Steering committee

Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell AO FTSE FAHA

Genevieve Bell is a renowned anthropologist, technologist, and futurist. Genevieve completed her PhD in cultural anthropology at Stanford University in 1998 and is best known for her work at the intersection of cultural practice and technology development.  She is currently the Director of the School of Cybernetics and Florence Violet McKenzie Chair at the Australian National University and a Vice President and Senior Fellow at Intel Corporation.

Genevieve joined the ANU in 2017 after spending 18 years in Silicon Valley guiding Intel's product development and social science and user experience research capabilities. In 2017, Genevieve was appointed the inaugural Director of the 3A Institute, co-founded by the ANU and CSIRO's Data61. The Institute's mission is to establish a new branch of engineering to responsibly and sustainably scale AI-enabled cyber-physical systems. In 2021, she was appointed Director of the new School of Cybernetics at the ANU, which in addition to housing the 3A Institute, is focused on building capacity in Systems and Design.

Emeritus Professor Will Christie  

After teaching English literature at the University of Sydney for many years, Will Christie became Head of the ANU’s Humanities Research Centre (2015-2021) and Director of the Australasian Consortium of Humanities Researchers and Centres (2017-2022). He is currently co-ordinator of the Romanticism Section of the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE), on the International Advisory Board of the journal European Romantic Review, and general editor of the series China and the West in the Modern World for Sydney University Press. Will was founding President of the Romantic Studies Association of Australasia (RSAA) from 2010 to 2015 and has published widely in Romantic studies, including  Samuel Taylor Coleridge: A Literary Life (2006), awarded the NSW Premier’s Biennial Prize for Literary Scholarship in 2008, The Letters of Francis Jeffrey to Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle (2008), The Edinburgh Review in the Literary Culture of Romantic Britain (2009), Dylan Thomas: A Literary Life (2014), and The Two Romanticisms, and Other Essays (2016). More recently, he was co-editor (with Jock Macleod and Peter Denney) of Politics and Emotions in Romantic Periodicals (2019) and (with Q.S. Tong and Angela Dunstan) of Tribute and Trade: China and Global Modernity, 1784-1935 (2020). Will was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2011.

Konfir Kabo

Konfir Kabo is the founding partner of Kabo Lawyers, a law firm based in Melbourne, Australia. He is also the CEO of Aksara Group, a service station investment trust.

Konfir has been an avid art collector for the past decade and is a passionate patron of the arts through Project 11, a philanthropic initiative he established with his wife. Project 11 works with key institutions such as the University of Melbourne, Monash University and RMIT University as well as arts organisations such as the National Gallery of Australia, Arts Centre Melbourne, Multicultural Arts Victoria, Melbourne Recital Centre and Musica Viva. Aside from the arts, Konfir also supports health initiatives such as autism research with OTARC, Australian Prostate Cancer Research and the Skin Cancer Foundation. He is currently on the board of Centre of Asian Business and Economics (The University of Melbourne), Australia Indonesia Art Forum and VCA Foundation.

Konfir has launched a few projects in Indonesia, including the establishment of an education centre in Bandung with Melbourne Polytechnic to deliver audio engineering courses as well as movie productions.

Konfir was born in Makassar, Indonesia in 1973. He studied Law and Commerce at Monash University. He was admitted as a solicitor and barrister of the Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia in 1998. He is also a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand College of Notaries. He currently resides in Melbourne with his wife and two children.

Seri Renkin OAM

An innovator and advocate for social and economic justice, Seri has over 25 
years' experience working in the corporate, non-profit, philanthropic and 
government sectors, including holding leadership, advisory and non-executive 
board roles.  Currently, Seri's work focuses on shifting the power in 
philanthropy and impact investing, helping leaders in the social sector make 
the critical shifts so their efforts can be more democratic, equitable and 
effective.   

Seri has led or contributed to the establishment of many social change 
organisations in Australia and served on a wide range of Boards.  She was 
founding CEO and Managing Director of the ten20 Foundation, a 10 year impact 
fund and founding Director of the Melbourne Office of Social Ventures 
Australia (SVA), an organisation offering innovative solutions to society's 
most pressing social problems. She was Chair of The Stella Prize, and a 
Board Director of the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA) and 
Australian's Investing in Women (AIIW).  Seri is an Activator for the global 
participatory fund SheEO.    Prior to her roles in the social sector, Seri 
was a Management Consultant working for Accenture in Australia and New 
Zealand and Hay Management Consultants in London. She earned her BA (Hons) 
from the University of Melbourne.   

Seri is passionate about providing opportunities for young people, gender 
lens approaches to social investment as well as walking alongside First 
Nations people to reimagine an economic system that supports community 
agency and sustainability.   

in 2020 she was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) in recognition of her 
services to communities and non-profit organisations.