People

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Staff

Board Members

Clinton Hoffmann, Chairman

Clinton Hoffmann grew up in the Northern Territory of Australia, in the remote and culturally significant Indigenous dominated community of Gove.

Clinton is a Founding Director of Ambrose Solutions. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Clinton is an accredited Trainer with over twenty years experience in the assurance, tax and consulting fields.

Clinton is focused on providing innovative solutions in the challenging cross-cultural settings of Indigenous Australia. He is currently using this experience and aligning with international organisations to build poverty alleviation models worldwide.
Clinton has been responsible for a range of large and small scale business projects aimed at delivering sustainable and cost-effective improvements to businesses; both mainstream and Indigenous.

Clinton currently consults to all levels of Government as well as large corporates such as Commonwealth Bank and Rio Tinto. Currently he sits on The Board of the Australian entity of international charity OLPC, as the Chairman.

Prof. Barry Vercoe, Director of Education

Barry Vercoe is Professor Emeritus of Media Arts & Sciences at MIT. Born and educated in New Zealand in music and mathematics, he gained a doctorate at University of Michigan, then taught at Oberlin and Yale Universities. In 1985 he was a founding member of the MIT Media Laboratory, where he has directed research in Music Cognition and Machine Learning. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Computer World / Smithsonian Award in Media Arts and Entertainment, and a World Academy of Science Distinguished Achievement Award.

In 2005 Barry joined other Media Lab faculties to establish One Laptop per Child; an initiative aimed at putting an inexpensive but powerful laptop in the hands of every child on the planet. Focusing on children of the Pacific, Barry has sent XOs to remote villages of the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and other island nations of the Pacific Community.

Chris Kirby, Director of Communications and Marketing

Chris Kirby sits on the board of One Laptop per Child Australia as the Director of Communications and Marketing.

Until recently Chris headed up the Commonwealth Bank’s Community Team. This included the Bank’s charitable Foundation, the staff giving program, the Bank’s comprehensive volunteer program and the Indigenous Banking Team.

The Indigenous Banking Team was established just 2 years ago under Chris's leadership and was the first (and still only) of its kind in Australia. It brought together social programs, employment programs and banking services aimed at Indigenous Australians.

The Indigenous Banking Team also created a number of pilot programs seeking to find ways of supporting business development in Indigenous communities: a social enterprise hub has been established in Alice Springs; an innovative new capability building program is being run in Arnhem Land; the Bank has lead the way with its ‘above and beyond’ support of the Australian Indigenous Minority Supplier Council. Chris continues to be involved in many of these initiatives now that he has left the Bank. During his time in the role Chris was also instrumental in providing support and advice that helped get OLPC Australia up and running in this country.

Chris’ portfolio also includes a strong marketing background; having worked in New York as a Global Strategic Partner at advertising agency JWT with large consumer goods companies such as Unilver, Pfizer and Diageo. Before this Chris was responsible for leading the team that created Hahn Premium Light at Lion Nathan which went on to become the third biggest beer brand in Australia.

Chris’s career started out in Great Britain after he graduated from University College London. He worked in Marketing Research and was involved in some of the first ethnographic research techniques to be used to create consumer marketing insight.

Chris is currently focusing on developing a sculpture park at his property in the Southern Tablelands as well as working on projects to help 'close the gap' between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Charles Kane, Director

Charles Kane has more than 25 years of senior executive-level experience including Chief Financial Officer (CFO) positions at RSA Security (now a part of EMC Corporation), Aspen Technology and Informix Software (now a part of IBM) as well as the role of President and CEO at Corechange (now a part of Open Text).

Most recently, Charles held several executive positions including President and COO at One Laptop per Child. He joined OLPC from Global BPO Services; a special purposes acquisition company where he was a founding investor and executive officer and played a pivotal role in raising $250 million in capital to purchase Stream Global Services (SGS). Before joining Global BPO, Charles was CFO at RSA Security; a provider of security software, which was acquired by EMC Corporation. In addition he was CFO at Aspen Technology; a leading supplier of operations management software to the process industries; President and CEO at Corechange, Inc., an enterprise software company acquired by Open Text Corporation; and CFO of Informix Software, a database software provider acquired by IBM Corporation. Earlier in his career, Charles also held senior financial positions with Stratus Computer, Inc., Prime Computer Inc., and with Deloitte and Touche LLP.

Charles has a BBA in Accountancy from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in International Finance from Babson College. He sits on the Boards of Netezza Corporation (NZ), Progress Software (PRGS) and Demandware Inc., as well as being a Board Member and Strategic Advisor to OLPC. Charles also sat on the Boards of Applix (APLX- acquired by Cognos) and Borland Software (BORL- acquired by Micro Focus). He is an adjunct professor in International Finance at the Sloan Graduate School of Management at MIT and is a frequent speaker at national events related to international financial strategies and social entrepreneurship.

Philip Argy, Director

Philip Argy is an experienced mediator, arbitrator, negotiator and strategist. He was with the law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques for over 31 years - 24 of them as a partner. Philip qualified at the University of New South Wales for a Bachelor of Commerce (Information Systems) degree in 1975 and a Bachelor of Laws the following year. He is a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Western Australia.

Philip is a Past President of the Australian Computer Society and often delivers addresses on subjects such as professionalism, risk management, electronic evidence and record retention and on dispute avoidance techniques.

He brings extensive legal, governance, technology and commercial experience to the Board and is one of its longest serving members.

Michael McLeod, Director

Michael McLeod has been described by a senior Federal Politician as one of Australia’s most valuable sons. Michael and his family are part of Australia’s stolen generations. At the age of two, Michael and his siblings were taken from their parents – never to be reunited as a family. Michael grew up on his own in State ward homes and foster homes.

Having survived a tumultuous upbringing, Michael started his own niche telecommunications business. Today Message Stick is a growing multimillion dollar business.

Peter Chegwyn, Director

Peter Chegwyn joined the board of OLPC Australia on 9 August 2011, assuming the position of a Director for the not-for-profit organisation.

Peter is a Chartered Accountant and during his career held Chief Financial Officer (CFO) executive roles with both News Limited, and P&O Australia Limited.

While he is now retired from his professional career, Peter remains on the board of The Post-Courier, Papua New Guinea’s leading newspaper. Peter has been Chairman since 1988.