Members of Council

The Honourable Kim Beazley AC was the 33rd Governor of Western Australia.

Prior to being installed as Governor, Mr Beazley had dedicated almost three decades to a career in Federal Parliament, representing the WA seats of Brand and Swan.

In 2009, Mr Beazley was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for service to the Parliament of Australia through contributions to the development of government policies in relation to defence and international relations, and as an advocate for Indigenous people, and to the community.

Mr Beazley was born in Perth, Western Australia. He completed a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts at the University of Western Australia. In 1973, he was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for Western Australia and completed a Masters of Philosophy at Oxford University.

Mr Beazley was a Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments (1983-1996) holding, at various times, the portfolios of Defence, Finance, Transport and Communications, Employment Education and Training, Aviation, and Special Minister of State.

From 1995 to 1996, Mr Beazley was Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Australian Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001, and 2005 to 2006. Mr Beazley served on parliamentary committees, including the Joint Intelligence Committee and the Joint Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee.

After his retirement from politics in 2007, Mr Beazley was appointed Winthrop Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at The University of Western Australia.

In July 2008 he was appointed Chancellor of the Australian National University, a position he held until December 2009.  Mr Beazley has previously been a member of the Council of the Australian War Memorial from July 2009 to December 2009.

Mr Beazley took up an appointment as Ambassador to the United States of America in February 2010. He served as Ambassador until January 2016.

Upon returning to Australia from Washington in 2016, Mr Beazley was appointed as President of the Australian Institute for International Affairs (2016-17), Co-Chairman of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue (2016-18), Distinguished Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and a Director and Distinguished Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre.

Corporal Daniel Keighran VC was appointed to Council in June 2016 for a three-year term and re-appointed for consecutive three-year terms in 2019 and in 2022.

Daniel Keighran was born in Nambour, Queensland and grew up in Lowmead; a small town approximately 80km from Bundaberg in regional Queensland where his parents bred Paint and Quarter Horses. Dan enlisted into the Australian Army immediately after completing High school on the 5th of December 2000 and completed recruit and infantry training to be posted as a rifleman to 6RAR based at Enoggera in Brisbane all before his 18th Birthday.

He deployed to Rifle Company Butterworth, Malaysia in 2001, on Operation Citadel in East Timor in 2003-04 and again to Rifle Company Butterworth in 2004. In 2005 was promoted to Lance Corporal and then served within Mortar Platoon, Support Company, 6RAR. In 2006 he deployed on Operation Catalyst in Iraq serving as a Bushmaster armoured-vehicle driver, a role he again fulfilled on Operation Slipper in 2007 when he deployed to Afghanistan with the Special Operations Task Group. In 2009 when promoted to Corporal Dan was posted back to Delta Company 6RAR.

In February 2010 Dan again deployed on Operation Slipper to Afghanistan, this time with his original Company Delta. On the 24th Aug 2010 his patrol was under fire by a numerically superior insurgent force. After receiving a friendly casualty, Dan acted on his own initiative to take decisive action to turn the tide of battle. This decision would see him risk his life and purposefully draw enemy fire to himself and away from the rest of the members of his patrol who were treating the casualty. As a result of his actions he was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia. The highest award in the Australian Honours and Awards System. His citation reads ‘For the most conspicuous acts of gallantry and extreme devotion to duty in action in circumstances of great peril’.

Since completing his full-time service Dan has held various private sector roles including his current association with Thales Australia as a Key Account Manager. Dan continues to serve his country as a Reservist with the Australian Army and donates his time to numerous not for profit organisations supporting current and ex-serving Australian Defence Force members (and their families) who have physical or psychological wounds, injuries or illnesses as a result of their service.

