The ILC's Board Members

Ms Shirley McPherson

Chairperson

Born in Perth and raised in the Murchison region of WA, Ms McPherson is a chartered accountant.

Ms McPherson has held senior positions in the private, government and university sectors and has a wealth of experience at the regional, national and international levels of government in program delivery and private business development. Ms McPherson has worked as a consultant to the mining industry in negotiating land use agreements in the Pilbara and Goldfields areas of WA, was formerly the Chair of the Aboriginal Development Corporation (ADC), a past director of the Indigenous Business Network, has worked as a mediator for the National Native Title Tribunal and is a past director of KPMG, Management Consulting Services.

Ms McPherson is a member of the Australian delegation to United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples and other professional and key associations held include:

• Associate - Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
• Certified Practising Accountant - Australian Society of CPAs, and
• Member of the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA on behalf of the ILC.

Ms McPherson was appointed to the ILC Board as Chairperson in August 2001.

Mr William (Sam) Jeffries JP

Deputy Chairperson

Mr Sam Jeffries is Chairperson of Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly in Western NSW. He was born and raised in Brewarrina NSW and has been active in Indigenous Affairs for 25 years. Mr Jeffries has worked in the cotton, hotel and meat industries, in the public service and six years as a Community Training Officer at the Community Development Employment Program in Lightning Ridge.

He recently finished a four-year term on the Walgett Shire Council having been elected to five consecutive terms as an ATSIC Regional Councillor and serving three consecutive terms as Chairperson.

His previous roles include Chair of NSW ATSIC State Council, a Board Member of the NSW Aboriginal Housing Office up until July 2005, Chair of the National Forum of ATSIC Regional Chairpersons and Chair of Barwon Darling Alliance, an alliance between Murdi Paaki Regional Assembly and five Local Councils.

Mr Jeffries is currently a board member of the Western Catchment Management Authority of NSW and a panel member of the Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayments Scheme.

Mr Jeffries is also Chairperson of Murdi Paaki Environmental Health Forum and has been a Justice of the Peace since 1984.

Mr David Baffsky AO 

Mr David Baffsky is Chairperson of Accor Asia Pacific, the largest hotel and tourism company in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. The company employs more than 12,000 people in Australia, and launched a pioneering Indigenous Employment Program with the Australian Government.

A graduate in law from University of Sydney, Mr Baffsky is also a director of Tourism Asset Holdings Limited and a life member of the Tourism Task Force. He was a member of the Australian Government's Round Table Sustainable Development. He is a member of the National Tourism Infrastructure Investment Consultative Group, and the Business Government Advisory Group on National Security. He was Co-Chairperson of the National Indigenous Leadership Group for Tourism. He was a member of the Australian Government's Beef Management Quota Panel. In 2005, he was appointed a Trustee of the Art Gallery of NSW.

Mr Baffsky works with a number of charitable and non-profit groups. In June 2001, Mr Baffsky was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia. The award was made for his "service to tourism, particularly in relation to industry development, provision and employment generation, and to the community through medical research, humanitarian relief and social welfare organisations". In 2004, Mr Baffsky was awarded Asia Pacific Hotelier of the Year.

In 2007 Mr Baffsky was appointed to the Australian Government's Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce and the Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership.

Mr Baffsky was appointed to the ILC's Board in August 1999 and reappointed in August 2004 for a further three years.

Mr Kevin Driscoll CBE OBE 

Mr Driscoll is a business person with extensive experience in the building and construction industry, both in business and property investment. In 2005, he celebrated 50 years of the establishment of the Driscoll Group of business interests. He is Chairman of Directors of his own family companies: the Driscoll Group, National Homes Pty Ltd, Driscoll Pastoral Company, Executive Air Travel and Hotel interests. He has extensive pastoral interests in central Queensland.

Mr Driscoll organised and was the founding President of the Queensland Home Builders Association which later merged with the Queensland Housing Industry Association; he was elected the combined organisation's first President.

Mr Driscoll was elected National President of the Housing Industry Association in 1966 and served until 1968. In 1968, he was awarded life membership of the Australian Housing Industry Association. In 1972, he was appointed as a Director of the Australian Housing Corporation - an Australian Government instrumentality. He was a member of the Companies and Securities Advisory Board from 1989 to 1996. He was a Director of World Expo 1988, and a Board Member of the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation. He was also Deputy Chair of the Lang Park Trust (Suncorp Stadium) from 1991 to 1995. He was an original member of the Board of the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation. Mr Driscoll is currently the Chairman of the Business Enterprise Committee of the Indigenous Land Corporation.

In 1980, Mr Driscoll was awarded the Order of the British Empire and, in 1987, was made a Commander of the British Empire. Mr Driscoll has been a Justice of the Peace for 52 years. He is also a contributor to many charities and research foundations

Mr Driscoll was appointed to the ILC's Board in March 1998, reappointed in August 2004 and, in September 2007, again reappointed, for a further four years.

Mr Max Gorringe

Mr Max Gorringe is Station Manager at Elsey Station in the Northern Territory where he lives with his family.

Mr Gorringe has been involved in the cattle industry all his life. His parents worked as drovers for the Kidman Cattle Company, and Mr Gorringe worked for Kidmans after leaving school and into his early twenties.

After marrying, he and his wife lived and worked on cattle stations in the Channel Country of far south west Queensland. They moved to the Northern Territory in 1990 where Mr Gorringe worked as head stockman and overseer.

Mr Gorringe enjoys the challenges of managing an Aboriginal station. He gets great satisfaction from Elsey Station's achievements over the time he and his family have been there, noting that the station's traditional owners are also very proud to see where Elsey is heading.

Mr Gorringe has been involved in the Roper River Landcare Group as Chairman and then member, Mataranka Bushman's Carnival and the Gulf Bushfire Council.

Mr Gorringe was appointed to the ILC's Board in October 2005 for two years.

Mr Ian Trust

Mr Trust is Executive Director of the Wunan Foundation, an East Kimberly Indigenous organisation whose objective is to assist Indigenous people to help themselves. The Foundation dose this by using its commercial investments to produce outcomes in employment and training for Aboriginal people of the East Kimberley as well as build the capacity of indigenous organizations to provide a better service to their members.

He has a strong and coherent vision of a better future for Indigenous people in the region - a future beyond welfare and government dependency. Mr Trust has worked tirelessly to progress this vision through initiatives such as the Wunan Foundation and Kimberley Group Training.

Mr Trust was Chair of the ATSIC Wunan Regional Council for three consecutive terms and was also Zone Commissioner for the Kimberley for the final term of ATSIC. In addition to the ILC and Wunan, Mr Trust is also a member of a number of national, state and regional boards including Indigenous Business Australia, Kimberley College of TAFE, Kimberley Group Training, East Kimberley Job Pathways and the WA Aboriginal and Education Training Council.

Mr Trust was appointed to the ILC's Board in October 2005 for two years.

Ms Evonne Goolagong Cawley

Two-time Wimbledon winner and former Australian of the Year Evonne Goolagong Cawley has been appointed to the Board of the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC).

The appointment to the Australian Government statutory authority was made by Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough.

In 1988, Ms. Goolagong Cawley was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

Ms. Goolagong Cawley was awarded an MBE in 1972 and made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1982.

Ms Goolagong Cawley was a member of the Board of the Australian Sports Commission from 1995 to 1997 and since 1997 has held the position of Sports Ambassador to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities.

Since 2000, Ms Goolagong Cawley has made an increasing commitment to Australian women's tennis and Indigenous youth sporting and leadership development programmes.