About Us

Brian Cook

Brian was appointed Chair of the Barwon Health Board in July 2017. Brian is currently Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Geelong Football Club and is regarded by the industry as one of Australia's most respected sporting administrators. In his 18 years as CEO, Brian has overhauled the club's business operation, assisted in a dramatic turnaround of its financial situation, and has overseen the introduction of a raft of new initiatives including $200 million of redevelopments at Simonds Stadium. Geelong Football Club has, during Brian’s time as CEO, played in four grand finals and won three premierships in 2007, 2009 and 2011.

Prior to Brian’s employment as CEO of the Geelong Football Club, in 1999 he was CEO of the West Coast Eagles from 1990. During this time, the club won two premierships in 1992 and 1994 and generated over $24 million in profits.

In February 2008 Brian was awarded the 'Australian Sports Executive of 2007' by the Confederation of Australian Sport. Brian has also been awarded AFL Life Membership (2007), Geelong Football Club life membership (2008),the Eunice Gill Award for Services to Coaching at a National level (1994) and the Australian Sports Medal an award from the Prime Minister (2000).

Brian is an ambassador for Wombat's Wish, an organisation established to support bereaved children who lose a parent, and is a director of the Barwon Health Future Fund Foundation. In each of the past10 years, Brian has also completed solo the Rottnest Channel 20km swim from Cottesloe to Rottnest Island.

Brian believes the most challenging yet most rewarding part of his journey has been to initiate and then lead a value-based organisation.

Robyn Davis

Robyn has practised law since being admitted to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1987. She has a legal practice in Geelong and lives with her husband on the Bellarine Peninsula.

Robyn has extensive community interests. She is a member of Women in Community Life Advisory Committee to the Geelong Council; Board Member and former Chairperson of Barwon Centre Against Sexual Assault; Board Member and Secretary of Minerva Family Services. Robyn is also a volunteer legal advisor with Barwon Community Legal Service.

Robyn is a keen cyclist and is the co-ordinator of women’s recreational cycling at Geelong Cycling Club. She has a long held interest in governance, Aboriginal art, women and the law and South East Asian cultures.

Michael Feehan

Michael was appointed to the Board of Barwon Health in July 2016.  He was formerly a director of Western Health and of Inner East Melbourne Medicare Local and Melbourne East GP Network. He also served for seven years as vice president of the Western Bulldogs.

Michael is currently a business management consultant specialising in strategy development and stakeholder communications. He had previously held a number of senior management positions at Orica Ltd, including business and operational general management roles and head of Corporate Affairs. He was also formerly the Chief Operating Officer for Slater and Gordon Lawyers.

Michael and his wife Chris have recently made the move to the Bellarine Peninsula and are enjoying getting involved in their new local community.

Virginia Todd

Virginia has 17 years’ experience working across five departments in the Victorian Public Service. She has worked both centrally and in regions in strategic land use planning, the community services sector, youth programs and on community strengthening programs. Virginia also has an extensive history in service redevelopment of human services programs including foster care, residential based care and family support services.

Virginia has experience in local government having been both an elected representative and senior manager. She was the former Geelong West Council in 1985 and served as Mayor from 1991 to 1993 up until regional Councils were amalgamated. She was Manager of Human Services at Moorabool Shire Council for five years.

In 2008 and 2013 Virginia undertook overseas assignments through Australian Business Volunteers to advise Non Government Organisations in Cambodia with strategic planning and policy development.

Currently, Virginia is a Senior Project Manager in Regional Development Victoria, Department of Economic Development, Jobs Transport and Resources. In this role, Virginia has brokered and managed 53 projects with total project value of around $113 million in the City of Greater Geelong.

Virginia holds an Executive Masters in Public Administration (EMPA), Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) Monash University.

Jason Trethowan

Jason commenced as Chief Executive Officer at headspace, the National Youth Mental Health Foundation in January 2017.

Jason has spent most of his career in the health sector where he has been driven by a passion to improve health services and access to care for all Australians. Before beginning at headspace he spent 18 months as CEO of the Western Victoria Primary Health Network and held previous CEO roles from 2007 with the General Practitioner’s Association of Geelong and Barwon Medicare Local.

Jason is involved in many national health system networks and is a member of the Victorian government’s Mental Health Expert Taskforce. He has held Director positions with the Committee for Geelong, the G21 Geelong Regional Alliance and currently serves on the Board of a new not for profit entity Professionals with Alzheimer’s (PALZ) Limited.

