Meet the board
The Centre's Board comprises of representatives of key stakeholders of the Centre.
Professor Mark Hargreaves
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Partnerships & Infrastructure) University of Melbourne
Mark Hargreaves is Professor of Physiology at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He has BSc (Physiology - 1982) and PhD (Physiology - 1989) degrees from The University of Melbourne and an MA (Exercise Physiology - 1984) from Ball State University (USA). He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and Exercise and Sports Science Australia.
As Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Partnerships & Infrastructure), he has oversight of the internal schemes that foster interdisciplinary research and the important research relationships with external organisations.
His research and teaching interests focus on the physiological and metabolic responses to acute and chronic exercise, with an emphasis on carbohydrate metabolism. Current research projects examine the molecular regulation of glucose transporter GLUT4 expression in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue by exercise. He is a Consulting Editor for Journal of Applied Physiology and serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Physiology (Endocrinology & Metabolism), International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. He is a Director on the Board of the Victorian Institute of Sport.
Professor Chris Pakes
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate and Global Research) La Trobe University
Chris is the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate and Global Research), overseeing the La Trobe Graduate Research School and international research portfolio, and Professor of Physics.
He has previously held the position of Dean of Graduate Studies, and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering at La Trobe.
Chris' research focuses on engineering diamond surfaces for quantum electronics, including the development of devices for spin transport and quantum computation.
He leads the Diamond Research Group that uses a combination of synchrotron spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, device fabrication and magnetotransport.
Brett Millington
CEO SuniTAFE
Born and raised in Mildura, Brett has over 20 years’ experience at an executive level in the economic development and utilities industries, and is the current CEO of the Sunraysia Institute of TAFE.
As an inaugural Board member of Mildura Regional Development (MRD) following its formation in 2017 Brett was appointed CEO in 2019. Prior to this, he spent several years as the Program Director for Intelligent Water Networks, the research and collaboration partnership supporting the Victorian Water corporations in their pursuit of innovation.
Educated with a Bachelor of Science with honours from the University of Melbourne initially, Brett also holds post Graduate qualifications in Business Administration from the University of Queensland and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Professor Angus Webb
MRIC Director
Professor in Hydrology and Water Resources
Angus Webb is a Professor in the Water, Agriculture and Environment Program of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne. He has been passionate about natural environments as long as he can remember and originally completed a PhD in marine ecology before switching to freshwater systems. His research centres on the study and restoration of large-scale environmental problems in freshwater systems.
Angus is one of Australia’s leading experts in the monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management of environmental monitoring data, concentrating on environmental flows, where he has been an innovator for more than 15 years. He is centrally involved in the monitoring, evaluation and adaptive management of environmental water delivered under the Australian government’s Murray-Darling Basin Plan, leading the program for the Goulburn River, Victoria since 2014.
He has served on the Board of Directors for the international Society for Freshwater Science and was recently elected as the Vice-President of the Australian Freshwater Science Society. Angus’ 2017 book, Water for the Environment (Elsevier, 2017) brought together 59 authors from around the world to create the first book that covers the entire environmental water management cycle. He is also a co-author of the 2019 book, Environmental flow assessment: methods and applications (Wiley), and has edited two journal special issues on the science and adaptive management of environmental flows (Environmental Management 2018, Freshwater Biology 2018). He has 189 peer-reviewed publications in the international literature, comprising 3 books, 105 journal papers, 10 book chapters, 38 conference proceedings papers, and 33 technical reports.
Professor Ashley Franks
MRIC Co-Director
Professor Ashley Franks
Professor Ashley Franks is the Co-Director of MRIC, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Capability) and Director of the Securing Food, Water and Environment Research Focus Area at La Trobe University. He has extensive research management experience having served as the School of Life Science’s Research Director and the Academic Coordinator of Research For the College of Science, Health and Engineering. As an Applied Environmental Microbiologist, his has research interests in soils, plant-microbe interactions and sustainability.
David Harris
MRIC Co-Director
General Manager Operations SuniTAFE
David Harris
David Harris is a highly experienced Manager of large teams and a successful private business owner. Starting his career as an Electrician has given David broad practical hands on skill base and understanding of trades. After completion of his A Grade Electrical License David entered University and completed a Bachelor of Business prior to commencing as a Qualified Valuer with Knight Frank Australia.
An opportunity then arose to acquire a Real Estate Business in Mildura which David owned and successfully operated for 17 years. A desire to enter the larger corporate market saw David sell the business and move into a Senior Leadership role as a State Manager with LJHooker in 2007.
Managing over 80 offices in Victoria and Tasmania proved a great training ground for overseeing large disparate teams and when a new opportunity arose as a Commercial Manager with Crowe Horwath (Findex) David was a logical choice. Over 6 years with Findex David managed a variety of teams in multiple offices as a Regional Commercial Manager (WA, SA, Tas and NW Vic).
A desire to give back to the Community and to take on a new challenge lead to David’s change to his current role as Chief Operating Officer with SuniTAFE. Acquiring a broad range of skill sets from a wide variety of roles during his career has allowed David to assist SuniTAFE to become widely respected and efficiently run, and has contributed to SuniTAFE’s recent recognition as Large Training Provider of the Year (2019).