The Ballarat Health Services Board of Directors is appointed by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of the Minister for Health. The Board is responsible for setting the strategic directions of Ballarat Health Services within the framework of government policy.
Chair
Rowena Coutts
LLB BJuris Director since 2013 Term of appointment: 01/07/2016 - 30/06/2019
Rowena has been a member of Board of Directors since December 2013, and was appointed Interim Chair in March 2016 and Chair in July 2016.
Rowena currently consults to organisations providing governance, legal and policy advice and she is a partner in the family primary production business. She is a current and past board member of a number of Foundations, responsible for the distribution of funds supporting education.
Rowena is a former Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Ballarat/Federation University Australia, retiring in 2014, with responsibility for Corporate Services including Finance, Legal, Governance, HR, Technology Park, Commercial, International Education and PR. In addition, she served as Secretary to the University Council from 1996-2014. She is also a former Chair and member of Board of Directors, Ballarat Clarendon College. Rowena commenced her career as a lawyer.
Rowena has over 10 years experience in senior executive management, 20 years experience in public sector governance, 28 years as a practicing lawyer and 18 years of community service to (school) education.
Andrew McPherson
BPhty MBA Director since 2018 Term of appointment: 01/07/2018 - 30/06/2021
Andrew was appointed to the Ballarat Health Services Board of Directors in July 2018.
Andrew McPherson is a consultant to health care organizations, providing strategic planning, business planning, leadership training, tender writing and mentoring services, and is a current board director of UFS Dispensaries.
His qualifications include a physiotherapy degree from La Trobe University, and an MBA from New Mexico State University. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Andrew’s first appointment as a physiotherapist was with Nhill Hospital, now West Wimmera Health Service. Andrew then worked in the U.S. for 11 years, firstly as director of the Edward White Rehabilitation Centre in St. Petersburg Florida, then as manager of two physiotherapy businesses on behalf of Healthsouth Corporation. He was the director of a multi-disciplinary outpatient centre and the coordinator of inpatient services at Rio Vista Rehabilitation Hospital in El Paso, Texas. After returning to Australia in 2005 he became CEO of the Ballarat and District Division of General Practice until June 2012, at which time he became the inaugural CEO of the Grampians Medicare Local. In 2015 he established Brooksbank Associates, and is its principal consultant and Director.
Andrew is Chair of the Primary Care and Population Health Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Finance Committee and the newly established People and Culture Committee.
Simon Bond
GradCertTech GradDipInfoTech MACS CP MAICD Director since 2017 Term of appointment: 01/07/2017 – 30/06/2020
Simon is a Director and Founder of Geoactive IT, an Australian based software and geographic information systems services provider. Simon specialises in software development, geographic information systems and security. Simon began his career in the Royal Australian Navy. His innate talent for solving challenging problems has turned into a successful career outside of defence. Simon now has over 15 year experience in providing Information Communications Technology products and services to the utility and defence industry in Australia. This has been across numerous technology disciplines and professional levels. Most recently this has been as a Director of Geoactive IT - a startup that he co-founded whose primary aim is to streamline business operations through smart, cost effective technology solutions. In this role Simon has been able to make lasting contributions to businesses by improving their value proposition with cost-effective information communication systems.
Simon has always been a big believer in serving the community. Be that as a member of the Australian Defence force, volunteering in the Australian Volunteer Coastguard or volunteering his time and money to charities such as Heart Kids Australia.
Simon’s skills involve strategic planning, building effective team, relationship management and the management of effective technology solutions though their ongoing life-cycle.
Kirby Clark
BCom CA FAIDC Director since 2016
Term of appointment: 01/07/2016 - 30/06/2019
Kirby was appointed to the Board of Ballarat Health in July 2016 and is chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Quality and Board Executive committees. Kirby previously served on the Board of Eastern Health for nine years and was chair the Audit and Risk Committee and was a member of the Finance and the Planning Strategy and HR Committees.
Kirby is a director of Newcastle Airport as well as being on the advisory boards of Infradebt Pty Ltd and Knight Mattingly Coffee Roasters. Kirby was Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer at Melbourne and Launceston Airport for more than 14 years. Kirby was also a senior executive at Victorian Planation Corporation and Toronto Dominion Australia Ltd and was spent seven years with Price Waterhouse in Canada and Australia.
Kirby has an honours degree in Commerce and Finance from the University of Toronto and is a member of both the Australian and Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants as well as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Kirby has strong strategic planning, financial and governance skills as well as a depth of general management experience.
David Miller
DipCmmtyStud Director since 2015 Term of appointment: 01/07/2018 - 30/06/2021
David Miller is a retired public servant and long term resident of Ballarat. He studied politics and sociology at the Ballarat College of Advanced Education (now Federation University Australia) and urban studies at Swinburne Institute in Melbourne.
