St Mark’s College between 1990-93 as the inaugural recipient of the CAS Hawker Scholarship earning a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Adelaide, and is a member and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

After practising law at Piper Alderman, Suzanne moved to academia, where she is Professor of Law at the Adelaide Law School and Deputy Dean, Learning and Teaching, of the Faculty of the Professions, University of Adelaide.

Suzanne has held a number of senior roles at the University, including as Dean of Law, whilst also maintaining active involvement in teaching and research. Suzanne’s research interests are focused on corporate law and professional ethics, with a particular focus on the regulation of independence in a number of professional contexts. She has more than 50 scholarly publications and has contributed to numerous law reform initiatives in her areas of expertise. Details of Suzanne’s research can be found here

In teaching, Suzanne has led innovation in the law curriculum, including a first year ‘boot camp’ approach, a refreshed curriculum and honours program. She is currently responsible for the learning and teaching portfolio for the Schools of Law, Business and Economics. Her teaching skills have been recognised by an Executive Dean’s Award (April 2015) and a NIFTEP Fellowship awarded by the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism (July 2012). This fellowship is supported by a consortium of centres based at US universities. Fellows are identified through a competitive process open worldwide.

Suzanne has a number of board roles, including as Chair of St Ignatius College, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has been a distinguished overseas visitor at a number of overseas universities, as well as a Fellow at the Stein Center of Law and Ethics at Fordham University, New York. Suzanne is a member of the SA Judicial Development Committee, an editor of the international journal, Legal Ethics, President of the Australian Corporate Law Teachers Association, a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Corporations Committee, ASIC’s Regional Liaison Committee and of the International Association of Legal Ethicists.

She is regularly invited to speak at conference and professional events, including as keynote speaker. These include the ASIC Annual Forum, the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association National and SA Conferences, The Society of University Lawyers, The Governance Institute, the Law Society of South Australia, the Law Institute Victoria, The Law Society of Tasmania, the Law Society of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Institute of Company Directors, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia, the Law Council of Australia, the SA Judicial Development Day, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees Ideas Exchange and the Australian Government Legal Network.

Simon Murray is the Director of Up School Consulting and provides expert advice to schools globally in the fields of leadership, strategic planning, wellbeing, academic enhancement, mentoring and innovation in education. He had current engagements in Australia, China, South Africa and Pakistan.

Previously a Headmaster across three schools for 27 years, and an educator for over 40 years, his contribution to education is significant. He served as the 14th Headmaster of St Peter’s College, Adelaide from 2010 until July 2017. Before this, he was Headmaster of Canberra Grammar School for twelve years (1998 –2010) which followed eight years as Headmaster of Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School (1991 –1998). In recognition of his executive leadership, Simon was elected by his peers to be the Chairman of Association of Heads of Independent School of Australia (AHISA) from 2009 – 2011. Simon is a past Board member of the Independent Schools Council of Australia. He is a past Chairman of The Association of Independent Schools of the ACT and was a member of the Executive of The Association of Independent Schools of Western Australia.

He was appointed a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators in 2008 for his leadership in the independent school sector and in 2017 he was awarded The South Australian Fellowship Award by Australian Council of Educational Leaders in recognition of his service to education in South Australia. He was appointed an Honorary Member of AHISA in 2017.

In June 2018 Simon Murray was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to secondary education and professional associations.

In June 2019 he was honoured for his pioneering work, contribution and internationally recognised leadership in the field of Positive Education by the University of Pennsylvania and the Eisenhower Fellowships.

Simon has advanced the field of wellbeing, positive psychology and positive education across five areas: governance, publications, philanthropy, political engagement, and executive leadership.

He is a founding member and inaugural Chairman of Australia’s Positive Education Schools Association with over 2000 members. He was also founding member of the Board of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN). He has co-edited two scholarly books on evidence-based applications of positive psychology and future directions in wellbeing. He has published scientific articles, book chapters and presented on positive psychology and positive education at conferences in Australia, China, USA, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He negotiated a lead partnership with South Australia’s Premier securing Martin Seligman as Thinker in Residence and hosted policy makers, scholars, and practitioners on positive psychology, opening St Peter’s College to thousands of members of the public. He contributed to a Wellbeing Summit at No. 10 Downing Street and under his leadership established St Peter’s College as a world leader in the field of wellbeing.

Significantly he has worked extensively with disadvantaged schools, both individual schools and clusters, to develop whole-of-school wellbeing programs with the aim of enabling students in these schools to flourish both at school and in their later lives. Simon has garnered the support of philanthropists to fund school wellbeing programs.

He is a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Education at the University of Adelaide and in June 2018 he was appointed to the Board of the Centre for Positive Psychology, The University of Melbourne. In 2017 he was appointed as Chief Advisor to the Positive Education China Academy, a peak body bringing Positive Education to China.

Simon was actively involved in the Anglican Diocese of Bunbury, WA as a member of the Diocesan Council and also in the Diocese of Canberra Goulburn as a member of the Ministry Executive and Bishop in Council. He was also an appointed member of the Diocesan Council in the Anglican Diocese of Adelaide.

Mark brings over 40 years of professional accounting and commercial experience. He is a strategic manager and has been involved with many complex commercial transactions involving numerous parties. Since 2003 he has been the Chief Financial Officer of a large private family group of companies and has worked through a period of significant rationalisation of the group operations and ownership interests.

He gained over 25 years professional experience with KPMG in various roles including as an audit partner, Finance and Administration Director for the Adelaide office from 1992 and as National Finance Manager for Facilities and Services for the national practice from 2000. His nearly 15 years of professional experience included a diverse client base of public, private and not for profit entities covering finance and banking, manufacturing, retail, property development and private schools.

Mark Penniment commenced as a Board member in September 2015 and has been the St Mark’s College Bursar from March 2000 to 2011 and subsequently from September 2015. He has managed oversight of the College’s financial operations including financing of major building projects and management of the College investment funds. Mark has also been a Board member of the St Mark’s College Foundation since 2011.

Mark is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and has a Bachelor of Economics from Adelaide University.

Over the past three decades Linda has worked in senior leadership positions in South Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.

She is currently the Chair of St Mark’s College.  Other Board positions include Board Director of Catherine House, The Adelaide Benevolent Society and until recently Chair of Scosa. In 2019, while Chair of Scosa, she led a merger of Scosa and Novita, two disability organisations affected by the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Linda has held Executive positions in South Australia as the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity and a Director at the SA Intellectual Disability Service Council. Interstate positions include appointment as Queensland’s first Privacy Commissioner and Executive Director of Women NSW.

Linda has led a number of organisations in South Australia, including the Parks Community Legal Service, SA Domestic Violence Prevention Unit, and the SA Rape and Sexual Assault Service. More recently Linda was CEO for Survivors of Torture and Trauma Rehabilitation Services (STTARS) and Catherine House, a service for women experiencing homelessness.

Linda is an experienced mentor, leader, and problem solver. She has managed complex negotiations with diverse stakeholder groups and provided advice on conflict management and related issues to business, government and community organisations.