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Share the knowledge and inspiration - bring your whole team!

Register now for early bird rates!

Pre-conference workshop included in your registration

Confirmed speakers include:

John Worsfold is a married father of 3 children and a pharmacist who graduated from Curtin University in 1989.

He has had an AFL career spanning over 30 years. It began as a 19-year-old when he joined the inaugural West Coast Eagles squad as a player where he played 209 games over 12 seasons. He then moved into coaching at the Carlton Football Club for two seasons before returning west to the coach the West Coast Eagles for a further 12 years. In this time the Eagles played in two Grand Finals, winning the premiership in 2006. Taking a break from coaching, John was the Chairman of the AFL Coaches Association for two seasons whilst also sitting on the AFL Laws of the Game committee.

John joined the Adelaide Football Club midway through 2015 to assist after the tragic death of his friend and their Senior Coach, Phil Walsh. In 2016, John then accepted the Senior Coach role at the Essendon Football Club in the midst of a crisis regarding supplements and the World Anti-Doping Association. He has now been coach at Essendon for 4 years.

In her current role as CEO of CCEL Vanessa Pigrum is responsible for shaping the strategic direction of an organisation seeking to transform the Australian leadership debate to one where leaders put ethics at the centre of their decision making.

Throughout her career, Vanessa has been compelled to work with organisations that strive to implement bold ideas and create positive impacts for society.

Vanessa has over 25 years’ experience in the creative industries sector and in leadership development, where her focus and passion has long been in driving strategic transformation within organisations and teams. Vanessa’s leadership roles with organisations such as the Arts Centre Melbourne, the City of Darebin Creative Culture, the Melbourne Fringe Festival, and CHUNKY MOVE have seen her develop innovative programs, navigate complex stakeholder relationships and drive international commercial activity.

Prior to Vanessa’s transition into organisational management roles, she studied Law and then trained as a performer and theatre-maker at the Victorian College of the Arts before forging a successful career as a freelance creative producer in the festivals sector. In 2018 Vanessa gained credentials as a mediator and executive coach.

Vanessa is also the Chair of the Next Wave Festival, a biennial multi-arts festival for emerging and experimental artists. The Next Wave Festival is committed to social and cultural diversity, environmental sustainability and inclusion.

A/Prof Tony Walker ASM is Chief Executive Officer of Ambulance Victoria. He has is Registered Paramedic  with over three decades experience working in a range of senior clinical, operational and leadership roles within the ambulance sector.  Over past five years Tony has led significant transformation at Ambulance Victoria to improve the health and wellbeing of their workforce and the response they provide to the community.  

Tony holds an adjunct appointment as Associate Professor in the College of Health and Biomedicine at Victoria University and is a Fellow of Paramedics Australasia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Managers and Leaders, and a Board Director of the Emergency Services Foundation, the Australasian Council of Ambulance Authorities and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

Tony is a recipient of the Ambulance Service Medal (ASM) for his contribution to the development of ambulance services at a state and national level and has also been awarded the National Heart Foundation President’s Award and the Australian Resuscitation Council Medal for his significant contributions to improving cardiovascular health and resuscitation practice and outcomes.

Ken Lay is the former Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police where he held a number of positions over several decades. Ken retains extensive connections at various levels of government and with the broader community. His commitments for FY19 included Directorships with the Essendon Football Club and the Federal Heavy Vehicle Regulator Board.  Chairing roles include Ambulance Victoria and Forensicare (Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health).

Ken is also a member of the DHHS Council of Board Chairs, a member of the Monash University Accident Research Centre, and a member of the Medically Supervised Injecting Rooms Review Panel.

In November 2017, Ken was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria.  He is also an Officer of the Order of Australia, and an Australian Police Medal recipient.

Appointed Ambulance Victoria’s Board Chair in 2015, Ken attends a variety of committee meetings in an ex officio capacity throughout the year.  He also chairs AV’s Remuneration and Nominations Committee.

Jason Trethowan commenced as CEO at headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation, in January 2017. Jason spent the previous ten years in CEO positions primarily focussed on health and community services.

Jason is involved in many national health system networks and is currently a company director with Barwon Health and Professionals with Alzheimer’s (PALZ).

Jason graduated from La Trobe University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Medical Record Administration and went on to achieve a Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics at Monash University and a Masters in Business Administration from Deakin University.

