1. How do you feel about being the new President of YMCA WA?
I feel very proud to be the new President of YMCA WA. We’ve got so many amazing staff and volunteers who do incredible things right across Western Australia. With the great history that is the YMCA I feel a sense of pride but also responsibility to play the role of the President in supporting Ross and the Executive team and also in providing some guidance as we seek to fulfil our 10 year strategy which is very exciting.
2. Was there anything that influenced your decision in taking up the role?
I’ve always been very aligned to the values of the YMCA – from growing up in a small country town in Victoria attending the Y rec centres - but it wasn’t until the Western Australia awards night a couple of weeks ago that really influenced me, when I just knew taking on the President role was the right thing. It was when I heard those incredible stories that so many of our people are doing and the impact they’re having on the participants we help in the community, and the whole purpose statement around believing in the power of inspired youth – that’s something I’ve always been passionate about and in fact talk about in my own work environment. That’s what influenced me to become the President of YMCA WA.
3. What are you most excited about in the year to come?
What I’m particularly excited about in the year ahead is really supporting Ross and the executive team, and seeing all staff get right behind this new purpose statement of ours and leveraging from it. What I mean by that is having greater awareness with our stakeholders and the communities in which we work, about the work that we do. Yes it’s about branding the Y, but it’s also about more people understanding our purpose and seeing and hearing about what we do day in day out. I think all staff know we do great things so if we can play a small role from a board’s perspective in helping with that awareness and therefore create more opportunities for people to deliver our mission, then that’s a great thing.
4. When you’re not at PWC or doing YMCA-related stuff, what do you like to do?
Outside of being a partner at PWC and supporting the Y through my board roles, I love getting outdoors. That’s with the family at the beach and the pool, out at parks or these days mostly supporting and watching them play their various sports over a weekend. Personally I played a lot of Aussie rules and basketball growing up so I still have an inkling for doing that, I play in the veterans Aussie rules AFL 9s which tries to keep me young – the brain knows where to go but the body doesn’t quite get there at times!
5. Are there any fun facts people should know about their new President?
Two fun facts about me – I am a die-hard Richmond Tigers AFL supporter so usually people feel sorry for me in that role – you can’t be too bad when you’re meeting with friends in relation to the footy! Second one is I’m a big traveller. I’ve been fortunate enough to go to many countries around the world and my motto in life is to go to more countries than my age. Thankfully I’m sitting at about 80 countries so I’ve got some head room at the moment!