Moderator
DAMIAN SAMMON CF
Damian Sammon (2011) was awarded his Churchill Fellowship to travel to America to study how residents of residential (manufactured home) parks form cooperatives to buy and then operate their park. In Australia, these parks, which are also known as ‘land-lease communities’, are becoming an increasingly popular source of accommodation for seniors.
For the past 15 or so years, Damian has worked in consumer policy, with a particular focus on long-term options requiring significant capital investment from older consumers.
Guest Speakers
DR CASSANDRA CROSS
SUBJECT: PREVENTING & SUPPORTING VICTIMS OF ON-LINE FRAUD
Dr Cassandra Cross (2011) is currently a Senior Research Fellow, Cybersecurity Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), and a Senior Lecturer, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. In 2011, while working for the Queensland Police Service, Cassandra was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to examine the prevention and support of online fraud victims worldwide. Since taking up her position at QUT in 2012, she has continued her research into fraud, publishing over 50 outputs across the policing, prevention and victim support aspects of fraud. Further, she has been awarded over 1.1 million in funding, largely to drive her research in this area. Cassandra is co-author (with Professor Mark Button) of the book Cyber frauds, scams and their victims published by Routledge in 2017.
GEOFF ROWE
SUBJECT: ELDER ABUSE/AGED CARE
Geoff Rowe (2018) is the CEO of Aged & Disability Advocacy Australia (ADA Australia) an advocacy and rights service based in Queensland. Geoff’s career includes senior and executive positions in Government and the NFP sector. Geoff is an OPAN representative on the National Aged Care Alliance, member of the Notifications & Immediate Action Committees of the Medical Board of Australia, and member of the Community Services Industry Alliance (CSIA) Reform Council.
In 2018 Geoff was awarded the prestigious Paul Tys Churchill Fellowship to examine world’s best practice in preventing and responding to elder abuse in aged care and the community.
He has a strong interest in human rights, social justice and inclusion.
IAN JARRATT OAM
SUBJECT: UNIT PRICING
Ian Jarratt OAM (2006) is a retired economist and a volunteer consumer advocate. His 2006 Churchill Fellowship enabled him to study the provision by grocery retailers of unit pricing (pricing per unit of measure) for pre-packaged products in several countries. Unit pricing helps consumers to compare the value of different package sizes, brands, products, etc. and thus to make more informed choices
Ian’s Fellowship helped him to lead a campaign that in 2009 resulted in large Australian supermarkets, and many online sellers, being required to provide consumers with the unit price of pre-packaged grocery products. Ian is a member of the executive committee of the Consumers Federation of Australia and vice president of the Queensland Consumers Association.
SAMANTHA EVANS
SUBJECT: SHARED EQUITY
Samantha Evans (2018) is a respected and highly sought-after property professional with more than 25 years’ experience in the housing sector in Australia and abroad.
A graduate of James Cook University, Nottingham Trent University (UK), Stanford University Graduate Business School (USA), and Harvard Business School (USA), Samantha began her career at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and has since held a number of coveted positions within the industry including Chief Executive Officer – Australian Affordable Housing Securities, Chief Operations Officer for both Brisbane Housing Company and Horizon Housing, and Head of Research and Innovation for the Housing Corporation – the UK’s former national investor and regulator of housing associations in England.
As General Manager – Development and Construction at Racing Queensland, Samantha oversees large scale infrastructure projects across the State and pursues master-planned communities co-located on surplus racecourse land.
In 2016, Samantha was honoured with the inaugural Urban Development Institute of Australia (QLD) and Frasers Property Women in Leadership Award, followed by winning the national award in 2017, acknowledging her contribution to the national property industry. In 2018, Samantha was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate how Shared Equity can become a mainstream solution to housing affordability in Australia.
