Hear from our Speakers
Peter Newman - Keynote Speaker
Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Peter is an academic who has written 20 books and over 350 papers on sustainable cities with a global reputation and has worked to deliver his ideas in all levels of government.
Peter has worked in local government as an elected councillor in Fremantle, in Western Australia’s state government as an advisor to three Premiers and in the Australian Government on the Board of Infrastructure Australia and the Prime Minister’s Cities Reference Group. He is the Co-ordinating Lead Author for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Transport.
In 2014 he was awarded an Order of Australia for his contributions to urban design and sustainable transport particularly for his work in saving and rebuilding Perth’s rail system. In 2018/19 he was the WA Scientist of the Year. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal Sustainable Earth.
Susanna Beech
Susanna is the Manager and Director of GreenPrint Solutions. Susanna holds a masters in Environmental Management, a Governance Institute of Australia, Certificate in Governance Practice and an Infrastructure Sustainability Council of Australia (ISCA) accreditation.
Susanna has over 20 years’ experience in mining, refining, infrastructure, consulting, and government environments where she held both technical and senior leadership roles.
Susanna’s experience spans a range of portfolios including environment, sustainability, governance, Aboriginal cultural heritage, government relations and community consultation.
Susanna has held senior leadership positions providing strategic advice to corporate leadership teams and boards on environmental governance and approvals, aboriginal cultural heritage, sustainability frameworks and reporting, and community collaboration and partnering.
Kate O'Hara
CEO, Foodbank WA
Kate O'Hara has a wealth of business and leadership experience. Her background is in property and residential strategic marketing, digital strategy, communications planning, media planning, community creation and place making across a broad range of sectors including asset development and management (residential, retail, commercial, hospitality), residential housing, the resource sector, banking and education.
Bringing decades of branding and PR communications strategy, community development and place making, philanthropy and sponsorship strategy experience, Kate is instrumental in continuing to position Foodbank WA as the leading food relief charity and building our connection with the community as well as charity and corporate partners.
Kate is also a Non-Executive Director and been on business and not for profit boards covering the arts, education, sports and business groups.
Bella Poll, Co-President of Millenium Kids
Bella is passionate about empowering young people to take meaningful action on the issues they care about.
As Co-President of Millennium Kids, Bella has worked with young people globally, building their knowledge of climate issues and equipping them with the skills to take action. The curriculum-aligned approach her team has developed to do this employs the principles of Deliberative Democracy and develops students' leadership skills for life.
Bella is currently working with multiple organisations across Europe to roll this process out and train teachers to facilitate it. Bella is studying Chemical Engineering and Finance at UWA.
Catrina Luz Aniere OAM
Cat, has been working with young people at Millennium Kids, an environmental youth organisation, since 1995. Cat has worked as a teacher, TAFE and university lecturer since leaving her teaching job at the Department of Education in 1993.
Focussing on giving voice to the opinions of young people, Cat and a team of young people codesigned a process that focusses on the things young people care about, with opportunities for them to upskill and lead local solutions to the big issues.
Cat has worked with thousands of young people locally, regionally and globally and in 2025 was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her work.
Jennifer Pearson
Jennifer Pearson has an extensive career in teaching from Pre-primary to University pre-service primary and early childhood education which has enabled her to advocate for education for sustainability. She has held the following roles:
Project officer for a local Landcare group for local schools for river restoration, growing and planting trees in rural settings
Immediate past president of AAEE (2010 – 2014 & 2018 – 2022)
Convenor of AAEE WA Chapter (2002 – 2023)
Chair of the Little Green Steps WA (2009 – 2023) and co-developing EfS for early years educators
Jennifer coordinated the Biological Earth Environmental Science Day career day for years 9 – 11 students (2004 – 2022)
She also develops and delivers Earth Day Expo (2003 – 2023) events for primary schools to provide hands on experiences with a range of EfS programs
Martina Hoeppner
Martina Hoeppner spent the last few years teaching permaculture and sustainability in her own business Permaculture Educators Alliance
In addition to short workshops and multiday courses, she taught the accredited permaculture training for Skills Strategies International. She now manages the Sustainable Education program at Perth City Farm, where she designs and delivers sustainability teaching programs for all ages.
Perth City Farm offers everything from a Nature Playgroup, school tours and children’s workshops, to adult workshops, tours, and corporate programs. In her spare time, Martina gardens in a suburban garden and tries to incorporate as many sustainability aspects in her life as possible.
Melissa Harkins JP, B Ed
Melissa draws on a background in Event and Conference Management, Hotel Management, Front Office and Food and Beverage within Australia and internationally. Melissa worked for five star hotels in London and Canada before returning to Australia to work for various Hyatt properties. In Perth, she worked in Conference Management for Hotels, then contracted to Dymocks to run their author events programme in Western Australia for visiting international and high profile authors, sporting stars and celebrity chefs.
Melissa has a love of and understanding of the Tourism, Hospitality and Events industries and is keen to contribute to the workforce development challenges and opportunities within these sectors.
She is a trained educator who has lectured in Tourism, Hospitality and Events at a degree level at Edith Cowan University and Southern Cross University and in vocational qualifications at The Australian School of Tourism and Hotel Management and NMTAFE. Melissa is a Justice of the Peace and is currently the Deputy Mayor of the Town of Cottesloe.
Michael Watts - Master of Ceremonies
I work with organisational leaders to make the world a better place. I do this through consulting, training and facilitating in the areas of business strategy, systems and sustainability.
My skills in sustainability (ESG) and experience delivering training (for AIM WA) will enable me to supplement speaker key points with insights from my own experience, for attending educators to apply in their learning environments.
I hold a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia, and have completed (and delivered) training as a B Corporation Consultant – the gold standard globally for sustainability certifications.
Encanta Event Management
Encanta Event Management are the professional conference organisers for this annual event.
We are delighted to be working Skills Strategies International on the 2025 annual conference.
Address
Suite 6, 884 Beaufort Street
Inglewood, Perth 6052,
p: +61 8 9389 1488 e: events@encanta.com.au