Our weekly appointments wrap includes Janelle Marr, Barry Sargeant, Chris Melsom, Libby Lyons, Damon Sugden, Kate O’Hara, Anjie Brook, Joe Scurria, Michelle Keegan, Michael Morgan, Melissa Roberts and Sandhya Buchanan.
Janelle Marr will be the new chair and president of the Burswood Park Board, replacing Barry Sargeant, who has been chair for 28 years. Ms Marr is the managing director of Step Beyond Strategy and was recently appointed as a board member of Tourism WA. Chris Melsom, a director of urban planning firm Urbis, has also been appointed to board.
Chief Executive Women has hired Libby Lyons as state chair. Most recently, Ms Lyons was working on the east coast as director of the Australian Workplace Gender Equality Agency. Before this appointment, she worked as head of corporate affairs at BHP. She is chair of the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council and Science in Australia Gender Equity.
Damon Sugden is now a principal and shareholder of West Perth-based wealth management firm Capital Partners Private Wealth Advisers. Mr Sugden joined the business in 2011 as a technical adviser before being promoted to wealth adviser in July 2017. Before becoming a wealth advisor, Mr Sugden spent a decade as a performance artist at Burn the Dance Floor.
Kate O'Hara is joining Foodbank WA as its chief executive. Ms O’Hara has experience in advertising, public relations, marketing, and management, and has held roles at companies including The Shorter Group, The Capital Group and Hawaiian. She also created Intersect Communications. Most recently, Ms O’Hara has focused on leading two digital startups in digital communications: The Influencer Agency and Daisy Chains.
Anjie Brook has been appointed WA general manager at The Smith Family. Mr Brook was most recently the chief executive of the Western Australian Aboriginal Leadership Institute. She was worked in education and the not-for-profit sector supporting indigenous communities and young people experiencing disadvantage, including a secondment as principal policy adviser to WA’s education minister.
Joe Scurria will head the new Bunbury office of McWilliams Davis Lawyers, after working at the firm for the past two years. Mr Scurria worked in Bunbury for the two decades at his own firm Joe Scurria & Associates and at Avon Legal before joining McWilliams Davis Lawyers.
The Australian Remote Operations for Space and Earth consortium had appointed Michelle Keegan to the role of program director. Ms Keegan has more than 20 years of mining industry experience and joins AROSE from her previous position as program director technology development and leader of the Next Generation Mine Innovation Program at South32. She had previously worked for companies including Incitec Pivot and Dyno Nobel.
IFAP has appointed Michael Morgan as its managing director. A recently trained lawyer, Mr Morgan previously worked at Kott Gunning Lawyers as a consultant. Prior to this he worked as practice leader, workplace risk, western region, a managing partner of RiskLink and at Pfizer.
Talga Group had hired Melissa Roberts as its chief financial officer. Ms Roberts had more than 20 years’ experience in the resources sector in corporate and commercial roles, most recently with mineral producer Iluka Resources where she worked in positions including commercial manager mineral sands operations and chief information officer. She has previously worked at Rider Hunt International in Scotland and Wesfarmers.
Sandhya Buchanan has joined SUDA Pharmaceuticals as its vice president of manufacturing and quality for its newly acquired iNKT cell therapy platform. Most recently, Dr Buchanan worked at Atara Biotherapeutics as chemistry manufacturing and control technical lead for autologous CAR-T programs and head of viral vector development. She has also held senior roles at Torque Therapeutics, now Repertoire Immune Medicines, and FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies.
