Board of Directors
SHPA is governed by a Board comprising seven elected directors and three appointed directors, supported by seven state and territory branches, Specialty Practice streams and other reference and advisory groups.
Board Executive
Tom Simpson
President
Tom Simpson is the Executive Director, Statewide Hospital Pharmacy Tasmania, and has held positions as Chair, Statewide Pharmacy Executive Committee, the Tasmanian Minister’s Health Council and the Pharmacy Board of Tasmania. Tom is a member of the SHPA Leadership and Management Specialty Practice Leadership Committee and holds a conjoint position as Senior Clinical Lecturer with the University of Tasmania School of Pharmacy. Tom was awarded 2018 Tasmanian Pharmacist of the Year and the 2019 SHPA Medal of Merit, recognising outstanding contribution to pharmacy practice locally and nationally.
Dr Kate O’Hara
Vice-President
Dr Kate O’Hara is the Lead Pharmacist for Women Youth and Children at the Canberra Hospital. Kate has a special interest in Neonatal pharmacy and conducts research in this area and is part of the SHPA Women’s and Newborn Health Leadership Committee. A Residency Program preceptor and ClinCAT evaluator, Kate is involved in a variety of teaching and training activities, with experience in clinical pharmacy, oncology pharmacy services, medicines information and compounding. Kate is also a member of the Pharmacy GRIT Editorial Committee.
Ramy Aziz
Treasurer
Ramy Aziz is an experienced non-executive director and senior executive with significant financial and governance experience. He has served as a director and chair of finance, audit and risk committees on ‘for-purpose’ organisations in the healthcare, education and finance sectors. Ramy brings finance, treasury, governance, strategy and general business acumen skills to the board and is Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Audit and Risk Management Committee of SHPA. Ramy’s prior executive career was primarily within the finance sector and included senior management and executive director roles with listed and private entities. Most recently, Ramy was a former Chief Financial Officer of ASX Ltd.
Olivia Rofe
Olivia Rofe is the Program Director – Pharmacy at Eastern Health, and has over 20 years of public hospital experience both in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has a Masters in Clinical Pharmacy, a Professional Certificate - Health Systems Management and is a Fellow of SHPA. One of the first SHPA clinCAT trained evaluators in Victoria, Olivia has supervised, mentored and/or overseen workforce training programs for more than 10 years. Olivia is passionate about putting patients/clients/consumers first and understanding their experience of services ‘in their shoes’, working with service users to optimise their experience and health outcomes. Other areas of interest include improving the delivery of clinical pharmacy services through developing diverse intergenerational workforces and harnessing the ongoing digitisation of workplaces to optimise health outcomes.
Paul Firman
Paul Firman is the Assistant Director of Pharmacy (Cancer Care Services) at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and the former Chair of the SHPA Queensland Branch (2018-21). A member of the SHPA General Medicine Leadership Committee, Paul has held a variety of pharmacist positions across practice settings and is dedicated to a thorough understanding of the profession and the important roles that practitioners have in the delivery of patient care.
Board of Directors
David Butt
David Butt has several decades’ experience as CEO and many more as an executive across the health system, in policy, planning, purchasing and providing services, at national, state and regional levels. Organisations to have benefited from David’s leadership have often been diverse, complex and geographically dispersed. Based in Brisbane, David is currently National CEO of mental health organisation GROW Australia and has been Deputy Secretary of the Australian Department of Health and CEO of the National Mental Health Commission, Little Company of Mary Health Care (the Calvary group), Australian General Practice Network, ACT Department of Health and Community Care, and the National Rural Health Alliance.
Lindsay Cane
Lindsay Cane brings experience as a seasoned CEO and Director to SHPA, having led national and state health agencies, sporting organisations, not-for-profit and private sector businesses. Lindsay is currently CEO of the Royal Far West, which provides specialist medical care and allied health support services for children in remote NSW, a member of the NSW Ministerial Advisory Committee for Rural Health, and non-Executive Director of the Confederation of Australian Sport and Australian Masters Games, having also led Netball Australia and a private communications consultancy.
Dr Jacinta Johnson
Dr Jacinta Johnson is Lecturer in Pharmacy, University of South Australia and Senior Pharmacist – Research, SA Pharmacy. Jacinta brings experience in clinical education, in primary healthcare working in with Drug and Alcohol Services, and in community pharmacy. Jacinta is passionate about supporting early career pharmacists to experience rewarding careers that have a meaningful impact upon community health, and her contributions have been recognised through the SHPA PL Jeffs Early Career Pharmacist Award (2017), the PSA Early Career Pharmacist of the Year award (2018) and the SHPA Early Career Pharmacist of the Year award (2019).
Dr Lisa Pont
Dr Lisa Pont is Associate Professor (Pharmacy), Discipline of Pharmacy at the Graduate School of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in New South Wales. Lisa is a registered pharmacist and, prior to joining academic pharmacy, was the Senior Clinical Pharmacist at Central Coast health where she coordinated Clinical Pharmacy across four hospitals north of Sydney. Lisa is an SHPA Fellow and has been a SHPA Board member since 2016. With a strong interest in building research capacity among hospital and clinical pharmacists, Lisa is a member of SHPA's Research Leadership Committee and Geriatric Medicine Leadership Committee.
Brenda Shum
Brenda Shum is the Acting Head of Department – Pharmacy at Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park Health Care Group. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons), majoring in Pharmacology; Bachelor of Pharmacy; and Master of Business Administration (Health Management). She has worked in multiple clinical and operational areas in a tertiary setting, with more than a decade in senior management roles. A member of the SHPA Leadership and Management Leadership Committee, her professional interests include bridging the transition of care between hospital and community settings; and expanding the scope of pharmacy practice to optimise patient outcomes.
Board Sub-committees
Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
Ramy Aziz (Chair), Brenda Shum, Dr Kate O’Hara, Olivia Rofe, Tom Simpson, David Butt
Nominations Committee
Tom Simpson (Chair), Paul Firman, Lindsay Cane, Dr Jacinta Johnson, Dr Lisa Pont.
Contact the Board
PO Box 1774, Collingwood Victoria 3066 Australia