Power 50: SA’s top power couples revealed
Alone, their skills, experience and natural talents make them stand out in their chosen professions, but together, they are forces to be reckoned with. Meet SA’s top power couples.
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Alone, their skills, experience and natural talents make them stand out in their chosen professions but, together, they are forces to be reckoned with.
As we continue our look at the most influential South Australians of 2021 in our Power 50 series, we highlight SA’s most powerful couples.
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham and Courtney Morcombe, chief of staff to Premier Steven Marshall
South Australia’s ultimate power couple – and acknowledged as such in late 2019 by Premier Steven Marshall. Arguably they now have, between them, the greatest influence of any husband and wife in the state’s history. As Government Senate Leader, he is part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s leadership team and, in his portfolio, holds the nation’s purse strings. Ms Morcombe is the policy and political driver of the Premier’s office. The couple’s relationship was forged through politics in 2004, when he was the ultimately unsuccessful candidate for the western suburbs seat of Hindmarsh and she, as a staffer for the-then Sturt MP Christopher Pyne, was assigned as campaign manager. Ms Morcombe’s experience includes seven years as Ernst & Young’s SA government and public sector account director, when Labor was in power, and as chief of staff to former Lord Mayor Michael Harbison. Senator Birmingham has been a cabinet minister since 2015 and previous portfolios include Education, Trade, Tourism and Investment. Political influence is precarious and both state and federal governments face voters within months, so Senator Birmingham and Ms Morcombe’s powerful positions are on the line, too.
Nova Group co-founder Jim Whalley, former chief entrepreneur, and board director Melinda O‘Leary
A former fighter jet pilot and Harvard graduate, Mr Whalley was SA’s first chief entrepreneur – an unpaid role aimed at helping people transfer innovative ideas to flourishing global businesses. He is the deputy chairman and co-founder of the Nova Group – an Adelaide-based defence firm that describes its role as providing “professional engineering and technology solutions across a variety of markets”. Mr Whalley flew more than 6000 hours on 40 aircraft as a test pilot for the RAAF before setting up Nova Defence in 2000. Former BAE Systems executive Jim McDowell quit as Premier’s Department chief in November last year to become Nova chief executive. Mr Whalley’s wife, Melinda O’Leary, also highly experienced in the defence sector, is a Nova co-founder. She has been involved in an agenda-setting Defence Department review and advises Adelaide University’s defence studies. An experienced board director, her roles include as a director of the Lifetime Support Authority, which provides treatment, care and support to car crash victims.
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Chief entrepreneur Andrew Nunn and Alexandra Dimos, executive director The Advertiser Foundation
Announced in February as Mr Whalley’s replacement as chief entrepreneur, Mr Nunn is chairman and executive director of JBS & G Australia – one of Australia’s largest privately owned environmental consulting companies. He also is director of several Australian companies spanning property development, private equity investments and entertainment opportunities. He was awarded EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Central Region in 2017. With his wife Alexandra Dimos, Mr Nunn is a co-founder and director of the Nunn Dimos Foundation, an SA-based philanthropic fund focused on key social, arts-based, educational and environmentally focused issues and charities in the state. Ms Dimos is also executive director of The Advertiser Foundation, a non-profit organisation raising money for SA charities.
UN independent expert Natasha Stott Despoja and lobbyist Ian Smith
A former Australian Democrats federal leader and trailblazer for women in politics, Ms Stott Despoja is now on the world stage. She this year started a four-year term with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Serving as an independent expert, she is the first Australian to serve on the committee in almost 30 years, after the membership of former Family Court chief justice Elizabeth Evatt, from 1984 to 1992. Ms Stott Despoja in July stepped down as chairwoman of Our Watch, which she had led since 2013. The organisation is a national leader in primary prevention of violence against women and their children. Mr Smith’s profile has diminished in recent times as he focuses on refugee advocacy chairing Barefoot for Boots, which helps people in camps. Since 2015, though, the British-born Anglophile has revelled in what might be his dream job – the United Kingdom’s honorary consul in SA.
Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas and Thomson Geer corporate lawyer Annabel West
The Labor leader is vying to lead the state at an election set for March 19 next year. Perhaps unexpectedly, Mr Malinauskas has put Labor in a highly competitive position, helped by a succession of Liberal political casualties – most recently and prominently Vickie Chapman’s ousting as deputy premier. Wife Annabel West is a partner in the corporate law team of Thomson Geer, a top-10 national law firm based in Adelaide. She was recognised as one of the Best Lawyers in Australia (2021-2022), in the areas of corporate law, private equity law and mergers and acquisitions. Her recent experience includes advising Bridgestone Australia on its acquisition of 100 per cent of the shares in national mobile mechanic services company Lube Mobile.
Sascha Meldrum, Liberal Party state director, and Chris Keane, director future business Northrop Grumman
A former journalist, Ms Meldrum is a 25-year veteran of political advisory and communication roles. She cut her teeth working for former Liberal premiers John Olsen and Rob Kerin before being principal media adviser for the-then defence minister Robert Hill in the Howard government. The Liberal state director since 2015, Ms Meldrum has brought unusual stability to the role and helped deliver three election victories – two federal and a long-awaited state win in 2018. Mr Keane also worked an adviser in the Olsen and Kerin governments, then switched to federal politics to advise the-then finance minister and SA Liberal powerbroker Nick Minchin from 2002 to 2006. Mr Keane then was an executive at Adelaide-based BAE Systems Australia for almost 16 years before joining fellow defence firm Northrop Grumman in November.
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