Jason holds a Masters in Business Administration from Deakin University and has completed graduate degrees in Health Informatics and Health Information Management at Monash University and La Trobe University. Jason lives in Geelong with his wife and three young children, and is an active member of the local community.

Christine Leahy

Christine is a people and culture executive with over 15 years of experience in a range of operational and strategic roles across the globe. Christine has experience across many sectors including Pharmaceuticals, FMCG, Financial Services and Oil & Gas. She is currently the Head of People and Culture for the Corval Group.

Christine spent seven years working in Healthcare with GlaxoSmithKline and played an instrumental role in the creation of Global Centres of Excellence for Vaccines, Respiratory, Neuroscience, Oncology and HIV. Christine was also a member of the management team for the European Critical Diseases Business Unit.

Christine is also the Co-founder and Director of Music With Mates, a not for profit organisation helping new migrants in Melbourne settle in and make new friends through live music.

Having spent many years living in Italy, in 2013 Christine established a business in Tuscany providing boutique day tours across the region.

Christine is married with two young children and loves live music and travelling.

Professor Brendan Crotty

Brendan was appointed Foundation Head of the Deakin School of Medicine in 2006. In this role he was responsible for the development and delivery of the Deakin medical course, which is designed to equip graduates with the skills needed to practise in rural and regional Australia.

From 2011 to 2019, he was Executive Dean of Deakin University’s Faculty of Health, overseeing a significant expansion in teaching and research.

He trained in general medicine and gastroenterology and has extensive experience in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

Jennifer Williams

Jennifer holds a number of Board positions including being the Chair of Northern Health, the Chair of Yooralla and is a Director of InfoXchange, Barwon Health and the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority. She also Chairs the Alfred Whole Time Medical Specialist Trust and is a member of the Board of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board.

She has extensive experience in the health sector having been the Chief Executive of Australian Red Cross Blood Service for seven years, the Chief Executive of Alfred Health for five years and before that, Chief Executive of Austin Health for seven years.​

Professor Edward Janus

Edward graduated MB ChB from Otago University New Zealand and subsequently MD (Otago) with distinction for research on genetic causes of emphysema. Edward obtained his PhD in London studying lipoprotein metabolism in familial lipid disorders.

He was previosuly Consultant Physician, Christchurch New Zealand 1978-1984 and Director of Biochemistry at St Vincent’s Melbourne 1984 - 1992. Edward worked in Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997 as Professor in Clinical Biochemistry at Queen Mary Hospital and University of Hong Kong and conducted the Hong Kong Cardiovascular Risk Factor study which still continues. From 1997-1999, he was Head of Clinical Biochemistry at Women’s and Children’s Network and from 2000-2006 Consultant Physician Wimmera Health, Horsham.Previously, Edward was Chairman of World Heart Foundation Council on Arteriosclerosis and recently retired from the position of Head of General Internal Medicine at Western Health held 2006-2018.

Edward continues to have extensive and ongoing involvement in rural health research through Flinders/Deakin University Department of Rural Health, based in Warrnambool. He is currently Honorary Clinical Professor in Department of Medicine University of Melbourne, Director of Research at Western Health and is President of the Australian Centre for Heart Health in Melbourne. He is Founder Secretary and subsequent president of Asian Pacific Society of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Diseases.

Edward has over 250 publications and his research interests are the epidemiology and prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and in translating research into practice in the real world.

Stephen Elder OAM

Stephen Elder was appointed to the Barwon Health Board in December 2019 after a distinguished career in politics, local government and educational administration. He was a member of the Victorian Parliament from 1988 to 1999, serving as Parliamentary Secretary for Education from 1993 to 1999. Stephen went on to serve as the Executive Director of Catholic Education Melbourne and the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria until 2019.

Stephen has also served in a wide variety of governance roles, including the Senate of the Australian Catholic University, the Deakin University Council, the Board of Mercy Health Foundation, the Board of the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority, Director/Company Secretary of Catholic Capital Grants, the Board of Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership and Member of the Ministerial Deregulation Advisory Council. He also holds an appointment as Adjunct Professor at The Australian Catholic University

In 2016, Stephen was awarded an Order of Australia for services to the Victorian community. He and his family live at Barwon Heads.