Belinda Allen is an accomplished executive leader with expertise in strategy development, leading large transformation projects and teams, marketing and business development, and implementing significant community sector reform. Possessing more than 20 years’
experience in for-purpose organisations spanning government, corporate and for-profit settings, she is passionate about the delivery of quality services to those that are most vulnerable in our community. Belinda is responsible for ACCPA’s Services and Sector Capacity portfolio consisting of
funded programs, member services, consultancy, learning and events, workplace relations and innovation. Prior to joining ACCPA, Belinda held the position of Director of Member Services and Marketing for National Disability Services, the peak body for disability service providers.

Janet was appointed as our inaugural Commissioner in January 2019 having held leadership positions in Commonwealth, State and Territory agencies for more than 20 years, working in the areas of health and aged care policy, strategy and planning.

After stints in the NSW Department of Health, the Commonwealth Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Commonwealth Department of Health, Janet took up the position of Deputy CEO, and then acting CEO, of the Northern Territory Department of Health. While in the Northern Territory, she led the government’s response to the Royal Commission into child protection and youth justice.

In 2009, Janet was awarded a Public Service Medal for her significant contributions to health policy development and reform – contributions she has continued to build on here at the Commission through the current program of aged care sector reforms.

The Commissioner is supported by an experienced Executive Leadership team and a diverse, highly skilled and experienced staff.

Brenda retired in 2009 after 35 years working in the corporate sector and is heavily involved volunteering with a wide range of community groups, including the LGBTIQ+ communities in Melbourne (for more than 20 years).

Claire Bailey started working in aged care in January 2020 and played an important role supporting members through COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. She has worked in employment relations since 2002 in both the public and private sectors, gaining experience in a range of industries. She has an honours degree in industrial relations and human resource management from the University of Sydney. Claire enjoys working with ACCPA members to assist them to successfully manage their workplace relations matters. She is also passionate about strategic planning and advocating on behalf of members on significant workplace issues in our sector.

Sue Blair has worked in superannuation for 10 years, joining HESTA as a Client Partnership Manager in 2019. She has an understanding of the aged care sector as her parents owned and operated an aged care home for 8 years with Sue working there prior to her studies in HR. After attending an education session on superannuation, Sue retrained and moved into the superannuation sector, to share what she considers is “need to know stuff”. Sue is passionate about helping people retire with dignity and works with employers and other members of the HESTA team to achieve this.

Danielle Campbell-Manley is a health professional with 30 years’ experience as a registered nurse, working for and with the health and aged care industry including the acute, community and residential aged care sectors.

Danielle has held senior management and leadership roles with private, not-for profit and government organisations with extensive experience consulting and representing the aged and community care providers at a state and federal level.

Danielle has had the opportunity to be a sessional lecturer and be a recipient of the June Allen Nursing Award.

She holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing), Graduate Diploma of Information Technology (Information Systems) and Graduate Certificate Business Administration.

In the role of Victorian State Manager, Danielle advocates on behalf of ACCPA members and promotes the age services industry across all stakeholders.

Geraldine Ellis-Maguire has gained extensive executive leadership experience within the professional services, recruitment, and peak body sectors. Prior to joining ACCPA, she led a Tasmanian Peak Body which successfully advocated for Tasmania to be the first state to raise the age of out-of-home care from 18-21.  Geraldine was previously a State Manager with ACSA and through this role she gained a true insight into the impacts that Members are facing and the critical role that ACCPA plays. It is for this reason that Geraldine focuses on ensuring that ACCPA delivers an exceptional member experience which can be adapted to meet the needs and feedback from members. At ACCPA, Geraldine is responsible for the Member Relations portfolio including State Managers, Member Administration, Member Advisory and Support and Communications, as well as overseeing the National and State Forums and the National Member Council. Geraldine possesses global expertise in addressing workforce shortages, workforce planning and building talented teams, which is knowledge that she looks forward to sharing with ACCPA members. 

