Board of Directors

Chairman

Professor Glyn Davis AC is a public policy specialist, Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne, and Visiting Professor in the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Professor Davis recently completed a term as Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. He previously held leadership roles in the tertiary and philanthropic sectors, including as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 2005 to 2018. Professor Davis has long been engaged in the arts, including the boards of the Queensland and Melbourne Theatre companies. He was Chair of Opera Australia from November 2021 to September 2022.

Warren  is currently a Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. He was Vice Chancellor of the University of Adelaide 2012–2017 and before that Deputy Vice Chancellor (University Affairs) at the University of Melbourne.

Prior to his time in university management, Warren had a long career in music, as Dean of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music for 17 years, before that Head of Music at the University of Queensland for 6 years, and he taught at the ANU School of Music. He won  a ACTL Citation for “30 years of outstanding teaching in music” (2008), his publications include the  Oxford Companion to Australian Music, and he was for 10 years the music member of the International Advisory Board of Encyclopaedia Britannica. He studied musicology and conducting in New York as a Fulbright Scholar, and remains a Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, University of Melbourne.

Warren is also Chair of the Board of Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, Chair of the fine arts college LCI Melbourne, and Chair of the autism peak body Amaze Inc.

Greta Bradman is a registered psychologist, founder, writer, ABC broadcaster, recording and performing artist.

As a practising psychologist Greta specialises in anxiety disorders as well as high performance and values coaching in the arts and business. Maintaining her connection with classical music, at ABC Classic Greta presents Weekend Brunch and Mindful Music.

Prior to stepping back from singing at the end of 2019, Greta released four No.1 solo albums; two with Sony Music and two with Universal Music (Decca), as well as contributing to various other albums. Aria nominated, she was Limelight Magazine’s Australian Artist of the Year in 2015 and was the 2013 winner of the Australian International Opera Award, enabling her to further her singing studies in the UK. Greta has appeared as a principal soprano for Opera Australia and other opera companies as well as countless ensembles and orchestras across Australia and the UK, EU, and USA.

Greta is a Trustee at Arts Centre Melbourne and chairs the People Committee and sits on the Audit and Risk Committee. She is a board member of the Bradman Foundation. Prior governance roles include being a member of the Federal Government’s Creative Economy Taskforce during Covid-19, a board member of the Alfred Foundation and Australian Mental Health Prize, and advisor for the Arts Wellbeing Collective. Qualifications include MBA (Melbourne Business School, prize winner); MPsych(Clinical); PsychHons 1A(dux); GAICD; MAPS; ANAM Fellowship; GradDip(voice); BMus(voice).

Warwick Bray guides infrastructure investors and companies across Asia Pacific and Europe to address the economics and infrastructure implications of 5G, capital allocation and improvement to ROIC, and create value though cost and customer service transformation for both operators and infrastructure owners. His work has resulted in several innovation and organisational award wins across Asia Pacific, Europe and globally. He has previously held Board positions at CSL (HK) and GSMA’s strategy committee, as well as Chairman of the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association and Foxtel’s Audit and Risk Committee. He currently is a Board member of the Audit and Risk Committee at Spark NZ.

Previously Warwick was CFO of Telstra and Group MD and Head of Telstra Mobile. He led company-wide customer service and cost transformation and created mobile broadband and Asia’s leading “Internet of Things” businesses. As a McKinsey partner in the 1990s, Warwick provided operational and strategic assistance, to second operators, integrated telecommunications companies, energy companies, and institutional and private equity funds, for the introduction of 2G in Europe. As a securities analyst in Europe in the 2000s Warwick valued integrated and cellular telecommunications companies. He was also MD and Global Telecoms Sector Leader at JPMorgan and DrKW London.

Michelle Kam is a Strategy Consulting Partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in the Strategy& division, leading Australia’s Katzenbach Centre, a global PwC specialist organisation that focuses on culture, leadership and change. With a Ph.D in Cognitive Psychology (UNSW) and as a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Michelle provides strategic advice to many ASX listed companies to navigate the increasingly complex global environment and transformational change through creating agility, focus and mobilisation of employees and valuing diversity so people thrive. She works across a variety of sectors including financial services, telecommunications, mining, media, not-for-profit and the public sector. She also supported PwC’s CEO to develop the firm’s growth and Future of Work strategies and the firm’s stance on anti-racism.

She is passionate about the arts and education. She served as a Non-Executive Director at Shaun Parker and Company over 2016 - 2018, and is a current member of the Alumni Council for the University of Sydney.

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Simon is a highly experienced, CPA-qualified finance and commercial executive. At Opera Australia, he leads the national company’s finance, governance, legal, IT and property development functions and teams. He is currently serving as acting CEO.

Prior to joining OA in 2022, Simon was Executive Director of Development and Commercial at Platino Properties. For more than 20 years he worked for Lend Lease, where he was appointed Executive Head of Development in 2015. Simon is a former Chair of the University of New South Wales’ Designing supportive housing communities series and a number of the projects he has led have been recognised with industry awards. Simon is passionate about the arts and their role in society. Simon is a classically trained baritone, having studied for seven years with D’oyle Carte Baritone Eric Thornton. Simon has performed lead roles in several productions and has sung at Carnegie Hall, New York.

