North East Wind Development Assessment Panel

Nick is a qualified lawyer and was the General Manager of the City of Hobart.

Nick was the General Manager of Hobart  City Council for twelve and a half years.  Nick was responsible for overseeing the process for developing the City’s Vision leading to the Council adopting a 10 Year strategic plan and a strong community accountability structure.

Nick was appointed to the Commission in September 2021 and has participated as a delegate in LPS and planning scheme amendment hearings, more recently as Chairman. Nick is also Chairman of the steering committee established by the Commission to oversee the preparation of the State of the Environment report.

Nick is a Life Member of the Local Government Association of Tasmania and Local Government Professionals, Tasmania.

Nick is presently Chair of the Derwent Estuary Program and was the inaugural President of the Tasmanian Branch of the Risk Management Institute of Australia.

Louise has a Master of Science degree in ecology from the University of Tasmania, and has over 30 years’ professional experience in natural heritage management. She has strong scientific, policy, legislative and regulatory framework experience, with extensive practical and field-based skills. Her career includes over 20 year’s employment in the Tasmanian government conservation agency and ten years at the University of Tasmania in post-graduate studies, research and lecturing positions, preceded by involvement in a range of environmental groups, as well as environmental consultancies in the private sector. Louise has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Council and the Community Review Committee for the Tasmanian Threatened Species Protection Act, the Forest Practices Tribunal, and the national Threatened Species Scientific Council. She is a Churchill Fellow and has an Order of Australia Medal for services to conservation and the environment.

Michael holds Bachelor of Arts (Economics & Geography) and Master of Town Planning degrees from the University of Tasmania. Michael has over 30 years of work experience across a range of strategic and statutory planning as well as major project approval areas. Michael has worked with the Tasmanian Government’s central land use planning sections and with Tasmanian City Councils. He led the transport infrastructure planning and policy branch of the Government and has worked as a project development manager with private and state owned companies in the renewable energy/electricity sector.

Max has an agricultural science degree from Melbourne University and has had a career in natural resource management that spanned 35 years working in Tasmania, Victoria and the Commonwealth. During that time he was the Director of the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, a Deputy Secretary in the Commonwealth Department of Environment and Heritage and the Chief Executive of the National Oceans Office.

Since leaving permanent employment he has been Chair of NRM South, Chair of NRM Regions Australia and a Greening Australia board member. He is currently a member of the Resource and Planning Stream of Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Chair of the International Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna and a director of Accounting for Nature Ltd.

Anne McConnell holds a degree in Anthropology and Geoscience, a Masters Qualifying in Australian Prehistory and a Master’s degree in Quaternary geoscience. She has more than 40 years of working experience in the government and private sectors in Australia, including for the last 30 years as a Tasmanian based heritage consultant. Anne’s cultural heritage expertise is diverse, covering both Indigenous and historical cultural heritage in a range of landscape contexts and environments. Areas of specialist cultural heritage expertise include cultural landscapes, archaeology and social values. Her work has ranged from heritage identification and assessment, to provision of management and planning advice from the site through to a strategic and policy level, and the development heritage management systems, as well as national and state heritage reviews and evaluations, including, recently, as lead author of the Australia State of the Environment 2021: Heritage chapter. Anne is a long-term member of Australia ICOMOS.