Administration

Adrian Pilton - President:

In his professional life Adrian was an architect and landscape architect, originally as a director of Denton Corker Marshall and since 2000 as a founding partner of Johnson Pilton Walker. Some of the important projects that he has worked on include the National Portrait Gallery and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, the Australian embassies in Beijing and Tokyo, Governor Phillip Tower and Westpac Place in Sydney, Olympic Plaza and Olympic Boulevard at the 2000 Games in Sydney and, his last job before he retired, Barangaroo Headland Park.

He has been National President of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and President of Sydney Rotary Club. He has four grandchildren and enjoys music, writing and cooking.

John Rawson - Vice President:

John has an MSc (Sydney) and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard. His career was in business-to-business consulting and line marketing in England, Singapore and Sydney. The last 30+ years were with a boutique consultancy, Polymex Consultants. He retains a strong interest in development aid having served on the board of Plan International. He now works about 2.5 days a week as a financial counsellor with Lifeline. He has a wife and 7 young grandchildren and is very interested in environmental issues.

John Doherty - Honorary Secretary:

John is a Chartered Engineer and CPA.

He has business experience in Iron & Steel (BHP) and Coal Mining and Marketing (Coalcliff, Wambo, BP Australia, Clutha), is a coal mine owner and operator, farmer and grazier, and developer of mineral comminution and magnetic separation equipment.

Widower – three children, seven grandchildren

Joined Sydney Probus 2014

John Carter - Social Events:

John was a Consultant Endocrinologist & a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney. Postgraduate studies were undertaken at the Garvan Institute in Sydney & the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He had appointments at Concord, Hornsby and Sydney Adventist Hospitals from 1977-2015. He was President of the Australian Diabetes Society from 1992-1994 & from 1996-2004, was Chairman of the Commonwealth Ministerial Advisory Committee on Diabetes & a member of the National Diabetes Strategy Group & was awarded an AO for services to diabetes & endocrinology in 2000.

Currently, he is a Director of Sunnyfield and Chairman of the Cromehurst Foundation with each organisation providing services for intellectually disabled people.

He is married to Merren & has 4 children & 3 grandchildren & plays golf & tennis on a regular basis.

Bill Cheshire - Webmaster:

After graduating from London University in 1965 Bill joined Beecham Research, UK, (Development of novel antibiotics, part of team that discovered Augmentin). 1970 Joined Wellcome UK then transferred to Wellcome New Zealand (veterinary vaccine R&D). 1975 Returned to UK with Hoechst Animal Health (Animal vaccine R&D). 1981 joined ICI-Tasman New Zealand (Bacterial Vaccine R&D). 1998 R&D Dept closed down so retrained and joined NZ Department of Statistics as computer programmer. 2006, moved to Australia as R&D Manager Fort Dodge Animal Health, Australia (Veterinary products R&D). Retired 2012. Interests: photography, walking group, gardening, painting, swimming. Volunteer at Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney (Plant Pathology Laboratories). I have a daughter, two granddaughters, two great grandsons and one great granddaughter, all in the South Island of New Zealand.

Ian Lansdown - Treasurer:

Ian has qualifications in Economics from Sydney University and Accounting with an MBA from the AGSM. He is a Founder Partner of the Business Leader Development Group and The Executive Connection dedicated to development of business leaders in Australasia.

He worked with Citicorp in New York and served as a Director of Catalyst Investment Managers in Sydney and with Catalyst’s affiliates in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Current interests include the work of The Centre for Independent Studies, the Institute for Public Affairs and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. Ian is married to Tricia Bell and they travel widely. He has two children and four grandchildren all in Sydney.

Peter Nochar - Membership:

Peter Nochar was employed in the Automobile and Motorcycle Industries. He joined BMW (GB) 1982. In 1990, he purchased a BMW dealership in Winchester, expanding it into one of the top 20 sites in the UK.

In 1994 he re-joined BMW and went to Saudi Arabia then to BMW Japan as Operations Director.

In 1997 he became President of Volkswagen Group Japan and in 2001 he was transferred as MD of Volkswagen Australia.

He joined Harley Davidson as MD in 2008. During this period the Company set new records for sales, as well as for customer, dealer and employee satisfaction.

Peter spent 19 years at CSR in sugar, insulation and coal including 8 years in London. He then established an office in Australia for British Steel to facilitate purchasing of coking coal for Britain, Netherlands and India and also a company which audits loading of coal, grain, wood pellets etc for overseas buyers. He semi-retired in 2018. Peter played a lot of cricket at a high level, but now enjoys golf, theatre, music together with his wife Robin, 2 daughters and granddaughter. He has travelled to almost 100 countries, including about half of them for work.

David was a lawyer in private practise in Sydney in a number of major legal firms and specialised in Employment Law and law relating to registered clubs.

He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queensland University and a Masters of Law from Sydney University.

David is a widower and has three children and three grandchildren and will re-marry in June 2019.

His interests are in travel, golf, fishing and reading.

Robert Warburton - Club Services:

Robert was raised and educated in Goulburn NSW. At 16 years of age he was recruited into the Royal Australian Navy as a Junior Recruit, completing his training at HMAS Leeuwin in Fremantle West Australia. He spent 24 years with the Navy with several sea and shore postings throughout Australia and overseas before retiring in 1991.

In April 1991 Robert started employment at The Union Club Sydney. During his employ with the Union Club he filled several rolls including F&B Supervisor, Assistant F&B Manager, Assistant House Manager, House Manager, F&B Manager and Floor Manager. In April 2014 and after 24 years with The Club Robert resigned to catch up with some travel and to assist with the administration of his Son’s business. Robert has 2 sons and 4 grandchildren.

Tony Andrew - Newsletter Editor:

Tony was a GP in the Cremorne Area for 35 years. Previously he worked at Roche Pharmaceuticals and completed an MBA at UNSW. With two other GPs he founded an accreditation organisation for assessing general practice against national standards and consequently has visited approximately 800 general practices throughout Australia. He has five daughters and nine grandchildren and enjoys travel with his partner, Lynne Hurley and reading. He joined Sydney Probus in 2013