BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Lifebridge Australia Ltd is company limited by guarantee and is governed by a non-executive, volunteer Board of Directors that is guided by a constitution.

The Board is responsible for the overall governance, management and strategic direction of the organisation and for delivering accountable performance in accordance with Lifebridge Australia’s goals and objectives.

The current Lifebridge Australia Ltd Board of Directors comprises of the following individuals.

Norman Henstridge – Chairperson

Norm joined the Board in 2014. Norm’s background is in acute healthcare having worked in pathology, hospital administration and radiology. He retired from full time work in 2004 and has been consulting on health planning since then. A long term assignment has been planning and managing a diagnostic cardiology service in Fiji in association with an Australian cardiologist.

Norm is also on the Board of the Tweed Heads and Coolangatta RSL Sub-branch, having served as Treasurer for six years. In this role he sees similar needs among the military veteran community as is served by Lifebridge in the general community. Norm was a Medical Corps officer in the Army Reserve for 15 years, retiring with the rank of Major.

Norm has a Degree in Applied Science, an MBA from Queensland University, is an Associate Fellow of the ACHSM and a Member of the AICD.

Garry Smith – Non Executive Director

Garry joined the Board in March 2010. Garry’s background is in Local Government Town Planning and has worked at Maitland Council in the Hunter Valley, Leichardt Council in Sydney and at the Tweed Shire Council.

Garry retired in 2008 after spending almost 43 years in this field and the last 20 years were predominately in Management positions that provided experience in governance, human resources, finance and legal matters associated with the field of town planning.

Garry was made a Life Member of the Murwillumbah Apex Club in 1988 and is a member of the Murwillumbah Branch of the State Emergency Service.  Garry’s qualifications include Certificate of Town Planning, Diploma in Business Administration (Local Government) and a Diploma in Financial Management (Local Government).

Dr Claire Treadgold – Non Executive Director

Appointed to the Board in 2014, Claire has nearly 20 years of experience in non-profit management, with a particular focus in health and community services. Before establishing her own consulting business, she was the General Manager of Operations and Services for the national charity CanTeen and was previously the National Director of the YWCA’s breast cancer support program, Encore.

Claire has held a number of community and voluntary roles including acting as a member of the Cancer Australia National Reference Group, the Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mentoring, a Board Member of the Reg Waite Award for Young Australian Achievers and is the current Chair of the YWCA’s national nominations committee.  Claire’s post-graduate qualifications include a PhD in Education, a Masters of Arts in Communications and Graduate Diplomas in Educational Studies, Adolescent Health and Welfare (Oncology).

Jennifer Howe – Non Executive Director

Jennifer’s commercial experience spans Business Development, Operations, Human Resources and consulting. She spent the first decade of her career working with IBM, initially in Account Management and later in Operations and Human Resources. This included nine years spent in Canberra, Moscow and Vienna. Since moving to Brisbane Jennifer worked in strategic and operational HR Management in a large research organisation.

Jennifer is currently National Client Relationship Manager for Trevor-Roberts, where she works with organisations to develop solutions to current and future people issues, including career development, leadership development and team optimisation. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Science (ANU) (Psychology), is a Graduate of the AICD Company Directors’ Course and is a Chartered member of the Australian Human Resources Institute.

Jenny Hicks – Non Executive Director

Jenny was appointed to the Board in 2005 with over 20 years of experience in Tertiary Adult Education, particularly in the areas of Childcare, Aboriginal Health and Nursing with TAFE NSW, ACE and Southern Cross University.  In her teaching role at TAFE NSW Jenny established and coordinated the Cert. III Aged Care/Nursing at Murwillumbah and Kingscliff and acted as head teacher of both Nursing and Child Studies at TAFE NSW. Training included Staff Selection, Conflict Resolution, Risk Assessment and Workplace Safety. One of Jenny’s many achievements was coordinating and enabling a group of indigenous students to complete a state first Cert IV in Aboriginal Health which included writing of the curricula.

Jenny is a long term resident of Byron Bay and has held a number of community and voluntary roles in the town. Some of her roles have been within sporting and early childhood organisations as well as in a school within the Parents and Citizens Association.  Jenny is a trained Registered Nurse and Midwife and a Board Member of Tweed, Byron and Ballina Community Transport.

Andrea Kanserski – Non Executive Director

Appointed to the Board in November 2022, Andrea is a retired Gold Coast local, a registered nurse for 42 years having worked predominantly in aged and community health, as well as the Financial Services sector.

Experience includes enterprise risk integrated with Audit & Compliance; Disaster Management; Ethics and Fraud prevention program; Insurance program; Incident and investigations; Customer Feedback Management; Policy & Process Management; Preparing and presenting reports at National Board and Executive level and International group level; Workplace, Health and Safety.

Andrea has presented at National and State Conferences and has written journal articles on Corporate Governance pertaining to risk and audit integration and developing internal business control frameworks to support consistent and cost effective service and product
delivery.

In 2014, Andrea was awarded Risk Manager of the Year by the Risk Management Institute of Australasia and in 2015 awarded the global Power of Gallagher Bassett award for her corporate governance achievements.

Susan Williams – Non Executive Director/Company Secretary

Susan was appointed to the Board in 2017 with over 10 years’ experience in both disability and community housing as a Corporate Governance professional and non-Executive Director. Susan’s Executive career includes Chief Financial Officer, Company Secretary and senior roles with ASX, NSX and NASDAQ listed companies, as well as private and not-for-profit organisations across a range of industries.

Susan is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD), Fellow Certified Practicing Accountant (FCPA), Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia (FGIA) and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (FCIS). Susan holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in International Business, Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance, Bachelor of Arts (Accounting) and is a Registered Tax Agent.

Susan was appointed as Lifebridge Australia Ltd.’s Company Secretary in 2015.