Our Board

Our board comprises members drawn from Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. Board members, on a voluntary basis, dedicate their skills, efforts and time to guide the organisation.

The board:

Provides effective governance to ensure sound financial, management and resource allocation
Leads strategy guiding operational decision making and implementation
Makes certain that the objects in our Constitution are achieved effectively.

The board’s current strategic plan, developed for the period 2020-2022-2024, identifies the key focus areas of: member engagement and value, technology and operational excellence, influence, advocacy, and branding, best-in-class training and accreditation and financial sustainability.

Nick Hopkins KC (Chair)

Nick Hopkins KC is a commercial barrister who has specialised in both the TEC area and in ADR throughout his 25+ years at the Victorian Bar. During that time he has appeared for a wide variety of clients in numerous arbitrations (both domestic and international), special references and expert determinations. For almost a decade he lectured in the University of Melbourne Masters Program on the subject of Construction Dispute Resolution while at the same time presenting the Commercial Arbitration segment of the Victorian Bar Readers Course. He has been appointed as Arbitrator, Expert Determiner, Expert Facilitator and Mediator. Nick has been repeatedly recognised by Chambers and Partners and Doyle’s Guide as a leading Building and Construction silk and was recently voted Melbourne’s ADR ‘Lawyer of the Year’ for 2024 as ranked by Best Lawyers. He is a Fellow of Resolution Institute and a former President of the Commercial Bar Association of Victoria.

He is the current chair of the Resolution Institute.

Sarah Ramsay (Vice Chair)

Sarah lives in Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington) in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has been working in conciliation and statutory complaint resolution for over 13 years. She leads a complaint resolution team for Te Tari o te Kaitiaki Mana Tangata (the Office of the Ombudsman), resolving complaints about central and government agencies in Aotearoa. In 2014 she received the LEADR practitioner award for achievement by an emerging mediator. Sarah established and co-managed a community mediation practice in Te Whanganui a Tara (Wellington) for a number of years. She is a trainer, coach, and assessor for Resolution Institute. Outside of her mediation work she is the co-founder of an electric vehicle start-up, a salsa dancer, and proud fur-Mum of two adorable RSPCA cats.

Philip Argy (Treasurer)

Philip Argy is an experienced lawyer, mediator and arbitrator. He specialises in intellectual property, science, technology and competition law and has been a computer buff for more than 50 years as well as being an experienced programmer.

Philip left Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King and Wood Mallesons) at the end of 2007 after being with the firm for almost 32 years (24 of them as a partner). He established ArgyStar.com in January 2008 to evangelise and implement dispute resolution strategies in the IT sector, and was one of the first mediators to become nationally accredited under the NMAS when it was established.

He holds Resolution Institute accreditations in Arbitration (Grade 1) and Expert Determination, and maintains his eponymous law firm as well as being a Consulting Principal to Keypoint Law.

Mieke Brandon

Mieke Brandon BA MSc(App) became a community mediator in 1989 and a family mediator in 1993. She is accredited under the National Mediators Accreditation System (NMAS) and is a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner, trainer, supervisor, NMAS assessor, and author.

She has written many articles for peer reviewed journals and is co-author of Mieke Brandon and Linda Fisher, Mediating with Families (4^th ed. Thomson Reuters 2018) and with Leigh Robertson, Conflict and Dispute Resolution (Oxford University Press 2007).

In 2017 Mieke and Linda Kochanski won the ADC Project Award and in 2018 with Linda Fisher the William J. Kreidler Award, Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). Mieke is an Advance Practitioner Member of ACR.

Paula Bruce

Paula is a lawyer with over 20-years mediation experience. Her legal career spans workplace relations, family law, family dispute resolution, and training. She has 15-years of experience managing dispute resolution services. Her tertiary qualifications include law, psychology, post-graduate management, mediation and Family Dispute Resolution. She is a qualified Collaborative Lawyer and Children’s Lawyer.

Paula has managed pilot mediation projects at local courts in NSW and at the Federal Magistrates Court Parramatta. She has conducted research into family violence and workplace mediation and has assisted with research into culturally reflexive mediation. She has spoken widely on her research and developed models of practice for organisations to reflect the findings.

Paula is a long-term member of Resolution Institute. Since 2016 she has worked hard leading and contributing to support members through Resolution Institute facilitative committees, mostly as chair.

Jon Everest

Jon is an experienced conflict resolution specialist based in Warkworth, New Zealand. He is an accredited mediator, facilitator, conflict coach, trainer and professional supervisor who specialises in restorative approaches..

Peter Kassapidis

Peter was admitted to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2011. He is a NMAS accredited mediator and a Resolution Institute accredited conciliator and has been on State and Federal mediation and conciliation panels since 2015. He is a full-time Commissioner at the South Australian Employment Tribunal.

Jonathon Keenan

John is a Chartered Accountant and Registered Liquidator. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting), and is a member of the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association and the Turnaround Management Association. He has practiced as a accountant, specialising in restructuring and insolvency, for over 20 years.

Wi Pere Mita

Wi Pere affiliates to Te Aitanga-a-Mahaki, Rongowhakaata, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Maniapoto iwi.

He is a lawyer, mediator and consultant with over 10 years' experience in governance and law. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and holds a number of directorships and governance roles in the commercial, not-for-profit and private sectors.

Wi Pere has practice experience in the areas of intellectual property, commercial law, HR, media, broadcasting & entertainment law and Māori legal issues.

Karene Primrose

LLB (Hons), BA (Phil), MAICD Karene Primrose is a lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in litigation and general dispute resolution. She is also an accredited mediator under the National Mediation Accreditation Standards, having initially trained with LEADR and subsequently completed the Advanced Mediation programme at Harvard University and Resolution Institute’s Conciliator programme. Relevantly, Karene is appointed to a number of Commonwealth and state alternative dispute resolution schemes as a mediator and conciliator, in addition to conducting her private practice and serving on a number of boards. She is also appointed as a Senior Sessional Member of the WA State Administrative Tribunal and serves on the WA Law Society’s ADR Committee and its Ethical Guidance Panel, providing guidance to members of the legal profession in relation to ethical issues. Karene continues to be personally recognised annually as a leading mediator in Doyle’s Guide and Best Lawyers.

Justin Toohey

Justin Toohey has 20 years’ experience as a conciliator, mediator, lawyer, and manager. As Director of Alternative Dispute Resolution at the Administrative Appeal Tribunal, Justin received the Australian Disputes Centre Courts and Tribunals ADR Group of the Year in 2019.