Board of Directors
Board of Directors is the ultimate governing body for Colac Area Health. It was established with the creation of Colac Area Health in 2002 by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of the Minister for Health at the time.
Dr Georgina Hayden – Board Chair
Georgina is an Emergency Consultant with over 20 years of experience in public and private healthcare settings. Her recent roles included Director of Emergency Medicine at St John of God in Geelong and Director of Cardiac Emergency at Victorian Heart Hospital, Monash Health. Georgina completed her undergraduate degree at Monash University and her intern and resident years at the Alfred Hospital. After working in the NHS in the UK, she returned to Australia and settled in Geelong, where she completed further training in Emergency Medicine.
Georgina’s interests lie in patient centred care, providing excellent patient experiences in the health care setting and improving the interactions between primary health care, acute hospital care and the sub-acute areas. Georgina grew up in Colac and was inspired by local medical practitioners to pursue a career in Medicine and is looking forward to contributing to Colac Area Health.
First Appointed: 01/07/2021
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2024 – 30/06/2027
Ms Anne-Marie Leslie – Vice Chair
BA (Hons) Latrobe University Major in Politics Masters Human Resource Leadership Rutgers University
Anne-Marie is currently on the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee and undertakes advisory work to business, learning institutes and non for profit organizations. Prior to this from 2007-2016 she was Senior Vice President Human Resources for Cochlear responsible for global human resources management, and developing the organizations capabilities to meet the demands of a growing, global company.
She has over 25 years’ experience in local, regional and global human resource management roles. Prior to Cochlear she worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb in both Australia and in the USA. Earlier experience included leading quality management initiatives at Kodak as winners of the Australian Quality Prize and as an evaluator with Business Excellence Awards in Australia and the USA
First Appointed: 13/02/2018
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2023 to 30/06/2026
Dr Margaret Grigg OAM
Margaret is an experienced health professional with extensive experience in senior leadership roles. She has worked as CEO Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental (Forensicare), Executive Director of Health Services Policy and Commissioning at the Victorian Department of Health and COO at Mind Australia. Other Board Director appointments include HealthShare Victoria and Mind Australia. Previously she was Deputy Chair Kyneton District Health Service. She lives in Geelong and has strong family connections across the Barwon South West region.
First Appointed: 30/08/2022
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2027
Mr Brendan Morris – Treasurer
Brendan holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Brendan has over 30 years’ experience in senior management roles, including 7 years working in Europe and Asia.
Brendan commenced his career with KPMG before moving into Industry in senior finance and then CEO roles. Brendan is currently the CEO and Managing Director of Plantic Technologies Limited a world leading biomaterials company. Brendan has a strong background in leading high performing organisations, innovation, business systems, strategy development and corporate governance.
Brendan lives in Geelong with his family and has a farm in Simpson. He is engaged in his local community and is passionate about innovation, sustainability and the environment.
First Appointed: 01/07/2020
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2028
Ms Joanna Carden
Jo Carden is a business consultant in the healthcare sector where she has designed, delivered and evaluated healthcare programs, services and business functions. She brings to the Colac Area Health Board, more than 25 years of local and international experience in a range of clinical (nursing), operational, executive, program management and strategic roles, in both the private and public sector.
Jo is interested in continually improving health outcomes and system performance. Her major projects include the commissioning of new hospitals, redesigning health services, designing and delivering governance frameworks, enterprise and program risk functions.
First Appointed: 01/07/2020
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2023 – 30/06/2026
Dr Lisa-Jane Moody
Lisa-Jane is the Executive Director of Outcomes and
Strategic Engagement at Meli, a leading community service and education
organisation providing services across the Barwon South West and Wimmera
regions. She is responsible for leading key portfolios including quality
and risk, research, evaluation, practice development, and communications.
She has extensive experience in executive leadership and governance across
public health, disability, and community service settings.
In addition to professional qualifications in Audiology,
Lisa-Jane holds a PhD from Deakin University, a Master of Arts degree (Applied
Linguistics), a Diploma of Business, a vocational certificate in Consumer
Engagement, and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company
Directors.
Drawn to work addressing complex social, health, and
wellbeing issues, Lisa-Jane is focused on improving consumer experience and
outcomes in health, disability and community services and preventing and
addressing inequity and harm.
As an Audiologist, Lisa-Jane provided clinical services in
Colac through Hearing Australia and Barwon Health. She is now proud to
contribute to Colac Area Health through her role on the Board.
First Appointed: 01/07/2022
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2027
Dr Bruce Bartley
Bruce has worked as an emergency physician at University Hospital Geelong (Barwon Health) for 23 years and recently stood down from his long-standing role as Deputy Director of ED.
He graduated at Melbourne University and completed a surgical fellowship in Scotland before returning to Royal Melbourne Hospital to complete his emergency medicine training. After travelling Australia for 2 years as a locum, he settled in Ocean Grove.
Bruce has a keen focus on public health and health equity, completing a Masters of Public Health in 2022.
He was a regular visitor to Colac and the south-west to provide outreach education before helping it evolve into a formally funded process involving most of his colleagues.
He was responsible for the successful implementation of the emergency medicine registrar at Colac UCC and remotely supervised the role until recently.
He instigated and led the Geelong-based limb of the state retrieval service for 10 years before it was centralised at Adult Retrieval Victoria (ARV) in 2014.
Having held regional, state, and national representative roles in disaster management, he was instrumental in positioning Barwon Health as a state leader in disaster resilience and preparedness and is currently involved with Safer Care Victoria as they look to better align the state trauma system to the needs of the changing demographics and injury profiles of major trauma in Victoria.
Bruce is passionate about narrowing the health gap for our First Nations people. He believes great gains could be made if there was broader, true understanding amongst the healthcare community and the general population of the cultural norms and belief systems of First Nations people.
First Appointed: 01/07/2025
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2028
Ms Sylvia Barry
Sylvia is an experienced executive and a graduate of the Directors course of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Monash University School of Business.
Sylvia has had an extensive public sector career having held executive-level roles at both head office and at a regional level with the Victorian Department of Health across a broad range of health programs.
Sylvia has a keen interest in the delivery of health services and including better integration across care sectors, to improve the health and human services system and optimize health and wellbeing outcomes for all.
Sylvia is also a member of the Consumer Advisory Panel of the National Ageing Research Institute.
First Appointed: 01/07/2025
Term of Appointment: 01/07/2025 – 30/06/2028
