Our leadership

Not for profit, we're here for you

Cheryl De Zilwa
CEO

Cheryl has spent the last 30 years in community and health organisations, and joined Annecto in 2020. Her recent roles include COO and Executive General Manager Zenitas Healthcare Limited. During Cheryl’s time at Zenitas, the company acquired a number of health and community organisations and moved from a publicly listed entity to private ownership. She has also worked as CEO and National Director with Calvary Community Care, CEO of Windermere Child and Family Services, and held senior leadership roles in Health Promotion with the National Heart Foundation (NSW).

During Cheryl’s varied career she has played a lead role in quality improvement and capacity building of community-based services across Australia. Cheryl has a diverse academic background, which includes general nursing, a Bachelor of Education and a Masters of Management.

Colleen Furlanetto, OAM
Chair

Colleen is former nurse with a career spanning over 20 years. She previous worked in acute, aged care, disability and community nursing, and as a disability support worker. She has held various ministerial appointment portfolios along with extensive committee roles regarding safety and inclusion for Victorians with a disability, in health, transport and regional development.

Colleen is a person with a disability and identifies as a woman; both of which she describes neither define her. She believes we all have a right to active citizenship, and is committed to a right to respect and safety as a whole of community responsibility.

Fran Raymond
Deputy Chair

Fran is a seasoned financial sector leader and corporate executive with nonexecutive director, committee and senior executive capability spanning diverse organisations and sectors. Fran has significant audit, risk, compliance and governance committee experience.

She has managed multi-billion annual budgets and large geographically dispersed teams and has a track-record for managing organisational and cultural transformation in both profit and nonprofit sectors. Fran is currently a Director of the Australian Reinsurance Pool Corporation and is also a member of numerous government entity Audit and Risk Committees. Previously, Fran was Chair of Defence Bank and a Director of UN Women (Australia) and Chair of its Finance and Risk and Public Funds Committees.

Michael Nazzari, OAM
Treasurer

Michael has held positions as Chair in a charitable not-for-profit organisation, General Manager at the Institute of Chartered Accountants and senior positions with the Victorian Institute of Secondary Education. His expertise includes marketing, governance, risk management and financial management. He is a Certified Association Executive member of the American Society of Association Executives, and was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2016 for his considerable honorary work in the business, education, and not-for-profit sectors.

Prof Mark Evans

Professor Mark Evans is Interim Dean at the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building at the University of Technology Sydney. He is an experienced senior manager, with over 15 years in higher education leadership roles. He has a demonstrated history of working with organisational change and building strong organisational cultures. Mark has worked extensively in international spheres and has developed an array of international partnerships for joint-curriculum and research initiatives. Mark is an internationally recognised researcher who has authored or edited seven books.

Ross Coverdale

Ross commenced as a youth worker with the Salvation Army and progressed to become a General Manager. During his 17 years with the Salvos, he established and developed innovative programs for the homeless, refugees and people living with a mental disability and is a determined advocate for the marginalised. For three years he worked in Zimbabwe at a hospital and undertook a range of village-based community development activities. He has managed a number of award-winning partnerships including with the Bill Gates Foundation, Disney, the Royal Children’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne.

Ross was the CEO of Araluen, a highly regarded disability support provider for more than twelve years. He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has completed studies in strategic management at the Harvard Business School. Ross has widely researched disability housing having travelled to nine countries and developed workshops for parents and carers. He currently operates a consultancy that has a range of clients across the health, community service and disability fields.

Jennifer Burrows

Jennifer has a range of professional experience in industry training, higher education academic development, and change management. She is the Network Development Manager for Collaboration for Impact, which supports communities taking a systems change approach to work on social issues. She has postgraduate qualifications in both Change Management and Organisational Analysis and Leadership. Jennifer is a member of Group Relations Australia and the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations.

Jill Linklater

Jill is a non-executive board director, a registered nurse, a consultant in health, disability and aged care and a standards accreditation assessor. Her consultancy work spans projects in the private and public health sector, government sector, aged and disability and rural sector.

Board governance experience includes health, aged care and disability services in the public and not for profit sector and senior executive positions in both state and commonwealth health departments. This is combined with experience as a consumer advisor/representative in the public and private health services sector and on peak advocacy bodies. Jill is a Fellow Australian College of Nursing, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow Governance Institute of Australia. She was awarded the 2001 Federation Centenary Medal for her services to medicine and the community.