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Our Board & Our Team

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Meet the Eva Tilley Board

The Eva Tilley Board of Directors are passionate volunteers, dedicated to our residents. Many of our Board have, or have had, family members in our care. They are local community members who are personally connected to and invested in serving the people of Boroondara.

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We convene several committees which are responsible for particular aspects of our operation, including:

  • Clinical Governance

  • Business and Audit

  • Community and Partnerships

We also schedule regular resident meetings throughout the year with our residents and families, to directly discuss topics of interest, including recreational activities, clinical care and catering.

Our esteemed Board members are: 

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Distinguished Prof. Judy Currey

CHAIR

  • Professor Judy Currey brings over 25 years governance experience spanning national and international health and education boards to Eva Tilley. Currently Judy is Chair of Academic Board and member of Council at Deakin University. Judy is a registered nurse with a PhD in nurses’ decision making and holds degrees in statistics, nursing, critical care and education. She is a graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors and the Cultivate a Compassionate Heart Course (Stanford University USA). Judy is a Principal Fellow of Advance HE (UK) and Team-Based Learning Consultant-Trainer (USA).

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Mrs Margaret Smith OAM

VICE CHAIR / CHAIR OF COMMUNITY & PARTNERSHIPS

  • Margaret has held many positions throughout her career in the corporate and philanthropic sectors resulting in a breadth of knowledge expertise. After 17 years as General Manager of The Queens’s Trust for Young Australians, Margaret took on the challenge of founding Chief Executive Officer of Children First Foundation. During her 17 years at Children First, as both Chairman and later CEO, Margaret and her team improved the lives of hundreds of children from around the world through life saving surgery. Following her own experience of family members in aged care, Margaret joined Eva Tilley in 2011 and has since applied her pragmatism and dedication to a range of projects to serve as an advocate for those in care.

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Dr Olga Hogan

VICE CHAIR / TREASURER

  • Olga is an executive finance professional with experience working with the boards of large and small organisations on strategic, financial and risk issues. Olga’s private equity, investor relations and audit background brings extensive experience in company evaluation, risk assessment and effective financial systems. Olga is a graduate of the Australia Institute of Company Directors, has a Certificate in Governance Practice from the Governance Institute of Australia, is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) and has a PhD in Chemistry from Oxford University.

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Dr Jeanne Nel

  • Jeanne brings extensive governance in corporate governance and not-for-profit law to Eva Tilley. A senior lecturer at Monash Business School, she specialises in governance regulation, particularly volunteer charity directors' duties. 

    Jeanne holds a PhD in Law examining these duties, an LLM in Constitutional Law, and a Graduate Certificate in Money Laundering Control. Her research focuses on corporate and charitable governance and regulation. An advocate of the High Court of South Africa, her community service includes volunteer legal education in South Africa. She believes strong governance forms the foundation for fairness, dignity and community trust, principles she brings to her service at Eva Tilley.

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Mr Dushyant Sattiraju

  • Dushyant is an experienced technology leader specialising in cybersecurity, risk management, and governance. As the Director of Cybersecurity at Deakin, he brings extensive expertise in technical strategy, compliance, and organisational security resilience. With a background in both technical and management roles, he is passionate about driving innovation, education sector and healthcare. Dushyant is a member of Eva Tilley’s Clinical Governance Committee.

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Dr Eric Lindner

  • Eric has extensive experience as a senior executive in government and privately owned businesses providing essential services. He has a broad and diverse background in leading multidisciplinary teams with responsibilities across a wide range of corporate functions including contract management, corporate governance, risk management and insurance, legal, occupational health, safety, worker’s compensation, environmental management, public and government relations and internal audit. Prior to retirement, Eric was the Chief Executive Officer of Australian Energy Operations, building, owning and operating electrical transmission connections for renewable generators.  He has Doctor of Philosophy and Bachelor degrees in Engineering and Science plus a Company Directors Diploma.

    He has served boards as a member of boards of a start-up company, industry superannuation fund, government corporations, corporate foundation and a not for profit business. Has a strong desire to utilise his business skills and experience to make a contribution to the community sector.

Anne Cox

  • Anne is an experienced company director and executive leader with strong communication and analytical flair. Her background as a Speech Pathologist and Health Executive enables broad understanding of governance issues relevant to not-for-profit organisations. With in-depth knowledge of health, aged-care, disability and community service sectors, and the changing environment, Anne brings her strategic capacity to build alliances and provide leadership to facilitate service development and growth. This is underpinned by Anne’s significant expertise and interest in managing people, organisation and stakeholder partnerships, as well as driving effective governance, risk management, and quality systems with high levels of consumer and community engagement.

Our Team

Meet the Eva Tilley Team

The Eva Tilley staff are a team of highly trained, devoted and friendly personnel who are the backbone of our warm and thriving community.

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Melissa McDonald

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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Elena Snow

BUSINESS MANAGER

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Nishant Desai

DIRECTOR OF CARE

Deborah Foster

QUALITY & RISK MANAGER

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Sam Batta

FUNDING AND SERVICES MANAGER

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Arta Gasali

CHEF MANAGER