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Forensicare is governed by a Board of up to ten Directors, appointed by the Governor in Council for terms not exceeding three years on the recommendation of the Minister for Mental Health. Directors may apply for reappointment but may not serve more than three terms on the Board.
Our Board includes a nominee of the Attorney-General, a nominee of the Minister administering the Corrections Act 1986, and at least four other members but not more than eight, of whom at least one is a person who identifies as experiencing, or has having experienced, mental illness or psychological distress; at least one is a person who identifies as caring for or supporting, or having cared for or supported, a person with mental illness or psychological distress; and at least one has knowledge of, or experience in, accountancy or financial management.
Board Directors
Penny Armytage AM – Board Chair
Appointed 18 October 2022
Penny Armytage AM was the Chair of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Prior to this she was a Senior Partner at KPMG where she led the Victorian Government account and was the National Lead of the Justice and Security account. Penny has also had a distinguished career in the Victorian Public Service where she held a variety of senior executive positions, including a decade as the Secretary of the former Department of Justice. In these roles Penny oversaw major policy and service delivery reforms in the justice and human services sectors. She worked extensively with Ministers, department and agency leaders, and heads of jurisdiction across the Victorian public sector and nationally. Penny conducted several seminal reviews including the Youth Justice Review and Strategy: Meeting Needs and Reducing Offending review co-authored by Professor Jim Ogloff, and was chair of the Independent Inquiry into the Environment Protection Authority.
Penny has been on many state and national boards and is currently on the Board of Orygen Youth Mental Health Service. Until October 2022 she was the inaugural Chair of the Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee for Victoria. Penny has previously been the Chair of the Transport Accident Commission Board and President of the Board of Berry Street, an independent family services organisation, and she was the National President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia. Penny was awarded a AM in the 2020 Queens Birthday honours in recognition of her significant service to public administration and to the community.
Sue Williams
RN. ICU cert, Bach BusMgt, MBA, GAICD
Appointed 10 April 2019
Sue brings more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry to Forensicare. Currently, she is the Chief Executive at Cabrini Health, a major not-for-profit hospital and healthcare provider. She has a Bachelor of Business Management, and Master of Business Administration from Monash University, as well as an Advanced Management Program at Harvard University. Her previous roles include the Director of Nursing at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Chief Operating Officer of 44 hospitals at Healthscope, and Chief Executive Officer of Peninsula Health, where she managed over 5000 staff across 12 sites.
Ian Forsyth
B.Ec., GAICD
Appointed 17 September 2019
Ian has extensive leadership experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors, including the media, health, finance, insurance, IT, and the arts. He began his career as a journalist and has held a range of senior executive positions including Deputy Chief Executive, WorkSafe Victoria, and Managing Director, Norwich Union Life Australia.
Ian is also a Board Director for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Ambulance Victoria and the Emergency Services Foundation.
Frances Sanders
Appointed 18 February 2020
Frances has held a wide range of senior management and executive positions across the mental health and human services sector for more than 25 years. She is currently the CEO of Nightlife Disability Services. With strong skills in service design, change management and project management, she is an expert in helping organisations develop their strategic capacity to deliver consumer and carer-centric services. She has most recently worked within the Department of Health and in complex mental health forensic services; where she is known for her professional, academic, and personal lived experience lens in supporting families and carers, co-design and enabling consumer and carer input into decision making and governance.
Allison Smith
B.Acc., CA, GAICD
Appointed 1 July 2021
Allison Smith is an experienced non-executive director and a results oriented executive. She has held senior retail, merchandise, marketing, supply chain and finance roles in international and Australian organisations.
Allison specialises in growth and value creation agendas and has significant experience in CFO and management consulting roles. Allison is also the Deputy Chair at Peninsula Health as well as the Chair of the Finance Committee. Allison is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of chartered Accountants and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Dr Angela Williams
Appointed 5 July 2022
Dr Angela Williams is a Senior Forensic Physician at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and chairs the Faculty of Clinical Forensic Medicine at the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Dr Williams holds Board appointments with OzChild, Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority, Post Sentence Authority and Eastern Health, and serves as a sessional member of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal and Football Victoria Tribunal. She is both a medical practitioner and a lawyer who holds Masters degrees in Public Health, Business Administration, Forensic Medicine and Health Management.
Shaun Braybrook ACM
For the past 21 years, Shaun has been working in the corrections system, specifically with Koori men. For the past 15 years, he has been the General Manager of the Wulgunggo Ngalu Learning Place in Gippsland, which is a voluntary live-in facility that provides Koori men, on a Community Correction Order (CCO), with an important opportunity to learn new skills, reconnect with, or further strengthen, their culture and participate in programs and activities to help them address their offending behaviour. It was officially opened in September 2008. Under Shaun’s management, in 2011 Wulgunggo Ngalu Learning Place won an International Prison and Correctional Award in the area for Community Correction for its innovative approach in work with men on correctional orders.
