MARY O’KANE AC

NSW Bushfire Inquiry 2020

Mary O’Kane is a computer engineer, whose achievements include pioneering research in artificial intelligence. After growing up and graduating in Queensland, she did a PhD at ANU then post-doc research at the University of Turin. On return to Australia, she held various senior academic posts in science at Sydney, Canberra, then Adelaide, where she became Vice Chancellor.

Since then she established her own consulting practice and has served on many government and private sector boards and committees, including appointment as NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer.  She is currently Chair of the NSW Independent Planning Commission.

She has been awarded numerous international and Australian honours, covering science, engineering and the community, including a Companion of the Order of Australia.

In January 2020 the NSW Government announced the establishment of the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, an independent expert inquiry into the 2019-20 bushfire season, to provide input to NSW ahead of the next bushfire season. Professor O’Kane and Dave Owens APM, former Deputy Commissioner of NSW Police led the inquiry and submitted the Report to NSW Government, which announced in August that all 76 recommendations have been accepted.

Dr Michael Spence AC
University of Sydney
BA LLB Sydney DPhil PG Dip Theol Oxford

Dr Michael Spence is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Sydney – the first to open its doors in Australia in 1850.

Under his leadership, the University is forging a distinctive strategy focused on the transformation of the undergraduate education; interdisciplinary research; improving the culture of the institution; simplifying organisational design; campus redevelopment; investment in research and teaching infrastructure and securing financial sustainability. He was instrumental in leading the University’s unprecedented $1 billion INSPIRED philanthropic campaign, and promoting greater academic partnerships with industry, government and community organisations.

An alumnus of the University of Sydney, Dr Spence graduated with first-class honours in English, Italian and law. His other languages include Chinese and Korean. He lectured in law at the University and worked for the Australian Copyright Council prior to undertaking doctoral studies at the University of Oxford. There, he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy, a Postgraduate Diploma in Theology and became a Fellow of St Catherine’s College at Oxford. During his 20 years at the College he headed Oxford’s law faculty and its Social Sciences division.

In 2017, he was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours for service to leadership of the tertiary education sector, to the advancement of equitable access to educational opportunities, to developing programs focused on multidisciplinary research, and to the Anglican Church of Australia.

After 12 years as Vice Chancellor, Dr Spence is leaving in December to become Principal & Provost of Imperial College London.  We are honoured that he has made time in his extremely hectic final week on campus to speak with us.