Veronica Bainton

Veronica Bainton is a Non-Resident Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and an experienced executive with 15 years’ organisational, people leadership, strategy development and execution, project management, stakeholder management, governance and compliance experience in Mining, Defence and Space industries. She is an MBA-qualified Lawyer having worked with diverse organisations, in Australia and internationally, to deliver solutions to complex multi-stakeholder problems.

Veronica is a member of the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) Space Industry Policy Working Group and sits on the NSW Space Research Network (SRN) Board. Previously, she was a Non-Executive Director at SIAA, including Deputy Chair (2023-24), member of the SIAA Nominations, Performance and Remuneration Committee and Constitutional Reform Committee, as well as Chair of the SIAA Audit and Risk Committee. She Chaired SRN (2024–25) and was a Non-Executive Director on the iLAuNCH Advisory Board (Australia’s $200M+ Space Trailblazer) in 2024–2026.

Veronica’s areas of specialisation are space, national workforce development (end-to-end workforce pipeline), international partnerships and collaboration, innovation, R&D, dual-use technologies, and commercialisation, with a focus on uplifting Australian sovereign space capability.

Prior to founding OUREL Advisory, Veronica worked at Optus as Satellite Director of Governance and Industry Engagement, and has held a number of senior positions at Raytheon Australia and Newcrest Mining (now Newmont). Veronica has also worked for the University of Queensland and at UN Global Compact, with broad professional and research interests in corporate social responsibility, community development and advancement of First Nations.