Shaun has been a director of the Yarram and District Health Service for 11 years, with the last two years being Board Chair. Shaun in 2001 was elected to ATSIC’s Tumbukka Regional Council and was Deputy Chair from 2003 – 2005. Shaun has also been a director of the Aboriginal Housing Board of Victorian 2003-2005.
Shaun was the recipient of the prestigious Australian Corrections Medal (ACM) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, which was announced on the June 2019
Shaun has an unwavering belief that Aboriginal cultural identity is a strength, protective factor, and crucial building block in our community’s development. He has a deep commitment to social justice and to ensuring Aboriginal people have opportunities to achieve and excel– and he works tirelessly to ensure that even the most disadvantaged members of our community get this opportunity.
Professor Suresh Sundram
MBBS MMed FRANZCP PhD
Appointed 30 May 2023
Professor Suresh Sundram is Chair and Head, Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University, Director of Research, Mental Health Program, Monash Health, and Clinical Director, Cabrini Outreach, Melbourne. At Monash University, Prof Sundram heads the Translational Molecular Psychiatry research group, which aims to develop novel, disease-modifying treatments for psychotic disorders, particularly schizophrenia, using a broad translational approach.
He has been involved for two decades in asylum seeker mental health. Prof Sundram is an expert consultant on asylum seeker and refugee mental health to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has advised the: UN; UN Human Rights Council; Australian Human Rights Commission; national governments including Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, Nauru and Papua New Guinea; and numerous non-government organisations (NGOs).
Prof Sundram has established pro bono health services for asylum seekers, most recently with Cabrini, the Cabrini Asylum Seeker and Refugee Health Hub providing primary care and specialist mental health services in the state of Victoria.
He has published and presented nationally and internationally his research work in the mental health of asylum seekers and refugees with multiple national and international collaborators. He also serves on the executive committee of the World Psychiatric Association Section on Developing Countries, and is former deputy editor of the Asian Journal of Psychiatry.
Matthew Corbett
Appointed 12 September 2023
Matthew has over 30 years of experience in executive, program and project leadership roles in the not-for-profit and private sectors, including Alcohol & Other Drugs (AOD) services, the arts, media, finance and telecommunications. He found his calling though, when he had the opportunity to volunteer in a peer support role, and started working in a designated lived experience role not long after. He has since combined these broader leadership skills and experience with his own lived experience of AOD and Mental Health in his current role as Manager – Lived Experience Workforce at the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC). He is passionate about engaging with and serving the lived and living experience community, and developing lived experience as a fundamental component in all relevant areas in the AOD and Mental Health sectors. Matthew was previously an independent adviser on the Forensicare Board’s Quality and Safety sub-committee.
James Lavery
Appointed 25 June 2024
James is an experienced public sector senior executive, government management consultant, and lawyer. He is a governance expert and specialises in public
administration.
James also has significant experience leading large groups of people in times of complexity and change. He has worked within, and for, the public sector nationally and at a state level for over two decades. He was a senior executive in the Victorian infrastructure and transport portfolios for 10 years, including as a senior executive board member and general counsel for the Department of Transport.
James has also been a director of KPMG’s national government management consulting practice. There he assisted governments and agencies, nationally and internationally, with
key policy and regulatory reform, organisational and strategic issues, particularly in the justice and health and human services portfolios.
Before moving into government, James practised in health law as a senior associate at Phillips Fox Lawyers.
Board Committees
Four committees support the Board to fulfil its responsibilities. Each committee reports to the Board, and membership includes some non-Board members.
Quality and Safety Committee
The Quality and Safety Committee plays a key role in ensuring effective clinical governance by providing leadership and advice to the Board in the assessment and evaluation of the safety and quality of Forensicare’s clinical services.
Audit and Risk Committee
The Audit and Risk Committee’s role is to assist the Board to fulfil its corporate governance and oversight responsibilities in relation to Forensicare’s financial reporting, internal control structure, legal and regulatory compliance, risk management systems, and the internal and external audit functions.
Finance Committee
The Finance Committee’s role is to assist the Board to fulfil its financial governance responsibilities including compliance with the requirements of the Financial Management Act 1994 and the Standing Directions under that Act issued by the Minister for Finance. The Committee oversees and advises the Board on annual budgeting, financial management and performance, and monitoring of capital expenditure and progress of major capital works.
People and Remuneration Committee
The People and Remuneration Committee oversees and advises the Board on the effectiveness of Forensicare’s people-related policies, frameworks and strategies to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of employees as well as a positive, healthy and productive workplace culture, and helps the Board fulfil its responsibilities in relation to the performance, remuneration and success of the Chief Executive Officer and the Executive.
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