New appointments at Feros Care, Benevolent Society

Aged care provider Feros Care has appointed Queensland aged and community care organisation head Karen Crouch as incoming CEO.

Ms Crouch has been executive director of Anglicare Southern Queensland for eight years, leading 3,000 staff at over 60 sites to deliver residential aged care and community services including in the areas of disability retirement living, youth, families, mental health and wellbeing.

She has a background in clinical nursing, was one of the first nurse practitioners employed in Queensland and held several roles at Queensland Health including policy and practice lead in the Office of the Chief Nurse.

Ms Crouch was recruited following the resignation of Jennene Buckley, who stepped down as CEO at the end of June after 20 years in the role.

Ms Crouch has been instrumental in achieving significant growth in client numbers, revenue and scale at Anglicare Southern Queensland, Feros Care said in a statement.

The board has appointed Feros Care chief customer officer Melissa Simpson as acting CEO until Ms Crouch commences in September.

Lin Hatfield Dodds takes role at Benevolent Society

The Benevolent Society has appointed former Commonwealth public servant and aged care peak head Lin Hatfield Dodds as its incoming chief executive officer.

Ms Hatfield Dodds, who is Associate Dean at The Australia and New Zealand School of Government, has extensive experience in social policy, systems leadership, cross sector social innovation and operations.

She was deputy secretary of social policy in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 2016 to 2019 where she led advice to the Prime Minister on social policy issues and gender equality.

Prior to this, Ms Hatfield Dodds was national director of aged care peak body UnitingCare Australia from 2002 to 2016.

She has also served on several boards and government advisory bodies including as chair of the Australian Social Inclusion Board and president of the Australian Council of Social Service.

Benevolent Society chair Tim Beresford said it was clear to the board that Ms Hatfield Dodds had the right attributes to lead the organisation. 

“She is a strong systems leader and is highly-skilled in policy and regulation, which will be vital to our new integrated delivery approach across our child, youth and family, disability and ageing services,” Mr Beresford said.

“We have every confidence that Lin will build on The Benevolent Society’s momentum supporting thousands of Australians to live their life their way, by delivering first-rate services and advocating for their needs,” he said.

Ms Hatfield Dodds commences as CEO on 19 July. She replaces Jo Toohey, who announced her resignation in March after eight years as CEO.