Honorary Members

Dr. R Wood

Dr Ronald Wood is director of Innovative Plant Technology Pty Ltd and has more than 30 years experience with all aspects of interior/exterior landscapes, in Australia, North America, Europe and Japan. He is an environmental scientist, acknowledged for pioneering research in the role of plants in the indoor environment for the reduction of air-borne volatile organic contaminants. He has advised on a number of major office buildings including the refurbishment of Grosvenor Place.

 Adj. Prof. M Burchett

Margaret Burchett has about 40 years experience as a plant scientist, with special research expertise in the use of plants, both outdoors and indoors, as indicators and remediators of pollution, in air, soil or water. Margaret is now an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science at UTS. For the last 15 years she has led the Plants and Indoor Environmental Quality group, researching the benefits of indoor plants to building occupants.  She sees collaboration with the industry as a vital part of keeping the research not only scientifically interesting but also of relevance to the industry and to community health.  She is also a member of the UTS interfaculty Centre for Environmental Sustainability, for which she was Chairperson in 2009.

Adj. Prof. Mark Thomson

Mark Thomson, an Ecological Architect and Adjunct Professor of the QUT School of Design, who has recently been reappointed as President of the Australian Green Development Forum and is the Corporate Sustainability Principal for Schiavello.

John Daly

John has over 30 years horticultural industry experience.  He studied horticulture at UQ Agricultural College at Gatton, and landscape architecture at QUT.  John worked for Scotts Australia for 11 years in various managerial roles, covering Queensland, Northern NSW, Northern Territory and Pacific Islands.

Previously, over ten years, John was first Superintendent, then Parks District Manager for Brisbane City Parks and Recreation. His role was, in over 80 parks, to oversee maintenance, capital works and floral displays and he was responsible for the refurbishment of various plant collections in parks such as New Farm Park, Newstead and Brisbane City Botanic Gardens.

John has presented garden programmes with ABC and 4BC radio; TV programs such as Creek to Coast Ch 7, and more recently a TV commercial on Ch 10, encouraging water wise practices.  He is a regular garden judge, writes for newspapers and garden magazines and has spoken at various garden expos and garden groups. John consults on water wise gardening, horticultural techniques, plant nutrition, retail market trends, and broad-acre horticulture.

He has been actively involved, and held executive positions with HMA (foundation member), NGIQ, Derm, CLH – Centre Lifestyle Horticulture, export committee and water management groups, MAIH, MPLA – Parks and Leisure Australia, IPA – Indoor Plantscape Association, QROC – Qld Reuse Organics Corp.