David was employed as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of Steve Bracks, the former Premier of Victoria. Prior to this he worked for 10 years for the City of Ballarat, initially as Director of Economic Development, then subsequently as General Manager, City and Cultural Development. Earlier in his career he was employed as a Business Development Officer with the Ballarat Regional Board for Planning and Development, an Employment Projects Officer with the Victorian Department of Labour and as an Electorate Officer for a Federal Member of Parliament.
David has recently been appointed an inaugural member of the State Government’s Central Highlands Regional Partnership that aims to develop new ways for regional and rural Victorians to engage with government. He is also a member of the Grampians Regional Development Australia (RDA) Committee that advises the Federal Government on regional development issues and funding opportunities. He is also Vice-President of the Biennale of Australian Art.
His other local involvement includes membership of the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Association, the Ballarat Arts Foundation and the Ballarat Old Colonists’ Club. He and his wife Julie, a retired primary school principal, have two adult sons.
Professor Penelope Paliadelis
RN BNurs MNurs(Hons) PhD (UNE), MACN Director since 2017 Term of appointment: 01/07/2017 – 30/06/2020
Penny Paliadelis has recently retired from her role as Professor and Executive Dean, Faculty of Health, Federation University Australia. She retains an Adjunct Professorial role at Federation University and continues to work as a Higher Education Consultant for a number of higher education providers. Prior to relocating to Victoria in 2013 Penny worked at the University of New England in NSW, in a range of leadership roles. Penny has led the development of high quality, innovative, accredited health curricula across a number of health disciplines, many offered by flexible online delivery. Prior to moving into an academic role in 1999, Penny taught health curricula at the New England Institute of TAFE and worked as a Registered Nurse. Penny’s clinical career has spanned both metropolitan and rural health service roles working in acute care setting, such as emergency departments, intensive care and cardiac investigation units.
Penny has presented her research nationally and internationally and published widely in scholarly journals. She has recently edited a nursing textbook that will be available in 2019. Her research interests and experience are focused on leadership roles in health and the nursing profession. She has led a number of funded projects to create more collaborative inter-professional health education always with a focus on workforce capacity-building.
Penny is a successful PhD supervisor and examiner and has guided many students to complete their doctoral studies. She is listed on the National Register of Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) Experts for curriculum design, and healthcare education.
Penny is passionate about encouraging, supporting and mentoring women who aspire to leadership positions in health and higher education settings. She has developed a reputation for encouraging and supporting scholarly and research collaborations within and across health disciplines. Penny led a ‘women in leadership’ initiative at Federation University that supported academic women who aspired to leadership roles.
Natalie Reiter
BBus(Marketing) BA(Psychology) MBA Director since 2016 Term of appointment: 01/07/2016 - 30/06/2019
Natalie was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2016 and is Chair of the People and Culture Portfolio.
Natalie is Director of Planning and Development at the City of Moonee Valley and is a past Board Member of North East Health and St Luke’s Anglicare Bendigo. Natalie was previously General Manager City Strategy for the City of Ballarat, where she led the development of Today Tomorrow Together: The Ballarat Strategy, the long term plan for Ballarat to 2040.
Natalie has particular expertise in strategy development to deliver transformational change, facilitation, and strategic and business planning. Natalie’s skills lie in seeing the big picture, translating numbers into strategy and maintaining a focus on achieving the desired outcomes for the project.
Natalie has published internationally on the topic of work life balance and has a keen interest in fostering constructive culture in organisations.
Dr. Peter Lynch
M.B.B.S.(Melbourne), M.H.A.(U.N.S.W.), G.A.I.C.D.,F.R.A.C.P. Director since 2018 Term of appointment: 01/07/2018 - 30/06/2021
Dr Peter Lynch joined the Board of Ballarat Health Services in July 2018 and has become a member of the Quality Care and Audit and Risk Committees.
He has previously served on the Boards of Peninsula Health (2000-2004), the National Ageing Research Institute (1997-1998), Uniting Aged Care of Victoria and Tasmania (2006-2008) and Frankston- Mornington Peninsula Medicare Local (2012- 2015).
He has worked as a clinical specialist Physician and Geriatrician in a wide variety of clinical, management and research positions in Victoria, Northern Territory and overseas in both the public and private sectors over the past 40 years.
As a Clinician /Manager he has held several Clinical Director positions at major public Metropolitan Health Services over the past 20 years.
He has been the author or co-author of 6 medical papers published in peer review international medical journals between 1980 and 2009. He has presented or been a co-author of 21 scientific presentations at national and international medical conferences between 1979 and 2014. He has had several opinion pieces published in daily newspapers.
He has been a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (1987-1997) and the National Health and Medical Research Council ( 1992-1993).
He worked as Senior Medical Officer in the then AIDS-STD Unit and as Chief Medical Officer for what was then Health Department Victoria from 1989 – 1993 with wide ranging involvement and responsibility for a variety of services.
He has a particular interest in the quality and accessibility of health services, in good systems of clinical and corporate governance, in appropriate relationships between Governance Boards and executive management, in ethical and medicolegal issues and ensuring consumer rights in the delivery of complex health services.
