OUR PEOPLE

Our board and leadership

• 

  Sandie de Wolf AM

  Board Chair and Governance and Strategy Committee Chair

  BA(hons),Dip Soc Stud, Master in Human Service Management and FAICD. Sandie has spent her professional life working with and advocating for, vulnerable children, young people, women and families, initially in the Department and since 1989, the community sector.

  Sandie was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2009, received the Robin Clark Inspirational Award (2008), the Vida Goldstein Award(2001), a La Trobe University Distinguished Alumni Award(2017) and is a life member of the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare(2001) and VCOSS(2017).

  Sandie left Berry Street in December 2017 after 26 years as CEO having significantly grown its reach, impact and reputation.

  Since leaving Berry Street, Sandie has continued her contribution through the Interim CEO role at DVVIc (Dec 2018-June2019), the Deputy Chair of the Victorian Children’s Council (since 2007), the Chair of the Western Integrated Family Violence Committee and Chiar of You Matter. She is also a member of the board of Emma House.

  Sandie feels honoured to be able to help FVREE continue its critical work.

• 

  Prue Monument

  Deputy Board Chair

  Prue has extensive regulatory experience and a strong focus on practice improvement and public benefit. Prue is currently the General Manager Codes and CEO Banking Code Compliance with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). In this role, Prue supports the work of five independent Committees overseeing code monitoring activities, investigations of alleged code breaches and promoting industry best-practice across Australia’s financial services sector.

  Prue joined AFCA in November 2021. Prior to this, she was the Executive Director of Regulatory Operations at Australia’s higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. She was previously Director of Compliance at the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). This included responsibility for the ACNC’s Compliance directorate focused on identifying and investigating abuse and mismanagement in Australia’s charity sector and helping charities build their governance capabilities.

  She has also held senior roles in the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, including as National Manager of the Allegations Assessment Team and overseas postings in Shanghai and Beirut focused on program integrity, compliance and fraud prevention.

• 

  Tony Pititto

  Board Treasurer and Finance and Audit Committee Chair

  Tony has over thirty-five years of experience overseeing external audits in various industries and not for profit organisations.

  Tony is currently a senior partner with Grant Thornton where he is responsible for the provision of audit and assurance services.

  Tony is a Fellow, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and holds a Bachelor of Commerce. Tony is committed to the reduction of incidence of family violence and promoting a happy family environment.

• 

  Sonia Sharp

  Board Secretary

  Sonia has over thirty years of public service experience including seventeen years as a senior executive in regional and state government. Sonia’s background in teaching, child psychology and research informed her contribution to significant reform to integrate services for vulnerable children, young people and their families.

  Sonia has been recognised internationally for her pioneering work on prevention practices in the UK which saw the introduction of joint screening teams for family violence reports between police and child protection.

  Sonia currently works as a consultant with Ernest and Young and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors; Honorary Senior Fellow, Department of Education, University of Melbourne; Doctor of Philosophy (Educational Psychology), University of Sheffield UK; Master of Science (Education Psychology), University of Sheffield UK; Postgraduate Certificate in Education, University of Aston Birmingham UK and Bachelor of Science (Honours), Human Communication and Linguistics, University of Aston Birmingham UK.

• 

  Sue Campion

  Board Director

  Sue developed the National Standards for Family Violence and managed a number of Family Violence Services including Aboriginal Family Violence Programs.

  Sue has an enduring commitment to working towards a society free from family violence. Prior to being a Director on the FVREE Board, Sue held various governance positions including the Women’s Legal Service Board. Sue believes that FVREE provides best practice across all of its programs and is responsive to the needs of families experiencing family violence and is committed to seeing this continue.

  Sue is a Lawyer, with a past specialityin family and criminal law, Since then Sue has had a strong focus in family and children’s services in both the community and government sectors. Sue now works in private practice as a counsellor.

  Sue holds a Diploma of Management, Bachelor of Laws (Postgraduate), Diploma in Community Services (Community Development), Diploma of Education and Bachelor of Social Work.

• 

  Denise McLaughlin PSM

  Board Director and Quality, Performance and Risk Chair

  Denise is an experienced leader and operational manager. Prior to leaving the Department of Health and Human Service in 2018 Denise was the Director Child Protection in the North Division. She has held other executive level roles in policy development, contract management and direct service delivery for child and family, disability, youth justice, housing services, as well as local government. Denise is an experienced educator having worked with the Department of Education in mainstream and specialist settings and in the management of regional program.

  Denise was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2018 for outstanding public service to the delivery of child protection services in Victoria. She is currently involved in management consultancy and mentoring services.

  Denise holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, is a qualified mainstream and primary special education teacher, and completed the Company Directors’ Course with the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2010 and the Australian and New Zealand School of Government Executive Fellows program in 2013.

• 

  Kelly Shay

  Board Director

  Kelly Shay is passionate about helping people improve their working lives and also into retirement. Kelly spent the first 20 years of her working life in union leadership organising workers in the aged care, early childhood education and care and disability sectors in Australia and North America.

  In 2016 Kelly pivoted into financial services joining AustralianSuper responsible for business development and stakeholder engagement. In late 2021 Kelly joined the Mercer leadership team where she is responsible for growth initiatives. Kelly was a Trustee Director on the HESTA Board for 6 years.

