Drones For Good

Julie Bishop is the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Australia's Federal Coalition Government. She is also the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and served as the Member for Curtin in the House of Representatives since 1998.

Julie was sworn in as Australia’s first female Foreign Minister on 18 September 2013 following four years in the role of Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. She previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Howard Government as Minister for Education, Science and Training and as the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women’s Issues. Prior to this, Julie was Minister for Ageing. Julie has also served on a number of parliamentary and policy committees including as Chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. 

Born and educated in South Australia, Julie graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from Adelaide University in 1978, before practicing law at an Adelaide law firm and becoming a partner at the age of 26. In 1983, Julie moved to Perth and practiced as a commercial litigation lawyer at Clayton Utz, becoming a partner in 1985 and managing partner in 1994. She attended Harvard Business School in Boston in 1996, completing the Advanced Management Program for Senior Managers. In 1998, Julie was endorsed as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Curtin and won the seat in the General Election held in October 1998.

Prior to entering Parliament,  Julie held a number of positions including as Chair of the Western Australia Town Planning Appeals Tribunal; a member of the Murdoch University Senate; the board of the Anglican Schools Commission, a director of SBS (TV and Radio) and a board member of the Committee for Economic Development Australia (CEDA WA).

Julie was also Ambassador of the Muscular Dystrophy Association in WA, on the Council of Governors of the Lions Ear and Hearing Institute, a patron of CanTeen and vice patron of Westcare Incorporated. She was inducted into the inaugural WA Women Hall of Fame in 2011.

Julie remains a patron and member of many business, cultural and sporting organisations in her electorate. In her spare time, Julie is a keen runner and takes part in the annual Perth City to Surf fun run. She is an avid West Coast Eagles fan and a former director of the Club.

Anil V. Nanduri is Vice President in the New Technology Group and General Manager of New Markets for the Perceptual Computing Group at Intel Corporation.

He is responsible for establishing Intel’s unmanned aviation systems business and pursuing opportunities for growth in this segment. He is also responsible for new business opportunities for Intel® RealSense™ technology and building awareness.

During his Intel career, Nanduri has held roles encompassing chip design, platform enabling, and technical and product marketing. Before stepping into his current position in 2012, he served as chief of staff and technical assistant to the general manager of Intel’s PC Client Group.

From 2008 to 2010, Nanduri led netbook marketing at Intel, a role that included establishing the category and promoting its growth through marketing strategies and design wins. Earlier in his Intel career, he managed platform strategy and marketing for Intel’s next-generation mobile platform.

Nanduri initially joined Intel in 1997 as a chipset design engineer. In 2007, he left to serve as director of marketing at Powercast Corporation, then rejoined Intel in 2008. His contributions to Intel’s mobile platforms have earned him three Intel Achievement Awards.

Nanduri received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, in India; and his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Pennsylvania State University. He holds one U.S patent, with another patent pending.

Marcus Ehrlich is Managing Director and founder of Ninox Robotics, an Australian-owned and operated company that specialises in the application of military-grade unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, for the purposes of invasive pest detection and management, infrastructure asset monitoring, bio-security intelligence and other agri-business purposes.

Ehrlich is qualified as a lawyer and has been involved in other entrepreneurial endeavours.

Actively involved in politics, Ehrlich served as the youngest ever mayor of Woollahra, as well as deputy mayor, while still at university.

Kevin Weldon AM is a distinguished Australian book publisher, businessman, aviator and lifesaver.

Born in Ingham North Queensland, he was educated at Brisbane Grammar and studied arts and management at  Queensland University of Technology. At 25, he hecame Queensland manager of Grenville Publishing Company of Sydney, before being elevated to the role of General Manager in Sydney.

He is the founder of major publishing companies including Rigby Inc. in Chicago and the Weldon Publishing Company, which produced and published bestsellers such as The Macquarie Dictionary and A Day in The Life of Australia. The Weldon Group went on to sell books in 40 countries and in 28 languages. He later acquired The Paul Hamlyn Group in Australia, as part of the International Publishing Group, which was the largest newspaper magazine and book group in the world at the time. In two short years, the Group became the most successful publishing house in Australia, breaking all sales records for music, in putting music into supermarkets and selling 6 million LPs in one year.

In 1996, Kevin decided to sell his international publishing companies to McGraw Hill and Reed Elsevier in one of the largest takeovers in the publishing industry at the time.

Afterwards, Kevin acquired several companies in the media with great success. He later exited them all to concentrate on new technology startups and on his passion for lifesaving. He is a Life Member of Surf Life Saving Australia and World Life Saving, of which he was the founding president - among other positions at lifesaving organisations. 

Kevin’s achievements have been widely recognised. He holds the prestigious publishing industry award, The Lloyd O Neil Lifetime Award in Publishing, The Order of Australia Australian Medal AM, The Millennium Medal for contribution to sport, the Defense Medal, and the National Service Medal for service in the naval reserve.

An active sportsman, he has played A-grade Rugby Union and Rugby league, and held various club championships in surfing. He is also passionate about aviation and holds a current pilots license for fixed wing aerobatics, seaplanes and helicopters. 

He is married with two daughters and a son, and has six grandchildren.

Dirk has a passion for all things eCommerce and digital, and extensive international experience transforming organisations to be more customer centric.

He joined Australia Post in 2011 and shaped the organisation’s response to the eCommerce boom through a transformative eCommerce Program. Later he was responsible for the creation of new, personalised customer experiences of Australia Post through MyPost, which has almost 4 million customers today.

As general manager Small Business, Dirk led Australia Post’s drive to support Australia’s entrepreneurial and small business communities, helping them to go online and grow their businesses.

Now, as Partner at the Australia Post Accelerator, Dirk oversees programs supporting the next generation of Australian entrepreneurs and leads investment in logistics startups.

Scott has been with CASA for over nine years, and part of the aviation community for 23 years.

Prior to joining the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) community he gained experience in global air transport operations and aeronautical engineering management. In his current role, Scott is responsible for the management of all RPAS operations, including management of all flight authorisations, which includes the surveillance activities associated with these operations.

In support of this role, he has a great team of inspectors and technical administration staff who work hard to meet the demands of the rapidly growing RPAS community.

David A. Hoffman is Associate General Counsel and Global Privacy Officer at Intel Corporation, in which capacity he heads the organisation that oversees Intel’s privacy compliance activities, legal support for privacy and security, and all external privacy/security engagements.

Mr. Hoffman joined Intel in 1998 as Intel’s eBusiness attorney to manage the team providing legal support for Intel’s Chief Information Officer.  In 2005, Mr. Hoffman moved to Munich, Germany, as Group Counsel in the Intel European Legal Department, while leading Intel’s Worldwide Privacy and Security Policy Team. 

He served on the TRUSTe Board of Directors from 2000-2006.  From 2005 – 2009, Mr. Hoffman served on the Board of Directors for the International Association of Privacy Professionals, and he is currently a member of the Advisory Board for the Future of Privacy Forum and the Board of the Information Accountability Foundation. Mr. Hoffman is the co-chair of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Task Force on Data Protection and Privacy.  Mr. Hoffman is also a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law where he teaches a class on Information Privacy and Surveillance Law.

Mr. Hoffman has a JD from The Duke University School of Law, where he was a Member of the Duke Law Review.  Mr. Hoffman also received an AB from Hamilton College.