Board of Directors

Carolyn Barker AM, Chair

Prior to becoming a full-time Company Director in 2018, Carolyn Barker AM held CEO positions for 25 years in private education and commercial services. Her company director experience has spanned two decades during which time she sat on publicly listed, private company, government and not for profit boards.

Carolyn is an experienced independent director and chairperson and brings focus to strategic planning and corporate culture as well as utilising her general commercial and digital governance skills. She has served on boards in the areas of education, legal services, public transport, complementary medicine regulation, the arts and local government. Carolyn currently consults to organisations in the areas of leadership development and capability frameworks, in addition to offering executive coaching and workplace mediation services as a nationally accredited Mediator.

She is Chair of the Transport for Brisbane Board, Chair of MiTraining Pty Ltd, and completed eight years as a board member of Shine Corporate Ltd. Carolyn is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) awarded for her service to management and education organisations and the arts, and is a QUT School of Business Alumni Award winner.

James Slade-Symons, Deputy Chair

James Slade-Symons is the Founder & Managing Partner of Macarthur Human Capital (MHC), a proudly Australian, privately owned advisory service with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. James specialises in human resources and organisational development consulting for executives and boards for some of Australia’s leading brands through to rapidly growing tech start-ups.

James is renowned for his unique use of business and people analytics, which provide insights to optimise organisational impact, efficiency and commercial performance. He has built a range of proprietary psychometric and analytical products, including the launch of the rQ App in 2023 to capture previously unused data sources, revolutionising performance analysis and decision-based insights for organisations.

During his career, James has held board and HR leadership positions with Vodafone, Coles Myer and Chandler Macleod, where he has also consulted to clients across the mining, agritech, biotech and professional service sectors. During this time James has led a number of successful start-ups and re-aligned ASX listed organisations to achieve significant commercial success.

Rod Margetts, Treasurer and Company Secretary

Rod Margetts is a Chartered Accountant by profession and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

Rod is Principal Consultant and the co-founder of Oxford Associates, a consultancy firm specialising in a range of innovative business improvement solutions and management advice to clients in the public and private sectors across Australia and New Zealand. 

He is a respected leader, analyst and strategist with extensive experience at the senior executive level across multiple service industries including education and training.