With the election in late 2020 of three Independent Directors and the appointment of a further Nominee Director, Building 4.0 CRC’s Board is now complete (see brief overviews below). As per the Commonwealth Government’s guidelines, the CRC’s Board is majority independent. The new Directors join our Chair, Dr Bronwyn Evans, CEO Professor Mathew Aitchison, and Nominee Director William (Bill) Ruh to complete the seven-member Board.

The four new Directors help to broaden the group’s knowledge, introducing further expertise in areas such as R&D, innovation, commercialisation, business advice and financial management.

We congratulate and welcome all of our new Directors to the team, and look forward to working with them in reshaping and redefining the building industry.

Independent Director Theodora Elia-Adams holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Taxation from The University of Melbourne and is a Chartered Accountant and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is a Former EY Partner, Business Advisor and Tax Specialist. As a skilled Board Member, Company Secretary and Company Treasurer, Theodora has key skills in governance and quality assurance, finance and budget management, and risk identification and management. She has advised businesses across a broad range of sectors including those in the medtech, bioscience, construction, health, retail, banking, SaaS, and wealth management industries.

Independent Director Dr Steve Gower holds a PhD and Honours degree in physics from the University of Wollongong. He brings a wealth of expertise in research management across complex and geographically dispersed organisations such as CRCs. He has been responsible for driving the performance of R&D and commercialisation functions for globally-regarded academic and scientific organisations including ANU, BHP Research, RMIT University, University of Wollongong, Australian Synchrotron, Australian Research Council, and Space Environment Research Centre (SERC), of which he was CEO. He is a seasoned Board Member with strong commercial acumen and access to broad industry networks.

Independent Director Jan Bingley holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from Charles Sturt University. She is a senior executive with a career in finance and venture capital, currently on the investment committee for two Australian venture firms with broad investment mandates. She has also worked with the Federal Government on venture capital policy and has been on government committees that assess and award start-up companies with matching commercialisation grants. She is currently on the Federal Government Entrepreneur Program Committee, which accesses applicants for commercialisation grants. She spent a number of years leading innovation and commercialisation at the CSIRO where she was responsible for many start-ups in a variety of sectors and raised funds and secured exits for those start-ups. She consults in the private and public sector on innovation and commercialisation strategies in particular where the company is seeking to exploit its intellectual capital.

Nominee Director Professor Shane Murray is Foundation Professor of Architecture and Dean of the Faculty of Art Design & Architecture at Monash University. He has extensive industry experience, is an award-winning architect, and leading academic in the field of architectural design, urban design and housing. Since 2002, Shane has been awarded research funding including current ARC Linkage, AHURI, ISCRR, LIEF and CRC projects encompassing affordable and sustainable mass housing models, transit-oriented urban design, mixed used development typologies, and approaches to normalise the accommodation of ageing populations in their existing neighbourhoods. He is recipient of the Neville Quarry Architectural Education medal and a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.