Our Executive Directors
Esther Anatolitis, Co-Chair
Esther Anatolitis is one of Australia’s leading advocates for the arts and active civic engagement. She is Adjunct Industry Professor at RMIT, teaches Cultural Policy & Practice at NIDA, and serves the Governing Council of the National Museum of Australia. Her strategic consultancy Test Pattern works across Australia on civic and cultural strategy, policy and precincts. For over twenty years Esther has led creative and media organisations and served many boards and policy committees as a bipartisan appointee. Esther’s commitment to an Australian republic dates back to the 1999 referendum where her grassroots campaign work included moderating a raucous artists’ debate at Parramatta Rd’s long-lost Side On jazz bar. More recently she’s been a member of the ARM’s Victorian Branch Council. While leading regional and national peak bodies, Esther designed and presented Australia’s first comprehensive advocacy training programs for the arts and cultural sector, supporting thousands in first-time and ongoing civic engagement. Her writing has long focused on the foundations of Australian democracy and the need for an Australian head of state, and she’s a frequent commentator on national politics and culture. Esther is the author of Place, Practice, Politics (2021), editor of Meanjin (2022-2025) and Essays that Changed Australia (2024), and her latest book When Australia Became a Republic was published in 2025.
Patrick McGorry AO, Co-Chair
Executive Director of Orygen and Australian of the Year 2010, Patrick is the architect of a 35-year paradigm shift in mental health care, from late-stage treatment of established illness to prevention, early intervention, and analysing the social and economic megatrends driving the youth mental health crisis. Patrick established Orygen in 2001 as the translational medical research vehicle for that paradigm shift, affiliated with the University of Melbourne. Orygen has since evolved into a unique ecosystem comprising clinical care, clinical research, education, and knowledge translation, digital mental health, global mental health, and a policy centre. The models of care he and his colleagues have conceived and designed including early intervention for psychosis, headspace, and new specialised youth mental health platforms, have been successfully scaled across Australia and many other countries. In 2016, he was the first psychiatrist to be elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Beyond this Patrick played a key role in establishing the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, supporting asylum seekers and refugees, and a grassroots activist organisation, Australians for Mental Health. He is also a Director of Ausflag. From 2019-2025, during a period of transition and growth, he was President of Australia’s oldest Irish-Australian Society, the Celtic Club of Melbourne. Patrick has previously served on the ARM National Committee and gave the National Republican Lecture in 2010.
Yasmin Poole, Vice Chair
Yasmin Poole seeks to challenge policymakers to think differently. Her vision is for Australia to become a global leader in intersectional policymaking, with a Parliament that truly reflects the diversity of our communities. She is Plan International's National Ambassador, advocating for young women to be heard in Australian politics. She regularly provides commentary on Australian TV and radio, such as Q+A, The Drum, and ABC News. Yasmin is the Non-Executive Board Director of OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food waste charity, and previously worked on gender equality campaigns for the World Bank in the Pacific region. In 2021, Yasmin was recognised as the Martin Luther King Jr Center’s Youth Influencer of the Year. She is studying a Master of Public Policy and holds a Master in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.
Isaac McSwan, Treasurer & Secretary
Isaac McSwan is a partner of one of Brisbane's fastest growing accounting firms, and director of a large accounting offshoring entity based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Isaac brings a vast range of financial experience from his dealing within the overseas offshoring industry as well as within the work he does advising businesses within Australia.
Isaac has always been passionate about an Australian republic, believing Australia is already well overdue to step forward and lead with its own Head of State.
Adam Spencer, General Committee Member
Breakfast radio host, science communicator, television comedian, Australia’s best known mathematician, Adam has worn many hats.
But at his heart, he believes in the power of thought and conversation. As such he strongly believes that if we really think about it, and talk about it, Australia will want to take the step of appointing its own, home grown, Head of State.
Nathan Hansford, General Committee Member
Nathan is a management consultant with experience advising governments and corporates across Australia, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Pacific and Europe.
The experience of having faciliated republic movement supporter groups in Asia prompted Nathan to reconnect with the Australian Republic Movement at a state and national level when he relocated back to Australia.
“We are a multi-cultural country, with tens of thousands of years of Indigenous heritage and custodianship, where equality and independence are core to our sense of us, yet we are still represented by a foreign monarch from a foreign land. I want nothing more than for my Korean-Australian daughters to be able to aspire to the highest representative position in Australia, our Head of State.”
“If you want to be involved in the ACT please find me on the Australian Republic Supporters Facebook Group and connect so we can work together to make an Australian Head of State a reality!”
