District Conference 8-10 March 2024

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Saturday 9 March 2024

Clary Castrission 

'Journey towards scale'

After graduating as a lawyer in Sydney, Clary Castrission OAM was accidentally turned into a social entrepreneur when he took a life-changing trip to India. Since 2006,40K transformed from a school building charity into an education technology social enterprise. Today, 40K’s edtech platform has over 20,000 children learning from it in India and Cambodia.
 
40K won the 2017 MIT global innovation competition, SOLVE, the 2017 Indo-Pacific Development Award, the 2016 Google Impact Challenge, as well as the Australian Social Enterprise Innovation Award in 2016. Clary has spoken at TEDx and the United Nations about his ideas of “Innovation by Restriction” in 2013 and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.
 
After stepping down as CEO in 2018, Clary was made Chair of the Board until 2023, when 40K was merged into an international social enterprise to continue scaling its impact. 
 
Since stepping down as CEO, Clary has worked as a strategy consultant at Boston Consulting Group (2019-2023) and now brings his entrepreneurial and strategy acumen to the portfolio company of a Private Equity firm.
 

Roanne Monte

‘Innovating for Impact: Harnessing Technology for Societal Change’.

Roanne Monte is the CEO and Chief Product Officer of Armatec Global, leading the company’s cyber and physical threat intelligence solutions for the defence, critical infrastructure, and public and private sectors. With 20 years of experience building technology products leading enterprise software builds, platform architecture, and technology strategy, she is the creator and co-architect of Armatec’s AI-powered flagship platform, CapchrTM.
 
Prior to the tech sector, she was one of the youngest principals to star in Miss Saigon in London’s West End, The King & I, and South Pacific at New York’s Lincoln Centre with Oscar nominee Bill Murray. She has performed for Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, former Singapore President Ong, and was the winner of the Let Them Shine competition by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She has been featured by national and international media.
 
She is the recipient of humanitarian awards from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the UN Delegations Women’s Club – New York, and the Community Chest of Singapore. 
 
She holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and psychology cum laude from Harvard University, and candidacies for juris doctor from Macquarie Law School and master’s in legal studies from Cornell Law School.

Jennifer Scott AM

‘Building Peace - a world beyond war’

Jennifer Scott AM is a lawyer and mediator focusing on environmental law, ecological sustainability, and conflict resolution. Jennifer will share her experiences working in the peace building sector touching on intersectionality, the need to listen, the military’s role in peace building, infrastructure and training opportunities. 

Lyn Worsley

'Resilience and Hope'

Lyn Worsley is the Director of The Resilience Centre in Sydney and a Clinical Psychologist and Registered Nurse. She is an engaging and dynamic presenter for people of all ages, helping them to build resilience and hope, learning to cope and thrive through the adversities that affect all stages and transitions in life. She is also the author of “The Resilience Doughnut Book – The Secret of Strong Kids” and “The Resilience Doughnut Book – The Secret of Strong Adults”. Lyn brings humour and real life stories to her talks that are relatable and comforting for the audience.

Costa Georgiadis

'Connecting communities: How transformative change is being translated into action'

There are  people right across the country seeding and nurturing projects that are bringing change to the way we connect with nature. They are stepping up and incubating visions and bringing people along with their momentum From innovative food projects, habitat regeneration, growing our way out of waste challenges, to hands on citizen science and education in schools, the community is transforming the future. Costa connects our youth, our elders and everyone in between with the very real outcomes of dreaming a better future. Get ready to be inspired and activated.

Associate Professor Joshua R Francis

‘Could rheumatic heart disease be a thing of the past, one day?'

Associate Professor Joshua R Francis BAppSc(MedSc) MBBS FRACP is a consultant paediatrician and paediatric infectious diseases specialist at Royal Darwin Hospital in the Northern Territory, and a Principal Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University. He leads programs in Timor-Leste and the Northern Territory focused on teaching, mentoring, health systems improvement and research. His work on rheumatic heart disease, tuberculosis, dengue, antimicrobial resistance and other infectious diseases challenges has seen him partner closely with affected communities and learn from people with lived experience who are motivated to see community-led changes in healthcare systems.
 

District Governor 9640 Dave Harmon

‘Say No to family violence’

Dave spent most of his working life in Coffs Harbour as an Engineering Trades Teacher with TAFE NSW. A highlight of Dave’s career was being recognised for his lifetime contribution to Education with the Director Generals Award for ‘Excellent Service to Education and Training’.

Dave’s commitment to community service began in Coffs Harbour with APEX. Dave held various Board positions including President. In 2012 Dave moved to Ballina and joined the Rotary Club of Ballina-on-Richmond. During Dave’s 2 years as President, he helped transform the club to connect with social causes such as Mental Health and Domestic and Family Violence. This Transformation helped grow his club’s membership from 33 members to 76. Currently Daves club has a membership of 80 members and is the 3rd largest club in our zone.

For the past 5 years Dave has led a local project in Ballina on Domestic and Family Violence. Dave is pleased to have the support of the other 19 District Governors in our zone to activate a campaign across our zone that ‘Says NO to Domestic and Family Violence and YES to Respectful Relationships’.