Appointed by the Governor-General of Australia to the Council of the Australian War Memorial on 1 October 2019 for a three year term. Tony Abbott was elected prime minister by the Australian people on September 7, 2013, and served for two years. In his time as PM, the carbon tax and mining tax were repealed, free trade agreements were finalised with China, Japan and Korea; the people smuggling trade from Indonesia to Australia was halted and Australia became the second largest military contributor to the US-led campaign against Islamic State in Iraq. In 2014, and again in 2015, he spent a week running the government from a remote indigenous community. Tony Abbott served as the member for Warringah in the Australian parliament between 1994 and 2019. As the local MP, he was instrumental in the creation of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust to preserve the natural and built heritage of his electorate. Prior to entering parliament, he was a journalist with The Australian, a senior adviser to opposition leader John Hewson, and director of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy. He has degrees in economics and law from Sydney University and in politics and philosophy from Oxford which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. Since 1998, he has convened the Pollie Pedal annual charity bike ride which has raised nearly $7 million for organisations such as Soldier On and Carers Australia. He still does surf patrols with the Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club and serves as a Deputy Captain with the Davidson Rural Fire Brigade. He is married to Margaret and they are the parents of three daughters – Louise, Frances and Bridget. Mr Abbott is a recipient of Australia's highest honour, the Companion in the General Division in the Order of Australia (AC) in 2020 for "eminent service to the people and Parliament of Australia".

Dr. Karen Bird joined the Council of the Australian War Memorial on 24 October 2024 for a three-year term.

With a 30-year career in property management and body corporate engagements, Dr Bird is an experienced businesswoman and intellectual historian. A Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Australian Research Centre Project at Flinders University, Dr Bird explores how we form knowledge, what shapes our understanding, and the values we choose to live by. Her interest focuses on the ethics of war and the role of human differences (including race and religion) in the transaction of geopolitical affairs across human history.

Dr Bird’s early career as a Critical Care Registered Nurse has greatly informed her approach to life and continues to guide her intellectual pursuits and deeply personal commitment to veteran advocacy. Her 32-year-old son, Jesse Bird, an Afghanistan veteran, took his own life in 2017. She serves as Deputy Chair of the National Advisory Committee for Open Arms: Veterans & Families Counselling and is a founding committee member of the Sufferings of War and Service Project. This was an initiative of the Australian War Memorial to commission a work of art to recognise and commemorate the suffering caused by war and military service.

The sculptural installation, For Every Drop Shed in Anguish by artist Alex Seton, was dedicated at a ceremony on 22 February 2024.

For Every Drop Shed in Anguish provides a place at the Memorial for those who have experienced and witnessed the ongoing trauma that can result from service, and for Memorial visitors to reflect on this experience.

Wing Commander(Ret’d) Sharon Bown AM was appointed to Council in June 2016 and re-appointed for consecutive three-year terms in 2019 and in 2022. Wing Commander Bown served as a Nursing Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force for 16 years, discharging from service in 2015. Wing Commander Bown deployed to Timor–Leste in 2000 and 2004; Afghanistan in 2008 as Officer-in-Charge of the Australian Medical Task Force in Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan; and on various aeromedical evacuation tasks, including Papua New Guinea in 2001, Solomon Islands in 2003, and Bali following the terrorist bombings in 2005. Wing Commander Bown is a passionate advocate within the field of military and veterans’ health and demonstrates a unique insight into the welfare and healthcare needs of those adversely affected by their service. She has cared for Australian Defence Force personnel and their families in Australia and overseas, and survived life threatening and enduring injuries in a helicopter crash whilst serving on operations in East Timor in 2004. Wing Commander Bown is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Nursing and a Bachelor of Psychological Science and is the author of One Woman's War and Peace: A Nurse's Journey in the Royal Australian Air Force. She serves as a Judge of the Prime Minister's Veterans' Employment Awards since its inception in 2018, an ambassador for Phoenix Australia, Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health, since 2019, a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing since 2020, an ambassador for the Air Force Association since 2021, and served as National Vice President of the Air Force Association 2020 - 2021. 

Lorraine Hatto­n, OAM (Aunty Lorraine) grew up in an Aboriginal Community on Minjerribah, (North Stradbroke Island). She is formally recognised as an Indigenous Quandamooka Woman, and Elder. The Quandamooka people are an Aboriginal Australian group that live around the Moreton Bay Region in South-eastern Queensland.

Aunty Lorraine, born in 1966, is from the Ngughi /Nunukul tribes, with blood lines also to the Turrbal Tribe, of Brisbane. She is the youngest of 11 children to William Gardiner, a WWII Returned Serviceman and Aunty Emma Enoch of Minjerribah, home to the Indigenous Quandamooka people for tens of thousands of years. She attended Dunwich Primary School, and then Balmoral Secondary School, in Brisbane.

