The Executive team is accountable for delivering our strategic outcomes and ensuring that we are operationally and financially healthy and sustainable.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Executive team provides high-level advice on key strategic and operational matters, and assists in implementing the decisions of the Board in a timely, coordinated and cooperative manner.

Penny Harrison | Interim CEO

Penny Harrison

With over 22 years’ experience in executive and leadership roles in the humanitarian sector Penny is known for being curious, gathering insights from futures trends and applying those in ways that delivers strategic innovation.

Drawing from her breadth of experience in Australia and internationally, along with good doses of passion and optimism, Penny strives to build collaborations across sectors including academic, business and not for profit with individuals and communities knowing that this is what it takes to effect system and social change. Penny is currently leading a social impact team delivering initiatives that remove barriers to volunteering and taking action for good, harnessing the transformational power of frontier technologies, and building collaborations and connections across communities to support them act on and solve social issues they care about.

Penny re-joined Australian Red Cross in 2015 initially as Director, Victoria after over 8 years at Oxfam Australia where she was responsible for programs across Africa, the Pacific, South and East Asia, humanitarian responses and global transformation initiatives. Prior to that Penny held several leadership positions in Australian Red Cross’ International Department and before then spent many years working with Medecins sans Frontiers, including Country Directorships in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Penny has Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) both from Monash University and is an alumni of Leadership Victoria’s Williamson Community Leadership Program.

Executive team

Lloyd Doddridge

In his professional life, Lloyd has worked in many complex organisations experiencing change in their environments and helping make them successful at what they do. Starting out at the ATO in Adelaide, he performed various senior taxpayer facing roles during a period of great change in our tax system. He then moved on to spend several years in Chartered Accounting practice joining SA Brewing Holdings corporate finance team gaining exposure to a variety of manufacturing industries before being appointed as Finance Director in Europe for Penfolds Wine Group.

Returning from Europe to Melbourne he transitioned ultimately to Nexteer Automotive where an initial role as CFO of Australia later became that of CEO of Asia Pacific. Living and working largely out of Shanghai, China Lloyd oversaw the growth of the business from $20m million turnover to $1b across a region that included China, India and greater Asia. He then spent time in the Media and Communications sector with Dentsu Aegis.

A Chartered Accountant and member of the Institute of Company directors, he holds a B.A. in Accounting from Uni SA, an MBA in International Management from RMIT and a Graduate Diploma in Financial Strategy from Oxford University.

Jason is the Chief Funding Officer at Australian Red Cross, where he leads the revenue generation, strategy and operations for the Funding organisation. In his role Jason is responsible for corporate partnerships, philanthropic partnerships, government engagement, fundraising, our first aid and mental health training organisation, and our retail network over 165+ stores.

Jason is deeply passionate about growing and developing world-class, dynamic and highly effective teams who are motivated by making a significant impact to their customers and community. Jason believes that leadership is fundamentally about helping teams discover their true potential while building trust and transparency with all around them. Core to his leadership approach is being a diversity champion and a purpose-driven leader, recognised as one of the Australian "Outstanding 50 LGBTI Leaders".

Outside of Australian Red Cross, Jason is the Chair Person for Swinburne Workforce Initiative at Swinburne University of Technology, a role in which he provides strategic advice, expertise and experience relating to engaging industry and the future of the New Workforce.

Prior to joining Australian Red Cross, Jason had over 25 years of leadership experience in the software and services industry, with a proven track record of driving high growth businesses across the Asia Pacific and Australia/New Zealand markets, working with leading companies such as LinkedIn, IBM, Microsoft, and Qualtrics.

Jenny brings over 30 years' experience working within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander portfolios at national and state levels. She has also worked within Human Rights and international relations, tertiary education, housing, disability, aged care, women and youth. Jenny shares, "With all the knowledge I have gathered through the years, I still feel that what is most important for me is to have the living experience of being an Aboriginal person. My leadership style is based on wisdom handed down to me by my ancestors."

Jenny joined Australian Red Cross in December 2015 and is pivotal to the reconciliation focus. She heads up the First Nations Strategy & Impact portfolio and leads the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Leadership Team. She has made significant and positive change for the teams she leads, communities she supports, and the many First Nations employees, volunteers and members she touches through her humility and ongoing advocacy work.

