Platform Cooperativism – Speakers

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Speaker Presentations, Media and Photo Gallery from the Platform Cooperativism event is available via this link

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Janelle Orsi (USA)

Co-founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC)

Janelle Orsi is a lawyer, advocate, writer, and cartoonist focused on cooperatives, the sharing economy, urban agriculture, shared housing, local currencies, and community-supported enterprises.

Based in San Francisco, she is co-founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), which facilitates the growth of more sustainable and localized economies through education, research, and advocacy. Janelle has also worked in private law practice at the Law Office of Janelle Orsi, focusing on sharing economy law since 2008. Janelle is the author of Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy: Helping People Build Cooperatives, Social Enterprise, and Local Sustainable Economies (ABA Books 2012), and co-author of The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life & Build Community (Nolo Press 2009), a practical and legal guide to cooperating and sharing resources of all kinds.

Janelle was a presenter & co-convenor of the Platform Cooperativism Conference NY 2014 (platformcoop.net).

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Melina Morrison

CEO, Business Council of Cooperatives & Mutuals

Melina was appointed the inaugural CEO of the Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM) in July 2013.

From 2010-2013, Melina headed Australia’s International Year of Co-operatives’ Steering Committee and Secretariat that oversaw the national campaign to raise awareness of the contribution of co-operative businesses in the Australian economy.

For the last ten years, Melina has headed media campaigns for peak co-operative bodies, including the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA). Melina helped develop the message platform for the ICA’s Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade and the global digital case study platform, stories.coop. Melina was also editor of the ICA’s Digest from 2006-2011.

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Godfrey Moase

Assistant General Branch Secretary, National Union of Workers.

Godfrey Moase works at the National Union of Workers in Melbourne, Australia. Godfrey is passionate about rebuilding the union movement to help win a post-capitalist economy. He blogs at www.tradeunion.wordpress.com and can be reached on Twitter @gemoase.

 

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Antony McMullen

Antony McMullen has committed himself to a variety of generally not-for-profit roles – from education research and policy officer to social enterprise catalyst to community services director. He has also held chairperson roles in the student union and community legal sectors and has served as a trade union delegate; he is currently a vice chair of the Victoria Day Council and Association that supports awarding of the Victorian of the Year. Passionate about social business, civil society and participatory political economy he is engaged by Employee Ownership Australia and New Zealand, Catholic Social Services Victoria and Church of All Nations in Carlton (Uniting) in member and organisational development, policy and communication areas. He holds qualifications in community services, business and social impact. Committed to building the solidarity economy he currently serves as inaugural chancellor of somewhat tongue-in-cheek 888 Antipodean Order of Froth Blowers Co-operative and is the founder of the budding CoopWorkshop (social enterprise for common good); he’s currently working on a cooperative social investment project. You can find him on Twitter @antonymcmullen most days.

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Van Badham

Van Badham is a Melbourne-based writer, critic, trade unionist, feminist, activist and occasional broadcaster, an internationally award-winning theatremaker and one of Australia’s most controversial social commentators. She is currently employed as a weekly columnist for Guardian Australia and is Vice-President of MEAA Victoria, with her work published by the UK Guardian, UK Telegraph, Vice Magazine, Australian Cosmopolitan, Fairfax, Daily Life, the Hoopla, Southerly, Hardie Grant and PanMacmillan, amongst many others, and featuring in regular guest appearances with  Radio National and Q and A. She is a proud alumnus of the University of Wollongong and has a Masters from Melbourne. She tweets via @vanbadham.

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Holly Ransom

Regrettably Holly has had to withdraw, due to unforeseen circumstances. As Chair of the United Nations Global Coalition of Young Women Entrepreneurs her attendance is required at a consultation meeting providing input into the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. Holly apologises and has asked to be kept informed of the Seminar outcomes that may be applied in her sphere of influence.

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Michel Bauwens

Michel Bauwens is the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. Michel is the founder and director of the P2P Foundation and works in collaboration with a global group of researchers in the exploration of peer production, governance, and property. Bauwens travels extensively giving workshops and lectures on P2P and the Commons as emergent paradigms and the opportunities they present to move towards a post-capitalist world. Michel is research director of CommonsTransition.org a platform for policy development aimed toward a society of the Commons that would enable a more egalitarian, just, and environmentally stable world. Michel is a founding member of the Commons Strategies Group.

Michel currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand and will provide his Opening Remarks via SKYPE from Madison Wisconsin (USA).

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Nathan Schneider

Nathan Schneider is a scholar-in-residence of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. His articles have appeared in publications including Harper’s, The Nation, Vice, and America, and he has written two books. In 2015, he co-organized “Platform Cooperativism,” a pioneering conference on democratic online platforms.

ABC interview with Nathan Schneider, June 2016:

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Stephen Lynch

Steven Lynch – Corporate Affairs Manager, Bank Australia
Steven joined Bank Australia directly out of university in 2002 and has enjoyed a variety of roles with the bank. Working with the bank allows Steven to combine his interests in social and environmental issues within a business context. In 2012 Steven was recognised by the Australian Committee for the International Year of Co-operatives for his dedication to the co-operative model and applying co-operative principles in business to improve the lives of many in various communities with the Future Leaders Awards.

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Brianna Wettlaufer

Brianna Wettlaufer, CEO/Co-Founder, Stocksy United
Brianna is the co-founder and CEO of Stocksy United, an artist-owned, multi-stakeholder cooperative in Victoria, BC (Canada). With its stable of hand-picked photographers, Stocksy produces high-end, beautiful imagery that challenges the tired stereotypes found at traditional stock photography agencies. Brianna started Stocksy in 2012 with a team of industry veterans whose mandate was to create a marketplace that would remain true to its core ideals of sustainability and authenticity, while ensuring that the bulk of its revenues were returned to the artists that made it possible.

 

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Peter Tregilgas, Curator / Producer

Peter Tregilgas is a Master of Business (Arts & Cultural Management) and has skills and experience in creative and social innovation encompassing regional development, arts management, festival coordination, capital projects and social enterprise. Achievements includes; Director of the Adelaide Festival Fringe, inaugural Director of Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute and Arts Access SA. Festival Consultant to the Victorian Tourism Commission developing the Melbourne International Festival and Comedy Festival and Executive for Regional Development Australia Mid North Coast.

Peter’s specialist focus is Cooperatives and Social Enterprises and has produced the definitive publications “Social Enterprise in Australia” and “Cooperatives in Australia”. He works closely with the Cooperative Federation of NSW and the key peak association Business Council of Cooperatives and Mutuals. Peter is the founder of Social Enterprise Services Australia encouraging sustainable market based trading with a social outcome and an operating philosophy of Mainstream, Make Money and Make a difference. In 2015 Peter was invited to Chair the Mercury Centre Cooperative which brings together a network of specialist associates to build collaborative enterprises through evidence based research, strategic advice, communication and organisational structure.