Nikki has over 20 years’ experience in the aged and disability sector, having started her career as a disability support worker, working her way through a variety of disability, case management, aged care and senior management positions whilst undertaking tertiary and post graduate studies in Welfare and Management. Nikki is passionate about aged care service delivery, and highly motivated to be part of the design of a future aged care sector we all want to enjoy – that is high quality, inclusive, innovative, contemporary and is co-designed by current and future participants, knowing that this can only be achieved with a high quality, professional and progressive workforce.  Nikki is General Manager of Community Aged Care at genU Karingal St Laurence based out of Geelong, supporting around 2000 aged care participants within Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania across Commonwealth Home Support Program, Home Care Packages and Department of Veterans Affairs, and employing over 400 staff.

Louise has held executive positions in hospitals and aged care groups. Louise’s experience includes developing innovative approaches to service delivery and funding models, and the evaluation of service and program models.

In 2020 Louise was approached to help implement the Victorian Aged Care Taskforce in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Louise has expert skills in business analysis, strategic planning and improving business operations 

Louise’s Information Management qualifications have enabled Ideal to develop a robust suite of analytic and forecasting tools for the senior’s service sector.

Louise commenced her career as a Registered Nurse and holds a Masters of Business Administration, a Graduate Diploma in Information Management and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing).

Ingrid joined BlueCross in December 2019, and brings over 25 years of senior leadership experience across multiple industries. Her previous roles have included Chief Operations Officer within a multi-site international retail environment, in addition to senior roles in hospitality and with Telstra. More recently, Ingrid has been in a senior leadership role in the aged care sector managing several States providing in-home care and community support services. She has a strong leadership background with an ability to build high performing teams, grow businesses, develop people and lead organisations through transformational change. Ingrid holds a Bachelor of Applied Science and is a graduate of the AICD. Ingrid was appointed CEO in March 2022.

Diane Herr is a Registered Nurse with over 25 years’ experience in the aged care sector. Diane has broad and extensive knowledge and applies these skills and expertise across
both clinical and operational areas, including compliance review and management, and quality improvement. Diane includes elements of training and mentoring in consultancies
undertaken, to ensure staff are supported and have the knowledge to effectively perform their roles.

Sandra Hills joined Benetas in 2009 with career experience in local and state government and the not-for-profit sector and has qualifications spanning: nursing, psychology, research and business management. Sandra was acknowledged for her service to aged care and the advancement of women in the workplace with a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division, in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honour List. She has published works on social isolation, consumer engagement, promotion of good ageing and end-of-life experience, quality and best practice, and future reform agenda.

As a future-focused CEO, Sandra understands that she has a clear role in providing strong leadership for the company, as well as contributing her knowledge to policy development in creating sustainable aged care services across Victoria. She wants to give older people a stronger voice and feels they should be valued for their past and current contributions.

Sandra has had a number of mentors across her career but ultimately believes that ‘you are in the driver’s seat of your career. Her advice to young professionals is not to be too concerned with status but be attuned to what you are passionate about and what you are good at.

Sandra continues to work in leadership roles within the industry including her positions as a Director of Anglicare Australia, a member of the National Aged Care Alliance, a member of the ACCPA (VIC) Members Advisory Committee and a Director of the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council.

Tim joined Homestyle in January 2014 and brings with him over 12 years of health experience including 10 years within aged care. Tim previously held the role CEO of Provider Assist, a large aged care consulting service and prior to this Tim was CFO at TLC Aged Care. With over 20 years of business experience, the variety of the roles he has fulfilled include, finance – up to CFO, IT – up to CIO, Project manager, Recruitment specialist and most recently, CEO. Tim is currently a director and chairs the audit and finance committee for the Victorian Cytology Service; and was previously Treasurer of the Wattle Park Primary School.

Tané is a cancer researcher, bio-informatician, and science communicator. He is a co-founder at Future Crunch. He has a Masters in Bioinformatics from the University of Melbourne, and has worked for the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital diagnosing rare genetic diseases. He is currently completing his PhD at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, using molecular biomarkers in DNA and analysing them with artificial intelligence to improve treatments for people suffering from cancer. He’s also a former United States mountain biking champion and an avid sailor.

Geoff Kaandorp is Manager, At Risk Groups at Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) and was previously Research Manager at the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. He has worked in the emergency management sector since 2012. Geoff comes from a social science and public sector background and his interests centre on the application of research and evidence to inform emergency service policy and practice impacting people most at risk from fire in their home. Geoff has taken a leading role in developing a national strategy to reduce the number of preventable residential fire fatalities towards zero.

