Our People
Ron Manners - Executive Director
Ron Manners is the Managing Director of the Mannwest Group. He is also Emeritus Chairman of the Australian Mining Hall of Fame Ltd. He is a Fellow of both the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and his contributions to industry and Australia have been marked by several awards including being elected as a “Mining Legend” at the 2005 Excellence in Mining & Exploration Conference in Sydney. In 2010 Ron was appointed to the Board of Overseers for the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, Washington, DC.
Ron was born in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, to a family that had a long association with the mining town. A fourth generation prospector, Manners studied electrical engineering at the Kalgoorlie School of Mines before he assumed management of the family mining/engineering business, W.G. Manners & Co. (originally established in 1895) in 1955. He expanded and diversified the company which has evolved to become the Mannwest Group.
Between 1972 and 1995 Ron floated several Australian listed mining companies, before joining the board of a Canadian company with operations in Mexico, Brazil and Turkey. In addition to his mining interests, Ron has pursued an interest in economic education, establishing the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation in 1997. He is an active member of the Mont Pelerin Society and is on the coordinating Committee for the Commonwealth Study Conference. Ron is also the author and editor of four books - So I Headed West, Kanowna's Barrowman - James Balzano, Never a Dull Moment and Heroic Misadventures: Australia; Four Decades - Full Circle - as well as numerous papers and addresses.
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John Hyde - Board Member
John Hyde held the Federal seat of Moore from 1974, when Whitlam was Prime Minister, until he lost the seat with the defeat of the Fraser Government in 1983. John and his wife, Helen, then formed the Australian Institute of Public Policy, which in 1991 was amalgamated with the Institute of Public Affairs, which he directed until 1995. He was a columnist with the Australian Financial Review, The Australian and the Brisbane Courier-Mail, writing 745 regular articles for these papers, and has had many other articles published elsewhere.
Hyde was born and educated in Western Australia before farming wheat and sheep at Dalwallinu. A successful farmer, he was a councilor and deputy-President of the Shire of Dalwallinu and before entering federal parliament. With three other MPs he formed 'the Dries' which were then a backbench group which advocated economic rectitude and soundness in public finances and rejected short-term populism. He opposed the economic policies of the Whitlam Government which was defeated in December 1975, and also many of the policies of the succeeding Fraser Coalition Government which he considered to be in many ways hardly if at all better.
John Hyde's most recent published book Dry: In Defense of Economic Freedom is an account of how the momentary re-application of the proper conduct of public policy in Australia during the 1990s managed to reverse the long downward trend of Australia's relative living standards.
John Corser - Board Member
John earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Murdoch University in 1993 (majoring in history and sociology with minors in politics and public policy) and has pursued a range of business and economic interests since then. He is currently the Managing Director of a private investment company, SDC Pty Ltd and is a fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
John has worked in the home building, land development and funds management industries and was also an intern at the Institute of Public Affairs, States' Policy Unit. He is a member of the Liberal Party, considers himself a small "l" liberal and is a keen supporter of the IPA.
John's Mannkal Foundation involvement was a logical follow-on from his earlier involvement with the Australian Institute of Public Policy and the Institute of Public Affairs. He is a keen supporter of the work of the Mannkal Economic Education Foundation and considers himself fortunate to be able to work with fellow Directors Ron Manners and John Hyde.
Mac Nichols – Board Member
Mac Nichols earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Idaho in 1996.
Since then he has pursued a range of business, information technology and economic geologic interests and is currently the Managing Director of an engineering consultancy as well as a junior exploration company. Mac is a member of the Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration.
Mac has worked in the exploration, mining and mine services industries and has been involved with Mannkal since inception, albeit in a peripheral manner. He has lived and worked in Australia, the USA, and Papua New Guinea.
Judy Carroll – Executive Assistant
Before working for several private enterprise and publicly listed companies, Judy commenced her career in the public service where she worked for some 18 years.
In 1994 she joined the staff at the Ministry of Premier and Cabinet where she was Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff in the Office of the Premier - Western Australia. It was here that she realized her passion for politics and the outcomes it can have on our community. She believes it was a privilege to have been so involved with the running of the State and still maintains a great interest in current affairs and believes in the ideals of Mannkal.
Judy has worked with Ron since 2001 where she has witnessed, and enjoyed, being part of the expansion of Mannkal's activities and believes her breadth of experience in different workplaces gives her the ability to understand the free market system.
Henri Herti – Accountant
Henri joined the international Chartered Accounting firm of Arthur Andersen & Co. in Melbourne in the early 1970s. In the early 1980s, he was transferred to administer its Perth office. In 1985 he joined the law firm of Minter Ellison as Finance & Administration Controller, before taking up a position with Corser & Corser in early 1988. He stayed here until March, 1998 when he retired from full-time employment as General Manager of the company. Since 1998 Henri has been doing freelance contracting work and joined Mannwest Group Pty Ltd & Mannkal in mid-2000.
