Date:     Friday 24 November 2023

Stephen Schiemer

Stephen Schiemer was member elected to the Board of Parkinson’s NSW in October 2018. He is a fitness instructor and entrepreneur who has been living with Parkinson’s for the past fifteen years.

In addition to experiencing Parkinson’s himself, Stephen runs tailored fitness programs for other people living with the disease.

Steve graduated from Charles Sturt University in 1989 with a BA in Business and held the position of Managing Director of his own lucrative business for nine years in the UK before deciding to return to Australia following his Parkinson’s diagnosis. The business required a large amount of strategic planning and dealing with large corporations.

Finance, risk and process were part of his everyday business, ensuring the business remained safeguarded and a quality-controlled organisation. His strategic planning and implementation of processes enabled  to survive and increase sales through the GFC whilst in the UK. Stakeholder management was key that led to the success of the business and is also the key to his success here in Australia since returning and running my Personal Training business, PD Boxfit.

He has a Bachelor of Business degree and 30 years of experience in running his own businesses, including finance, risk management, logistics, people management, training, and digital marketing.

Martin Ostrowski

Martin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2017 and has a long family history with the disease.   He has first-hand experience of the positive impact that education and integrated care can have on the long term outcomes for people living with Parkinson’s and their families. Martin is an active participant in several support groups enabled by Parkinson’s NSW (Belrose, Inner West and Young Onset online meetings). He is a regular speaker at the Parkinson’s NSW ‘newly diagnosed’ workshops and recently initiated a support group on Norfolk Island. He recognises the importance of peer support is committed to ensuring that people living in rural and remote areas have the same level of access to care.

Martin Ostrowski is an accomplished Marine scientist with over 20 years of experience working in the Tertiary Education sector. He has supervised more than 20 Masters by Research or Doctorate students. He is an effective and experienced educator and science communicator capable of sharing his skills and knowledge with students, colleagues and the general public. His research has been published in more than 80 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed international journals. He has highly developed advocacy and collaboration skills and is adept at coordinating regional interests for national benefit. Over the past decade he has held numerous leadership and governance roles which attest to his practical skills and experience covering the core competencies listed above.

Around the time he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Martin was the co-founder and Deputy Director of a multidisciplinary Marine Research Centre spanning five disciplines. The centre created a critical mass in marine science at Macquarie University by enabling a large population of early career researchers to share their ideas and skills and to collaborate. This bottom-up approach successfully generated momentum, innovation and recognition at the National level. Martin has served on the National Marine Science Committee representing one of three Tertiary Education Institutions invited to this peak body.

Martin has some limited experience with philanthropic funding but does have extensive experience writing proposals for competitive funding programs. During his research career Martin has secured over $3 million of funding for research from funding agencies in Australia and the UK and over $7 million to support oceanographic expeditions and national infrastructure projects. Over the past decade he has held several key governance roles and taken proactive roles in planning, implementation, quality control and delivery of projects for broad national benefit on behalf of non-Profit agencies. For example, in 2012 he co-founded and led the development a national microbial observatory. Over the past decade he has served on various working groups and committees overseeing the sustained development and delivery of the resource to a broad audience.

Martin has sustained strong links and cultivated mutual benefits with several science NFPs over the past decade, including key science infrastructure agencies (Bioplatforms Australia, the Integrated Marine Observing System and the Sydney Institute of Marine Science). On behalf of these organisations Martin has presented to national and international audiences, served in governance roles for national collaborative programs and helped the develop and implement strategies to broaden engagement in line with the values of national research infrastructure.