The Pinnacle Foundation

Meet the Team

Susan Brooks

Susan is our compliance guru and has extensive experience in managing regulatory risks and consumer issues from within executive government, statutory administrative bodies (Australian Broadcasting Tribunal and Australian Securities Commission) and financial services sector (Chief Compliance Officer, Westpac and the Australian Banking Industry Ombudsman). She is currently a member of the ABC’s Independent Complaints Review Panel. “I am delighted to be a member of the Management Committee and be able to apply the wealth of experience I gained through corporate life. It also allows me to give back to our community. Back in the Seventies I was a beneficiary of the Labor Government’s new approach to university entrance, so I understand the benefits of education and how it can change your life. In retirement my life style also allows me time to enjoy life and spend quality time with my partner Janis and close friends.”

Simone Bartley

Simone is our “ideas person” and the “creative” on our Management Committee. She has spent the last 20 years in communications across Australia, Asia, UK & Europe, eight of those years running the global network agency Saatchi & Saatchi. She is Board member of Asia Pacific Business Coalition/HIV, along with Communication’s advisor to UNIFEM White Ribbon and Reconciliation Australia. In 2007 Simone featured in the UNIFEM 50 Most Powerful Women exhibition. Her achievements are a result of belief that anything is possible if you have the right level of passion and determination. It was Simone’s team at Saatchi & Saatchi that developed Pinnacle’s branding and communication strategy – bless ‘em.

John Taberner

John and his trusty team of lawyers at Freehills were instrumental in helping set up Pinnacle’s legal and corporate structure. And boy, didn’t they do a good job! John is a lawyer who specialises in all aspects of environmental law, in particular planning and pollution control law. John is the go-to guy if you need advice on Greenhouse, Kyoto Protocol, carbon sequestration and stuff like that. He is a Director of Annual Report Awards Inc which established, and for the past eight years has administered, Australia’s only award for excellence in environment reporting. John also served for four years as secretary of the National Environmental Law Association of Australia. We love what John and his team have done for Pinnacle and will be forever grateful.

Justice Elizabeth Fullerton

Elizabeth is a NSW Supreme Court Judge. Her career path is a story of opportunities taken and fulfilled and, we hope, an inspiration to our scholarship recipients. Originally trained as a primary and infants teacher at Coburg Teachers’ College, Elizabeth taught kindergarten and primary schoolers in 1975 and 1976 at Port Melbourne Primary School. In 1978 she commenced Arts/Law at Monash University and completed her degree at the University of New South Wales in the early 80s. Elizabeth has served as an adviser to a number of charities and public organisations including being director of the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Board and has chaired the Mardi Gras Festival committees.

Sean Linkson

Sean is one of our Directors and a member of the Management Committee. By day he is a Partner in a large firm of head-hunters. He lives in Sydney with the love of his life, Philip Comans, another Director of The Pinnacle Foundation. Every day Sean sees the advantage of a good education. His love is putting people into careers they love. Seeing people achieve their full potential is what inspires him – it was also the inspiration for The Pinnacle Foundation. He wants to see every young LGBT achieve their potential and make a mark in the world.

Philip Comans

Phillip is one of our founding Directors, along with Paul and Sean.
“I have been a real estate agent for the past 10 years and before that many different jobs (or careers) including photographer, PR and event management consultant, retail buyer and even a masseur. Thankfully I went to University when it was provided free, and came out with an Economics Degree. I’ve seen over and over again how having that Degree has opened employment opportunities for me. It was at Uni that I came out and again luckily my family were very accepting. The Uni environment was really important to me during that time, providing fantastic friends and counselling support. I’m a Director of Pinnacle and partnered with Sean Linkson (another Director) with our rescue dog Sooty (she doesn’t “do” rescue she was rescued)”.

Paul Clark

Paul is our resident expert on corporate sponsorship and philanthropy. His is a story that shows life and career are not lines which go in one direction. For him, they are journeys full of exciting possibilities and opportunities that arise from peer support, community commitment and everything in between.

Paul’s great passion is how companies and individuals can make a real difference in their communities, especially when it comes to encouraging LGBT  youth – they deserve the chance to benefit from education and a network of supportive peers…the kind of lucky breaks Paul got when he came out and moved from the burbs to the city.

Paul loves his role with Microsoft as their Community Affairs Manager. After completing an Arts degree in French and English literature at UNSW, he embarked on a short and unimpressive career in International Banking before following his passion to work in the cultural sector managing corporate partnerships and philanthropy. He was privileged to have worked for the Australian Youth Orchestra, Royal Botanic Gardens and the Australian Museum before taking the leap back to the corporate sector. He completed a Grad. Cert in Arts management from UTS in 2001.

For many years Paul was a volunteer phone counsellor with the Gay and Lesbian Counselling service and helped facilitate the men’s coming out group. He also had a stint on the board. Paul was also a supporter of the Sydney Gay Games Bid committee.

Paul is lucky enough to have met Rod, the man of his dreams in the nineties, so home life is a real priority and is always lots of fun!

Gail Whiteford

We are very proud to have Professor Gail Whiteford as our “education specialist” on our Management Committee. She currently holds the newly created position of Pro Vice Chancellor - Social Inclusion, at Macquarie University. Her role there is to take the lead in helping to strengthen the University’s social inclusion efforts. Gail recently gave a national public lecture on this subject to an audience that included representatives of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Social Inclusion Board of Australia.

In the last three years, Gail has been an international facilitator on two European Commission-funded social inclusion projects - one in Turkey and one in Bulgaria focusing on enhancing educational and occupational participation.

Gail joined Macquarie from Charles Sturt University where, as well as being Professor and Chair of Occupational Therapy, she has held various roles including Strategic Research Centre Director, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Convenor of the Women in Research Forum and Head of the Albury-Wodonga campus.