Brian Sherman

Over more than fifty years in business, Brian Sherman was chairman and joint managing director of the EquitiLink Group, a director of the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and chairman of its Finance Committee, chairman of ASX-listed Aberdeen Leaders Limited, chairman of a number of investment companies listed on the American Stock Exchange, and a director of Channel Ten.

Brian served as president of the Australian Museum Trust, and director of Sherman Galleries and the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation. He is co-founder and managing director of the animal charity Voiceless, a director of the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas, a director of the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and chairman of the Rambam Israel Fellowships program. For his services to the community and his philanthropy-in the arts, medical science, animal rights and the Jewish community-Brian was awarded the Order of Australia, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Technology, Sydney. With his wife Gene, he received the B'nai B'rith Gold Medal for outstanding humanitarianism. Brian's life has been the subject of two episodes of ABC TV's Australian Story.

AM Jonson is CEO of the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas. She has written and edited widely on society, ethics, technology and the arts for many presses and publications, including MIT Press as well as mainstream and specialist media. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her background includes working as a strategy, corporate and communications director in NGOs, a media company and for leading philanthropists.