Our Board

LISA SIGANTO

Chair

Lisa is a Queensland-based experienced non-executive director who commenced her first board role in the 1990s with her family’s air-conditioning contracting and service business.  Her experience has been in strategy, finance and social innovation. She has been a consulting partner at Deloitte and the Queensland Director for Social Ventures Australia which supported over 80 social enterprises in Qld. Her current mission is to create social and environmental impact through attracting impact investment funding to scale for-purpose businesses.

FIONA JOSE

Executive Director

Fiona Jose is the Group CEO of Cape York Partnership, an Indigenous organisation driving a comprehensive reform agenda improving the lives of Indigenous families in the Cape York region.

Fiona oversees 10 entities and businesses under the Cape York Partnership including the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, two schools anchored in Indigenous culture, the Cape York Leaders Program, and Bama Services, a landscape and construction company.  She joined Cape York Partnership in 2010 where she held senior management positions following more than 15 years of experience in management, business development, and government relations in aviation and education.  Fiona is one of eight First Nations leaders driving structural change through the national Empowered Communities initiative. She is a Council Member of the National Museum of Australia, has been awarded the For Purpose and Social Enterprise Award at the Queensland Telstra Business Women’s Awards, and named Queensland Not-for-profit Manager of the Year by Australian Institute of Management.

NEIL SCALES OBE

Non-Executive Director

After 40-plus years of experience in the public, private and manufacturing sectors, Neil is now semi-retired and has shifted his focus to consultation and advising boards on all matters engineering, transport, leadership, and change management.

He is passionate about life-long learning, First Nations issues, and mentoring others and aims to continue to contribute in these areas.

Neil is also currently on the High-Speed Rail Authority as a board member. He is also currently the Deputy Chair of the Australian Road Research Board and a board member of the Tourism and Transport Forum, Police Citizens Youth Clubs (PCYC) Queensland and the Queensland Transport and Logistics Council. Before semi-retirement, Neil was Director-General of the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) Queensland for over a decade, where he proudly championed accessibility, safety, and domestic and family violence awareness. He was also the Government Champion for the Woorabinda Indigenous community – a role he was deeply passionate about.

Before moving to Australia, Neil was one of the United Kingdom’s most senior public transport executives. He was Chief Executive and Director-General of Merseytravel, the transport authority for Merseyside in the north of England.

Audrey Deemal

Non-Executive Director

Audrey is a Dhirrtharr Warra woman from Hope Vale and a leader amongst her peers. Audrey started with CYP in 2011 as Opportunity Hub Manager in Hope Vale where she was responsible for 10 team members. Audrey is very passionate about what Cape York Agenda is and what it’s doing to bring back community pride, community integrity and self-worth amongst her family and community members. Prior to being appointed to her current position, Audrey was Manager of Opportunity Products and then Cape Operations Manager. In 2023 Audrey was selected as a Westpac Social Change Fellow.