The Board approves strategic directions, organisation structure, policies and implementation processes. Directors observe corporate governance principles and a code of conduct in keeping with the Corporations Act and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission governance standards.
All other Board committees support and report to the Board. It meets regularly and reports to the Members of the Company on whose behalf it makes decisions. The CEO is appointed by and reports to the Board.
(See our glossary of medical and professional acronyms for details of qualifications).
Board Members
Professor Jeremy Millar
Chair
BMedSci, MBChB, FRANZCR, FACPMed
Specialist Radiation Oncologist and Director of Radiation Oncology Research at Alfred Health. He is a Council member of the Faculty of Radiation Oncology, RANZCR, and a Professor in the Central Clinical School, Monash University He works in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Cancer Research Program, in cancer clinical quality registries. Jeremy was a non-Executive Director of Cancer Council Australia from 2015-2021, where he was the Board Deputy Chair from 2019-2021. Jeremy is a member and a past Chair of Cancer Council Victoria’s Clinical Network. He has also served as Director of the Southern Melbourne Integrated Cancer Service (2006-7). He was initially appointed to Cancer Council Victoria Board in 2013 and was appointed to the role of Chair on 31 October 2018.
Mrs Fiona Green
Deputy Chair
BCompSc, GAICD
Fiona has had a 30+ year career in technology, digital and business transformation. Fiona holds a number of Non-Executive Director, Board committee and Advisory roles, focussing on strategy, governance, risk, digital and cyber.
Mr David Gibbs, AM
BCom (Melb), FCA, FAICD, TEP
A business strategist and adviser, David has over 35 years' experience in business, sharpening his passion for Corporate Governance and the identification and management of risk. He’s a committed supporter for a number of community-based and youth organisations, including a foundation director of the Melbourne Community Foundation. David also served as the Chairman of the Victorian State Council of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand. Joining the Cancer Council Executive Committee in 2008, David continues in the role of Director and has been a member of the Company’s Finance, Risk & Audit Committee since 1 October 2015.
Professor Jane Visvader
BSc (Hons) PhD Adelaide
A scientist specialising in breast cancer research who works for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Professor Geoff Lindeman. She was a joint recipient of the GSK Award for Research Excellence for outstanding contribution to breast cancer research. Jane's most recent award is the 2014 Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal for Scientific Excellence in Biomedical & Health Sciences. She has been a Director since 2015.
Michele Williams
BA (Hons)
Michele is a General Counsel with over 20 years’ experience, in two leading global law firms, in-house at an international management investment company and in-house at an Australian manufacturing business with global clients. She has a long history of involvement with Cancer Council Victoria, serving on the Tuxedo Junction Ball committee since 2001. Michele is also the Chair of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee (FRAC).
Professor Gail Risbridger AM
PhD
Professor Gail Risbridger is a distinguished Professor at Monash University and also holds a secondary Professorial appointment at Melbourne University, Sir Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre leading programs and laboratories at both sites. Her multidisciplinary program is centred on using patient specimens to translate research discoveries to the clinic.
She trained at UCSF (Depts Anatomy and Urology) with Profs Gerry Cunha and Larry Baskin and as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, and studied cell differentiation and stem cell biology reporting the formation of human prostate by directed differentiation and embryonic stem cells. Applying this approach to cancer tissues, she has created one of the world's largest cohorts of prostate cancer PDXs to underpin her research discoveries and their translation. This is a significant advance for a field hampered for decades by a paucity of models to generate and translate new knowledge. She established and is Chair of Melbourne Urological Research Alliance (MURAL) involving clinicians, researchers, and consumers/patients. MURAL contributes to the Movember Global Action Plan-1 PDX project that she led with 15 principal investigators across 7 countries.
In Australia, as a Federal Government appointed National Health & Medical Research Council Fellow, she reached the highest level of fellowship by demonstrating a record of world-class achievement in research, research translation expertise, vision, supervision and mentoring. As one of Australia's leading authorities in prostate cancer and men's health, she has >290 publications in elite journals (Science Translational Medicine, Nature Protocols, Nature Cancer Reviews, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, PNAS, European Urology). She also has supervised 65 students to completion, currently supervise 8, and has mentored 49 clinical/research Fellows. Professor Risbridger is also the Education Lead for a multinational $40M education consortium funded by the Australian Federal Government Training Centre. Her distinguished professorial achievements have resulted in Awards that include Australia Day 2023 Honours, Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, 4 renewals of NH&MRC Research Fellowships, Lifetime achievement & Senior Plenary Awards and was elected as a Lifetime Member of Endocrine Society of Australia, a Fellow of Society of Reproductive Biology & Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences.
Professor Ben Solomon
MBBS, PhD, FRACP
A medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, he is a Group Leader of the Molecular Therapeutics and Biomarkers Laboratory in the Research Division. He has an interest in translational lung cancer research and completed a PhD investigating the mechanisms by which EGFR inhibition enhance the effects of radiation, and undertook subsequent postdoctoral studies at the University of Colorado. Professor Solomon returned to Peter Mac in 2006, where he now practices as a medical oncologist with a research focus on clinical and translational research in lung cancer and head and neck cancer. His clinical trial work focuses on the identification of novel therapies for lung cancer.
Ms Jayne Dullard
BA (Hons), GAICD
Jayne is a strategic communications and engagement specialist. Following a 20-year career in journalism, including as Senior Producer of the Jon Faine program on ABC Radio, she has held roles as Chief Executive of national government and media relations firms, CPR Pty Ltd, and Executive Director Communications at The Royal Children's Hospital. Jayne established her own business in 2017, working in sectors including healthcare and tertiary education to help clients build reputation, embed change and lift performance. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and former Deputy Chair of Melbourne Writers Festival.
Professor Jon Emery
MBBCh MA DPhil FRACGP MRCGP
Prof Jon Emery is the Herman Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Primary Care Research and Education Lead. He is also Director of the Cancer Australia Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4), and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge. He studied medicine at Cambridge and Oxford, trained in general practice in Bath, and obtained his DPhil at Oxford on computer decision support to assess cancer risk in general practice. At the University of Melbourne, he leads a research program focused on the role of primary care across the cancer continuum including prevention, early diagnosis and survivorship, aiming to improve the integration of health services. He leads a parallel program of cancer research between Melbourne and Cambridge on cancer screening, risk assessment and early diagnosis. He sits on several national and international advisory committees related to cancer early detection and survivorship, and cancer research. He has worked closely with Cancer Council Victoria on several projects related to the early detection of cancer and has been a member of their clinical network since 2013.
Kathryn Bellion
BA, LLB, MBus (HR/IRM), MComm, GAICD
Kathryn is an executive HR practitioner, business and people leader. Having practised law early in her career, she realised her professional interest was to work with people and Kathryn has held a number of senior HR leadership roles in professional and financial services, and in health and medical research with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Victorian Clinical Genetics Services.
Kathryn’s non-executive director experience includes Holmesglen Institute where she is also the Chair of the People, Culture & Remuneration Committee, and with University College as Deputy President and Chair of the Scholarship Committee and member of the Governance Committee.
All Directors and Board committee members receive no remuneration for their services. They may be reimbursed for reasonable costs and expenses incurred in connection with Board and Board committee activities.