Linda has been Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer since September 2019. Linda has nearly 20 years of executive experience in health and aged care. Prior to joining Regis, Linda held a range of roles in hospital and health systems predominantly in Victoria, as well as a national aged care service.

Linda is currently a Board Director of Mackillop Family Services and was inaugural Chair of the Aged Care Reform Network. Linda was formerly the Chair of the Aged Care Guild, Co-Chair of the Victorian Metropolitan Hospital Chief Executive group, Chair of the North Eastern Metropolitan Integrated Cancer Service, Board Member of the Parent Infant Research Institute and Board Director of the South West Melbourne Medicare Local.

Linda has a PhD in cardiac physiology, Bachelor of Science with first class Honours, Bachelor of Arts and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is also a graduate of the Williamson Community Leadership Program, operated by Leadership Victoria.

Tony Nicholls is a dedicated Public Relations professional with 13 years’ experience telling stories in the digital and broadcast media spaces.   Tony uses his extensive journalism experience to help organizations connect with their stakeholders, clients and or target audiences.

Whether it’s an organisation under fire from the media with a difficult message to sell, or a large not-for-profit looking for a bigger slice of funding, Tony delights in creating the right story, for the right platform, at the right time.

He is a digital native, not through age but through circumstance.  Tony saw the effects and power of social media first hand as a television journalist at ABC, SBS and Network Ten.  Social has transformed the news cycle and the opinion cycle and therefore the way organization’s need to communicate to increase their profiles and strengthen their brands.

If you’re looking for a passionate, creative, hard-working in the know PR manager Tony’s the guy.  He really sets the standards at Good Talent PR.  Clients are number one and everything else is a distant last.

Paul is Chief Executive Officer at the Care Connect Group, Australia’s largest independent homecare provider operating entirely on the ‘connector model’. With 20 years international experience in private health and homecare, Paul has a strong track record in building leading health service organisations.

With the ongoing developments in Aged and Disability services, Paul and his team are focused on reinforcing the organisation’s role as an Independent Advisor and Service Connector, supporting people to build effective plans for their future, connect with the best providers in their community and ensure they’re living their life, through their choices and in their way.

Darrell has 30 years’ experience in professional services, the commercial, not for profit and public sectors in Australia. He has a strong track record in developing trusted relationships, leading strategic development, change, transformation, business optimisation and commercialisation in both external and client-side roles.

Through effective engagement and focussed facilitation processes, Darrell has led change and transformation in the Queensland Government, commercialisation and streamlining of services in aged and community care, outsourcing hospital services to the community sector, all of which required cultural and systemic change.

Jodi brings an impressive track record of leading successful business transformation to her role as Chief Executive Officer. Her extensive experience in the vocational, education and training sector includes work within TAFE institutes and state government, and consulting to a range of sectors including human services.

She served as the Deputy Director-General, Training and Employment with the Queensland Government, and then as the inaugural chief executive officer of TAFE Queensland, leading the reform and amalgamation of Queensland’s TAFE institutes to create a consolidated commercial entity.

Jodi also served as the Chair of the National Education and Foundation Skills – Industry Reference Committee (IRC) and has been a member of several national review boards and expert panels.

I have been the Head of Paediatric Emergency for the last 5 years. I have taken a new department and developed the training and education programs, as well as the model of care. I currently manage a team of senior and junior medical staff.

I work closely with the nursing team to ensure their ongoing development and growth.
We achieved accreditation for specialist training with 2 colleges, a first for a non tertiary Centre in Victoria. We have also run a successful Paediatric nursing post graduate program for the last 3 years.

In this role I have led the development of multiple Paediatric quality processes for my department and the hospital. I have overseen the growth of our resuscitation education program and continue to be actively involved with education, at a university, hospital and external level.

I am a collaborative leader that is able to use networking and lateral thinking to maximize resources.

I am committed to outstanding Paediatric care in the community.

Nicky Stitt- Victorian Statewide Voluntary Assisted Dying Care Navigator

Nicky has over 30 years’ experience as a Registered Nurse both in Australia and the UK supporting patients and their carers through end of life and life limiting situations.

