Our Board

DR MARIA HARRIES AM Chairperson of the Board

Maria Harries has worked for 35 years in practice, policy, research and management positions in mental health, acute health, family violence, education and child and family welfare. For the last 15 years she has been a teacher and researcher at the University of Western Australia. She chairs and/or sits on a number of Boards and Committees in Western Australia that are associated with health and welfare services and church ministry.

DIANNE BIANCHINI

Dianne Bianchini has over twenty years of experience in the health and welfare sector as a social worker, manager and director in health reform.She has been involved in not for profit Boards and the Professional Standards Committee of the Catholic church. Her post graduate qualifications reflect her interest in health administration and collaborative practice across sectors. She has had a long association with the Catholic community in Perth.

MAUREEN COLGAN

Maureen Colgan has worked on a variety of Boards and Committees including the Inaugural Aquinas College Board, UNDA Board of Governors, UNDA Ethics Committee, Cathedral Restoration and Completion Appeal, and currently Chairs the MercyCare Ethics Committee. In 1997 she organized and accompanied 40 Former Child Migrants (now called the Forgotten Generation) on a “Sentimental Journey”, back to their land of birth to visit the orphanages in which they had lived prior to being sent to Australia.

KEITH GEERS

Prior to co-founding Geers Sullivan in March 2003, Keith was a Senior Partner of Geers & Pusey Partners (GPP), a firm he co-founded in 1981, which grew to a multi-disciplined practice employing up to 50 People. Keith has over 25 years of experience in the Accounting Profession, holds a Bachelor of Business from Curtin University, is a Fellow of CPA Australia, a Commissioner of Declarations, a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Company Secretaries and a Member of the Institute of Company Directors. In addition to being a Mercy Board Member, Keith also holds a number of other directorships in Perth.

SR ADELE HOWARD RSM 

Sr Adele is the Director of Fraynework Multimedia which specialises in assisting organisations to identify and communicate their values and their purpose through digital media. Fraynework produces the online educational and development resources to invite engagement with the mission of these organisations. Adele is a Sister of Mercy whose Christian theology of communication forms the basis of the fraynework vision and is viewed as a contemporary means to engage in effective social transformation for action for justice and for providing resources, stories and spaces for spiritual nourishment. Adele worked as a teacher in schools and then at Australian Catholic University, lecturing in the areas of Theology, Spirituality and Australian Studies.

MARK MCKENNA 

Mark McKenna is an is a Medical Practitioner with specialist training in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Reproductive Endocrinology. He has had a particular interest in Medical Education and has worked at the Universities of Melbourne, Western Australia and Notre Dame Australia. He is currently Deputy Vice Chancellor and Provost of the Fremantle Campus of Notre Dame. He is Chair of the Medical Quality Committee at St John of God Murdoch and is a member of the Western Australian Medical Board and the new national Medical Board of Australia. His family have a long association with MercyCare, his father having advised the group in the past, his mother having been educated by the Mercy sisters, his youngest sister having been cared for as an infant at the Catherine McCauley centre, and his grandparents having had aged care through Mercy organisations.

MICHAEL REUTENS 

Michael Reutens has been in general management and technical positions over 25 years within the petrochemical and industrial services sector in Australia and overseas. For the last 10 years, before retiring in 2002, he was CEO of MercyCare Ltd and, previously, of Mercy Community Services Inc. He currently sits on a number of Boards and Committees associated with the Catholic Archdiocese and not-for-profit aged care and welfare organisations.

MAURICE SPILLANE

Maurice Spillane graduated in Law in Ireland in 1978 and practised there for 10 years before coming to Perth with his family in 1988. Since then, Maurice has practised in the areas of medical law, professional indemnity, planning and local government law with commercial law firms in Perth until January 2005 when he was appointed a full-time member of the State Administrative Tribunal. Maurice has been the chair of the Ethics Committee at Princess Margaret Hospital and the Telethon Institute for Child Health since 1996 and served as the President of the Kids Cancer Support Group for a number of years. He is also a member of the Child Health Research and Education Advisory Council.

TONY WHEELER

Tony Wheeler worked for 41 years in Banking, rising to the position of State Manager Lending with Westpac in WA, prior to his retirement in January 2001. Since leaving permanent employment he has found the time to increase and diversify his involvement with church related activities in general and MercyCare in particular, the latter stemming from a close relationship which commenced when he joined the Advisory Board of Mercedes College in 1990. He chairs and sits on Boards and Committees related to the Perth Archdiocese, the Bunbury Diocese, Parish and Religious Congregations, is involved with Catholic Health at a national level and also works with the Church Tribunal Office, assisting in marriage cases.