Adrian Burnett
Chair of the Board
Member of the Health & Wellbeing Committee, Member of the Nominations & Remuneration Committee
Adrian is an arts leader with extensive national and international experience across cultural leadership, programming and performance. He was appointed Head of Programming at Carriageworks, one of Australia’s leading arts and cultural institutions, in 2024.
Adrian previously served as Senior Curator and Producer of New Annual, the City of Newcastle’s flagship arts festival (2021-2024), and spent more than a decade at Creative Australia, including as Director of Dance and Multi-artform, where he led national funding programs and strategic initiatives supporting the Australian arts sector.
An alumnus of The Australian Ballet School, Adrian was a Senior Artist and Resident Choreographer with The Australian Ballet and has created works for major international companies including Dutch National Ballet, Houston Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, and Royal New Zealand Ballet.
Adrian currently serves as Chair of Critical Path (Australia’s leading centre for choreographic research and development) and Chair of the Dance and Physical Theatre Board for Create NSW. He holds a Master of Arts and Entertainment Management from Deakin University.
Gerlinde Scholtz
Deputy Chair
Member of the Development Committee
Gerlinde is a not-for-profit sector leader with experience in both senior executive and director roles. She brings a track record of success in leading transformational growth in for-purpose organisations to this appointment.
Gerlinde is currently Chief Operating Officer of a not-for-profit campaigning organisation in the sustainability space. Her previous executive experience included appointments as the Executive Officer of national peak body Community Foundations Australia, Chief Operating Officer of a medical research institute, interim CEO of a family violence support service, and as Director of Development at the University of Melbourne. Gerlinde has served on the boards of organisations engaged in community banking, sustainability, women’s health, and family counselling.
Stephen Adrian
Chair of the Nominations & Remuneration Committee, Acting Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee (Chair from May 2024)
Stephen is a Consultant Director at SW Australia and has been with SW for more than 45 years. Stephen’s skill areas include finance, tax and business structures focusing mainly on private groups. He has also acted for many not-for-profit organisations and is the responsible person of a number of private ancillary foundations. He is a director of several private companies, and a past director of listed public companies. In addition to being a director of the ABS, he is the chair of the Skyline Education Foundation and is member of the advisory board of Skyline Hatch, the deputy chair of Waterski and Wakeboard Australia Ltd and Chair of their Finance and Risk Committee. He was a director of Food and Drink Victoria Ltd for 11 years and the chair of their Corporate Governance Committee. He is a past member of the MLC Board and the MLC Foundation. Stephen authors the Company Directors Manual, recommended by the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Economics, a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Taxation Law from Monash University. He is a Chartered Accountant, a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