  Kelly joins the FVREE Board as a Director with lived experience of family violence and experience in lobbying for paid family violence leave. At the 2016 WA Labor Party Policy Conference Kelly shared her experience of family violence and moved a motion for 10 days paid family violence leave. The motion was overwhelmingly supported by conference delegates becoming party policy heading into the 2017 State Election. The Premier Mark McGowan implemented this policy in its first 100 days for all WA public sector workers.

  Kelly is committed to continuous professional development and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). On her pathway to completing an MBA, Kelly has a completed Graduate Certificate of Business Administration and a Certificate in Executive Management & Development.

• 

  Chloe Symes

  Board Director

  Having lived experience, and previously working with clients in the sector, Chloe is passionate about combining these insights to enable systematic change to ensure we create a society free from family violence.

  Chloe is a management consultant with a professional services background. With a career spanning across human resources, as well as transformational and cultural change, she brings a unique approach to change that balances human needs with organisational objectives.

  Chloe holds a Bachelor of Business and recently completed a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne. She is a senior leader at Cube Group, a purpose-driven consultancy focused on delivering positive change. At Cube Group, Chloe partners with a variety of different public value clients who work to create a positive future. Chloe has a deep commitment to mental wellbeing and regularly incorporates mindful and positive psychology based strategies to client challenges.

• 

  Susie Cotteril

  Director

  Susie has held leadership and management roles specialising in public affairs, communications and stakeholder engagement in a range of public, private and not-for-profit sectors, specialising in implementing and operationalising large, complex new policy programs. She brings extensive professional expertise in communication, media relations, marketing, employee engagement and business strategy. She started her career in the creative advertising and PR industry, working on a broad range of clients including FMCG, B2B, health, travel, transport and technology.

  Susie is currently the Executive General Manager – Communications, Engagement and Brand at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, a large national not-for-profit organisation providing alternative dispute resolution in the financial services sector. Prior to this, Susie was the inaugural Director of Public Affairs and Education and the Head of Digital Strategy at the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission, the national charity regulator.

  She is also a non-executive Director of simple.space, a SaaS technology startup, and is on the board of directors of charity Little Sparklers, which provides perinatal mental health support to over 180,000 members globally.

  Susie holds an Executive Masters of Business Administration and Bachelor of Communication in Advertising and Marketing.

• 

  Gary Trytell

  Director

  Gary joined the FVREE Board in August 2020 and is keen to use his corporate skills to support FVREE in providing much needed services to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live in a community free from family violence.

  Gary is an IT Executive with over thirty-five years corporate experience. Following a thirty year career with IBM, Gary moved to Epworth Healthcare as Deputy Chief Information Officer and has recently been appointed to a senior role with Microsoft.

  Also, Gary is the Chair of the Deakin University ‘Department of IS and Business Analytics Advisory Board’, providing a great opportunity to guide and advise the university on the skills required by today’s IT workforce. He is also a member of the judging panel for ‘Tech Diversity’, which is an awards based organisation established to inspire technology based organisations to implement long-lasting change around diversity. Gary also participates in volunteer work for his local community and was recently awarded a ‘Glen Eira Council Community Award’.

• 

  Dr Trishima Mitra-Kahn

  Director

  Trishima has a deep knowledge of family violence and sexual assault service provision and policy and uses her lived experience as a survivor and disabled person of colour to inform her work. Trish is currently Head of Business Development at the Human Equation Inc. She was previously the Director of Research and Planning at Family Safety Victoria, held CEO roles in Family Violence services in New South Wales, and was the Deputy CEO at the NSW Peak Body- Domestic Violence NSW. Trishima’s executive career started when she was one of the inaugural senior executives at ANROWS – Australia’s national research organisation guiding policy and practice to reduce violence against women and their children. At ANROWS she played an integral leadership role in setting up the organisation and establishing its research and evaluation functions. She is an experienced Non-Executive Director and has held governance roles in disability, family violence, sexual assault and social justice campaigning organisations.

   A former academic and researcher for the UK Government and Government of India, she is a lifelong advocate for evidence-informed policy and practice. Trishima has a PhD in Social Anthropology with a doctorate focused on sexual violence prevention and a MSc. in Development Studies with a focus on violence and conflict prevention. Trishima counts leading and delivering Change the Story on behalf of ANROWS, and the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2032 on behalf of the Victorian Government, as two of her key highlights within a feminist career devoted to women and children.

• 

  Christine Mathieson

  Chief Executive Officer

  Putting people first, where their diverse strengths, abilities, passions and identity is front and centre in policy and practice has been the cornerstone of Chris’s public and not for profit sector career. As a transformational leader, Chris is committed and motivated to elevating human rights and preventing and reducing all forms of prejudice, discrimination and marginalisation. She is also passionate about addressing structural and systemic inequities that discriminate against women and currently leads a feminist family violence organisation to achieve this necessary change.  

  Previously, Chris was Chief Executive Officer, Expression Australia, leading establishing a bi-lingual/bi-cultural organisation for the Deaf community, during a period of unprecedented policy and funding reform, including the NDIS. Other key leadership roles include Director for the Office for Disability and Director for the Office for Women’s Policy in Victorian state government. Chris recently stepped down as Deputy Chair, Human Rights Arts and Film Festival and was previously, Chair Victorian Division, National Disability Services (NDS) and Director NDS Board.