Cameron McKenzie is the Group Manager of Environment and Planning at the Hills Shire Council in Sydney’s north-west. Cameron has been at the Council since March 1998. He has held the positon of Group Manager since July 2009 and his responsibilities include development applications, subdivision and certification, health, environment, sustainability, compliance, development monitoring and resource recovery. Development is occurring at an incredible pace within The Hills Shire local government area. This financial year to date, 1335 Development Applications have been determined with a cost of works estimated in excess of $2.1 billion dollars. Over 2000 lots have been approved this financial year with a further 2000 under assessment.

Gayle has a law and arts degree from the University of Adelaide. She worked for the NSW Attorney General’s Department for a number of years before moving into the Attorney General’s Ministerial Office in 1998, and then the NSW Police Minister’s Office in 2000. Following this time in state government, Gayle worked as a Director in a number of NSW councils, primarily looking after service delivery and assets. She developed and delivered a number of waste management contracts on behalf of councils, as well as managed environment and regulatory departments, including rangers and compliance officers. After three years of being a stay-at-home mum, Gayle returned to work in 2012 at Visy Recycling. In November 2015, Gayle joined WMAA as Chief Executive Officer.

Jennifer Hughes is an environmental lawyer and a partner at Baker McKenzie. Jennifer advises government, developers and industry on issues relating to contaminated land, hazardous materials, environmental licensing, waste management and regulation, town planning, supply chain compliance, heritage, Aboriginal land claims and pollution incidents. Jennifer helps clients obtain development and environmental licences and approvals, acquire and divest industrial and contaminated land and to manage on-going environmental compliance and environmental incidents. Jennifer has a particular interest in the waste industry and is a member of the WMAA and ISWA.

Mike Ritchie is the Director of MRA Consulting group and has 25 years experience in environmental policy in waste, resource recovery and carbon. Prior to MRA, he was National General Manager - Business Development and Marketing with SITA, General Manager of Services at WS NSW and State Manager of VISY. He has worked in local government as senior advisor to the Mayor of Brisbane and as a Director of Liverpool City Council. Mike was also National Vice President of WMAA, a sessional Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court and a member of the Victorian Ministerial Advisory Council on waste governance.