 

Professor Catherine Stoddart commenced with the Department of Health in March 2017 and was previously the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Nurse at the Oxford University Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust in the UK from March 2014. Catherine has over 20 years’ experience in executive positions and is a Nuffield Fellow (2000) and Churchill Fellow (2006). Her interest is improving the lives of vulnerable groups of people and has been the focus of many of her roles. 

She is a Visiting Professor of Nursing at Oxford Brookes University and was awarded the 2011 Telstra Western Australia Business Woman of the Year for leadership and development of aboriginal employment programs across Health. In September 2013, Catherine received the Public Service Medal in recognition of her contribution to health and innovative global community health volunteering programs.

Catherine is an avid dog lover, renovator and once again a student.
 

Dr Karen Luxford is the CEO of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) and ACHS International. Dr Luxford has extensive experience in governance, strategic planning, safety and quality, healthcare standards, engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and leading organizational change. Dr Luxford is a senior executive in health with over 20 years’ experience in a range of leadership roles in the public, not for profit and private sectors including CEO, Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons,  A/g CEO and Executive Director, Clinical Excellence Commission NSW and GM of the National Breast and Ovarian Cancer Centre in Australia. 

Dr Luxford is also currently the Board Chair of Endometriosis Australia (NFP charity). Karen is an alumni Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy & Practice, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA and is passionate about health care. 

 

Michael Roff is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA). Michael joined APHA as Public Affairs Manager in 1994 and was appointed CEO in 2000. 

Prior to joining APHA, Michael worked as an assistant to a Justice of the High Court and as a Policy Advisor to Ministers in the New South Wales and ACT Governments. He also spent several years in Sydney as a public affairs manager with a major national industry association.

APHA is the peak national body representing the interests of the private hospital sector, with a diverse membership that includes large and small hospitals and day surgeries, for profit and not for profit hospitals, groups as well as independent facilities, located in metropolitan, regional and rural areas throughout Australia.

For more than ten years, Michael has also served on the Board of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards in addition to holding appointments on a wide range of government and industry advisory bodies.
 

Jill Klein, Professorial Fellow in Medical Education, Melbourne Medical School & Professor of Marketing at Melbourne Business School

Jill Klein received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1990.  During the following seven years she was a member of faculty in the Marketing Department at Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, spending a one year visit with The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.  From 1997 through 2008 she was on the faculty at INSEAD, including four years on the INSEAD-Asia campus in Singapore. She joined Melbourne Business School in 2009, and Melbourne Medical School in 2015.

Jill Klein’s teaching specialties are Clinical Decision Making, Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and Resilience. Her research interests are medical decision making, junior doctor resilience in the face of medical error, and medical student well being. She has had articles published in the British Medical Journal, British Medical Journal: Quality and Safety, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Management Science, Journal of Marketing, and Journal of Business Ethics. Jill plays soccer regularly and plans to continue to do so until her knees give out. She has a husband and daughter, and loves to travel. 

 

Dr Jessica Dean is an intensive care trainee.

Having undertaken the Medicine/Law double degree at Monash University, Jessica enjoys being involved in legal research and teaching law to doctors and medical students. As the 2014 President of the Australian Medical Students’ Association, Jessica was responsible for the development and implementation of the AMSA Mental Health campaign; a national student-run campaign run at all 20 medical schools around Australia, meeting with medical school deans, university vice-chancellors and politicians – with more than 5,000 students attending events nationally.

Jessica has been a Director on the Board of Beyond Blue since 2015. She is also currently on the steering committee for the Federal Government initiative to improve the mental health of doctors and on the Clinical Governance and Quality Committee of ‘The Way Back’ program.
Jessica was a 2017 State finalist for Young Australian of the Year for her work in mental health and sexual health.

 

James Downie is the Chief Executive Officer at the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.

Prior to his current role James was the Executive Director, Activity Based Funding, leading the teams responsible for delivering the classification, costing and pricing functions of IHPA as well as the data acquisition activities.

He previously held roles with the Victorian Department of Health, the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and various technical and operational roles in the resources industry.
 

 

 

Nick Walsh is Program Manager for the Tackle Your Feelings (TYF) Program an AFL Coaches Association and AFL Player Association initiative. TYF is a mental health training program for Community AFL Clubs which reached nearly 40,000 Community Coaches in January this year. 

From a small boarder town in Ireland, Nick moved to Australia to play Australian Rules Football at the age of 17. He spent 3 years on the list of the Melbourne Football Club before returning and playing/captaining County Team, Cavan for 9 years. 

