Our Team
Executive Council
President
Vice President
National Councillors
Captain Ken Blackband
Mobile: 0429 057 615
Captain Brent Middleton
Brent started his maritime career in 1998 on small commercial vessels before gaining a cadetship with ASP Ship Management and has been an AMOU member since gaining his 2nd Mate’s ticket in 2002. After 5 years in the Bluewater, he had the opportunity to join the RV Southern Surveyor and gain some great hands on experience. After a few years with P&O Maritime he transitioned to the Offshore where he worked with several companies on a variety of different ships such as ROV, survey, construction and AHTS where he have been sailing as Master since 2012.
Brent’s role as one of the National Delegates, sees him assisting and overseeing a variety of different areas of the union’s operation to help ensure that the member’s interests are served to the best of the Union’s abilities. He is sincerely dedicated to the continued improvement and progression of our Union and communication and cooperation at all levels between the Union and the membership is vital to this progression and something he works hard to achieve for the members at every opportunity.
Brent says, ‘With our industry in it’s current situation which has been so hard on so many, now is the time more than ever, that we need to stand up together and be counted. We have the qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience necessary to safely and efficiently service our homeland coastline and with an active Union that is moving forward with active members. We must all work hard and stand united to ensure Australian Officers are seen by all as the professional seafarers we are’.
Mobile: 0428 409 936
Email: brent.middleton@amou.com.au
Captain Brent Hills
Mobile:
Email: brenth@amou.com.au
Captain John McDonald
Mobile: 0418 948 887
Email: johnmac@amou.com.au
Pilotage Industry Delegate
Captain Benjamin Miers
Mobile: 0409141122
Email: bandkmiers@icloud.com
Offshore Energy Industry Delegate
Position Vacant
Seagoing Delegate
Position Vacant
Towage Delegate
Position Vacant
Port Authority Industry Delegate
Private Port Services Industry Delegate
Position Vacant
Ferries and Tourism Industry Delegate
Ian Hughes
Mobile:
Email: hughes.ian01@gmail.com
Staff
Executive Officer
Jarrod Moran
Executive Officer
Jarrod joined the AMOU in 2014 after more than 6 years with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) where he was the Senior OHS and Workers Compensation Officer. Previous to the ACTU Jarrod was employed at the Victorian Trades Hall Council as the Workers Compensation Officer. Jarrod started his union career at the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance where he worked as an Industrial Officer from 1996-2000. In 1997 he was part of the ACTU Organising Works program.
Jarrod has a wide range of union experience, from representing individual members in grievance matters to whole of movement representation in Federal Government forums.
Jarrod has qualifications in Civil Engineering, Unionism, Community Development and Management.
On 1 April 2024, Jarrod was appointed to the position of Executive Officer. He replaces Mark Davis who officially retires on 15 October 2024.
Mobile: 0417 316 370
Email: jarrod@amou.com.au
Mark Davis
Outgoing Executive Officer
Mark put himself through a law degree in New Zealand working seasonally in the heavily unionised abattoir industry. This working environment and his fondness for industrial law led to his first trade union job as Assistant Secretary of the NZ Merchant Service Guild. The Guild is the NZ equivalent to the AMOU.
After 10 years of doing everything associated with a national trade union operation, in 1995 Mark accepted a secondment to the International Transport Workers’ Federation’s newly relocated Asia/Pacific Regional Office in Tokyo. In 1998 he returned to NZ to coordinate the ITF’s seafarer union development program until 2010 – having a hand in the creation of new maritime unions in Malaysia, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka and Turkey and overseeing reform in unions in Indonesia, Philippines, Russia and Ukraine. He returned to a regional role as ITF Asia/Pacific Deputy Regional Secretary until 2016, having particularly supported the Pacific Island unions, organising airport workers and Thai fisheries workers and assisting in the establishment of the Independent Federation of Myanmar Seafarers.
Mark started his role as AMOU Executive Officer full-time from March 2017. He says, ‘Long term sustainability for the union is the priority and the President, Executive Council and I all share the need to increase direct and visible engagement with the membership and to reinforce the fact that we are a membership driven union that responds to the needs of its members’.
He follows on to say, ‘We do not dictate what the members need. We must provide economies in expenditure but a balance must be struck between meeting the members’ needs and setting a pathway to sustainability. We must increase our union density and take members with us into a new era.
‘We need to deepen our relationship domestically with AIMPE to cooperate openly and use our synergies to good economic effect. We also need to build our relationship trans-Tasman with the Guild and globally with the Nautilus family of unions particularly when it comes to jointly campaigning and using these global connections to develop blue water jobs for members.’
Mark believes the unity of purpose campaigning brings to a union needs to be escalated as well as particularly promoting our industry and our members as a workforce to the exclusion of competitors and aligning us more with tax regimes that apply to officers internationally.