In 1986 Aunty Lorraine embarked on a highly successful military career which spanned for over 21 years, providing loyal, dedicated, service to the Australian Army, her country, and her people. She is widely recognised as a pioneer for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous female servicewomen, distinguishing herself, in peacetime and operations, involving peacekeeping, humanitarian, peace-monitoring and war operations, in various theaters and campaigns.

At the time of her promotion in 2003, Aunty Lorraine was the first Aboriginal female to be promoted to Warrant Officer in the Australian Army’s history. Her career culminated in yet another first for both Indigenous and Nonindigenous female servicewomen as she was appointed as the Communications Manager to the Australian Army Special Forces Task Group in Afghanistan, in 2006. Aunty Lorraine retired from the Army, in 2007, after a nomadic career that saw her live both widely throughout Australia and abroad, and settled on the Gold Coast, Southeast Queensland.

Aunty Lorraine was appointed as the Indigenous Elder of the Australian Army in May 2020. This significant national appointment, reports directly to the Chief of Army, on a broad range of Indigenous issues and sees her sit on the Army Indigenous Capability Advisory Board. Some of her other responsibilities in this role involve representing serving and ex-serving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island personnel, providing advice to Army’s senior leadership, establishing long lasting and mutually beneficial relationships nationally between Army and communities, as well as participating in representational duties, and events of significance.

In January 2019 Aunty Lorraine was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM), for service to the Indigenous Community.

Mr Glenn Keys AO is the Founder, Owner, and Executive Chairman of Aspen Medical, one of the world’s leading providers of outsourced healthcare solutions.  He was invited to join AWM Council in February 2021 for a three-year term and re-appointed for a consecutive three-year term in 2024. He is also a member of the Memorial Development Committee.

Glenn was born and raised in Newcastle, New South Wales and joined the Australian Defence Force in 1980 where he studied Mechanical Engineering while completing his Officer Training at RMC Duntroon. He then went on to study Aeronautical Engineering with UK MoD in the United Kingdom and later studies Flight Test Engineering at the International test Pilots School in the UK

From 1980 to 1994 Glenn had a distinguished career serving in the Australian Defence Force in which he was the first Army Flight Test engineer at the RAAF Aircraft Research and Development Unit and the Chief Engineer, Army Aircraft Logistics Management Squadron, from 1992 to 1993.

In 1994 Glenn started Aerospace Technical Services (ATS) as the General Manager.   He helped grow the company from a start up until ATS was acquired by Raytheon in 1999.   He worked at Raytheon Australia up until 2003 when Glenn founded Aspen Medical, which has just celebrated a major milestone of 20-years of operations across the globe.

Glenn also founded the Aspen Medical Foundation in 2010. One of the programs funded by the Foundation was the Australia wide study into Ex-Service Support Organisations (ESO) Mapping Project. The Foundation has also supported numerous veteran’s causes, from PTSD recovery programmes to the Invictus Games. In 2012, Glenn founded Project Independence, an innovative social housing development for people with an intellectual disability and the first of its kind in Australia.

Alongside operating Aspen Medical in its many forms as the Executive Chairman, Glenn also sits on several boards alongside the AWM and was a Founding Director of the National Disability Insurance Agency board and served for 9-years until 2022. He was also one of the early proponents to lead to the campaign to inaugurate the Invictus Games in Australia and became a Director of the Australian Invictus Games in 2018. In 2022, Glenn was invited by the Federal Government to Chair the Australian ASEAN Council.

Glenn is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Glenn has been awarded with the 2015 ACT Australian of the Year for his work in Business & Disability, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017 and was selected as Australian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2017.

Glenn is passionate about social and community responsibility; these are central drivers at the heart of all that he does.

