Meet the 2023 Board
Bruce Marshall - PRESIDENT
Bruce is the Coordinator Economic Development and Smart Cities at Maribyrnong City Council in Melbourne's Inner West. Amongst other things, his team has responsibility for driving the municipality's Smart City program and delivering on the vision of the Smart City Strategic Framework.
Over his 13 years working in the Local Government sector Bruce has had a number of roles relating to Economic Development, Investment Attraction, Place Making and Visitor Economy promotion. Whilst still relatively new to the Smart Cities space, he is passionate about exploring how Smart City initiatives can play an active role in place making, place activation and improving the convenience and quality of life for residents.
Bruce is an experienced board director in a range of sectors and is passionate about embedding sound governance practices to ensure the ongoing success and sustainability of ASCA.
Prior to Local Government he ran a small business in the international tourism sector, and previously lived and worked in Japan for nearly 4 years.
James Sankar - VICE PRESIDENT
James is the chair of the Standards Australia IT-269 committee responsible for IEC Electrotechnical and Electrotechnology Smart City Systems. He has more than two decades of experience successfully leading service transformations in the UK, Europe and Australia. Examples include a secure guest Wi-Fi global service (eduroam), unified collaboration platforms, collaborative storage, cyber security and professional services.
In 2020, he founded Smart Footprints a carbon neutral consulting, advisory and managed services company bringing together Internet and Data expertise and applying this to Smart Sustainable Cities. The aim being to develop and adopt “smart” standards that can meaningfully progress a much needed transition in the way we work, rest and play in a sustainable way.
He is an active volunteer with interests in extending smart city practices to be inclusive especially to support the vulnerable such as the poor, homeless and refugees and in the use of technology and systems to accelerate the recovery of our natural environment for all living creatures for future generations.
Laura Baker - SECRETARY
Laura is the Director Student Attraction and Enrolment at GoTAFE. Previously she was Head of Smart City and Innovation at the City of Casey, one of Australia’s fastest growing Councils. At the City of Casey, Laura drove a future focused agenda to embed smart technology, collaboration and innovation in Council and community to increase sustainability and resilience in the local region.
Laura’s experience spans across Corporate, Not For Profit and Government. She is passionate about creating social and environmental value through emerging business and policy models and has researched this topic in a range of countries spanning Asia, Europe and USA.
Laura is passionate about rural economic and community development and is an active member as the President of the Euroa Community Action Group.
Laura was president of ASCA in 2022 and is passionate about the continued development of the sector.
Georgie Johnson - Treasurer
Georgie is a passionate, innovative, strategic thinker. As a problem-solving change advocate, Georgie’s experience in local government has seen her focus on strategy development, project, program and event management for over 10 years. This along with her non-profit experience often sees her thought process to be outside the box.
Georgie believes in and values innovation and equality, always seeking opportunities to influence and create a positive impact. Originally from New Zealand, Georgie thinks and plans globally, looking for ways to solve community-based problems. She believes we are all responsible for building a better world for generations current and future.
People are the key driver to a smart world, smart cities and communities with technology and data enabling key outcomes. With people as the focus, we all can take steps to transform the world we live in.
Emmily Acton
Emmily is the Economic Development Officer at City of Newcastle where she helps to solve community challenges with an innovative approach and keen interest for digital solutions. As part of the City Economy team, Emmily's work program involves a particular focus on the night-time economy and utilising smart city technology to inform evidenced based planning, activations, and interventions. Her work in this area has led to Emmily's involvement with a NSW Government night-time safety pilot program, Purple Flag.
Relatively new to Local Government, at the heart of Emmily's work is her belief in a people-centred approach which empowers communities to strengthen opportunities. With a background in Critical Discourse and Communication Emmily combines this knowledge with a passion for data, taking particular interest in geospatial applications.
Emmily enjoys learning about and advocating for the ever-growing opportunities for communities to harness technology to improve wellbeing, inclusion, partnerships and skills.
Sumeet Nagpal
Sumeet is the Data Engineering Hub Lead at the Environment Protection Authority Victoria where he is heading the data, reporting and analytics platforms. He has an extensive leadership experience in Smart City, Open Data, Internet of Things, Digital Twin, Digital Transformation and Data Analytics domains.
In his career span, Sumeet has led and delivered award winning initiatives including City of Casey’s Open Data Platform to help community access, use and share the data.
Sumeet has a vision to find innovative ways to standardise smart technology for solving community problems in both urban and rural areas.
Sumeet is also passionate about promoting entrepreneurship in the emerging technology sector with an aim to build more smart and sustainable communities in a cost-effective way.
Jason Dean
Jason is currently a Business Analyst at Glenelg Shire Council in Victoria.
His team is responsible for Business Transformation within Council which has included the creation of a Smart City Framework and implementation of several key projects.
He has more than two decades experience in the technology sector in both Australia and Europe. Prior to working in Local Government, he was a Consultant overseeing large scale transformation programs.
He is passionate about evangelising the role that technology can play within rural areas to bring tangible benefits to communities.
SIMON BERRYMAN
Simon is the Manager Stakeholder Engagement NSW/ ACT with nbn co; and while based in Orange focuses much of his work on greater Sydney; with a particular focus on cities planning, policy and smart places delivery initiatives.
Simon has a background in economics and financial services in Sydney and London. The past 7 years Simon has worked in roles across state and federal government, all targeting outcomes for people which have connectivity as the primary enabler.
Simon is passionate about delivering on the promise of IoT and smart places; and aims to work with ASCA and its members to move from a proliferation of successful pilots to a scaling of smart solutions to deliver social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Rory Brown - NSW Smart Places
Rory is the Executive Director, Smart Places and Net Zero Cities, in the Cities and Active Transport Division of Transport for NSW. He has been part of the NSW Government’s Smart Places revolution since its inception in 2019. His passion lies in instilling a data- and technology-first approach, and a citizen- or customer-led lens to smart places.
An executive leader with over a decade of C-level advisory experience, Rory has a track record in delivering strategy, transformation and developing enterprises. His prior commercial roles have included growing SeventeenHundred, a digital platform provider of diversity solutions, leading product, strategy and development organisations for Optus, and leading SingTel Group’s Consumer Cloud business.