The Board is responsible for:
- providing strategic oversight to the financial and operational performance of eHealth NSW
- advising on business strategies to support greater efficiency and customer service and
- ensuring we use robust internal reporting, corporate governance and risk management frameworks and processes.
Damon Rees is a business leader focused on customer centricity, culture, digital enablement, and innovation, with more than twenty years of experience driving transformational change, organisational performance, and better customer outcomes.
Damon’s experience spans the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors including as the former CEO of Service NSW, inaugural Government Chief Information and Digital Officer for NSW Government, the Chief Digital Officer for Macquarie Group, the Chief Technology and Interim Chief Information Officer for Woolworths, and the Head of Integrated Delivery for Westpac. Damon is currently the Managing Principal & CEO at Better As Usual, Co-Founder of ServiceGen, and an independent Director on the Board of Ventia.
Damon was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2023, the Sir James Wolfhenson scholarship to study at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2018, completed a Global Executive MBA with the University of Sydney in 2011, and holds a Bachelor of Information Technology from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Wendy Hughes has an extensive background in public and private enterprise and has over 20 years of senior executive experience across a broad range of financial, corporate services and operational management roles.
In 2024, Wendy was appointed Chief Executive of HealthShare NSW, where she leads a statewide organisation of around 8,000 employees, the largest public sector shared services organisation in Australia. Under her leadership, HealthShare NSW is working to mature its service models by working in partnership with NSW Health agencies to provide equitable, value for money services across the state that improve outcomes for patients, hospitals and the environment.
Prior to joining HealthShare NSW, Wendy was the National Chief Operating Officer at Calvary Health Care. Throughout her career she has also held a range of leadership roles within NSW Health including Acting Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Secretary, Financial Services and Asset Management, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Director, System Relationships and Frameworks and Director, Performance Support Office. She was also the Director, Finance and Corporate Services at Northern Sydney Central Coast Area Health Service.
Wendy holds a Bachelor of Business and is a Fellow of CPA Australia.
Vanessa Janissen has spent over 20 years in healthcare both in public and private settings with a deep commitment to serving the community and the strategic pursuit of better outcomes for the people we care for.
As Chief Executive of NSW Health Pathology, she is leading Australia’s largest public pathology and forensic science service. Employing more than 5000 people, NSW Health Pathology performs over 100,000 clinical and scientific investigations each day across 60 laboratories and 150-plus collection centres.
Prior to returning to NSW Health Pathology, Vanessa held a number of leadership positions at Calvary Healthcare, most recently as the National Director, Strategy and Service Development leading their strategic growth across hospital, aged care, community and virtual care services. This included the commissioning of innovative hospital developments, a groundbreaking joint venture partnership in virtual care across Australia and the due diligence and integration of a large ASX listed aged care acquisition.
During Vanessa's earlier tenure with NSW Health Pathology, she was the Executive Director of Strategy and Clinical Services Transformation between 2013 and 2019 helping to establish and lead NSW Health Pathology in its formative years. Prior to that she held multiple strategic and operational roles in Hunter New England Local Health District.
Matthew is the Deputy Secretary of the System Sustainability and Performance Division at the Ministry of Health. Prior to his current role, Matthew was an Independent Consultant predominantly supporting the Health & Not For Profit Sectors, and Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Business, as well as Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Faculty of Health Services at the University of Tasmania. He has also held a Group Executive position in Financial Services with a major Corporate.
For over 30 years, he has held operational, executive and strategic management positions in NSW and Tasmania at CEO and Head of Agency levels in the delivery of acute, primary and community health services. Working across Commonwealth and State Government departments and ministerial level positions, he has been responsible for supporting the implementation of programs to improve health outcomes.
Dr Nigel Lyons has over 35 years’ experience in the NSW Health system as a clinician, manager and executive.
He is currently a part time Specialist Advisor to the Executive of NSW Health, having transitioned from the role of Deputy Secretary, Health System Strategy and Planning, a position he held for the previous 7 years. In that role Nigel was responsible for strategic health policy development, inter-jurisdictional negotiations and funding strategies, system-wide planning of health services including mental health and setting the direction for child and family health policy.
During the COVID pandemic Nigel established and Chaired the NSW COVID clinical council and was responsible for leading the PPE policy, practice and system risk assessment processes with strong alignment with infection prevention and control and public health experts.
Nigel has had extensive experience as a leader in NSW Health with previous appointments including Chief Executive of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and Chief Executive of Hunter New England Area Health Service.
Dr Lyons has been actively involved during his career in many other roles which demonstrate a commitment to postgraduate education, rural health and clinical service improvement at regional, state and national level. He has been a member of the National 10 year Primary Health Care Strategy Steering Committee and also the state and territory nominee on the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce. He has held many Board appointments relating to healthcare during his career.
Sami is a technology executive and managing director with over 35 years’ experience at a variety of industries spanning multiple continents as a CIO, MD, Executive Coach and a Consultant. Sami’s qualifications include Bachelor of Computer Engineering, MBA, master’s degree on Quality Management and AICD Company Directors Certificate.
Before he was with Bupa for 17 years, part of Bupa APAC’s executive team as APAC CIO and the interim Managing Director for the Health Services Businesses consists of 4 large healthcare businesses as well as a digital health business.
Sami is currently on HBF Health Insurance’s Board, a large college board and strategic advisory boards of Optus, Deakin university Cyber Security, YourTown Digital sub-committee and various community working groups. He was named as #1, Australian CIO of the 2022 by CIO50. Sami is also consulting and advising some businesses and their boards on their transformation programs as well as coaching many CIOs/Executives, middle level managers and their teams.
Kelly is a highly accomplished technology executive with more than 27 years of international experience leading large-scale digital, technology, data, cloud and transformation initiatives across a range of industries including healthcare, telecommunications, energy, mining and professional services. She has held senior executive and Chief Information Officer roles with organisations including EY, BHP, Telstra, Origin Energy, Nine Network, Philips and Microsoft.
Most recently, Kelly served as Senior Partner and Head of TechOps Managed Services for EY APAC, following her role as Group Technology Officer and CIO at BHP, where she was responsible for enterprise technology strategy and operations supporting more than 80,000 employees and contractors globally. Throughout her career, she has led significant cloud, data, cybersecurity, AI and business transformation programs, while delivering substantial operational efficiencies and business value.
Kelly is recognised for her strategic leadership, ability to lead complex change, and strong focus on developing high-performing teams and creating lasting organisational value. In addition to her executive career, she has contributed extensively to the technology profession through advisory board appointments, mentoring and advocacy for women in technology.