CDN is managed by a Board of volunteers whose expertise includes arts practice, academia, local and state government, the non-profit sector and arts organisations.
Paul Holton, Chair
Paul is Principle at Lightwell Consulting undertaking projects in the community and local government sectors. He was formerly Director Development with East Gippsland Shire Council where his role encompassed strategic management of Statutory Land Use Planning, Economic Development, Capital Projects, and Council Enterprises across the East Gippsland Shire. He has worked in Local Government for over 30 years in areas such as arts facilities administration, cultural development, leisure facilities and events management. Paul was part of the team that initiated the highly successful Wangaratta Festival of Jazz. He is a former member of the Australia Council’s Community Cultural Development Board.
Nic Hodges
Nic Hodges works at the intersection of technology, media and culture. Holding a Masters of Design from Swinburne University, Nic has over two decades of experience in digital media, including senior roles at leading agencies including M&C Saatchi, Clemenger BBDO and MediaCom. He currently works as an independent consultant with brands and startups focusing on innovation in communications and business strategy.
Nic is a frequent commentator on the future impact of technology on communities, people and business. He has been featured on ABC’s 7.30, written for Wired and Forbes magazines, keynoted conferences in Australia, Asia, Europe and the US, and has written code that is now in the National Archive of Australia.
Nic sits on the board of several Australian technology companies, is a member of the Digital Advisory Committee for Sydney Living Museums, Course Advisory Committee for Swinburne School Design and Architecture and is a Non-Executive Director of Startup Victoria.
John Smithies
John joined CDN in 2005 and worked with the Board and a highly skilled team to support stronger planning and evaluation of cultural activities across libraries, arts and heritage. He has led the argument for a cultural perspective to be applied to many of the issues raised across economic, social, environment and governance domains of public policy since the landmark published research project Generations (2006-2009). In 2013 John initiated the partnership between the Commonwealth and local government, through the Australia Council (now Creative Australia) and the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) and the eight Australian capital cities to hold a six-year National Local Government Cultural Forum to establish consistent and useable frameworks for planning and evaluation in the cultural sector. This work is underpinned by five measurable cultural outcomes released for “road-testing” in 2016 and published in the journal Evaluation in 2020. CDN’s field work and published research since 2010 has led to the development of the Takso outcomes planning platform, the first public policy planning and evaluation solution, that is being further developed with partners and users in Australia and internationally.