Our board

A higher education consultant and experienced university leader, Professor Warren Bebbington AM is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Professor Emeritus at the University of Adelaide, where he was Vice Chancellor for 5 years. He was Patron of Autism SA until 2017, and an experienced Chair and Director of Boards in professional education and the not-for-profit sector. 

Robert is a CPA Accountant with experience working in large ASX listed organisations and is currently the General Manager at Golf Australia. He has also held senior leadership roles for Charities such as Royal Flying Doctor Service, Wallara and Guide Dogs Victoria. Robert is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors course and has many years of experience as a Company Secretary. Robert has a close connection with autism including a number of autistic family members.

Jennifer is a senior corporate adviser, currently Deputy General Counsel at Vicinity Centres and previously a partner for 7 years at Herbert Smith Freehills in London. She has several autistic family members. 

Jason’s a neuroscientist, innovation manager, business leader and company director. He is experienced in corporate governance, mental health, digital health, strategy, government relations, scientific research, innovation, finance and risk management. Jason has autistic children and is passionate about combining his experience as a company director with his personal experiences with ASD in order to catalyse better outcomes for all those in the autism community.

Peter Heard has had a career in senior leadership roles in corporate governance and risk management within the Victorian public sector, including the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority and the Department of Premier and Cabinet. These roles included responsibility for the delivery of a range of governance, reporting, communications and legal services and he has significant experience in and understanding of government and policy development.

Peter held non-executive Director, Secretary and Committee roles at Autism Victoria from 2008-2010 and was Secretary of the Autistic Family Support Association (AFSA) from 2004-2006.

Peter has extensive lived experience of caring for autistic people as the father of autistic adult sons, in particular the ongoing challenges of complex needs support.

Kathy has a significant involvement in Autism organisations and advocacy, including on the Boards of The Autistic Realm Australia (TARA) and Reframing Autism. She works for the Autism CRC, having previously been an oncology and palliative care nurse for over a decade. She completed the Sylvia Rodger Academy Governance Program and also has a Certificate in Governance for Not-for-profits from the Governance Institute of Australia. Kathy is Autistic and has Autistic teenagers. 

A Chartered Accountant of over 35 years’ experience, Gavan recently retired as a partner of the national firm KordaMentha, having previously been with PWC. He is a Director and Chair of the Risk Management Committee for a regional bank (Wangaratta Albury-Wodonga Credit Union), and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee for the Rural City of Wangaratta. Gavan has an Autistic grandson.

Nicole is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Deakin University, Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Melbourne Children’s Clinic, Honorary Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, and Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology at Monash University. Her work has been published over 120 papers and book chapters on the topic of developmental disorders, and Nicole has received more than $6 million in research funding over the last 10 years.

Nicole recently established a national partnership with the AFL to conduct the ‘biggest game changer for children with disability’ in Australia in sports to date: the establishment of the ALLPLAY.org.au website.  Together with her team, she will make a contribution to the AFL Disability Action plan to ensure that all children with disability are ‘playing on an even’ ground.

Check Tan’s qualifications include Engineering, Quality Management and an MBA. His career has been in quality management and has worked in this field as Operations Manager in large and small organisations including start-ups. He has no board experience, but has served on school council as Treasurer.

Check and his son Jonathon (a young autistic adult with an intellectual disability) are well known to Amaze, having participated in several Spectrospective films and Jonathon undertaking media interviews for Amaze. Check and Jonathon also fundraise for Amaze, most recently raising $2,000 for Amaze through the Melbourne Marathon.

Check has also mentored some young autistic people as a basketball coach in Doncaster All Abilities Basketball and is active on social media in advocating for autistic people.