Our People

The Chamber is led by a small team and supported by a Board of arts practitioners and sector leaders. Together, we work to strengthen the sector through advocacy, connection and shared learning.

CHAMBER BOARD MEMBERS

The Chamber’s operations are governed by a Board of Management, comprised of selected and elected members. The role of the Board is to ensure compliance, improve performance, and approve the organisation's strategic direction.

The Chamber Board is made up of Western Australian business leaders, cultural policymakers, and arts practitioners.

Fiona Sinclair | Chairperson

Fiona is a trusted voice for the WA regional arts sector. With over twenty five years professional practice in a wide range of roles (including community & public artist, gallery manager, project coordinator, event management and cultural tourism) Fiona has extensive networks and experience stretching across the vast geography and incredibly diverse communities of WA. She ardently believes postcodes do not define, and should not limit, access to wonder-full artistic experiences.

Adept at collaboration, with experience wrangling state-wide capacity-building initiatives, Fiona is a passionate advocate for the depth, dynamism and richness that the regional arts sector contributes to our state's creative and cultural narrative.

Artistic Director/General Manager of Southern Forest Arts (based in Northcliffe in the South West region) since 2005, Fiona is a former Vice Chair of Regional Arts WA and current Vice Chair of GalleriesWest. She loves being on the Chamber Board.

Paul Nielsen

Paul has close to 20 years’ experience in regional Local Government in Australia and New Zealand, overseeing arts programming and facilities, as well as libraries. He has been active in a range of governance roles on international, national and state library bodies including being a current member of the Library Board of WA. Paul contributes to his own community in a range of roles, including Albany Community Hospice and Albany Primary School Boards, as well as junior sports coaching.

With a demonstrated ability and capacity to contribute at a strategic level he relishes the opportunity to join the Board at such a critical juncture for the Chamber.

Suzanne Worner | Secretary

Suzanne Worner's career began at the Ten Network in 1993. She spent nearly two decades as Production Manager for ABC News before transitioning to freelance publicity, focusing on independent film festivals and community events.

In 2011, Suzanne took over communications for the Revelation Perth International Film Festival, becoming General Manager in 2013. Suzanne curated programs for the Perth Fringe World Festival in 2018, winning the 'Free and Community' Award, hosts weekly film reviews on Curtin Radio's Afternoon Show, curates film events both in WA and Italy, has numerous IMDB credits to her name and in 2020, created the WA Screen Culture Awards to fill the void of acknowledgement for local screen industry practitioners.

Elected to the City of Vincent Council in 2021, she now serves as Chair of the Arts Advisory Group, continuing her unwavering and steadfast advocacy for the arts.

Jo Smith

Jo Smith started work in the arts in the 90’s as a Performance Installation artist while tutoring in Sociology and Linguistics. She took up Arts Management in in early 2000 when she moved to Denmark in the Great Southern where she delivered their community arts festival Brave New Works for three years.

Since then, Jo has been Manager of a community arts literacy program Albany, devised unique multi-arts festival Write In the Great Southern and headed Ausdance WA’s award-winning program regional dance program Future Landings.

She began work with CircusWA in 2017 to develop and oversee a survival strategy and later appointed as their inaugural Artistic Director which she has held for 7yrs.

Greg Apps | Treasurer

As a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) with extensive experience in the arts and not-for-profit sectors, I am passionate about empowering small to medium-sized enterprises to achieve financial success and sustainability. My expertise lies in providing tailored financial consulting services, helping organisations navigate the complexities of budgeting, reporting, cashflow forecasting, and strategic financial planning.

With a solid background in finance management at leading organisations like SHQ, Propel Youth Arts, and Perth Festival, I have developed a keen understanding of the unique challenges faced by arts, youth, and not-for-profit sectors. From budgeting and cashflow management to grants and KPI benchmarking, I offer a comprehensive range of services that drive informed decision-making and foster growth.

As a Finance Manager at SHQ, I developed financial strategies that ensured strong governance and long-term sustainability. My work as Treasurer and Board Member at Propel Youth Arts allowed me to provide critical financial insights that contributed to the organisation’s strategic direction and success. My tenure at Perth Festival gave me the opportunity to manage complex financial operations in a dynamic, high-profile environment, ensuring organisational financial health.

