Executive Team

Meet the Council's committed team...

The GBCA is run by an Executive team. The Executive team is supported by:

1. Executive Team
2. Advocacy Team
3. Business Development Team
4. Green Star Certification Team
5. Green Star Tools Team
6. Marketing and Communications Team
7. Education Team
8. Operations Team

Executive Team

Romilly Madew - Chief Executive, Green Building Council of Australia

Romilly Madew is an experienced green building advocate, whose achievements include:

• A lead negotiator in the ground-breaking agreement to develop an international common carbon metric for buildings.
• Chairs the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council (ASBEC) Cities of the Future and Sustainable Framework task groups; member of the Climate Change and Distributed Resources task groups.
• Steering committee member of the Built Environment Meets Parliament (BEMP) initiative and the Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development.
• Chair of the Council Development Committee for the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), the international umbrella organisation of green building councils; committee member of the WorldGBC International Policy Task group.
• Member of the Australian Government's Built Environment Sustainability Roundtable.
• Lead role in establishing the WorldGBC's Asia Pacific Green Building Network.
• National winner of the Telstra Business Women's Awards 2009 (Community and Government).
• Ambassador for the 1 million women campaign to engage Australian women to take practical action on climate change.

Romilly lives on the Northern Beaches, Sydney, with her husband and three children.

Other achievements include:

• Former board member of the ACT Government's Land Development Agency.
• Former Executive Director of the ACT Division of the Property Council of Australia, as well as the Council's National Executive Director of Sustainability.
• Represented the GBCA at the Australian Government's Australia 2020 Summit.
• Involved in the development of the 2006 Sustainable Building Pathways report.
• Author of the Dollars and Sense of Green Buildings 2006.
• Included in the ABC Carbon 50 list of Australia's most influential advocates for climate change awareness and action.

Frank Romano - Chief Operating Officer

Frank is the Chief Operating Officer of the GBCA

Frank started with GBCA in June 2008 and supervises the areas of Finance, IT, HR and Operations.

Frank was born and raised in the US (Miami, Florida) and almost all of Frank's working life has been in various forms of office administration; starting with a US Army conscription in 1972; first as a secretary for a Chief of Staff and later heading up the finance and administration section of a recruitment division. As this was during the Viet Nam war, Frank was very glad he learned to type in year 10.

Frank went on to become the Office Manager of Wells Fargo Realty Advisors (a subsidiary of Wells Fargo Bank) in Los Angeles. Upon emigrating to Australia in 1985 (and ultimately becoming a dual citizen), Frank took up a role as the General Manager of the Canberra office of the legal firm then known as Davies Bailey & Cater.

The legal firm grew, merged and changed its name; Frank grew and changed his role; and both grew extensively in their exposure. Davies Bailey & Cater went on to become Stephen Jaques Stone James and finally one of the most successful legal firms in Australia - Mallesons. Frank left his Canberra role to first become Mallesons' Director of Education and then to combine for the first time, Mallesons' Education section with its HR section; becoming their first Director of People & Development.

In 2004, Frank was recruited by the Australian Government Solicitors (AGS) to build their education division and was appointed as their National Manager, Professional Development. The AGS works exclusively for the Commonwealth Government and is one of the larger legal firms in Australia with offices in every capital city (its head office being in Canberra).

As GBCA was experiencing rapid growth throughout 2007, it was time for a more developed team of administrators. Frank was called upon to assist by his former colleague at Mallesons, none other than Romilly Madew. Frank and Romilly worked together at Mallesons, Canberra; Frank as the General Manager and Romilly as the Marketing Manager. Time and change have brought them back together and Frank is very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Romilly again and help GBCA achieve its goal to make the built environment a beacon of sustainability.