Our Board

Leonie’s background in local government has primarily been in the community services and regional economic development areas, although she has also managed the traditional technical service areas of roads, waste, and parks and gardens.

In her consulting, Leonie has undertaken some Acting CEO roles, including for the Australian Table Grape Association, Australian citrus industry, Buloke Shire Council and Sunraysia Institute of TAFE.

Leonie is currently Chair of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre, Strategic Advisory Panel, Chair of Loddon Mallee Regional Development Australia Board, Chair of Regional Advisory Council of the One Basin Cooperative Research Centre and Member of the Mallee Regional Partnership. She was also the immediate past Chair of Sunraysia Community Health Service.

Other previous roles include Chair of Sunraysia Institute of TAFE, Victorian TAFE Association, Lower Murray Water Corporation, and the Mildura Transport and Logistics Cluster, as well as involvement in numerous other community organisations. For four years, Leonie was also Executive Officer of the Alliance of Councils for Rail Freight Development.

Alison has a long history as a GP Supervisor, educating medical students, GP registrars and GP obstetric registrars. She has more than 10 years’ experience on various boards and is currently the Deputy Chair of Murray City Country Coast GP Training.

Living in the Macedon Ranges for more than 20 years, Manisha’s professional areas of interest include rural and remote medicine, primary healthcare research, public health, child and adolescent health, women’s health and mental health. She also has extensive experience in educating GP trainees and medical students.

In addition, he has forged strong professional relationships in the community and worked with governments at local, state and federal level to secure funding for additional health services.

Prior to his current role, Matt held the position of Executive Director of Clinical Operations at Eastern Health in Melbourne, as well as various other management and executive positions in rural, regional and metropolitan health services.

Matt understands the opportunities and challenges that come with working in a regional health service, having worked at Rochester and Elmore District Health Service, initially as the Director Clinical Services before becoming CEO, a position he held for three years. Matt has also held an executive position at Echuca Regional Health.

Having spent most of his life in regional Victoria, Matt is passionate about public health and takes pride in being able to improve the safety, quality and access to health and wellbeing services, particularly in the regions. He has also recently chaired committees in the Hume region to assist with planning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joanne is passionate about advancing health and education in regional areas, co-design and place-based approaches, innovation and technology. In addition to core operational competencies, she is experienced in project management, governance, risk management, analytics and managing other support functions such as finance, human resources, IT and marketing.

Joanne has held leadership positions in the higher education sector, contributing to the significant growth and expansion of courses, programs, collaborative partnerships and graduate outcomes across regional Victoria as Executive Officer, La Trobe University, Shepparton Campus and Rural Clinical School Manager, University of Melbourne, Department of Rural Health.

Most recently, she was the Operations Manager, University of Melbourne, Shepparton Medical Centre, a key leadership position in which she gained extensive experience in strategic planning, management and governance of a large primary health service, delivering high-quality patient care, teaching and research. She currently holds the role of Strategic Operations Manager, Connected Cardiology, improving access to services in a regional area.

Joanne is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a Diploma of Management. She has completed the Fairley Leadership Program and during a five-year period, she has represented her community as a Member, Community Advisory Committee and Primary Care & Population Health Advisory Committee, GV Health and three years as Chair, Goulburn Valley Community Advisory Council for Murray PHN.

Jacki has lived in Western Australia, working with the Yawuru Native Title Holders in negotiations with the WA government. In addition to her official role as a lead negotiator, Jacki set up the corporate entities and governance structures of the Yawuru corporate group and ran the group operations as CEO.

Jacki joined the Bar Roll in Victoria as a commercial barrister in 2011 and in 2013, she became the Director of the Koori Justice Unit and established the Koori Women’s Diversion program in Mildura. In 2016, Jacki moved to Aboriginal Victoria as the Director for Treaty to start the critical work that has led to the establishment of the First People of Victoria Assembly.

Jacki continued as a barrister in 2017 in Mildura across all jurisdictions and expanded her practise into criminal law and child protection. She is an accredited mediator and has conducted mediations for state and local government, courts and various Aboriginal groups and entities across Victoria.  Jacki was the CEO of Mallee District Aboriginal Services from 2019 to 2022 and now is a senior executive with Haven Home Safe.

Jacki was a Director on Aboriginal Housing Victoria from 2003 to 2014, leading the transition of that entity from a co-operative to an independent company, taking ownership and control of the Victorian Government’s Aboriginal Housing rental stock. She was also a Director on the Worawa Aboriginal College Board from 2016 to 2017. Jacki recently retired as a director on the Mallee Catchment Management Authority.

Previously, Andrew was Chief Information Officer at BlueScope Steel, managing the IT function across their global footprint and led Mars Corporation’s supply chain systems projects in Asia Pacific. He spent 12 years consulting in business information technology with Accenture.

Bob is a former Victorian State Minister of 11 years, and former Member for Bendigo West. He is Chair of Coliban Water and the Victorian WorkCover Authority and was Chair of Bendigo Health from 2015-2022 during construction of the new Bendigo hospital and subsequent expansion of services.

Bob was appointed as interim Chair and sole director of Mildura Base Public Hospital 2019-20 to establish the public entity to take the hospital back into public hands.

Ella advises a broad range of clients, from ASX-listed companies and government departments to software start-ups and has experience advising key stakeholders in the health industry.

Having grown up in Shepparton, Ella returned to the Goulburn Valley region with her young family in 2021.

Ella is a current Trustee of the GV Health Foundation and has a keen interest in promoting regional opportunities and improving local health outcomes.

Steve brings vast experience and strong strategic focus consolidated during a 35-year career in Telstra across a wide range of business units, roles and locations. These roles include managing some of Telstra’s technical workforce, managing sales teams, national retail roles and leading Telstra Country Wide in Northern Tasmania and Central Victoria.

Originally from the Wimmera region, Steve has lived in regional areas for most of his life. Steve and his wife Kate live on a small hobby farm in Strathfieldsaye breeding Wiltipoll sheep in their spare time.