Leadership

With more than 20 years' experience of working with vulnerable communities in the humanitarian and emergency service sector, Leisa Bourne has provided strong leadership in times of natural disaster and critical incidents.

She has led multiple teams in responding to high levels of crisis and ensures the focus is always on individuals, families and communities. Leisa has extensive networks and is able to bring people together to drive the best outcomes in times of crisis to ensure sustainable and long term impacts.

Leisa holds qualifications in early childhood and public safety and brings a wealth of executive level experience and an applied knowledge to the organisation. Leisa has responsibility for over 250 staff and thousands of volunteers in Queensland who delivers more than 50 services across regional, rural and remote Queensland.

She is considered a thought leader amongst her peers and is highly regarded not only for her wealth of knowledge but her approachable style and ability to lead her team in ways that are inspiring and inclusive.

Jody Broun has vast experience in program administration and community engagement at the state and national levels, holding a number of senior executive roles throughout her career.

Jody began her career as a teacher at Clontarf Aboriginal College in WA and subsequently held the position of Executive Director Aboriginal Housing and Infrastructure within the Government of Western Australia. She was later appointed Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment for Western Australia and then moved to New South Wales to take up the position of Deputy Director General of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs (NSW), and nine months later was appointed as Director General. She worked at the Department of Aboriginal Affairs for a seven year period ending in 2010.

Through all of these roles, Jody was responsible for delivering community and state-wide policy and programs, and was involved in national policy reforms and negotiating national and state agreements on behalf of government. Most recently Jody also completed a two year term as the inaugural elected female Co-Chairperson of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples.

Jody holds a Diploma of Teaching, Bachelor of Education and a Master of Philosophy. She is also an artist and has exhibited nationally and internationally. In 1998 she won the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and in 2005 the Canberra Art Award.

Linda Crumlin has been Director WA since March 2017, having undertaken the acting role on many occasions. Linda has been with Red Cross for more than 10 years first as the Senior Manager for Community Services and over the past four years as the Group Manager WA.

Linda brings a diverse background prior to moving to Australia including in health care marketing and promotion, training and nursing.

Linda has worked with many NFPs, including British Red Cross, as a Business Consultant and also holds Registered Nursing and Midwifery qualifications, a Master of Business Administration, is a Fellow of Leadership WA and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mark Groote brings a wealth of experience having worked in senior roles in local, state and Commonwealth government, and the non-government sector. Mark's recent role as State Manager in the Commonwealth Department of Employment saw him responsible for South Australian employment services, support for workers experiencing structural change, labour market analysis, and local oversight of the national customer service line.

He has also worked in senior roles in the South Australian Government in Fire and Emergency Management, Volunteer Strategy Management and Social Housing including Aboriginal Housing.

Mark was also the National Director of the Australian Government's School Chaplaincy and Student Welfare Program. Mark holds a Bachelor of Social Work and is completing an Executive Masters in Public Administration.

Wenda Donaldson comes to Red Cross with a strong background in policy development and program management at national and state levels at senior executive levels, people and team development and voluntary service. Wenda holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Psychology and Graduate Certificate in Career Counselling.

Wenda began her working life as a career counsellor working with young athletes on scholarship at the Victorian Institute of Sport where she soon progressed to the position of National Manager Australian Institute of Sport. During this time she also supported the establishment of this program overseas in both the UK and New Zealand

. She then moved into the field of community sport where she established and led the national Active After-School Communities Program. This involved employing over 200 staff to work throughout Australia with some 3,000 communities to establish this long-standing, now award winning national program that has used sport to gain strong community participation and improved educational engagement and outcomes.

Wenda was most recently employed with the Department of Education were she held a number of senior executive roles and was also a recipient of the Secretary's Award of Excellence for her outstanding work in staff and team development.

Veronica Frost joined Red Cross in 2009 and has held several senior management positions throughout her tenure, including Business Services Manager and Head of IT Operations, before being appointed to Chief Information Officer in May 2014.

Veronica has 20 years' experience in Information Technology and a long track record of leading the transformation of technology functions in diverse and complex organisations.

Before joining Red Cross, she held development and digital roles at NineMSN and Pretzel Logic, Senior Business Analyst and then Head of IT at Rusty Surfboards. Veronica is an avid traveller, holds a Graduate Certificate in Business and Technology (UNSW) and is currently completing her Masters of Business and Technology (UNSW).

She was recognised for her outstanding ability to drive transformational change by being named one of the top 50 CIO's in Australia from IDG communications in 2016. Veronica's motivation for joining Red Cross resonates in her passion for the role of technology in transforming the delivery and improving the effectiveness of essential humanitarian services.

Leanne Joyce brings a wealth of experience in government affairs and communications across the not-for-profit, government, and corporate sectors. Her experience is supplemented by my qualifications in journalism, public policy, and business administration.

Her corporate and government experience includes senior executive roles with Telstra, NSW State Government, and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade).