At the same time, he also spent 9 years working with the Gaelic Association in Ireland in the area of High Performance, Youth Sport and Development. 
Nick completed his studies at University of Jordanstown in Belfast along with his Masters in Performance through Setanta College, Ireland.

Nick has also represented Ireland in International Rules football and returned to Australia in 2011 where he coached at the Greater Western Giants in Sydney for 7 years.
Through Nick’s playing and professional career he has dealt with the roll coaster that the professional sporting industry portrays. 
Nick is currently completing his Mental Health Leaders fellowship through the National Mental Health Commission. 
 

Stephen Walker is the Chief Executive Officer of St Andrew’s Hospital in Adelaide a position which he has held for 17 years. Stephen has held a number of senior health management positions in both the public and private sector in Australia and New Zealand.

Stephen is currently: 
> A board member of the Australian Council of Healthcare Standards (ACHS) and ACHS International
> Chair ACHS Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
> A Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM)
> A member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
> Australian Private Hospitals Association (APHA) Councillor, member Finance & Audit Committee, member Safety and Quality Committee. 
> Past APHA Board member 
> Past President APHA SA Branch
> Member University of Adelaide Health & Biotech Advisory Board

Duane Attree is an experienced leader, executive & management consultant. He has previously held Australian leadership positions with DuPont, a Fortune 100 company, focused on innovation and safety culture, and in global consulting firms PwC and KPMG. In addition Duane spent many years working within the health industry, in roles such as Health Services and Hospital CEO, Executive Director and other management positions. 

Duane now leads Potential(x), an aspiring ‘for purpose’ organization that seeks to improve lives through partnerships that deliver high value analysis and knowledge based services to improve health and human services.

Most notable is the unique partnership with the Health Roundtable (HRT) a not for profit membership organization of over 190 public hospitals across Australia, New Zealand and more recently the UAE. The HRT services members through the delivery of deep industry analysis, benchmarking and innovation sharing platforms.

In addition Potential(x)  supports the delivery of knowledge and insights to over 160 private hospitals, large disability services and health advice / telehealth services internationally. 

Dr Elizabeth Deveny is currently the CEO of South Eastern Melbourne Primary Health Network (SEMPHN). In this role Elizabeth leads primary health care reform and commissioning programs over a diverse catchment of 1.5 million Victorians. SEMPHN’s work covers a range of key health domains including chronic disease management, mental health, alcohol and other drug services, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. She has a long term interest in digital health from playing Pong on the family Commodore 64 to a PhD focused on the impact on computing on general practice decision-making and currently funds innovative digital solutions to primary health care challenges.
 
Before her appointment at SEMPHN, Elizabeth was Chief Executive of Bayside Medicare Local (BML) from its formation in 2012. Amongst her other current appointments she chairs the Southern Metropolitan Partnership which brings community, industry and local government together to provide the Victorian government advice about regional priorities and is a member of the Metropolitan Development Advisory Panel. Dr Deveny is also currently Chair of the Australian Digital Health Agency Board’s Privacy and Security Advisory Committee (PSAC).
 
Elizabeth is an experienced and well-respected senior executive with a strong commitment to providing sustainable health outcomes for all Australians.  She holds a Master’s degree in vocational health education and a PhD in Medicine (clinical decision making), both from Melbourne University.

David Swan commenced as CEO, St Vincent’s Private Hospitals Division in October 2016. David has held a number of Chief Executive Officer roles in the health industry having worked in the public, not for profit and private health sectors in South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales.

In his most recent role as Chief Executive at Department of Health, South Australia, David was directly responsible for South Australia’s health system incorporating metropolitan and country hospitals, aged care beds and services, the mental health system, the State’s Ambulance service and diagnostic services.

 

 

Lockie Cooke was awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for the Western Region of Australia and has represented Australia at the UN, G20 and CHOGM.

Lockie founded the Indigenous Communities Education and Awareness Foundation (ICEA) and is a past board member at the School for Social Entrepreneurs Australia, Broome Futures Limited and currently is a strategic advisor to the Kimberley Land Council.

Lockie currently heads up a business called iyarn which is a new health and wellbeing software platform. iyarn works with community groups and health practices to build connection amongst the community promoting greater mental health outcomes.
 

Jackie McLeod has led a number of successful EMR implementations in Victoria over the past decade. Jackie is the Executive Director for the Parkville EMR project which will see the implementation of a shared EMR for Melbourne Health, The Women’s and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. 

Prior to this role she was the Project Director for the Epic EMR successfully implemented at the Melbourne Royal Children’s Hospital in 2016.