Our Board

John Haddad is Chairman of The Taverns Group of Hotels.

Chairman of Melbourne Food and Wine since 2004 and board member of Victorian Major Events Company since 1991. John Haddad is a passionate and involved supporter of the arts community and is a Patron of the Victorian Arts Centre. He held the position of Chairman of the Australian National Academy of Music for eight years until 2008.

Kevin is Executive Chairman of Growth Solutions Group.

Kevin’s career background has covered senior corporate management and board roles in Australia, USA and South East Asia, and is owner and Chairman of successful marketing services companies in Australia. He won the Sir Charles McGrath award for outstanding contributions to marketing, and has been awarded an Order of Australia for service to the advertising industry, to social welfare and community organisations through the provision of marketing advice.

Since writing his first book at the age of 22, becoming the youngest person ever to publish a book on wine in the process, Jeremy Oliver has now authored more than twenty books on wine.

He is the first western critic to produce a wine guide in Mandarin for the Chinese market, and over the last decade has become the face of Australian wine in Asian markets. With regular articles printed from Russia to Japan, Korea to Singapore, Jeremy Oliver is also Australia’s most popular wine host and presenter.

Amy Poynton is a Partner - Ernst & Young Advisory Services

Amy is currently responsible for the people and organisation practice across Australia and New Zealand, which includes a team of 70 specialist partners and consultants that assist clients in improving their business performance.

Amy has over 20 years of business experience having held operational and management roles at large financial organisations in sourcing and procurement, people management and large scale IT programs. She has worked in a number of locations including North America, Australia, Korea, Japan and South Africa. Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts (California State University), Masters of Business Administration (Monash University) and qualifications as a certified consultant and program director (IBM). In addition, Amy is an ambassador for Opportunity International.

Craig Hart is the CEO and founder of Blueprint Group; the largest independent group of field marketing and retail services agencies, with operations in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Craig previously held senior executive roles with Omnicom and Photon Group. Prior to commending a career in marketing services, Craig practised as a lawyer for ten years.

Craig has been a Board Member since November 2007 and is also a member of the Corporate Governance subcommittee.

As Executive General Manager - Food & Beverage at Crown Melbourne, Walter is responsible for the Food & Beverage Division consisting of 48 outlets.  These include restaurants, bars and snack bars located on the gaming floor and retail area, as well as entertainment in the complex, The Palms Theatre, two nightclubs, one retail shop as well as the banqueting department, which includes the prestigious Palladium at Crown and Studio 3.  The division employs a total of over 1700 full-time and part-time employees.

Walter began his culinary career in Switzerland in 1968 and gained valuable experience in various five-star establishments throughout Switzerland, Iran and Turkey.  After promotion to Saudi Arabia in 1977, he then worked his way around Afghanistan, Port Vila, Nairobi, Mombasa, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Osaka before joining Crown in 1996.

He is the recipient of the French Government order of “Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merit Agricole”, Executive Councillor of Restaurant and Catering Victoria, member of the Academie Culinaire de France, Honorary Board Member of the  International Ice Sculpture Association in Japan, Recipient of the “Restaurateur of the Year 2008” from the International Food and Beverage Forum and also a member of several other prestigious culinary organisations.

Jane Brook – Director, Twenty3 Sport & Entertainment.

Jane has worked in the media and communications industry for some 20 years.  Her expertise in leveraging media strategies, properties and events for maximum exposure and value has seen her work with some of the biggest Australian and global consumer brands. Jane has been called upon to undertake tactical media and sponsorship projects for the FIFA World Cup, Olympics and Asian Games and contracted to Chief Media Liaison positions for the Sydney and Beijing Olympic Broadcasting Organisations.

After an early career in media and television production, Jane worked in China and Hong Kong before returning to Australia to set up her own agency which went on to become one of Australia’s largest below the line agencies. She then established a marketing communications agency WMC360 which was acquired by Grey Global in 2004. Jane is a shareholder of Twenty3 Sport & Entertainment, a leading consultancy in the business of sport and entertainment.

Tony Pointon founded Pointon Partners in 1996 and is the partner in charge of commercial law at Pointon Partners.

Tony began his career with one of the "Big 4" accounting practices and later joined and became a partner of one of the largest legal firms in Melbourne.  Tony's areas of practice include commercial structuring, capital raisings, mergers and acquisitions, taxation and other revenue matters, franchising and other commercial matters including large scale property development.

Chris Nolan is Managing Director of Starcom Worldwide, Melbourne.

After completing a Science degree at Monash University Chris Nolan went to work in a research capacity for Prime Television.  In 1997 he began working in the media and advertising industry, firstly for Leo Burnett and then later in a senior position at Mitchell & Partners, Australia’s largest independent media buyer in advertising.