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Stephen Thompson currently teaches Economics and is a Housemaster at The Scots College. He has also previously taught at Sydney Grammar School and was Head of Humanities at St George Christian School. His interests lie in global finance and exploring the intersections of philosophy, theology and economics. He loves to spend time with his wife and their three young children and enjoys cycling.

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B.Mus (Melb), Dip.Ed (Melb), MACE, Hon.FIMT, Hon. Professor Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and Hon. Professor SIPO Music Arts College Shanghai

Warren Thomson was educated at Wesley College and the University of Melbourne where he studied with Roy Shepherd, a pupil of Alfred Cortot. He has had an active career in conducting, performing, broadcasting and lecturing and has undertaken numerous study tours to investigate music education in Europe, Japan, South America, the USA and the former Soviet Union. He has adjudicated at all major eisteddfods in Australia and has been on international juries, including: Tchaikovsky Competition Moscow; Gina Bachauer Competition Salt Lake(USA); Sydney International Piano Competition (also Chairman and Artistic Director); Cincinnati World Piano Competition; UNISA Transet Competition (Pretoria); Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (Japan); Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition (Kiev); Krainev Competition (Kharkov); José Iturbi Competition –Valencia- (Spain); Cologne Competition (Germany) Schubert International Piano Competition (Germany); Trani International Competition (Italy), Tbilisi International Piano Competition (Georgia); Shanghai International Piano Competition (P.R.China), Thalberg International Piano Competition-Naples-(Italy),China International Piano Competition – Xiamen (P.R.China) In 2009 he was on the juries of the Tianjin International Piano Competition in the P R China and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan. In 2010 he will be on the jury for the Piano Teacher’s National Association of Japan Competition, Hannover Piano Competition and 4th International Piano Competition, Panama City. Singapore – Chopin Competition . .

He is an Honorary Life Member of: Friends of the Sydney International Piano Competition, Australian Opera Auditions Committee, Music Teachers' Association of NSW, Victorian Music Teachers' Association, Tchaikowsky Society – Russia, Tamworth Conservatorium Board of Management and an Honorary Professor of the Kong Xiang-Dong Music Arts College, Shanghai SIPO Polytechnic,(P.R.China) and Honorary Professor of The Shanghai Conservatory, (P.R.China)

Recent and continuing positions include: Deputy President, Federated Music Clubs of Australia (1980- 2005); Chairman, Bartok Society of Australia; Chairman, Music Committee, City of Sydney Cultural Council (1980-1995); Australian Representative, European Piano Teachers' Association; Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury, Sydney International Piano Competition; Member of Hong Kong Academic Accreditation Council; Advisor to Ministry of Cultural Relations, Beijing, for China International Piano Competition; National Chairman, Australian Pedagogy Conference.

Professor Thomson has extensive experience in the secondary and tertiary education areas and, as the Foundation Head of the School of Extension Studies at Sydney Conservatorium and Director of Studies, Australian Music Examinations Board, he developed a wide ranging framework for Professional Development Courses for music teachers and students throughout the country. He has also organised and conducted numerous workshops and in-service courses for music teachers and students, including over 350 Courses at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for teachers. He has performed over 1200 new piano works for teachers and given broadcasts on piano teaching. In 1989 he was the first Australian to be invited to present a paper at the Annual Conference of the Music Teachers' Association of the United States of America.

He has given Masterclasses in Singapore, Ukraine, USA, Hong Kong and The P.R.China and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for services to music in 1987.

He has had some 51 editions published as well as 34 recordings of piano music for teachers and students.

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Peter has spent over 40 years in the Financial Services Industry, and over the last 10 years has presented thousands of times to audiences in Australia and overseas. He believes the share markets are often guided by forces beyond reason. Their short term ups and downs can be linked to collective human behaviour, not a logical continuum of cause and effect.

His presentations have become legendary for their no-nonsense assault on popular wisdom. As a successful investor himself, his views have a firm base in the real financial world. In his very lively presentations, he emphasises that history repeats itself; that there’s no such thing as a market “crash”; why investing for the long term is the surest way to tap the market’s riches; why market volatility is not a measure of risk; and why looking backwards "can damage your wealth."

His wealth of experience combined with his insights into wealth creation through investment and his entertaining and energetic presentation style make him a highly sought after presenter at professional conferences and a financial commentator in the print and electronic media.

He has recently added the title of author having published a book about investing, dedicated to encouraging people to take responsibility for their financial futures. Although self published, the book has sold more than 30,000 copies; a testament to the appeal of his message.

