Board Members

Ross Barrett

Mr Ross Barrett, OAM (Chairman of the LDA Board)

Mr Barrett is the current President of the ACT Branch of the Master Builders Association (MBA), a position he has held since 2001. He is a life member of the Association. Mr Barrett is an engineer by profession. He has been a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia since 1986 and, in 2011, was judged by Engineers Australia as one of Australia’s top 100 most influential engineers.

Mr Barrett has a long history of membership and leadership of professional bodies. He has been a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors since 1990. He has been a National Board member of the MBA since 2001. The MBA is the national body of the state and territory Masters Builders Associations. He is also a National Board member (since 1995) and current President of the Civil Contractors Federation of Australia (CCF), which is the national body of the state and territory CCFs and is Australia’s pre-eminent civil contractor organisation with over 2000 full contractor members. He is also a current Board member of MBA Group Training (ACT) Inc.

Mr Barrett has served on a number of regional advisory and professional organisations. He was Chair of Community Housing Canberra Ltd (2007-11) and Chair of Regional Development Australia ACT in 2009-10. Both of these positions are ACT Government appointments. He is also a member of the Residential Advisory Committee to the ACT Planning and Land Authority since 2003 and its predecessor organisation, the Residential Advisory Group to Chief Minister’s Department from 1998.

Mr Barrett has also held the following regional positions:

Chair Capital Region Development Board (2007-08) and Deputy Chair (2008-09);
Patron Worldskills 2007-08 ACT Region;
Deputy Chair Australian Technical College Queanbeyan and Region Steering Committee 2006-08;
Member of Executive Queanbeyan Business Council 2005-08;
Treasurer CCF 2005-07;
Member Canberra Central Task Force 2005-07;
Board Member Business Canberra 2003-05; and
Board Member Australian Construction Industry Forum Ltd (Approx 2003-05)

The Canberra Central Task Force was established by the ACT Government to oversee delivery of the Canberra Central Program and consisted of the chief executive from each ACT Government department, together with industry representatives.

Business Canberra was established by the ACT Government to provide strategic advice to Government on a broad range of business related issues.

Mr Barrett has a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) degree from the University of NSW and a Local Government Engineers Certificate (NSW).

Robert Tonkin

Robert Tonkin (Deputy Chairman)

Robert Tonkin is a former senior Commonwealth and ACT public servant and has been a resident of Canberra since 1973. Robert is a former Chief Executive of the ACT Chief Minister’s Department, Associate Secretary in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and Deputy Secretary in the Department of Defence.

Robert has extensive high-level experience in public sector governance, strategic policy and resource management, and in national security and risk management.

Within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Robert led the Australian Government’s Taskforce on Offshore Maritime Security, and headed the Secretariat of the COAG National Enquiry on Bushfire Mitigation and Management. In the ACT he led reform initiatives in the ACT Public Service, led the Service’s response to the 2003 bushfires and served on the Bushfire Recovery Taskforce.

As a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Defence Robert was concurrently CFO and CIO, oversighted a number of divisions including corporate planning, government relations, estate management, corporate support and audit and lead the Department’s successful implementation of major reform and efficiency initiatives.

Robert has chaired a number of Commonwealth department audit committees and has been a board member of the Defence Housing Authority.

He has previously been a member of the Council of the Order of Australia and of the Australian Bravery Decorations Council, and was Deputy Chair of the Defence Reserves Support Council of the ACT.

Currently, Robert is the National Secretary and ACT Chair of the Australian Industry and Defence Network.

Robert has an Honours degree in urban geography and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

Susan Proctor

Ms Proctor is a Legal Director of Commercial/Property at Bradley Allen Love, the recently amalgamated firm of Bradley Allen Lawyers (of which she was the Managing Partner) and Williams Love & Nicol Lawyers. She has been practising in all aspects of property law and commercial law for the past 15 years. Her client base consists largely of Canberra based businesses, property owners/developers, clubs and listed companies involved in commercial property development.

Ms Proctor is a director and current member of the Audit Committee of ACTTAB. She is also a Councillor with the ACT Property Council and a former member of the Council’s Planning Committee. She was previously a Director of Tuggeranong Valley Financial Services (Bendigo Bank).

Ms Proctor has a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the Australian National University as well as a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice.

Sandra Lambert

Sandra Lambert has worked for the public sector for all of her career spanning over 30 years. She has worked as a teacher and held a number of school based leadership positions including as a College Principal. She has also worked for the Australian Government and has held several senior executive and leadership positions in the ACT Government. Her most recent was as the inaugural Chief Executive of the then Department of Disability, Housing and Community Services (2002 – 2010) a position in which she exercised the Statutory role of The Commissioner for Housing, responsible for the Public Trading Enterprise known as Housing ACT.

During this period, in 2009, she also undertook the role of ACT Coordinator General of the Stimulus Taskforce responsible for delivering the Australian Government’s National Building Package in the ACT. As Chief Executive Ms Lambert was also actively engaged in national committees including as Chair of the Community, Disability Services Ministers’ Advisory Committee for 3 years. She was also a Board member of the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Before becoming a Chief Executive Ms Lambert’s roles included driving and implementing whole of government policy development, implementation and evaluation and being responsible for leading significant, often high profile projects. Leading the project team which established Canberra Connect is one example.

Ms Lambert has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Canterbury University (NZ) and a Diploma of Teaching, Distinction Award. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ms Lambert’s current activities include consulting roles and being a non executive director on other Boards. She is also the Deputy Chair of the Hands Across Canberra Board which is a new philanthropic organisation in the ACT.