Christine Nixon was Australia's first female police commissioner in the male-dominated field of policing. She was Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Police from 1994 until 2001, when she was appointed the 19th Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, a position she held from 2001 to 2009. She led 14,000 staff operating across more than 500 locations and oversaw an annual budget of $1.7 billion.  Amidst death threats and sexist taunts Christine championed anti-corruption within her own ranks, weeding out the bad cops and going to war with the Melbourne underworld and winning.

Christine has had, and continues to have, an extraordinary life. She has pursued and been given many opportunities. She has experienced the best and worst of human behaviour. Along the way she has gained extensive experience in policing, organisational reform, risk management, crisis management, corruption prevention, emergency management and human resource management. She has been highly praised and highly criticised but never ignored.

In February 2009 Christine was appointed chair of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority following the Black Saturday bushfires and tasked with the oversight and coordination of the largest recovery and rebuilding program Victoria has ever faced.

Under Christine's leadership, the Authority worked with communities, businesses, charities, local councils and other government departments to help people rebuild their lives and communities. In August 2010 Christine moved into a role as the Victorian Government's Advisor on Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery, a voluntary role. She continues to support communities, to work with the bereaved community, and remains a member of the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund panel.

Christine is also an advocate for women, disadvantaged youth and multifaith/multicultural communities and has spoken extensively on major social and justice issues. Her strong views on women in the workplace and her steadfast focus on making a difference to poverty.

Rory Nathan has over 35 years’ experience in engineering and environmental hydrology. He has spent the majority of his career in private industry, and now focuses his time on research and teaching in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering. He has made a substantial contribution to industry best practice in a range of engineering and environmental fields, particularly in the use of stochastic methods of flood estimation, the characterisation of hydrologic risk, regional estimation techniques in catchment hydrology, and the assessment of sustainable limits on water resources.

He is a co-editor and contributing author of the current national guidelines on flood estimation, and for many years he was Australia’s representative on the International Committee of Large Dams floods committee and a member of the hydrology sub-committee of the NSW Dams Safety Council. He has published around 200 research papers on engineering and environmental hydrology in journals, books, and refereed conference proceedings. His research publications have won several national and international awards, including four medals awarded by Engineers Australia for the best annual paper in civil engineering.

In 2000 he was awarded national "Civil Engineer of the Year" by Engineers Australia, and in 2009 he was recognised as one of Australia’s “Most Influential Engineers”.

Zinta is a registered landscape architect with 15 years’ experience in the public and private sectors.  She spent the first five years of her career working in private consultancies, developing an interest in water management and water sensitive urban design through project work.  Moving into the public sector, she worked at Wyndham City Council in Melbourne’s western growth corridor for over seven years, delivering landscape and urban design capital works projects and reviewing planning submissions. 

In local government, Zinta sought out opportunities to follow her passion for improved water management and environmental outcomes for the community. In 2011, Zinta was selected as one of 18 young water professionals from 14 organisations across Australia to take part in the 2012 International Water Sensitive Cities Study Tour.  The study tour was a group learning and networking program, supported by Clearwater, the Stormwater Industry Association Victoria, and the participant’s organisation.  Later that year, Zinta received a partial scholarship for local government water leaders to the International Water Centre’s nine-month Water Leadership Program, which she completed in 2013.

In 2016, Zinta officially joined the water industry by accepting the role of urban designer at Melbourne Water.  She is one of two urban design professionals at Melbourne Water, who work to embed urban design thinking and methodologies in Melbourne Water’s processes, programs and projects. 

Ian Rutherfurd has 20 years experience in the water sector. At present he is an Associate Professor in the School of Natural Resource Management and Geography in the University of Melbourne. He recently completed five years working in the water and river management area at a senior level in the Victorian State government. 

He is a Chief Investigator in major Australian Research Council research grants, including projects on: evaluation of environmental flows, understanding nutrient processes in sediments that lead to algal blooms, and optimization of stream management decisions. He is on numerous advisory committees including: Melbourne Water’s Waterway Advisory Committee, and River Health Expert Advisory Panel; DSE’s Technical Advisory Panel; and the Gippsland Lakes Task Force. Ian has also been the Victorian representative on the review of the National Water Quality Management Strategy. 

Ian has just completed a five year secondment to the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, where he was the Director of River Health for the state (and latterly the acting Executive Director), working within the Office of Water. This position was responsible for management of the State’s rivers, estuaries and wetlands, as well as implementing an annual $40m program of investment in stream rehabilitation.