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Dr. John Tidmarsh (MBBS, FRACP) has a BA (Hons), MA (Hons) and PhD. John worked as a part-time tutor and then lecturer in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, University of Sydney between 1981 and 1998. He is currently President of the Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation at Sydney University. He has previously excavated in Greece and Cyprus and is currently involved in excavations at Jebel Khaled in Syria (ANU/University of Melbourne) and at Pella in Jordan (as Co-Director, University of Sydney). His areas of special interest are the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the Eastern Mediterranean. John has given numerous courses and study days for both the Centre for Continuing Education and the Art Gallery of NSW. He has traveled widely through the Eastern Mediterranean and has previously led highly successful study tours to Greece, Syria and Jordan as well as Turkey.

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Omid Tofighian completed his PhD in Philosophy at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and graduated with a combined honours degree in Philosophy and Studies in Religion at The University of Sydney. Over the past seven years he has lived variously in the UAE where he taught at Abu Dhabi University; Belgium where he was a visiting scholar at K.U. Leuven; the Netherlands for his PhD; and short periods in Iran and Australia. During this time he has organized numerous art and cultural events which focus on cultural awareness and social justice. He has also published academic articles on various subjects.

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Ana Maria Tomaino has extensive experience in language teaching, having worked for the main Australian Universities over the past years. She has experience in curriculum developmemt and online courses design. She holds a BABEd, Bachelor of Arts/Education, and a Masters in Applied Linguistics from University of New South Wales.

She is actively involved in the promotion of student engagement, through their participation in community work and extracurricular activities to support their learning experience.

Ana Maria is also interested in developing students' oral communication through online tools.

Her research interest is on Human Rights and Identity issues in contemporary Uruguayan cinema.

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River Torrington holds a B Asia-Pacific Studies (Chinese) and a BA (English) from ANU, as well as a Grad Cert of Counselling from Monash University. They have studied Mandarin at the National Taiwan University, and enjoy tutoring Mandarin and Humanities subjects at Macquarie University (Walanga Muru). River began their Mandarin studies as an adult in 2014, so they are well positioned to guide adult learners through the unique challenges of beginning their Mandarin studies. River’s areas of special interest are Chinese idioms and Taiwanese spiritual practices.

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Hassan is a seasoned enterprise Agile transformation coach and program consultant with practical experience transforming organisations, coaching and training executives and managers at the C-level. He has over 17 years of hands on project delivery experience, while working in different industries including banking, government, utilities, legal and more. He has delivered key strategic initiatives end-to-end, not just at the team level but also at the enterprise level following both Waterfall and Agile frameworks.

Over the past decade, Hassan has lead agile transformation journeys in many organisations both within the public sector as well as private. This includes drafting and implementation of Agile transformation strategies and hands on delivery to help organisations in achieving their business agility goals. He is an expert Agile coach and trainer and has so far trained more than 500 professionals in different roles including Scrum Master, Product Owner, Agile Leadership, Kanban and Lean.

Hassan is an analytical thinker and identifies strategic analysis, problem solving, advisory and end-to-end project delivery as his key personal strengths, coupled with wealth of industry knowledge and experience. Hassan is an active member of Agile community within Australia and overseas and has been invited as a guest speaker in various community workshops.

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Michelle currently serves on listed and private company boards, including BOQ and private company Canstar.
She is also a Non Executive Director of Cricket Australia and chair of the IAG/NRMA Superannuation Fund. She has deep experience in businesses and industries undergoing change and runs her own corporate advisory business, advising boards and CEOs on strategy and technology.

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Mark Tredinnick, winner of the Montreal Poetry Prize (2011) and the Cardiff Poetry Prize (2012), is the author of The Blue Plateau, Fire Diary, and nine other acclaimed works of poetry and prose.

His work is widely published in Australian and overseas newspapers and journals, including Australian Poetry, Blue Dog, Five Bells, Indigo, Island, Isotope, Kunapipi, Manoa, Mascara, Meanjin, Orion, PAN, Southerly, Snorkel, The Grove, The Sun-Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, Wet Ink, World Literature Today. He writes regularly for newspapers including The Australian, The Sun-Herald, and The Sydney Morning Herald.

Mark talks and teaches widely on writing, landscape, justice and ecology. For over a decade he has run writing programs at the University of Sydney and at writers' centres in Australia and the United States. He runs them these days, too, in his cowshed in Burradoo. He mentors aspiring writers, and now and then he edits a manuscript in need of help. He teaches grammar and composition, and he consults, on writing matters, with clients in business and government. For ten years, before all that, Mark was a book editor and publisher. Once upon a time he was a lawyer.