Executive Team

Thu 15 Jan, 2009 The Team

Meet the Council's committed team...

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

Executive Team

Romilly Madew - Chief ExecutiveChief Executive, Green Building Council of Australia

Romilly Madew is the Chief Executive of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), a position she has held since February 2006.

An experienced property advocate, Romilly's achievements include:

A lead negotiator in the development of ground-breaking agreement to adopt an international common global language for the measurement of the carbon footprint of buildings. The Carbon metric Alliance included GBCA, UKGBC, USGBC, BRE, the United Nation's Sustainable Buildings Climate Initiative and the Sustainable Building Alliance.
Chairs the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council's (ASBEC) Constructing Cities of the Future task group and Sustainable Framework taskgroup, member of the Climate Change and Business Case 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 (World GBC is the international umbrella organisation of green building councils); committee member of the World GBC International Policy Taskgroup;
Lead role in establishing the World GBC's Asia Pacific Green Building Network.
National Winner of the Telstra Business Women's Awards 2009 (Community and Government).

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.
Representing the GBCA at the Australian Government's Australia 2020 Summit in the Population, Sustainability, Climate Change and Water stream.
Involved in the development of the 2006 Sustainable Building Pathways report.
Author of the Dollars and Sense of Green Buildings 2006 - Building the Business Case for Green Commercial Buildings in Australia.
Included in the ABC Carbon 50 list of Australia's most influential advocates for climate change awareness and action.

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

telstra business woman

Tania Crosbie - Executive Director - Education and Marketing

Tania began her career in banking with Advance Bank and progressed to Marketing and Communications Manager when it became St George Bank in 1996. During her tenure, Tania ran the nationally successful Floriade Festival, the largest flower festival in the Southern Hemisphere.

Upon leaving Advance Bank, she consulted in marketing for a number of years, with clients including the NSW Department of Waste; Greenglobe; Maningrida Arts and Culture Centre in Arnhem land; Southern Pacific Hotels; Business Council of Australia; AusIndustry; the Australian War Memorial and ACT Government. Tania was a Senior Lecturer in Australia at the University of Canberra and lectured in Australia and Asia for six years. She was responsible for traditional delivery, intensive and online delivery of undergraduate and post-graduate courses and course development. She was named Teacher of the Year, and was a finalist in the Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy's Teacher of the Year in 2000. She has also taught within the NSW and ACT TAFE systems and private commercial training suppliers for over five years.

In 2003 Tania was the founding National Marketing Manager for Defence Force Recruiting, whereby she was employed by the largest public/private collaboration in Australia. During her three years with the organisation she managed a large team of marketing specialists as well as members of the military and a budget in excess of $30 million. The Defencejobs.gov site grew to the number one site for young males for a two-year period, due to the application of innovative games, interactive elements and creativity. The Army Reserve campaign was awarded best internal marketing campaign and best public sector campaign by the Australian Marketing Institute in 2005 and was awarded overall runner-up in best national campaign for the year. In addition to those awards, the online campaigns were also industry recognised. During her three years with Defence Force Recruiting, Tania managed all the military advertising and brands and increased the effectiveness of all recruitment communication.

After moving to Melbourne in 2003, Tania resumed consulting and worked as a strategic marketing consultant for Box Hill Institute of TAFE; a large Victorian residential commercial builder; Property Council of Australia and the Australian Information Industry Association. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication, a Graduate Diploma of Marketing and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, a Certified Practicing Marketer and a Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute.

Suzie Barnett - Executive Director

Suzie is Executive Director for state development and strategy working closely with the locally based state managers. Suzie has been involved with the GBCA since its inception in 2002, first a volunteer founding member of the Marketing Committee and then as the GBCA's first Business Development and Marketing Manager. In 2006, Suzie was promoted to Executive Director.

Her passion, enthusiasm and commitment to green building are regularly displayed when she presents to audiences on the latest green building initiatives both in Australia and globally.

Suzie also plays an active part in supporting the emergence of green building councils around the world. She was the Global Communications Manager for the World Green Building Council from 2004-2006 and now volunteers her time.

Originally from Western Australia, Suzie moved to Sydney in 2001 while in the role of National Marketing Manager for one of Australia's largest accounting firms. She graduated from Curtin University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing and Public Relations) in 1995.

Robin Mellon - Green Star Executive Director

Robin is GBCA's Green Star Executive Director, supervising the Green Star team in the development and operation of rating tools and the certification of Green Star projects. Robin joined the technical team as a Technical Manager, and was then acting in the Executive Director role before being formally appointed in May 2008.

Robin was born and raised in London and after completing an honours degree in Valuation and Estate Management at Bristol, worked within the property sector around London specialising in heritage property and the environment. Always a passionate gardener, he then worked with a London-based landscape designer before moving to Sydney to undertake a Masters in Real Estate at UNSW, concentrating on sustainable development. After several years running a landscape management, horticulture and green keeping business around Sydney's Eastern suburbs, he joined the GBCA in January 2007.

Robin is currently steering the production of rating tools for existing commercial office buildings, multi-unit residential, education, healthcare and industrial property. He teaches the Green Star Accredited Professional courses held around Australia, represents the GBCA on sustainability committees, and regularly presents at conferences to encourage the industry towards better practice. He brings to the GBCA a broad knowledge of the international property market, a passion for sustainability and extensive experience of working in landscape management within Australia.

Frank Romano - Executive Director

Frank is the Executive Director - Corporate Services.

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.