Our Board of Directors
President
Stuart Rechner LLB BSc GAICD
Stuart joined the ACGB Board in May 2014 after an introduction from the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Since then he has served on the Board with a special interest in governance, finances and government relations. Trained as a lawyer and scientist, he spent 11 years in the federal public service, finishing as a senior adviser in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and currently sits on the board of two listed mining companies. Stuart sees the role of a director as supporting the CEO and staff of the ACGB. Given the recent growth in the ACGB’s clinical practice, a key goal is ensuring a stable, sustainable funding base. This will allow the current high quality services to continue, including in rural areas. He is also keen to see growth in the education program and for ACGB to become a truly national education provider. With a strong understanding of governance in both the public and private sectors he approaches issues with the twin disciplines of legal reasoning and scientific method. His work for the federal government included responding to disasters and tragedies. He was the federal government representative at the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, the body established to plan and coordinate the reconstruction of Queensland following the 2010-11 floods. He was also deployed to several major consular crises including the 2009 Jakarta bombings and the 2007 Garuda airlines crash.
General Directors
Prof. Michael Ashby MBBS, MD, MRCP, FRCR, FRACP, FAChPM, FFPMANZCA
Prof. Ashby currently holds a conjoint appointment based in Hobart: Director of Palliative Care, Royal Hobart Hospital and Southern Tasmania Health Organisation (THO), and Professor of Palliative Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Tasmania. He has held clinical, academic and managerial positions since 1989 in Adelaide and Melbourne prior to moving to Hobart in 2007. He is a Past President of the Australia and New Zealand Society for Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM) and a past Chairman of the Chapter of Palliative Medicine at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. Michael has research interests in law, ethics and the humanities as they apply to care and decision-making at the end of life, advance care planning, and pain and symptom management. He is a member of the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG). Michael has published over 100 papers, book chapters, reviews and report contributions on diverse aspects of death, dying, loss and grief. He is a Consultant Editor to the Journal of Bioethical Enquiry, an editor of the Journal of Palliative Care and Mortality, and a reviewer for a number of international journals. He has had a long association with ACGB since its inception.
Partha Nag MAICD CPA
Partha is an experienced non-executive director and Chair with five years board level experience including a role as Company Secretary. As a board member and Chair of the Audit Committee at Child Australia as well as in his executive roles at Strategic Business Alliance Pty Ltd he continues to demonstrate a proven ability to work independently as well as part of a board. As a senior director he has extensive experience in corporate finance, business leadership and corporate governance and risk management. Partha is a qualified CPA and a member of the AICD.
Dr. Lauren Breen BSc(Hons), GradCertEd, PhD, MAPS
Dr. Breen has been a Member of the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement since 2008. A Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Curtin University her PhD thesis was devoted to exploring the experience of grief for people bereaved through road traffic crashes. She presented these findings at the ACGB-hosted International Grief and Bereavement Conference in 2008 and published the findings in key journals such as Death Studies, Omega, and the Journal of Family Therapy. Since then, she has led and been involved in several studies concerning grief counselling, self-care for health professionals who work in cancer and palliative care, determining the effect of caring on bereavement outcomes, investigating the public’s attitudes to grief, rural health professionals’ perspectives on providing grief and loss support, public health model of bereavement support, pet loss, and GPs experience of bereavement care. She presented at the International Grief and Bereavement Conference in Hong Kong, regularly review manuscripts on grief and loss for international journals, and have authored over 50 academic publications. She revisited the work She started in my PhD when she was contracted by the Department of Health (Western Australia) to make recommendations for the establishment of a road trauma support service for Western Australia. As a result, Road Trauma Support WA was established in November 2013. She was an invited member of the Expert Reference Group Developing the Bereavement Search Filter, CareSearch (the online resource of quality palliative care information and evidence), auspiced by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, which was launched in November 2013. She also had the honour to serve ACGB as an invited member of the Scientific Program Committee for the inaugural and 2016 Australian Grief and Bereavement Conference, which involved reviewing submissions and chairing conference sessions. She is currently an Associate Editor of the international journal Death Studies.
Vicki Kyritsis BA, BSW, GradDipPublicRelations, CertIVTAA
Vicki Kyritsis is Communications Manager at inTouch Multicultural Centre Against Family Violence. Prior to joining inTouch Vicki worked for Fairfax Business Media, CEDA – the Committee for Economic Development Australia, State Government in the Child Protection and Juvenile Justice Branch and at the Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre.
Vicki has undergraduate degrees in Arts from La Trobe University and Social Work from Monash University. She also has post graduate qualifications from RMIT University and Melbourne Business School. Vicki is a qualified trainer and taught Communications at RMIT University to undergraduate students. Vicki also serves on the Board of Australian Friends of Asha Slums.
Neil Robinson MBA MAICD
Neil is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors with an MBA from RMIT University and Bachelors degree from the University of Sussex in the UK. He was Academic Registrar at the University of Melbourne for five years before moving into his current role as Executive Director, Academic Services and Registrar where he has, amongst other responsibilities, accountability for the University's Health, Counselling and Wellbeing areas. He has served on the Board of the ACGB since May 2014. Neil has Director level experience in the not for profit sector currently serving on the Board of YEAH - Youth Empowerment against HIV and AIDS and as a Church Warden and Member of the Anglican Synod of Melbourne. Neil has extensive senior executive level management and leadership experience in Australia, UK and Europe and presently has responsibility for a budget of $100+ million and 700+ Full Time Equivalent staff in his role at the University of Melbourne.