Lieutenant Colonel Schurmann is the J6 Communications and Information Systems (CIS) Officer within the Headquarters 1st (Australian) Division, responsible for network planning in support of divisional operations. Throughout his career he has fulfilled a range of appointments at unit, brigade and divisional headquarters, and staff appointments in network modernization roles. He has recently returned as the Australian Army Liaison Officer to the United States Army Network Cross Functional Team, where he was responsible for supporting bilateral information sharing and collaboration in network modernization and interoperability.

Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Lusher grew up in the Hunter region, New South Wales. He attended the University of Newcastle before joining the Royal Military College and graduating into the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. Lieutenant Colonel Lusher has had a diverse range of appointments throughout his career ranging from command, staff and joint, to coalition roles. His career has included communications roles within logistics, training, armoured battle group (BG), brigade, joint and coalition operations. Lieutenant Colonel Lusher has served on multiple tours including: Iraq as the BG S6, Middle East Region as the Operations Officer for the Gulf State Signal Squadron and to Afghanistan to establish communications for the coalition task unit. Most recently, he was the J6 for Joint Task Force 633 covering communication across the Middle East and the Australian LO to the US Joint Task Force - Crisis Response, in support of the Afghanistan NEO. Academically, Lieutenant Colonel Lusher hold a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Newcastle. He is a graduate from the Australian Command and Staff College, attaining a Master of Military Studies from the Australian National University, and attained a Master of Cyber Security Operations from the University of New South Wales. Lieutenant Colonel Lusher’s awards include the Army Combat Badge and a United States Meritorious Service Medal during his tenure as the Chief, Counter IED (EW) at the US Joint IED Defeat Organisation. He has a keen interest in surfing and snowboarding and has two children. Lieutenant Colonel Lusher is the current G6 of the 2nd Australian Division and the J6 of Joint Task Force 629