Mark officially retires on 15 October 2024. Until then he will assist behind the scenes on an ad hoc basis.
Mobile: 0437 099 886
Email: mark@amou.com.au
Brisbane Industrial Staff
Tracey Ellis
Industrial Officer
Tracey Ellis has been a member of the AMOU since becoming a Coxswain in 2009 while working for Brisbane Ferries. She went on to complete her Master Class IV and MED III and drove Brisbane City Council’s fleet of CityCats for about seven years.
Before Brisbane Ferries, she worked as Leading Hand Dining on Captain Cook Cruise’s M.V. Reef Endeavour which operated between Cape York and Port Hinchinbrook.
While travelling overseas, Tracey had a little bit of day work on Super Yachts in the US. She also worked as a waitress and loading car decks aboard M.V. Kaitaki, a 180m ROPAX vessel in New Zealand.
Tracey became an AMOU Delegate at Brisbane Ferries in 2013 and participated in two EBA negotiations before resigning her role as a CityCat Master and becoming an AMOU Organiser. Since joining the AMOU, she completed a Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the Queensland Supreme Court as a Lawyer. She now works as an Industrial Officer for the AMOU.
Mobile: 0427 204 738
Email: tracey@amou.com.au
Chris Claydon
Industrial Officer
Chris Claydon commenced work as an AMOU Organiser in 2022. He was promoted to Industrial Officer in early 2024 after he completed a Bachelor of Laws and was admitted to the Queensland Supreme Court as a Lawyer.
Mobile: 0473 620 071
Email: c.claydon@amou.com.au
Sydney Industrial & Administration Staff
Martin McEvilly
Industrial Officer
Marty has been with the AMOU as an Industrial Officer since September 2018. Although he grew up in Sydney, he was born in Galway and returned to Ireland in his late teens. It was there that he obtained degrees in Sociology & Politics, and in Law. Marty came back to Sydney in the early 2010’s seeking better work opportunities, which he found in the banking industry. He worked for several financial institutions in dispute resolution and compliance roles, before getting the chance to join the AMOU. He brings his expertise in navigating complex issues and achieving meaningful results to the AMOU and takes pride in always striving to improve the working conditions of AMOU members. Marty is excited to continue learning about the maritime industry and contribute to its success.
Outside of work, Marty plays football (soccer) and golf, both to a very low standard.
Mobile: 0427 068 153
Email: martin@amou.com.au
Liz Jenkins
Officer Manager
Phone: 0409352712
Email: liz@amou.com.au
Melbourne Senior Industrial Officers
Chris Neiberding
Industrial Officer
Chris started organising with the Student Union while studying at Western Sydney University. The issues being tackled then was lack of funding, course cuts, overcrowded classes and the then Howard Government’s attempt to abolish student unions nationally, which was defeated. In 2008, Chris joined the Finance Sector Union of Australia were he organised and worked on campaigns around wages, jobs going overseas, and personal security of members in banks.
Chris was also a delegate for the FSU on the ‘Your Rights At Work’ campaign which is now said to be the most significant political campaign mounted by a non-party political group in Australian history and was a big reason for the Libs losing the 2008 election.
In 2012, Chris joined the AMOU as an industrial Officer and has worked extensively over half of Australia representing Tug Masters in Darwin, to Pilots in Hobart and everything in between.
Chris says, ‘I’m proud to work for a union with over a 100 years of history in representing maritime workers in Australia , but most of all proud to work with so many dedicated AMOU delegates without whom this job could not be done’.
Mobile: 0407 912 932
Email: chris@amou.com.au
Fremantle Industrial Staff
Glenn Walsh
Industrial Officer
Glenn currently works as an Industrial Officer in our Fremantle office.
Mobile: 0438 408 901
Email: g.walsh@amou.com.au
Donna Shepherdson
Industrial Officer
Donna commenced work as an Industrial officer with the AMOU on 1 May 2024. Prior to that she has bee a union member for her entire working life and a delegate in both the public sector and tertiary education sector. After moving to Perth from Qld in 1992, she studied Biomedical Science and then got a job at Curtin University, moving to Murdoch University after a few years. Donna worked in a variety of roles, in labs, student services and facilities management areas. From being a delegate at Murdoch, she made the move to an Organiser position with the CPSU/CSA where she was assigned schools as my portfolio and travelled the state.
After 2 years, Donna moved to the National Tertiary Education Union, initially as an Industrial Organiser and then as Senior State Organiser. Her experience encompassed both industrial and organising work, managing the team as well as developing and delivering delegate training and information sessions to members and prospective members so they understood their rights and entitlements in the workplace. Donna then spent a year employed on a contract basis at Edith Cowan University to assist in bargaining, with some follow up developing implementation plans once the Agreement was approved.
Mobile: 0499 566 635
Email: donna@amou.com.au