MBA, Grad Dip Applied Science, RN, GAICD, Certified Chair

Cynthia Payne has more than 30 years of executive leadership experience successfully achieving three Business Excellence awards (Silver and two Golds) in her capacity as CEO of a for-profit Sydney-based aged care organisation. In addition to this Cynthia has over 20 years as a Director on both NFP and FP boards. Cynthia founded Anchor Excellence in September 2018 since its inception Anchor has impacted over 40% of the Australian aged care market (residential and home care) via its programs, solutions, policies and education.

Passionate about leaders, supporting and enabling them and consumers’ lived experience, Cynthia and the twenty-strong Anchor Excellence team together have a formidable level of expertise and commitment to the entire aged care ecosystem.

Cynthia holds an MBA, Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing. She is a Cert IV qualified Yoga teacher (800HrRYT) and certified practitioner of Balanced Scorecard, TMS and Board Advisory Chair. She is a seasoned public speaker and MC. She is MAICD, a Fellow of the Governance Institute Australia and a long-term member of the Australian College of Nursing and a Fellow of the Manager and Leaders Institute. Cynthia is a Board adviser to Total (2019 – current), Board advisor to PainChek (2022-current) and past NED for the National Heart Foundation (2017-2021) as well as a current Independent review panel member for Business Excellence Australia.

MBA, Grad Dip Admin, RN, GAICD

Romy Baker has had a career at the senior executive level of the health industry with a strong record of accomplishment in a range of health-related roles in the private and public sectors.  As Chief Executive of one of the largest private hospitals in Australia, St John of God Subiaco, Romy led the organisation through a major building redevelopment and financial and corporate reorganisation.  Her unique combination of business acumen, strategic leadership skills, project management, and nursing have also been utilised in planning, designing, developing, and establishing general practice medical centres. 

Prior to this, she oversaw the building of a research institute and project managed the amalgamation of four leading research centres, creating a major national research institute, Westmead Millennium Institute, Sydney, NSW. Romy has consulted to many health-related organisations.

Romy is passionate about the principles and methodologies that can be used to achieve sustainable business improvement outcomes.  She has special interests in business compliance and is an experienced evaluator with the Australian Business Excellence Foundation (ABEF) and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). 

Founder and Director, Thrive35

Ravi is a leading specialist assisting organisations to improve performance through the implementation and adoption of Excellence Models (ABEF, EFQM), Improvement Methodologies (Lean, Six Sigma, PDSA, Balanced Scorecard, Systems Thinking) and Tools (Promapp, Nintex, UIPath). He leverages his background in management systems, operating model alignment and process improvement to deliver rapid and sustainable results to his clients while maintaining a focus on sustainable performance. He works with clients from diverse sectors ranging from aged care, through government to resources.

With organisations needing to pivot their business models, Ravi is passionate in his belief that a focus on Excellence and Innovation is of critical importance. He founded Thrive Plus to realise his passion. Ravi also works as a non-executive Director of the Australian Organisation for Quality and Business Excellence Australia to increase awareness of Excellence Models and Quality Management Systems among government and the business community. Although his current focus remains on Australia, Ravi also contributes to the promotion or Excellence globally through his participation in the Global Excellence Council and the ASQ Organisational Excellence Technical Committee.

Judge and Examiner Trainer, AHCA/NCAL Quality Award Program

Paul Grizzell of Core Values Partners is a leadership coach who helps his clients focus, align, and accelerate their improvement efforts through effective deployment of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and other excellence models.  Much of his work is focused on helping mission-focused organizations implement effective practices that lead to high performance and improved results. 

Paul has been a thought leader regarding performance excellence in long-term care through his affiliation with the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) Quality Award program.  He has been a Judge for the Gold Level of the AHCA/NCAL Award program for ten years and trains Senior and Master Examiners for the program. He has provided Bronze, Silver, and Gold application writing workshops to state AHCA/NCAL affiliates and presented on Quality Award topics at AHCA/NCAL Conventions.

He has helped several AHCA/NCAL Gold and Silver Award recipients accelerate their performance excellence journeys. His focus is always on helping an organization be deserving of an award rather than writing a winning award application.

Paul has been involved with Baldrige-based performance improvement since 1997.  He is a Master Examiner on the Baldrige Award Board of Examiners where has led multiple site visits and trained Baldrige Examiners.  He has also been a Judge for multiple state and regional quality award programs.  He is an Assessor, Licensed Advisor, and Licensed Trainer for the European Quality Award and the Foreign Evaluation Expert for the China Quality Award.  

Paul is a co-author with Mark Blazey of Insights to Performance Excellence, Using the Baldrige Framework and Other Integrated Management Systems, published by the American Society for Quality.

CEO Little Wings 

Clare is the CEO at Little Wings, a charity based at Bankstown Aerodrome and provides FREE air and ground transport for seriously ill children from regional and rural NSW, ultimately, providing access to life-saving medical treatment via the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network and John Hunter Children’s Hospital. 

Clare has dedicated her career to the not-for-profit sector; fulfilling roles as CEO in the anti-human trafficking and disability industries. Clare is a qualified psychologist, specialising in child and adolescent welfare, and passionate about working in community-based projects aimed at making a difference in the lives of children and their families.

Following her training, Clare worked in positions of senior leadership in both Australia and the United Kingdom, establishing new projects of purpose and developing, leading and inspiring teams in executing innovative programs in the areas of child protection, early intervention, disability and education. 

More recently, Clare authored a book titled, Threads of Hope, with the goal of celebrating the lives of human trafficking survivors. Ultimately, shining a light on the devastating scars humans have battled, the survivor stories of triumph and the incredible work, passion and intervention offered by Australians in creating change, raising the voice of those unable. 

Clare is a strong believer in the power of people, whereby a united effort can effect meaningful and significant change on a local and global level.