Fitness Industry Advisory Board

Bill Robertson

Bill has had successful careers in two separate industries. As a swimming coach during the 1970's and 1980's he coached a large number of Australian champions, Australian Swim Team members and Olympians. Bill was also a coach on the Australian Swim Team during the 1980's and was named NSW and Australian Swim Coach of the year on three occasions. Bill entered the fitness industry in 1975, as the owner of Deakin Health Spa in Canberra. Bill owned and managed this club until 1995, when he launched the Les Mills Group Fitness System into Australia and is still the owner of Les Mills Asia Pacific. Bill’s contributions to the fitness industry were acknowledged in 2006, when he was awarded the Lifetime Contribution Award.

David Allan

David Allan – a Human Movement graduate – is currently the Operations Director for Fitness First Australia. David's diverse experience in the fitness industry at both a national and international level gives him a unique understanding of the business of fitness. Having been actively involved as an owner operator, educator and most recently extensive involvement in the larger corporate space have shaped this result. His pragmatic approach combined with a strong entrepreneurial streak is the driving factor behind the success of his 20 plus year career to date.

Justin Tamsett

Justin Tamsett reduces the health care costs of Australia. He coaches high performance teams and leaders with innovative, ambitious and even adventurous strategies to help them lead a life full of fun, free time & friendships! And has an aim to take the bull s^*@ out of the 'work-life balance,' so that you are a person people want to hang around or be part of your team. Remember, when we were growing up in the 80's and Aussie was a land of opportunity? But with an aging & fattening population (increasing again from 08 to 09), our fractured health care will be smashed! He wants to make unfit people active; unhealthy people healthy; and overweight people slimmer. Achieving these 3 goals will save us over $2B by 2025 and allow his daughter to grow up in a country full of opportunity too! After 20 years in the fitness industry and helping club owners & personal trainers run their businesses better - more efficiently, it is time to really achieve some K-A goals. The time has come to link your good health to being part of a high performance Team.

Susan Kingsmill

Susan Kingsmill has owned and operated her own business since the age of twenty. She opened Rentex , a rental information business in Melbourne in 1974. Rentex was an international franchise chain and a pioneer in the retail of information. She was at the time the only female, the only Australian and the only franchise holder under the age of twenty-one from more than one hundred franchises worldwide. In 1981 she joined her Mother and Step Father opening Hiscoes Squash and Fitness centre. They were presented with a trifecta of challenges; a totally borrowed building, double-digit interest rates and no knowledge or experience in operating squash or fitness. Several decades later Hiscoes is a well-respected local institution and local landmark. In 2001 she joined Fitness NSW as a board member, by 2002 was Vice-President and in 2003 became President of Fitness NSW. In 2004 she joined the Fitness Australia interim board as Director and in 2004 was elected President of Fitness Australia, a position she still holds today. During her time as President she has presided over the adoption of the 2005 constitution, Fitness Australia Inc, 12 months without CEO or other executive staff, the unification of the federated association into Fitness Australia Limited and the challenges by the international record companies known as Operation M.U.S.I.C. In 2006 she established the International Confederation of the Registers of Exercise Professionals, an international association that promotes fitness professional standards worldwide and was the inaugural President for 2007 and 2008. She is the 2009 Fitness Network Lifetime Achiever recipient and the recipient of the 2009 Fitness Australia Outstanding Contribution to the Industry.

Nigel Champion

Nigel Champion is the co-founder and Managing Director of Australian Fitness Network – a company that provides resources, education and conventions to its 12000 members comprising owner/operators, personal trainers and group exercise instructors. Nigel has served on the Boards of the Australian Institute of Fitness, Fitness Australia, Australian Coaching Council, Australian Council for Health Physical Education and Recreation and Squash Australia. He currently serves on the Board of Les Mills international.

Dr Garry Egger

Dr Garry Egger MPH, PhD is the author of thirty books (including 5 texts), over one hundred scientific articles and numerous popular media articles on lifestyle medicine, epidemiology, health and fitness. Dr Egger spent ten years as a Research Scientist in the NSW Health Department before becoming the principal of Australia’s first health promotion consultancy in Sydney. In this capacity he was instrumental in setting up the Australian Fitness Accreditation Council and Fitness Leader training program in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia and acted as a health promotion consultant to Government and Industry in Australia and Asia. Dr Egger is currently also an Adjunct Professor in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University, and has adjunct Professorships at Newcastle and Southern Cross University. In 1991, Dr Egger established the GutBuster program, the first ‘waist loss’ program of its type, in conjunction with the NSW Health Department’s Hunter Region in Newcastle. As part of the program, a best selling book (the ‘GutBuster Waist Loss Guide for Men’) was written by Dr Egger with nutritionist Rosemary Stanton. This was modified to become ‘Professor Trim’s Medically Supervised Weight Loss Programs’ for men in 2005. Dr Egger was also a member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's Committee on the Prevention of Obesity and was the principle consultant in the development of the National Physical activity Guidelines for All Australians for the Commonwealth Department of Health and Human Services. He also wrote the guidelines in physical activity for Asia and the South Pacific for the WHO and the National Clinical Guidelines for Obesity and Overweight for the NH&MRC. Dr Egger is a consultant in obesity for the World Health Organisation and has developed programs in obesity in the Torres Strait, Fiji, Nauru and Tonga. He appears regularly in the media, runs training programs for doctors in Lifestyle Medicine around Australia and Asia and presents on health at corporate functions.