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Anni Rowland-Campbell

Anni Rowland-Campbell
Director

Bachelor of Arts – Fine Arts, History & Philosophy of Science (Melbourne); Master of Arts – Modern European Art, specialising in Design for Theatre (Courtauld Institute, London); Grad. Certificate of Public Policy (UNE); Master of Business & Technology, focusing on Knowledge Management (UNSW); Masters of HRM and Coaching Psychology (Sydney); theory and research towards a PhD entitled “Trust, transparency and technology; the emergence of the digital brand”; Graduate Certificate in Public Policy (Harvard Kennedy School).

Anni is fundamentally an observer and practitioner of Web Science and has long been a passionate advocate for helping humans navigate the digital world more intelligently.

Anni has lived around the world and her early working life began in the Arts with roles at the Sydney Opera House, the National Theatre of Great Britain, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Julian Ashton Art School, and the Australian Opera.  She then entered the world of Government where she was Research Officer to the Hon. Peter Collins QC MP, then New South Wales (NSW) Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and Minister for the Arts, which gave her the opportunity to learn about and contribute to the encouragement and support of the arts industry at a strategic policy level.

In 1990 Anni changed gears by moving to a cotton and grazing property near Narrabri in northern NSW, during which time she worked with both the Moree Gallery Foundation and the Yurundiali Aboriginal Arts Co-Operative, with a focus on business planning and community development. In 1993 Anni returned to Sydney to take up the role of Executive Director of the NSW Division of the Institute of Public Administration, whilst simultaneously developing Intersticia as a new media strategy consultancy in the early days of the World Wide Web.

From 1996 to 2004 Anni juggled young children and her role as Executive Director of the Graphic Arts Merchants Association of Australia (GAMAA), the association for suppliers to the graphic communications industries which represented the largest technology suppliers in what was then the world’s third largest manufacturing industry. During this time Anni undertook research into the impact of digital technologies on graphic communications as part of Print21, the Australian Government’s Action Agenda as well as her active involvement in the organisation of both PacPrint and PrintEx.

During her time with GAMAA Anni’s most important work was with Sam Crock in creating the GAMAA Leadership Programme which sought to educate and develop 21st leaders for the sector which, after the music industry, was being radically altered due to the impact of digital information technologies and the emergence of the World Wide Web.

In 2004 Anni was engaged by Fuji Xerox Australia as Industry Marketing Manager and subsequently as a new-media consultant. During this time Anni initiated Fuji Xerox’s research into the future of the Web which involved the management and undertaking of two Australian Research Council funded projects.  The first of these focused on the impact of semantic technologies on the printing and publishing; the second developed this further by investigating the practice of Sustainability Reporting. In addition Anni was instrumental in connecting Fuji Xerox Australia with the globally recognised Xerox Innovation Group as an Australian based research organisation in its own right.

In 2009 Anni began working with Peter Thompson at ANZSOG (the Australian and New Zealand School of Government) to integrate digital socio-technical concepts (now recognised as the Social Machine) into their Managing Public Communications Executive Programme.  This led to a series of workshops Anni co-created with Leanne Fry which sought – with limited success due to the immaturity of the market – to develop some within senior managers of the Australian Public Service.

In 2012 Anni met Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Professor Thanassis Tiropanis and so began a partnership that resulted in two ANZSOG funded research projects in partnership with the University of Southampton Web Science Institute.  The first, Government as a Social Machine articulated how Governments act as Social Machines and exist within an ecosystem; the second focused on the development of an Australian Government Web Observatory.  In 2016 Anni was invited to become a Trustee of the Web Science Trust on which she continues to serve.

The most important result of this collaboration however was the co-creation of Brave Conversations in 2017 with Leanne Fry which brought together all of this previous work and has since been held around the World, both face to face and online.  Brave Conversations seeks to demystify digital technologies in order to enable and empower people from all walks of life to more effectively live their lives as responsible digital citizens and Smarter Humans.

In 2013 Anni left the commercial world and, with her family, formed the Intersticia Foundation in Australia and in 2015 Intersticia UK.

Since then, Anni has concentrated on supporting the Intersticia community globally, and on delivering workshops and lectures to Boards, Senior Leadership and Management Teams, and students to help them become more Digitally Savvy.  These workshops were brought together as a series of Digital Gymnasia as a complement to Brave Conversations.  In 2015 Anni began delivering these to the students of Founders and Coders and they are now part of the core curriculum.

Anni has served as a Council Member of the Australian War Memorial; a Member of the NSW Arts Advisory Council; the NSW Museums Council; a Member of the National Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia; a member of the Advisory Council of Code for Australia; a Board Member of the Digital Enlightenment Forum, and a Board Member of the Social Change Agency UK.

Anni is currently a Trustee of the Web Science Trust, a Non-Executive Director of Founders and Coders UK, and a member of the Advisory Board of MENA Alliances.  

Anni is a Fellow and former Governor of Goodenough College, a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a Member of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, a Member of the Union Club London, the Sydney Ski Club and the Royal South Yarra Lawn Tennis Club.