The Historic Houses Trust is governed by a group of nine Trustees appointed by the Governor of New South Wales on the recommendation of the government. They are generally appointed for a term of three years and can serve three terms.

Michael Rose (Trust Chairman) is the Chief Executive Partner of international law firm, Allens Arthur Robinson.  Before becoming Chief Executive Partner, Michael practised as a commercial litigator in Australia, the United States and Hong Kong.  Michael is the Chairman of ChildFund Australia and a board member of the ChildFund International Alliance.  ChildFund is an international aid and development organisation that supports children and their communities in 55 developing countries. Michael is also a member of the Education, Skills and Innovation and the Indigenous Engagement Task Forces of the Business Council of Australia. Michael lives in Sydney with his wife Jo D'Antonio and their three children. Michael was appointed as a Trustee in July 2010 and his current term expires on 31 December 2012.

Keith Cottier AM has had a distinguished career as an architect and is a partner in the architectural practice of Allen Jack + Cottier. He was awarded the RAIA Gold medal in 2001. Keith has been a Commissioner of the Australian Heritage Commission (1986-93), Member of the Heritage Council of NSW (1993-96) and a Member of the Sydney Cove Authority (1985-95). His current term expires on 31 December 2012.

Bruce Hambrett LLM Bruce Hambrett is  a practising lawyer, the chairman of  Baker & McKenzie, Australia and a former General Counsel of SingTel Optus  Pty  Limited. He is  also  a director of the Pacific Opera Company Limited and a former chair of the Media and Communications Law Committee, Busin ess Law Section, with the Law Council of Australia. He was appointed as a Trustee on 1 January 2006 and his current term expires on 31 December 2011.

Associate Professor Grace Karskens teaches Australian history at the University of New South Wales. She has worked in history, heritage and historical archaeology for the past 30 years and has held a number of Australian Research Council grants. Grace has published extensively and internationally in Australian colonial and convict history, urban and environmental history and historical archaeology. Her books include Inside The Rocks: the archaeology of a neighbourhood and the multi-award winning The Rocks: life in early Sydney. She is interested in promoting historical understanding and awareness to wide audiences and is currently on the boards of the Dictionary of Sydney, the National Museum of Australia’s reCollections journal and a number of other international scholarly journals. Her latest book, The colony: a history of early Sydney, was released by Allen & Unwin in 2009. Grace was appointed as a Trustee on 1 January 2008.

Peter Tonkin graduated as an architect with first class honours from the University of Sydney in 1977. He joined Brian Zulaikha in 1987 to form Tonkin Zulaikha Greer (TZG) Architects, known for its strong urban design. TZG's projects include a specialist library for the Royal Blind Society, which won a merit award in 1991 from the RAIA; the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, winner of two RAIA awards; the National Memorial to the Australian Vietnam Forces; and the Tomb of an Unknown Australian Soldier in Canberra. TZG also worked on the refurbishment of Customs House; the multi-award winning solar-powered Plaza Lighting Towers for the Sydney Olympics; and, in collaboration with artist Janet Laurence, the Australian War Memorial in London. Peter has taught architecture and lectured extensively in Australia and New Zealand. He has been widely published. He was appointed a Trustee on 1 January 2005.

Martyn Mitchell has over 25 years experience in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as an auditor and business advisor. He has held a number of roles with PwC in this period including leading the Australian firm's practice in Technology, Information, Communication and Entertainment for 10 years. He currently acts as the Asia-Pacific leader for PwC's Technology, Information, Communication and Entertainment practice, as well as Asian Engagement leader for the Australian practice. During his career he has played significant roles in sale of the State Bank of NSW and working on the initial privatisation of Telstra. On the latter account, he managed the Sydney based audits of Telstra for a five year period. He also leads PwC's team in respect to the privatisation of the NSW TAB and the listing of OzEmail on NASDAQ. Martyn was appointed as a Trustee on 1 January 2005 and his current term expires December 2012.

Carol Liston BA (Hons), PhD, FRAHS is Associate Professor in History at the University of Western Sydney (UWS). She holds a PhD from the University of Sydney. Her research covers early colonial history in New South Wales, with interests in people (convict, colonial born and free immigrant), local history, heritage and the built environment. Her particular interest is the colonial development of the County of Cumberland. Carol’s current projects include researching and writing histories of Liverpool and its heritage places, such as Collingwood House. A continuing research interest is women in the convict period. She continues to research the Female Orphan School at Parramatta, now a campus of UWS. Carol was appointed as a Trustee in January 2009 and her current term expires on 31 December 2011.

Roderick Simpson is a principal of Simpson + Wilson Architecture + Urban Design, with interests in urban renewal and regeneration, ecologically sustainable design and strategic urban design. His interest in cultural uses for many of the redundant industrial sites around the harbour led to work with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust where he was manager of urban design, and contributions to HHT’s Harbourings exhibition at Museum of Sydney. Since co-authoring Greenpeace’s Strategy for a Sustainable Sydney in 1992 he has applied and developed many of the ESD principles outlined in that initial work to planning at local and city scales.  Most recently he led the urban design of the Sustainable Sydney 2030 Strategy for the City of Sydney.

Craig Allchin is an architect and urban designer who has worked on the city across a range of scales. In the 1990’s he lived in the Melbourne city centre and worked with Six Degrees Architects on projects ranging from small bars to the revitalisation of the Walter Burley Griffin designed Capitol Theatre. He then moved to Sydney and spent four years travelling to China working on district and city master plans, and since 2004 has worked on the Sydney Metropolitan Strategy, a 25 year plan to manage growth and change across all of metropolitan Sydney.  Craig remains a director of Six Degrees with whom he has recently completed The Fine Grain, a detailed study into ways to revitalise the Sydney City Centre.