A.N. “Raju” Subramanian

'Message from Rotary International President Gordon McAnally'

A.N. “Raju” Subramanian is a senior counsel, working in India’s High Court and Supreme Court systems. He earned degrees in economics and law from Mumbai University. His civil law clients have included multinational corporations, state and local government, Board of Control for Cricket, and educational institutions. He has also taken on pro bono work representing clients in AIDS discrimination cases as well as environmental cases.

Subramanian joined Rotary in 1987 as a charter member of his club. He has volunteered in club projects ranging from administering polio vaccine during National Immunization Days to supporting his club’s global grants project that provides free pediatric heart surgery in low-income communities.

One of his greatest Rotary moments was seeing the children who were positively impacted by one of the club’s school projects, which teaches English, computer literacy, and life skills to kids who would otherwise have limited opportunities to learn outside their native language. “It was satisfying to see how some moved on to graduate to become chartered accountants, architects, and engineers,” says Subramanian. “It helped them see that there is a large life ahead of them.”

He has served RI as a member of the Election Review Committee, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee, and the Council on Legislation Organizing Committee. Subramanian also served as Rotary institute chair, training leader and support training leader, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, and director of the Rotary Fellowship for past district governors. His two most challenging Rotary roles have been serving as training leader and as vice chair of the 2022 Council on Legislation, when he had to lead the meeting after the chair fell ill with COVID-19.

Subramanian and his wife, Vidhya, support The Rotary Foundation as Paul Harris Society members, Arch Klumph Society members, and Benefactors. Subramanian is a recipient of the Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation Citation for Meritorious Service.

Stephen Humphreys

'Chair Australian Rotary Health'

Stephen retired 11 years ago after 40 years as a registered retail pharmacist. Stephen has been a Rotarian for 21 years having joined the Rotary Club of Camden in 2002. He was President of that Club in 2008/2009 and again in 2019/2020.

Stephen was District Governor of District 9675 in 2016/2017. Stephen is a very keen golfer and was President of Camden Golf Club for 20 years, retiring 3 years ago.

Stephen and Judith have recently celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary. They have three children, four grandsons one granddaughter. Stephen and Judith have lived in the Macarthur area of Sydney for most of their married life.

Stephen was appointed to the Board of Australian Rotary Health 4 years ago and elected Chairman in December 2023.

Sunday 10 March 2024

Ken Hutt

‘Paragliding for Polio’

Ken Hutt, born in Sydney in 1958, served with distinction in the NSW Police Force for 17 years, earning commendations for his role in various rescue incidents. After leaving the force in 1995, he became a Project Manager and later established his Civil, Rural, and Landscaping Company in Berry, NSW. Ken's community involvement led to him carrying the Olympic Torch in 2000 and receiving awards for his humanitarian work after the Asian Tsunami. He's an accomplished athlete, mountaineer, and paraglider pilot, setting records and raising funds for charitable causes, including Rotary's efforts against polio. In 2022, he embarked on a solo paragliding expedition from Mt Everest to support Rotary International's End Polio Now campaign, documented in a film. Currently, he's undertaking a solo yachting challenge around Tasmania to raise awareness for Rotary's Shelterbox program.

Lucille Anderson

'President Illawarra Rotaract Club'

Illawarra Rotaract is a local community Rotaract club who are very keen on active service to make a difference. Since 2020, the Club has worked hard to create positive change on a local, national, and international level. We focus on diversity & inclusion, education, health, women empowerment, promoting peace, and protecting the environment. Join our presentation where Club President Lucille shows our End trachoma Project in depth.

Mitchell St Clair-Glover

'Development of an innervated human skin model by 3D bioprinting'

Mitchell St Clair-Glover is a final-year PhD candidate based at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Completing an honours degree in 2019 to derive sensory neurons from human stem cells, he is building on this work to incorporate these neurons in an innervated human skin model. 
 
Sensory neurons are critical to our everyday interactions with the environment, enabling perceptions of touch, temperature, and pain, yet current skin models largely fail to include a nervous system component. This project incorporates elements of tissue engineering, neuroscience, stem cells, and cutaneous biology, with the ultimate goal of developing a model system to improve reinnervation outcomes of damaged skin tissue.

Patrick Lindsay

“THE HOME FRONT … A Damning Portrayal of the Neglect of our Modern War Veterans”

Patrick Lindsay is one of Australia’s leading non-fiction authors, filmmakers and broadcasters. 
 
Before taking up writing fulltime, he was a newspaper reporter and, from 1981, a prominent television all-rounder with the Nine and Seven networks. Since 2001, he has written 22 best-selling books, including a series of inspirational titles, which also sell in the US and the UK. 
 
His most recent work was delivered last year: a book and documentary project, The Home Front, on the plight of our modern veterans.
 
He is currently writing a book for the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide based on the lived experiences of those who made submissions to the commission. It will be published in June.
 
In 2015, Patrick was named a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to the media, international relations and literature.