Narara Ecovillage’s Board of Directors are elected by the membership sociocratically. A number of our Directors have been involved in the project from inception bringing a huge amount of continuity and project knowledge.
The current members of the Board are:
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Jonathan Ellis (Chair)
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Annie McClusky
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Joanne Hunt
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Grant Rickey
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Peter Higgs
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Rosemary Leonard
- George Manoliadis
Our Co-operative Secretary is Catherine Oddie and the Board Administrator is Mariela Salisch.
Former serving Board Directors are our founder Lyndall Parris, Richard Denham, Grant Rickey, Laurence Perrin, Tony Hester, Stuart King, John Talbott, Mark Fisher, Donna Carey, Richard Cassels, Geoff Cameron, Nicky Prince, Lincoln De Kalb, Patricia Meagher, Bronwen Bassett, Rod K, Lynita Clark, Verena Maclean, Ed Hughes and Gina Price.
A little more about some of our current and past Directors:
Jonathan (Jon) Ellis
Jon has served in many capacities at the village as well as on the Board and Community Association. As well as being the current Board Chair, he also heads NEV Power, which operates our innovative power microgrid, including our BESS community battery.
Verena Maclean
Verena served our board from 2015 to 2024 including 7 t=years as Chair, and brought a human relations and community eye to board decisions. She is a member of AICD and brings 20+ years consulting experience in requisite organisation, organisational development, capability building, work complexity and effectiveness across all sectors and industries.
Laurence Perrin
Laurence is a member of our community who is deeply steeped in village life. His contribution to many areas of village life is invaluable. Laurence has held many management and executive directorship roles, predominantly in finance sector companies. He has experience in private equity placement, property syndication and establishing and managing start-up ventures. He brings a wealth of business development, financial and governance skills to our board.
Grant Rickey
Grant is again on the Board for 2025 having originally joined the Board in 2016, bringing with him energy and enthusiasm. One of Grant’s weaknesses is that he hasn’t learned to say no which has resulted in an unsustainable workload from time to time. He has been one of the driving forces for the Building Standards Approval process and evaluation criteria. His project management and planning skills are a real asset for the Board and are being more fully utilised in holding the stage 2 planning process, drawing on the lessons from Stage 1.
Grant is always happy to see the positive in situations and people and his can-do approach helps keep the Board going forward.
Richard Denham
Richard brought a broad knowledge of NSW planning and natural resource legislation and administration. Having worked in planning and policy positions in the NSW Government for many years he has specific experience in relation to water resource management, water quality and aquatic ecology, crown land policy and management, primary industries policy, urban planning and biodiversity off-set planning. Richard is the convenor of our Legal and Finance Working Group.
Gina Price
Gina Price recently completed her term on the Board as an Independent director. Gina was originally nominated for a variety of reasons, one of which is her skills in sociocracy. The insights that she brought to the Board were invaluable, showing her commitment by the hours of work she put in to help us develop a robust sociocratically focussed governance framework. Gina teleconferenced into our board meetings from Western Australia each month. She retains her connection and is an invaluable resource when called upon.