Volunteering Australia Appoints New CEO
22 August 2013 at 11:23 am
National peak body, Volunteering Australia (VA) has finally appointed a new Chief Executive Officer – more than twelve months after the organisation closed its Melbourne headquarters and moved to the national capital.
VA Board President, Paul Lynch, has named Brett Williamson as the new Chief Executive Officer for Volunteering Australia who will start on 1st of October, 2013.
Williamson is the former CEO of Surf Life Saving Australia who left the high profile post, along with a number of Board Members, in February after seven years in the job.
SLSA has one of Australia's largest volunteer bases with 310 clubs and some 150,000 members.
Volunteering Australia, closed the doors of its Melbourne headquarters at the end of June 2012 as part of a major restructuring of Volunteering Australia by its Board and the re-establishment of its operations in Canberra with a new and smaller team.
Acting Chief Executive Maureen Cane took on the caretaker position, in conjunction with her role as CEO of Volunteering ACT to enable a smooth transition for Volunteering Australia to its new location.
"After a detailed recruitment process, the board of Volunteering Australia is pleased to appoint Brett Williamson to the role,” President Paul Lynch said.
“Brett brings a great deal of experience in the Not for Profit sector, including with an organisation which relies heavily on the support of volunteers.”
“The appointment of a full time CEO, is the next stage in VA's journey, one that began early last year with the relocation of VA headquarters from Melbourne to Canberra,” Lynch said.
Acting CEO Maureen Cane says the organisation has almost finalised its new strategic and business plans for Volunteering Australia and the new CEO’s role will be to put those broad strategies in place and to promote and enhance volunteering in an energetic way.
“He will already have those new directions in place when he starts and his role will be to push them forward.”
The take-up of the new role will happen after the 15th National Conference on Volunteering – to be hosted by Volunteering SA&NT in Adelaide 4 – 6 of September.
Cane says Brett Williamson will be introduced as the new CEO at the start of the Conference.
In September 2014, VA will also host the 23rd International Association for Volunteer Effort (IAVE) World Volunteer Conference and Youth Forum.