Major General Greg Melick AO RFD FANZCN SC was appointed to Council in March 2015. He is a Hobart based Senior Counsel who has been a member of the ADF Reserves since 1966. He has commanded at all levels from section to brigade before becoming Australia's most senior Reserve officer in 2007, and later becoming the ADF's Head of the Centenary of Anzac Planning Team in 2011. Units in which he served included 2nd Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment and One Commando Company and units/ formations he commanded included 12th/40th Battalion, Royal Tasmania Regiment and 8 Brigade. He is also the Colonel Commandant of 1st Commando Regiment. He has been a Principal Crown Counsel in the Tasmanian Crown Law Office, a Statutory Member of the National Crime Authority and the NSW Casino Control Authority. He was appointed a part time Deputy President of the AAT in September 2014 and the part time Chief Commissioner of the Tasmanian Integrity Commission in 2015. He was elected National President of the Returned & Services Leagues of Australia on 30 May 2019. He has conducted several investigations including the one into the Beaconsfield mine collapse, and is Cricket Australia's anti-corruption special investigator. He is a member and former chairman of the board of St John Ambulance (Tasmania).

Dr Susan Neuhaus AM CSC was appointed to Council in April 2018 and re-appointed for consecutive three-year terms in 2021 and 2024. Susan commenced as Chair of the Memorial Development Committee in 2023.

Susan is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, holds an adjunct appointment as Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide and is a practicing surgeon.  She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and holds a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD) and qualifications in project management and quality audit.

Susan has completed a career spanning 20 years in both the Regular Army and Army Reserve. She is a graduate of Australian Command and Staff College (Res). Her operational service includes deployments to Cambodia, Bougainville and Afghanistan. She was the Commanding Officer, 3rd Health Support Battalion, promoted to Colonel in 2008 and retired from military service in 2011.

Susan has held significant board appointments, across diverse sector including health, commercial and non-for-profit entities. She is current Chair and President of the South Australian-Northern Territory Division of the AICD and a director on the AICD national board. Her former roles include Chair of The Repat Foundation -The Road Home, member of the South Australian Veterans Health Advisory Council, Co-Chair of the South Australian PTSD Centre of Excellence Ministerial Advisory Panel and Chair of the Veterans’ Advisory Council, South Australia.

Susan is widely published including areas of operational health care and has undertaken research investigating gender-specific effects of military service and deployment. Susan is co-author of ‘Not for Glory: A century of service by medical women to the Australian Army and its Allies’ which was adapted by The Shift Theatre into the acclaimed play, ‘Hallowed Ground Women Doctors in War’.

Susan is Patron of the Virtual War Memorial, Australia.

Susan has been admitted to the Roll of Fellows of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 2009 for military service and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2020 for services to medicine and veterans and their families.

Air Marshal Chappell joined the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1993, graduating from the Australian Defence Force Academy in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts.

He completed Pilot’s Course in 1997, F/A-18 Operational Conversion in 1998, and Fighter Combat Instructor course in 2001. Following instructional and flight commander assignments, he was the inaugural exchange officer with the United States Air Force 65th Aggressor Squadron.

Air Marshal Chappell has held command appointments at Squadron, Wing and Component levels and has accumulated over 2,900 flying hours on the F/A-18A, F-15C, F/A-18F and EA18G.

Senior staff appointments include Chief of Staff to the Chief of the Defence Force late in 2017, supporting both Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, AC and General Angus Campbell, AO, DSC; and as the Head of Military Strategic Commitments, responsible for the strategic level management and situational awareness of current and potential Australian Defence Force commitments, until his selection as Chief of Air Force and promotion to Air Marshal in July 2024.

Operationally, Air Marshal Chappell deployed to the Middle East with No. 75 Squadron on Operation FALCONER in 2003, and with No 1 Squadron in 2014 contributing to the Air Task Group commitment to Operation OKRA.

Air Marshal Chappell received a Conspicuous Service Cross for outstanding achievement in air combat development and preparedness as Commander of No. 1 Squadron in January 2017, and a Distinguished Service Cross in recognition of his "distinguished command and leadership" on Operation Okra in June 2017.

He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for meritorious service to the Royal Australian Air Force in the field of Air Combat in the 2013 Queen’s Birthday Honours; and received the United States Meritorious Service Medal for performing outstanding services as Assistant Director of Operations, 65th Aggressor Squadron December 2005 – December 2007.

