MAW Action CEO
Mary-Anne Waldren

Mary-Anne has established herself as one of the most influential players in Australia's science-communication industry and is internationally renowned as the driving force behind three key festivals. Her business skills have earned her a swag of prestigious awards and she is one of Canberra's best connected business leaders.

Her innovative style of leadership is built on a solid foundation of business expertise and the instinctive talent she has for building partnerships, finding the right people for the job and inspiring staff, volunteers and sponsors to want to work towards a common goal.

She was born into Canberra's pioneering Cusack family and worked in the family's various retail, service-industry and primary-produce businesses every weekend and school holiday from the age of 12.

She has a commitment to lifelong learning, has completed many business courses and is finishing a Masters in Management at the Australian National University where she is maintaining a HD average.

Mary-Anne was voted most likely to become a Chief Executive Officer of an Australian Company in 1992 while she was completing an intensive Enterprise Development Institute of Australia Program. She has fulfilled this and every other promise that her peers and teachers identified in her. Mary-Anne was a finalist with Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the social and not-for-profit sector in 2002 and is a past recipient of the Telstra Business Women's Awards in the ACT.

Mary-Anne turned the Australian Science Festival into one of the world's largest science festivals. It generates more than a million dollars a year in media coverage and incorporates more than a hundred events.

Mary-Anne kick-started and drove National Science Week, the world's largest nationwide celebration of science. She forged a unique alliance with the national broadcaster, the ABC, to deliver events to millions of Australians.

She established ICAN, Canberra's festival of ideas and innovation, in 2002, and attracted to the Canberra stage pioneering entrepreneurs such as James Dyson, Julian Tertini and Ron Murray.

Mary-Anne set up MAW Action in 2006, a fee-for-service organisation that capitalises on her extraordinary storehouse of knowledge, contacts and competence in building partnerships and in creating, designing and running events and managing staff. MAW Action provides organisations with unique business development and problem-solving capabilities. As a business intermediary Mary-Anne offers a complete event-management service. Specialities include event creation, lobbying, marketing and generating media. Mary-Anne is an award-winning entrepreneur whose advice and activities continue to help small and growth businesses achieve their potentials.

Mary-Anne is the Business Development Officer for the Canberra Executive Forum, a member of the innovation task force with the Canberra Business Council, Special Advisor to the Royal Australian Mint, Executive Director of the ASF Limited, on the Advisory Council of Questacon: The National Science and Technology Centre and on the Advisory Board of Richardson O'Rourke Australia's leading business capability partner. Mary-Anne has recently accepted a position as director of the ACT Region Crime Stoppers Board and is a special advisor to e247, one of Canberra's newest start-up companies. Other clients include AIIA, the ACT Government's Business and Industry Development, Australian Ethical Investments, eWater CRC, Epicorp, Poongsan Corporation, Lend Lease and the National Capital Authority.

Mary-Anne Waldren is most comfortable when she is tackling a challenge.

Other staff:
Project managers
Media officers
Education officers
Marketing specialists
Finance manager