Geoﬀ Buchan

Geoﬀ Buchan is a visual artist and independent educator whose life was transformed by experiences in the Kimberley in the 1970s. As a young graduate from WAIT, he encountered radically diﬀerent ways of seeing, being and making art through the influence of respected bush-born Lawmen. This experience led him to help change lives for the better with ‘under the radar’ global reach.

As the Kimberley’s first government art teacher, he was challenged to rethink the purpose and function of art in modern society. He was drawn to using art as a tool for festive crowd engagement by utilising artists’ services to bring people together who might otherwise not interact.

Proposed for the WA Bicentenary, Geoff is working on a cooperation-based, four year plan for a Bran New Orleans-like Kimberley music and arts destination economy, honouring Jimmy Chi as a creative platform builder with outside/online, art/info story telling around the Broome townscape.

He sees his job as taking people to see diﬀerently. His approach is termed ‘Seeing Business’. To convey patterns of complex ideas where lines of words are insuﬃcient, he employs a practice he calls ‘painterly diagramming’. This approach has been modelled into an open, visualised ternary management system called Visionbuilding, a creative and less adversarial approach in the search for solutions in todays conflicted world.

Pearl Proud

On a planned leave of absence until October 2026

Pearl Proud has a background in Psychology, Governance, and DEI and Multiculturalism. She has held a range of Chair and Director board positions and overseen the inception and strategic/diversity evolution of boards with a footprint in the Arts, Health, Health/Mental Health, and Higher Education sectors.

Pearl has held clinical and management positions in private practice, government, non-for-profit, social services, and corporate sectors, with a commitment to improving access and skilled, culturally informed service delivery.

Pearl has a commitment to actively contribute to the civic, social, cultural, and artistic life in Western Australia, was Patron for the Perth Arts Festival, including for the 50th Anniversary Perth Festival, the Founding Patron for the Perth Writers Festival, and a Medici Donor. Pearl is passionate about the Arts, is an advocate for diversity in the Arts, champions First Nations and Intercultural artistic expression, and believes in Australia being a space for our ‘re-congregation’ for the advancement of our universal dialogue.

She is a leader with a clear spiritual and equity mandate. Her civic and philanthropic contribution acknowledgements include the national Living Legend Award 2012.

CHAMBER STAFF

Rick Heath | Executive Director

Rick Heath is a cultural executive and advocate. He has worked in the not-for-profit arts sector in producing, presenting, advocacy, and audience and industry strategic development roles across Australia for over 30 years. He is the founder and director of Push Management an arts consultancy working predominantly in strategic cultural development.

Recently his work has turned to inter-cultural arts and social impact organisations Tura, BighART and Community Arts Network, producing national projects and delivering organisational reform.

Rick has worked in executive leadership roles including the Sydney Opera House, Perth Festival and Black Swan State Theatre Co. For 12 years, as Executive Director at Performing Arts Connections Australia, he delivered a national industry development remit. In his roles he has delivered transformational change, organisational restructures, brand repositioning, and significant membership and revenue growth. He was also responsible for securing the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) congress for Perth in 2025.

He has Chaired and been a Board member for 17 years, of several arts organisations as well as sitting on many grant assessment and award panels.

A fellow of Washington DC’s Devos Institute of Arts Management, Rick is a passionate advocate for strategy, audience development, and connecting people to make and present great art.

Rick was recently awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake a global study tour investigating Arts Advocacy practices across the UK, Canada and USA.

Rick is known for his, strategic and critical thinking, sound judgement, tenacity, incisive questioning, and for leading change in complex, multi-stakeholder environments. He is a leader in local, national and international arts ecologies.

He believes strongly in the ability of the arts to embolden people to think differently, make change, and generate civic engagement.

In 2022 Rick discovered a passion for walking, and a new concept of pace, when he traversed the breadth of Spain on the Camino De Santiago.

Rick is the proud father of two adult children, one a professional independent dance artist and the other a medical student.