Incoming Chief Executive Officer

Alex Budd is a senior arts executive with more than two decades of experience across opera, dance, commercial musical theatre and cultural leadership. Early in his career Alex he was a founding member of Canberra’s chamber opera company, Stopera. In 2019 he was appointed Director of Canberra Theatre Centre, returning to lead the organisation where his professional journey began. In this role, he has overseen significant growth in audiences and commercial outcomes, strengthened the Centre’s artistic profile and national partnerships, and progressed the vision and planning for a new 2,000-seat lyric theatre in the nation’s capital.

In November 2025, Alex returns to Opera Australia as CEO to lead the organisation where he has spent more than half his career, including ten years based in the Melbourne Opera Centre. From 2000-2019 Alex worked in the roles of Tour Manager and then Manager of OzOpera; founding Director of the Enterprises division; General Manager Melbourne and Enterprises, and Executive Producer, Touring and Commercial. In this role, he led Opera Australia’s national and schools’ opera touring programs; commercial musical theatre; outdoor performances in The Domain and Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and produced 16 New Year’s Eve Galas at the Sydney Opera House alongside major tours of South Pacific, The King & I, Anything Goes, My Fair Lady, Evita, and West Side Story.

In addition to Alex’s international work in the US, UK and Europe with Opera Australia, his experience abroad includes a year with London’s Royal Opera House managing the Paul Hamlyn Performances, and earlier, international touring with Sydney Dance Company taking Graeme Murphy’s acclaimed works across Europe, and the Americas. Alex served for seven years on the Federal Government’s Playing Australia Committee and currently serves on the Executive Council of the Association of Asia Pacific Performing Arts Centres. He is a former Executive Councillor and current Observer on the Executive Council of Live Performance Australia.

Incoming Music Director

Born in Verona in 1987, Andrea Battistoni is widely recognised as one of the most dynamic and internationally acclaimed conductors of his generation. His career took off in the mid-2000s, following early musical studies in cello and composition, and quickly led to debuts with major opera houses and orchestras worldwide. A breakthrough came in 2010 at the Verdi Festival in Parma with Attila, where his dramatic flair and musical insight earned both critical and public acclaim. In 2012, at just 24, he became the youngest conductor in the history of Teatro alla Scala, Milan, debuting with Le Nozze di Figaro and soon after leading the Filarmonica della Scala in symphonic repertoire.

Battistoni has conducted in many of the world’s leading venues, including Deutsche Oper Berlin, Mariinsky Theatre St. Petersburg, Palau de les Arts Valencia, Semperoper Dresden, Royal Opera Stockholm, Sydney Opera House, Teatro San Carlo Naples, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Teatro Regio Turin, Arena di Verona, and the Opéra Bastille in Paris. His operatic repertoire spans Verdi, Puccini, Rossini, Mozart, and beyond, with acclaimed productions such as Otello, Rigoletto, Aida, Carmen, Macbeth, Tosca, La Bohème, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Turandot.

On the symphonic stage, he has appeared with prestigious orchestras including the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Israel Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Tokyo Philharmonic. He has held prominent posts as First Guest Conductor of Teatro Regio di Parma (2010–2013), Principal Conductor of Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa (2013–2019), and since January 2025, Music Director of Teatro Regio in Turin, one of Italy’s most prestigious opera houses.

Director of Development

Rebecca was appointed Development Director in August 2024, joining Opera Australia from the Washington National Opera (WNO), based at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she served as Chief Development Officer since 2018.  She leads the strategic direction of the development team and stewards the company’s generous benefactors and corporate partners with a keen eye toward building further support for the celebrated artform.

Rebecca helped raise more than $10 million annually for the WNO through the strategic expansion of the development team’s functions and size, leading to a steady growth of its donor base. With close to two decades of expertise, Rebecca has successfully raised gifts for various performing arts organisations with a focus on opera companies and regional theatre, including the Milwaukee Repertory Theater and Skylight Music Theater. Rebecca has a Bachelor of Arts in Theater from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and Opera America.

Director of Marketing and Communications

Simon is a senior leader in the arts and entertainment industry, with over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and audience development across Australia and the UK. At Opera Australia, he leads the marketing, communications, sales, ticketing and tourism functions, shaping the company’s audience growth strategy and brand positioning. His approach is anchored in three guiding principles: put the customer at the centre of every decision, harness data and insight to drive strategy, and bring creative ideas to life to deliver exceptional results.

Simon returned to Australia to join Opera Australia in 2022, following his role as Director of Marketing, Sales and Partnerships at Andrew Lloyd Webber’s LW Theatres in London, where he oversaw six iconic venues including the London Palladium and Theatre Royal Drury Lane. He previously served as Managing Director of Ticket Machine Group under the Ambassador Theatre Group, and has delivered campaigns and audience growth strategies for West End productions and leading cultural institutions such as the V&A Museum, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, National Theatre, Barbican Theatre, Royal Opera House and English National Opera.