Board of Directors

Chairman – Helen Argiris, BCom (UNSW), FCA, MAICD

Appointed as Chairman in 2015. Helen is a Tax & Advisory Partner with BDO Australia. With a career spanning over 25 years in general tax advisory and accounting services, Helen works with private business, fast-growing start-ups and subsidiaries of multinationals. Clients seek her expertise in management, external reporting, financial analysis, and tax and regulatory compliance. Throughout her career, Helen has held positions on numerous Boards, including a number of NFPs, as independent director or external advisor. Helen chairs the Strategy and Nominations & Remuneration Committees.

Lucinda Regan – BEc LLB (Syd) Graduate Diploma Applied Finance and Investment (FINSIA, formerly SIA).

Following a successful career in the legal industry as a senior lawyer with Corrs Chambers Westgarth (which included an 18 month secondment to SOCOG in preparation for the Sydney Olympic Games), Lucinda focused on her commercial career, working in the banking, and then property and construction industry. During her time at Deutsche Bank and Walter Construction Group she gained extensive commercial experience in risk strategy, project commercial analysis, budgeting and project delivery, rising to senior leadership positions. During this time, she gained a strong reputation for her strategic and negotiation skills, as well as her ability to see projects to completion.

Lucinda lives and works locally, having also attended high school in Rose Bay.

Diana Ferner

Diana is a Director at Social Ventures Australia where she works with boards and leadership teams across the social sector to navigate their most pressing challenges, providing critical expertise in the areas of strategy, operating model design, impact measurement, and M&A. She brings extensive domestic and international experience working in strategy and operational roles across the corporate, non-profit, and public sectors.

Emma Hunt – BA Econ, (USyd), MIRel (USyd)

Appointed in 2019, Emma is a senior executive and entrepreneurial leader with more than twenty years of strategy expertise across the Financial services, Telecommunications and Retail sectors. Emma not only brings a wealth of knowledge and experience working in multinational and ASX listed businesses, consistently focusing on technology creating new business models, she is also a member of our Playgroup community. Emma is also a member of the Audit & Risk Committee.

Karn Nelson BA (UCL) YMP (INSEAD)

Appointed in 2017, Karn is Executive GM, Strategic Policy and Research at aged care provider, the Whiddon Group. Karn has wide experience as a brand strategist working in Australia and internationally with strategic marketing and creative services agencies. She is passionate about arts and health and about enabling older people to stay connected to the things that matter to them and to continue to participate, contribute and be valued in society. She is a member of the Social Impact Committee.

Tess Protey BA Med (UNSW), GradDipMgmt (USQ)

Appointed in 2015, Tess has been working with people who have intellectual disabilities for about 23 years, including 8 years at Holdsworth in the 1990s. Prior to that she was a teacher in several high schools, both government and private, and also taught in the TAFE system. Tess returned to Holdsworth for a year after a 10 year stint as a Team Manager at Junction House when the two organisations merged in 2014. Tess is a member of the Social Impact Committee.

Lyn Ainsworth MStrat HRM (UOW), BA, LLB (Syd)

Appointed in 2018. Lyn has worked for more than 16 years in executive leadership roles in the not-for-profit disability sector focusing on building culture, leading change and innovation initiatives including nine years at House with No Steps as Head of Strategy, Excellence and Innovation. Lyn is a lawyer by trade and also has significant human resource management expertise.

Andy Hobbs LLB (University of Reading), Accounting Studies (ACCA)

Appointed in 2018. Andy is Director, Commercial Policy at NSW Treasury. Andy has more than twelve years of experience in the public sector – working for the UK national government in finance until 2016 and in the NSW Treasury since his move to Australia. Andy has considerable expertise in financial policy and strategy as well as a solid commitment to volunteering for grassroots community organisations, particularly in the mental health field.

Dr Allan Shell MB BS (UNSW), Grad Dip Public Health (UNSW)

For over 40 years Allan has lived and worked in our community, as a local GP in Rose Bay, and as a Director member of the Wolper Jewish Hospital in Woollahra. He is currently an Adjunct Senior Lecturer, in the Faculty of Medicine at UNSW, and over the past 10 years has been a lead facilitator for a national program in Dementia and Aged Care education.

More recently he has joined the Woollahra Council’s sponsored Dementia Alliance committee, to assist in the promotion of a more Dementia Friendly Community; and, has also been involved with Holdsworth Community and the Council in a number of dementia education and other community activities.

Newly appointed as a Director, he brings with him more than 20 years of NFP Public Company experience, having served and held a number of honorary officer positions on the Wolper’s Board of Management.