Category: Colin Only

Neil Gibson

Neil is a recently retired company executive with over 30 years in senior management positions across Australasia. The majority of this time was working with BHP in the steel industry. Neil graduated with an Agricultural Science Degree, and completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Along with his Director role for CRBF, Neil is the current Chair Of Wesley College, a residential college located within Sydney University. Along with his wife and family, he now spends his spare time running his family farm and an adjacent Farm Stay business in the Manning Valley of NSW.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Science in Agriculture – University of Sydney, 1984
  • Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing – Charles Sturt University, 1992
  • Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors

Julian Hofer

Director, Philanthropic Engagement

Having had Hodgkins Lymphoma at age 24, which was treated successfully at RPA, I have been fortunate to live in good health and pursue an amazing career in international financial markets in Sydney, London and Dubai,

I have been following CRBF since hearing Cooper speak in 2017 at a fundraiser at the Great Hall, Sydney University, as his words touched my wife and I deeply.

In my later years, philanthropy has been a primary focus, and I am excited to be involved with this wonderful organisation.

Ross McLean

ROSS McLEAN,  BA (UNSW), LLB (Hons) (Sydney), LLM (Dist.) (London)

Ross was for 25 years a partner, and is now Of Counsel, in the Sydney office of global law firm Baker McKenzie. In addition to managing the brand, marketing and commercial  work for a range of multinational consumer law clients, Ross was also the pro bono partner and lawyer for significant charities including Benevolent Society, the oldest continuously operating charity in NSW.

Of his connection with Cooper he notes:  “I first met Cooper when we shared scoring duties for his brother Mitchell’s Sydney Grammar U 13 cricket team, when Cooper was just nine.  His love of all things sport, his ambition to be as good as he could be at his chosen sports and his closeness to and support of his family were apparent from the outset. These ingredients and his engagingly quirky personality helped us form a strong bond over succeeding years. I followed his development and achievements closely, often surprised at what he was capable of when he set his mind to it. I see Cooper’s example in his last year as setting the benchmark for the effort and tenacity that CBRF must demonstrate so that real progress is made, and ultimately victory achieved, in the fight that Cooper began. I am pleased to help CRBF take up that fight.“