Read the profiles of our hardworking board members below.
Venessa Tripp
Venessa Tripp has extensive experience at an executive level in the Australian Public Service sector. Venessa has worked at the most senior levels in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, in Education and Employment and in Agriculture portfolios. She has also worked in the private office of a Cabinet Minister. Venessa has advised Ministers on policy, provided leadership to large teams and managed substantial Government outlays. She was also a member of the Board for the Australian Dairy Corporation for two years.
Venessa is an Executive Coach. She holds an Honours degree in History and a Masters Degree in Human Resource Management and Coaching from the University of Sydney.
Venessa is currently coaching senior managers in the public sector, university and corporate environment.
Venessa was the wife and partner of Ross Divett. ^
David Batchelor
David Batchelor joined the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations in 1983 and held the position of Director of Industrial Relations. David's career in that broad portfolio saw him undertake several roles including State Director in Tasmania and Western Australia .
David joined Centrelink in 1997 in Canberra before moving to Tasmania as Area Manager and as National Manager for International Services. From 2005 to his retirement in July 2009 he held other National Manager positions whilst still based in Tasmania.
David has been fortunate to be involved in overseas projects in Turkey, Thailand, South Africa and has been involved in the negotiation of Social Security agreements in USA, New Zealand and throughout Europe.
David is married and lives in Hobart, Tasmania. He enjoys traveling and playing social tennis. His main failing is that he is a mad Collingwood supporter, but don't hold that against him. ^
Carmel McGregor
Carmel McGregor is Deputy Public Service Commissioner. She joined the Australian Public Service Commission in November 2008.
Carmel’s previous position was that of Deputy Secretary Client and Corporate Services in the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). Whilst in DIAC she led global client service reform and a major organisational and cultural change program for DIAC on and off shore.
Prior to joining DIAC in November 2005, Carmel was General Manager Employment, Disability and Education at Centrelink where she managed delivery of employment and education programs, and led the implementation of the Welfare to Work reforms.
Carmel also held the position of General Manager People and Corporate Performance in Centrelink where she re-engineered the human resource, leadership development and organisational design functions. She was one of the lead executives appointed to Centrelink in its establishment in 1997.
From 1999-2001 Carmel lived in Paris where she worked as a consultant for the Public Management Service of the OECD with key involvement in international fora on modernising government.
Carmel is currently Australia’s representative on the OECD’s Public Governance Committee. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. She has memberships in the Institute of Public Administration Australia, Australian Institute of Training and Development, and Australian Human Resources Institute.^
Geoff Leeper
Geoff Leeper joined the Department of Climate Change as Deputy Secretary of the ACCRA Group from June 29, 2009. On passage of the legislation creating ACCRA, Geoff will be the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that time, he was Deputy Secretary in the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous affairs (2007-2009), the Department of Human Services (2005–07) and Deputy Chief Executive Officer in Medicare Australia (2001–05).
Geoff has a degree in Economics but does not wish to be known as an economist. ^
John Wadeson
John joined the APS in 1971 as a cadet at Treasury. In 1980 he joined the Department of Social Security and held various positions including two extended periods working in service delivery in Brisbane and Perth.
John was a foundation member when Centrelink was formed in 1997 and went on to guide the major development projects. These include the introduction of Centrelink’s first substantial direct customer capabilities, online – on the ‘Net, by IVR Natural Speech Recognition and electronic communications with “third parties”. John also had an extended stint in charge of Centrelink’s Disaster Recovery program. After what was already a long and distinguished career in Australian Government service delivery was made CIO in 2006.
In 2010, after the merger of all DHS agencies plus DHS itself into one body, and integration of all DHS IT platforms as part of Service Delivery Reform John has taken on his new role as Deputy Secretary, ICT Infrastructure, Department of Human Services. His new role will see him tackle the huge and complex task of managing this integration process while ensuring no interruption to service delivery.
In his private life, John is having to get used to the idea of being a grandfather but still manages to run his 30kms a week. ^
Role of the Board
The Board Members will:
- Develop policy and provide strategic direction for The Ross Divett Foundation
- Implement and monitor administrative systems
- Ensure there are adequate and effective financial controls
- Define and achieve financial targets
- Ensure legal and financial reporting requirements are met
- Regularly review endorsement as a Deductible Gift Recipient
- Promote The Ross Divett Foundation to maximise donations
- Periodically assess it's own performance
More information
Questions?
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