She has experience in Intensive Care, Organ Donation, Palliative Care, Neuro- Palliative Care and has been a Nurse consultant with Care Navigator team for the last 18 months.

Nicky is passionate about providing choice around end-of-life care options and to advocate for the best possible holistic care for her patients. She has a strong commitment to ensure people are treated with respect, dignity, and equality.

Manish is a strategic thinker that leads him to drive forward on your behalf and believe that nothing is impossible in your financial, business and wealth journey. He loves being challenged in all areas of his work and leveraging his quick understanding of your issues to design workable solutions that deliver the results you need.

Connecting strongly with clients through building great and honest relationships, Manish excels in making a difference to their future financial wellbeing and security. He has been nominated for a number of industry awards in the accounting, wealth and SMSF areas.

Dr Nicole Sutton is a Senior Lecturer in accounting at UTS. Dr Sutton’s research interests are varied but share a common focus on delivering high-quality outcomes that influence policy and public debate on issues of high social impact, including aged care, sustainability, publicly-funded science and Indigenous rights. She has a strong track record in attracting grant income (totaling $1.05m to date), research supervision and publishing in top-tier journals. She is one of the founding members of the UTS Aging Research Collaborative and lead author of the biannual Australia’s Aged Care Sector Report. Dr Sutton is a passionate educator who has implemented a series of award-winning, research-informed, pioneering teaching innovations that have enhanced student learning. She also regularly engages with media, industry and government. Dr Sutton co-hosted the first two seasons of the podcast “Think Business Futures”, participated in the Federal Budget media lock-up and has written for The Conversation and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is currently Treasurer of Palliative Care NSW.

Gina is a Principal in Russell Kennedy’s Corporate and Commercial team, specialising in all aspects of intellectual property (IP). She acts for clients in a diverse range of industries including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), medical products, healthcare, industrial and automotive products, media, marketing, food and hospitality, property development, franchising, fashion, insurance, financial services, government and technology.

Gina assists clients to proactively manage their intangible assets and establish effective and profitable business relationships. She has a wealth of experience advising on all aspects of IP, including trade marks, designs, copyright, confidential information, domain names and consumer protection matters.

Gina works with clients to manage the full lifecycle of their IP from brand development, to forming protection strategies, to managing Australian and international portfolios, to commercialisation, strategic management, enforcement and disputes.

She has significant technical expertise in structuring a range of software and technology agreements for both acquirers and suppliers of IT services and products and has a keen interest in, and advises on, Australia’s evolving privacy and data protection landscape.

Gina regularly presents at seminars and conferences on a range of legal topics for clients and industry groups. Gina’s experience includes international experience working for a Japanese specialist IP firm and in-house, reporting to the Global IP Counsel of a leading international gaming company.

Jane is a passionate lifelong learner who has more than 30 years’ experience serving the community as a police officer. Jane is currently Detective Superintendent in charge of the Finance and Cyber Crime Division at Victoria Police. Jane’s interests include applied ethics and moral philosophy, most particularly their role in decision-making and critical thinking. She is currently completing a Master of Ethics and Legal Studies.

Jane joined the WLSV Board in April 2019.

An outstanding compassionate, inclusive and inspirational leader. I lead organisations to create dynamic people centric cultures through connections, partnerships and collaboration. My strategic initiatives and values-based philosophy enable transformation change creating well regarded organisations who deliver exceptional service. I have extensive experience in industries focused on customer service spanning across Hospitality, Retail, Health, Finance and Information Technology. I am passionate about “connections” and ensuring the right services are delivered to ensure optimal customer satisfaction. I understand challenged industries and what it takes to drive change to overcome the challenges and thrive with new initiatives. I am driven in creating dynamic service organisations through crafting strategies for exceptional performance, growth and profit. Delivering outstanding care services, in an increasingly complex and challenging environment is rewarding and motivating. My commitment and exceptional communication skills foster loyalty and confidence within organisations which deliver outstanding outcomes. I collaborate and report directly to a Board of Directors, Chair the ACCPA (Industry Peak Body Member Forum), engage with the political heads of government and network extensively with my peers and industry stakeholders. I am a champion of change in the Aged Care industry and extremely proud of the reputation and accolades associated with the exceptional organisation I lead.