Andrew Pickford - Senior Fellow
Andrew works in the area of policy and strategy. He current holds a number of positions including Senior Fellow, Mannkal Economic Foundation, Senior Fellow, International Strategic Studies Association and project consultant, Committee for the Economic Development of Australia. He has a Masters of Accounting from Curtin University of Technology, and is completing a Masters of Strategic Affairs from the Australian National University. In 2007, Andrew completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors' Company Directors Course.
Previously Andrew has held a number of positions such as Strategic Policy Advisor at Western Power and Research Manager at FDI. Whilst at FDI he was also the Editor of FDI's Weekly Global Report. Before joining FDI, he was employed by KPMG and also completed a secondment to Chevron. Andrew is the Vice President of the Australia-India Business Council (WA Branch). He also sits on the management committee of the Australia Day Council of Western Australia and the Australian Institute of International Affairs (WA Branch), and serves as a councilor for the Royal United Services Institute of WA.
Andrew was a co-author of FDI's major 2007 study, Australia 2050: An Examination of Australia's Condition, Outlook, and Options for the First Half of the 21st Century, and FDI's 2009 study, Such a Full Sea: Australia's Options in a Changing Indian Ocean Region. He also contributed the agricultural research and analysis to the Defense & Foreign Affairs Handbook on Pakistan (2008). Andrew’s latest book Energy Security 2.0: How Energy is Central to the Changing Global Balance in the New Age of Geography was published in early 2011.
Jessica Pendal – Research Fellow
Jessica Pendal is based in the UK where she works for VSA Capital as a mining analyst. She also sits on the Education Committee of Women in Mining (UK). Jessica graduated from the University of Western Australia in early 2011 with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce (Corporate Finance/ Financial Accounting).
Jessica was made a Mannkal Scholar and began working at Mannkal in 2008 as a Research Assistant and continues her involvement with Mannkal from the UK as a Research Fellow.
Jessica has an active interest in economics, business and public policy and aspires to pursue these as she develops her career.
Emma Crisp – Research Assistant
Emma is currently studying at the University of Western Australia where she is half way through a Commerce and Arts Degree.
She began her work with Mannkal in August, 2009.
Emma has a keen interest in Political Science and International Relations and hopes to pursue a career in this area when she finishes her studies.
Sarah Pendal – Research Assistant
Sarah is currently studying a Bachelor of Arts at Notre Dame University Australia, majoring in Politics and International Relations/Communications and Media. She began work with Mannkal in January 2011 as a Research Assistant after relocated from Kalgoorlie in pursuit of her studies.
Prior to starting university in 2011 Sarah was selected as a Rotary Youth Exchange Student. She spent 2010 living in Sweden, whilst also travelling to many other European countries throughout the year. Sarah was also a very active member of the Kalgoorlie-Boulder community where she served as a City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder Youth Councillor for six years, holding various positions including Deputy Mayor and Public Relations Officer. Sarah also spent three years as a committee member for the Foundation for Young Australians.
After the completion of her degree Sarah hopes to pursue a career in journalism or politics.
Felicity Karageorge
Felicity is in her fourth year of a Law/Commerce degree at the University of Notre Dame Australia. She is completing a double major in economics and finance, and intends to graduate in December 2013.
In early 2011, Felicity travelled to Canada to work as a policy intern at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy as part of scholarship awarded by the Mannkal Foundation. She was also awarded a scholarship to attend the 2011 Genius of Western Civilisation Conference on behalf of the Mannkal Foundation.
Felicity began her work with Mannkal in September 2011. After completing her studies she wishes to work in Western Australia as a legal practitioner.
Matthew Lock – Web and IT Consultant
Matthew Lock works as a software developer and IT Consultant, assisting Mannkal with their IT and providing their web site development. He has a degree in Computer Science from Murdoch University and has been a software developer for 15 years, working in Perth and Tokyo.
Matthew first became interested in Libertarian thought after reading the works of Murray Rothbard and Ludwig Von Mises, and listening to the recordings of the Mises University.
Tim Robinson – Media Coordinator
Tim is currently in his penultimate year of an accounting/finance degree at Curtin University and will finish his studies in the summer of 2012. On the side, Tim run's a small photography business, named Zamia Photography, and has joined Mannkal to assist in media and photo related activities.
Tim is a published and multi award-winning photographer. He has travelled extensively, most recently spending two months travelling in India, and hopes to collate the images of his travels into his first solo photography exhibition.
He has a very strong interest in economic and philosophical thought, and will be attending the Mises Seminar in Sydney at the end of 2011 as a Mannkal Scholar. In 2011, Tim completed an internship at Ernst & Young and was short-listed for the PricewaterhouseCoopers student experience award. He hopes to join a Big4 firm when he completes his studies.
Photos now available