Jenny works to ensure that the Humanitarian movement is culturally safe and inclusive and that much-needed cultural healing is grounded in strategy, policy, practice and program design, having a strong focus on place-based systems, people change, innovation and community-based solutions. In 2021/22, Jenny was critical in forming a trusted partnership between Australian Red Cross and The Healing Foundation, initially to support the work to enable Australian Red Cross to become more inclusive and a place where all Red Cross people feel respected, valued and culturally safe.

Jenny is a strong advocate and influencer internally and externally to Australian Red Cross. Her work has been recognised externally on many occasions, including most recently as a finalist in Leadership HQ's 2022 Outstanding Leadership Awards, which celebrate courageous, authentic and inclusive leadership.

Alex Mathieson

Alex Mathieson has worked in the humanitarian and development sectors for over 30 years. He started in the sector after volunteering in an Oxfam op shop in London for Oxfam while at university. From that humbling experience, he went on to spend 10 years working on humanitarian crisis around the world including Central Africa, Albania, Macedonia, Palestinian Territories, India, Philippines and across the Asia Pacific region.

With extensive experience in humanitarian crisis driven by conflict, natural disasters and climate change, Alex moved to Australia in 2003 with his young family and worked in numerous roles with Oxfam Australia, including Regional Manager Asia, Programs Director and Country Director in Vanuatu. In 2018, he became Head of Change for Oxfam International, leading the transformation of Oxfam’s organisational model globally.

Alex is passionate about collaboration as a way to increase collective impact. He uses his facilitation skills to support people, communities and organisations define their own strategies, change power dynamics, and lead their own agendas. He joined Australian Red Cross in January 2022 and is incredibly excited to be part of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement.

Jai O'Toole

Jai joined Australian Red Cross in January 2013 and is currently the South Australian Director for Australian Red Cross, responsible for leading Red Cross operations across the State. He has a strong focus on business development, building key partnerships and establishing high performing teams.

Jai has previously held a range of Senior Leadership roles including:

State Manager – Migration, Emergencies & Service Development and focussed on how to support communities to be better prepared for, respond to, and recover from emergency events; supporting refugees, asylum seekers and people who are vulnerable as a result of migration; and overseeing new service development and quality initiatives to improve outcomes for Red Cross clients.

Program Manager – Hazards within the Department of Environment, Water and Natural resources responsible for overseeing the department’s whole of government response to Flood and Riverbank Collapse and working on drought impacts along the Lower River Murray.

Jai also spent seven years in the private sector working in wine industry focussed on leading strategic research projects aimed at improving wine style and quality, production efficiencies and achieving a competitive advantage.

Jai has a Bachelor of Medical Science and Honours Degree in Science from Flinders University.

In his spare time you will normally find Jai either camping, fishing or travelling with his family, or coaching junior football and soccer teams through his local sporting clubs.

Yvette leads the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Department at Australian Red Cross, having first joined the organisation in 2011. She also serves as the Chair of Australia’s National IHL Committee and in 2021 was appointed as a member of the Editorial Board of the International Review of the Red Cross.

Yvette has held the positions of Secretary and Chair of the Asia Pacific National Society Legal Adviser’s Network and has also been the ad-interim common law legal adviser for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. Prior to joining the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, Yvette worked as an Adjunct Teaching Fellow in the Bond University Law Faculty and as a commercial litigation lawyer in Melbourne. 

She holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of International Relations, a Masters in International and Community Development and has also undertaken IHL instruction through the International Institute for IHL and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Yvette is dedicated to achieving systems-level change by creating an enabling environment for diverse, talented people to thrive.

Danielle has over 20 years of experience at the executive team level. She has led the People and Culture function at organisations including genU, the Royal Children’s Hospital, Box Hill Institute, the MFB (Metropolitan Fire Brigade), the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Australian Unity and Energy Australia.

Danielle has also led the broader corporate services functions in several organisations.

Danielle has had a strong track record of improving organisational performance through employee engagement, clear and focused people strategies and business process improvement. She has a personal vision to help people flourish in organisations and consequently the communities they serve.

Danielle holds a Master’s Degree in Human Resources/Industrial Relations and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Industrial Relations from the University of Western Australia. She also holds a Company Directors Diploma from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

This page was updated 12 December 2023.

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