Tom has been the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of the ACT for twenty-two years, prior to that he was Deputy Clerk for fourteen years and has also worked in the Federal and New South Wales’ Parliaments. Tom was Regional Secretary of the Australian Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, a position he held from 2013 to 2018.

Tom has a particular interest in developing benchmarking standards for parliaments. He has delivered numerous conference papers and had articles published on this subject.

Ms Vanisha Proctor is the first appointed Clerk to Committees of the Anguilla House of Assembly. She holds over 12 years of experience within the Assembly with short stints in other departments within the Anguilla Public Service.

Educationally, Ms Proctor was awarded a Chevening Scholarship in 2019, she obtain a BSc in Management Studies (hons), with specific emphasis in Human Resource Management from the University of the West Indies and a Master’s degree in Occupational and Business Psychology from Kingston University, United Kingdom.

Ms Proctor has an extensive voluntary list. Outside of the office, she is occupied with Church and Community commitments; a Youth leader in the Church of God of Prophecy, Co-Leader of an all-Girls Community Club, Liturgical Dance Tutor and Mentor.

Additionally, Ms. Proctor enjoys dancing, travelling and experiencing new cultures. She welcomes all opportunities that will further develop her in an all-inclusive way.

Ms Naidoo hails from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, where she completed her tertiary education and commenced her legal career, as a practising attorney. She is enrolled as an Attorney of the High Court of South Africa and is currently the Secretary of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

She cut her teeth in legislative practises and constitutional law, through her work as a Legal Advisor to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature in the early years of the new democratic dispensation.  She subsequently joined the Ethekwini Municipality as the first Ombudsperson and Head of Investigations.

In 2005, Ms Naidoo was appointed to the highest administrative office in the legislative arm of government, as the first female Secretary to the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. She has served in this position for 4 consecutive terms (approximately 20 years).  She is one of 9 Secretaries leading provincial legislatures in the country and is the longest serving Secretary in the legislative sector in South Africa.

In government terms, she is the Accounting Officer or Head of Department and in private sector terms, she operates as the Chief Executive Officer of the KZN Legislature.

She ensured and facilitated the close out of 4 administrations and establishment of 5 administrations of the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, ensuring seamless transition and responding to electoral outcomes, thus contributing to constitutional democracy.

She has more than 29 years of management experience, with 24 years in executive management and 5 years in general management. She has a vast knowledge of the legislative sector environment and legislative drafting and passing of legislation.

She is credited for transforming and strengthening management structures to enhance institutional performance planning, internal controls and systems. She presided over the digitization and modernization of the KZN Legislature.
and ensured stability largely through establishing harmonious interaction between the administrative and political wings of the Legislature. She has ensured that employees grow into the management echelons and facilitated opportunities for legislature staff development within the sector, nationally and internationally.
At a sector level, she served as Secretary of the Secretaries Forum of South Africa, an association that reports to the Speakers Forum of South Africa. She also served as Treasurer and is currently the Deputy Chairperson of the Secretaries Forum. 

Internationally, she is a member of the Society of Clerks at the Table, Africa Region and of the Commonwealth and participates in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.  In this context, she has participated as part of a three member team in a benchmark assessment of the Parliament of Botswana and has also presented papers internationally on matters relevant to Parliament.

She is currently a member of the board of the Parliamentary Institute of South Africa and was a member of the UKZN Extended Learning Board.

Fathimath Niusha is the Secretary General of the People’s Majlis (Parliament of Maldives) since July 2018. She previously served as Deputy Secretary General for six years and often acted as Secretary General in the absence of her predecessor. She has wide experience in parliamentary administration and has led the Secretariat’s Parliamentary Education programmes.

Licensed to practise law in the Maldives since 2006, Ms. Niusha has worked in the parliamentary committees from 2006 until 2012. She holds a Master of Laws from the Australian National University (2008) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from the International Islamic University Malaysia (2006).

In 2025, she participated in the CPA Benchmarks Self-Assessment in Seychelles, contributing her expertise to evaluating parliamentary functioning against the CPA’s framework for democratic legislatures.