Leanne was Executive Director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) in the 1990’s during a transformative time in health policy. She remains committed to social justice and to humanitarian issues.

Prior to joining Australian Red Cross, Leanne worked with Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) - an international non-profit foundation created to develop new, affordable antimalarial drugs - as well as the Digital Industry Group, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the Asia Pacific Business Coalition on AIDS, and the Australian Primary Principals' Association. 

Andy Kenyon has a 30 year career which spans a diverse range of themes and locales, including water management, Australian Indigenous land use and management, international development, monitoring and evaluation, program quality management and organisational change management and leadership.

He has lived and worked across Indigenous Australia, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. Prior to employment with Red Cross Andy worked for Indigenous Australian organisations, for non-governmental organisations and as a consultant providing monitoring and evaluation services and training. While working for the Central Land Council in Alice Springs, his highlights included participating in a Social Impact Assessment of the Alice Springs to Darwin Railway and membership of the team, working on behalf to traditional owners, negotiating compensation for loss of Native Title resulting from the construction of the railway.

While working as an employee of Oxfam Australia he was involved in the management of major disaster responses in Sudan, northern Kenya, Somaliland, the Pacific and the Asian tsunami. Andy also led a major change process, devolving significant areas of management out of Head Office to country offices.

As a consultant Andy worked with AusAID, Australian Red Cross, Oxfam Australia, Ngaanyatjarra Council and the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara land management team. He was involved in developing Close the Gap Local Implementation Plans for FAHCSIA on Mornington Island and at Doomadgee in Queensland.

He also worked with AusAID Disaster Management staff to develop performance assessment frameworks for the Disaster Management strategy and for the PNG Disaster Risk Management Program.

His expertise was also beneficial to the Victorian government departments in the natural resource sector, where he provided training and evaluation services, and with the Department of Sustainability and Environment to undertake an evaluation of that Department's and Park Victoria's 2009 bushfire recovery program.

Since joining Red Cross four years ago and prior to working back in the NT, Andy supported processes of continuous improvement for the International Programs Department and, to a lesser extent, in Australian Services.

Barbara Livesey is a highly experienced former CEO and senior executive within the Australian Public Service. Her career spans the corporate, not-for-profit and public sector and she enjoys connecting people across all sectors to achieve positive social change.

In her role, she engages with federal parliamentarians of all political persuasions to influence and advocate for public policy that reflects humanitarian values. She also collaborates with others on government funding opportunities and research activities that will support our five year strategy.

Barbara is a former CEO of Reconciliation Australia and was part of the movement to engage the Australian public to support a National Apology to the Stolen Generations. She also introduced the highly successful Reconciliation Action Plan program and the Reconciliation Barometer.

She began her working life in the NSW Government before moving to Canberra to work at the former Department of Social Security. She then joined the Minister for Social Security's office as a senior adviser and spent 3 years with two ministers before moving to the Treasurer's office where she advised on the Budget and social policy issues. Barbara went on to spend a decade in senior roles in the credit union industry, consulting and finally at Reconciliation Australia.
Barbara re-joined the public service in 2009 in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations before spending a couple of years living and volunteering in the Solomon Islands. She has also held various community sector Board positions and is a qualified Executive Coach -she loves to support people in their career development.

She joined Australian Red Cross because the Fundamental Principles strongly resonated with her and she was keen to work again on humanitarian issues and make a difference.

Bruce Moore joined Red Cross in February 2009 as General Counsel, having been a Partner at the Australian-based international law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons), working primarily in industrial relations and employment law and commercial dispute resolution. He served as Chair of the firm's Melbourne Pro Bono Committee and as Head of its Workplace and Employee Relations team.

His career has also seen him work as a lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Monash University (in contract law and employment law), and Special Counsel at Maddocks Lawyers; while he has contributed his skills to the public good through board member positions at the Public Interest Law Clearing House Victoria (now Justice Connect) and the Human Rights Law Centre, as well as providing legal advice to individuals and organisations on a pro bono basis.

Bruce holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Monash University. He is recognised as an Australian Legal Practitioner and is a member of several professional associations, including the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Australian Corporate Lawyers Association, Charity Law Association of Australia and New Zealand, Australian Labour Law Association, and Law Institute of Victoria. He has also undertaken a residential leadership program with INSEAD.

Mali Hawkins has been the Director of Tasmania since December 2017 and has worked with Red Cross since 2011. She joined our community programs team in New South Wales firstly managing the community health and wellbeing programs, then working as social enterprise projects manager. Mali was our Community Services Manager for NSW/ACT from February 2016 to December 2017.

Currently completing a Masters in not-for-profit and social enterprise management at University of Technology Sydney, Mali holds qualifications in not-for-profit management, marketing and communications.

She has 10 plus years’ experience in community services and has held positions in management, program coordination and youth work. Prior to moving the not-for-profit sector Mali worked in media account management.