In 2013, Air Marshal Chappell attended the Australian Command and Staff College, completing a Master of Military and Strategic Studies and was awarded the Chief of Air Force prize. He graduated the Defence Strategic Studies Course at the Australian War College in 2017. He has also completed the Pinnacle General and Flag Officer Course at the National Defense University in Washington, DC.

He is a keen student of history, an avid reader, and enjoys a multitude of sports.

Vice Admiral Mark Hammond joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1986 as an Electronics Technician, before commissioning as a Naval Officer in 1988. Graduating from the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in 1990, Hammond served in frigates before volunteering for submarine service and qualifying in the Oberon class. He is a dual qualified officer, graduating from the RAN Principal Warfare Officers Course, and the Netherlands and USN Submarine Command Courses, and Australia’s Senior Submariner.

Hammond served extensively in Collins Class submarines. He also gained international experience in French, British and US nuclear attack submarines and Dutch conventional submarines. His Command of HMAS Farncomb included submarine operations across the Indo-Pacific. Subsequent shore postings included the Assistant Naval Attaché in Washington DC, Submarine Capability and Joint Exercise Staff roles, and 12 months as the Chief of Staff to the Chief of the Defence Force.

On promotion to Commodore, Hammond was appointed Director General Maritime Operations. Hammond then returned to the United States as the Liaison Officer to the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was awarded the United States Legion of Merit (Officer) for his performance in this role, and in 2018 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for exceptional service to the Australian Defence Force in senior command and staff roles.

On promotion to Rear Admiral, Hammond assumed duties as the Deputy Chief of Navy in 2018, and in late 2020, was appointed Commander of the Australian Fleet. In these demanding appointments Hammond first oversaw substantial workforce growth, and then focused on enhancing the resilience and warfighting capability of Navy’s people and Fleet during the COVID19 pandemic.

Vice Admiral Hammond assumed Command as Chief of Navy on 07 July 2022, the first RAN Recruit School and ADFA graduate to do so, and only the second submarine Commanding Officer to be appointed to the role. In 2023 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to the Royal Australian Navy in senior command roles.

Vice Admiral Hammond holds a Bachelor of Science, Masters in Management and Masters in Maritime Studies, and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program. Away from the Navy his interests include antique wooden boats, cricket, rugby league (South Sydney Rabbitohs), AFL (Port Adelaide), chess and submarine warfare in World War II.

Lieutenant General Simon Stuart AO, DSC is the Chief of Army and was appointed to the Memorial’s Council in July 2022 as an ex-officio member for a three-year term.

Enlisting as a soldier in 1987 and commissioning into the Royal Australian Infantry Corps in 1990, Lieutenant General Stuart has more than thirty-five years’ experience across a range of leadership, operations, training and program management appointments in Australia and overseas. His regimental appointments were in the 2nd/4th and 2nd Battalions, Royal Australian Regiment, and culminated in his command of the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, in 2008-10. He held command positions on operations on five occasions – at the platoon, company, Joint Task Force (East Timor), brigade (Afghanistan) and multinational force levels (Sinai).

For much of the past twenty years, Lieutenant General Stuart has worked in joint, whole of government, international and multi-national environments. Before assuming command the Australian Army in 2022, Lieutenant General Stuart was Head of Land Capability in Army Headquarters following his command of the Multinational Force & Observers in the Sinai from 2017-19.

Lieutenant General Stuart is a graduate of the Royal Military College – Duntroon (1990), the United Kingdom’s Joint Services Command and Staff College (2003), the United States Army War College (2015) and the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program (2022). He holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of New England and Masters’ degrees in Project Management (UNSW), Arts - Defence Studies (Kings College, London) and Strategy (US Army War College).

His honours and awards include appointment as Member of the Order of Australia (2011), the Distinguished Service Cross (2014) and advancement to Officer of the Order of Australia (2020). Lieutenant General Stuart has received a number of foreign awards, including those from the United States, Timor Leste, Columbia, Uruguay, Czech Republic and Japan. 

Lieutenant General Stuart is the patron for both Army AFL and the Army Drone Racing Team. He and his wife Katy are from Perth, Western Australia, and they have two teenage children and a labrador retriever.