Stephen Woodlands, Founder and Managing Director

Stephen Woodlands is a social entrepreneur and the Founder and Managing Director of Head Start Homes. His personal journey from living in a homeless shelter and social housing has shaped his mission to create a world where everyone has access to a safe and stable home.

As a disruptor in the housing sector, Stephen has worked tirelessly to dismantle barriers and create more equal access to homeownership. His efforts ensure that Head Start Homes' mostly First Nations and single mum clients are empowered and have the resources and support necessary to successfully achieve their home ownership dreams.

With over 20 years combined experience in banking, risk, law, strategy, governance, product development, marketing, and project delivery, Stephen's professional journey includes roles such as Chief of Staff at St.George Bank and various Senior Management roles at Westpac. Admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of NSW in 2010, he has also served as an Electorate Officer and Speech Writer for Members of Parliament in South Australia.

Stephen's professional warmth and caring nature are at the core of every initiative he leads, making a tangible difference in the lives of many Australians and moving us closer to a future where there is equal access to home ownership.

Vanessa Chan, Chair

Vanessa is a contemporary local government leader and public sector management consultant with a reputation for innovation and driving sectoral transformation. She has over 20 years experience in strategy and operations across various NSW metropolitan Councils, including almost a decade in executive management. This includes successfully leading Ashfield Council as General Manager before being appointed to lead the Inner West Council merger.

Focused on strategy, culture, governance, business excellence and transformation, Vanessa is recognised as an expert in corporate governance, leadership, business excellence and strategy. Vanessa has a proven track record in delivering innovative, community focused programs and is passionate about local democracy and citizen engagement.

Vanessa currently works as an Industry Fellow at the Institute of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and is also a Member of the NSW Local Government Ministerial Advisory Group.

Joel Larsen, Deputy Chair

Joel is an accomplished financial services executive with experience leading large retail banking businesses.

Committed to building a brighter future for all Australians by improving access to more affordable, sustainable and responsible finance solutions.

Joel currently works as the General Manager of Personal Lending at Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s leading provider of retail banking services. Joel previously worked as the Head of Strategy, Performance & Pricing, Consumer Finance at Westpac Group.

Airlie Fox, Director

Airlie is a highly regarded lawyer, having worked on some of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects in recent years and is renowned for being an integral and trusted adviser. She brings a wealth of legal experience across a range of sectors, including social infrastructure and transport. Airlie is known for her commitment to clients and the high quality of her advice.  Airlie is a partner of Corrs Chambers Westgarth Major Projects team, specialising in public private partnership (PPP) projects and other major infrastructure projects. Her current clients include major developers and corporations, Government and blue chip financial institutions.

Jodie Stevens, Director

Jodie is an innovative thinker with broad-based experience in human resources, organisational development and safety.  Jodie has a proven ability to analyse and drive business process improvements, constructing robust teams with a strong focus on delivering outcomes.  Jodie takes pride in her skill in creating successful and motivated teams, which are culturally aligned to the organisational goals.

Jodie is a proud Wiradjuri woman who is passionate and driven in her commitment to create opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.  Jodie’s current role is People & Culture Manager with the City of Port Adelaide Enfield Council.  This includes overseeing all aspects of the People & Culture function including organisational development, recruitment, industrial relations, payroll, performance management, learning and development and work health & safety.

Previously Jodie has worked for the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, NSW Health, Flinders Port Holdings, the Indigenous Land & Sea Corporation and Voyages Indigenous Tourism Australia.

Her qualifications encompass the areas of Positive Psychology, Human Resources and Assessment and Training as well as Women in Leadership.  Jodie is a member of the Australian Human Resources Institute, has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course and is also a Non Executive Director of Women’s Safety Services SA.

Richard Yong, Director

Richard currently works as a General Manager at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and is an expert in banking and technology risk.

Richard was previously Head of Product Quality for Westpac’s Consumer Bank where he was responsible for ensuring fair and suitable outcomes for customers by establishing quality processes across consumer products and leading remediation programmes. Richard has also previously worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers and Allianz Australia, holding management roles in Risk Management, Internal Audit and External Audit. His expertise ranges from Conduct Management, Project Management, Control Frameworks, Data Analytics and Risk and Compliance Management.

Nikki Woodlands, Member

Nikki has recently retired after working for over 40 years as a Registered Nurse and Social Worker. Working in both Government and Non-Government Services, Nikki has used her knowledge and skills to empower clients to live their best life.

Nikki feels honoured to have worked with people with diverse needs including people with disabilities, people who were sick and/or dying, people who were homeless including women and children fleeing domestic violence and people with dementia. In the past ten years Nikki worked specifically with older people struggling with health issues.

 Nikki has a deep knowledge of the community housing sector and was a founding member of Saphire Housing Cooperative Inc in South Australia. Nikki knows the importance that the community housing sector plays in helping those most at need and is a passionate advocate for implementing reforms which enable tenants to successfully transition out of community housing into their own homes. She knows how difficult it is for people to raise the required home loan deposit to either purchase their first home or if trying to get back into the housing market.

Nikki has also been at the forefront of fighting for change to help reduce domestic violence. This includes:

• Being a Board Member for The Domestic Violence Crisis Service inc.

• Involved with Domestic Violence Education Workshops for the Judiciary, Clergy, Community Groups,  Police and the Domestic Violence Helpline

• Being an Executive Member of the Joint Churches Domestic Violence Action Group.

• Drafting and launching the Domestic Violence Handbook for Clergy and Pastoral Workers, published by the Joint Churches Domestic Violence Prevention Program.

• Working as a Research Officer in the Domestic Violence Case Study Team, for the Collaborative Services for Older and Isolated Women Project, Domestic Violence Initiative. Department Of Community Medicine, University of Adelaide SA.

 Nikki’s greatest achievement is raising three beautiful children on her own, who have gone on to lead productive and purpose filled adult lives.

Graham Brown, Member

Graham is formally the Chief Executive Officer of Baptist Care SA and Managing Director of InterLife Australia. Graham holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and has over 20 years of executive leadership experience in Public Benevolent Institutions including serving as CEO of Junction Australia from 2005-2017.

Graham has extensive organisational development experience and has led organisations that provide both large community housing portfolios and a wide range of social support services that address complex social issues including homelessness, domestic violence and child protection. He recognises that multi-faceted strategies, implemented by well-coordinated collaborative approaches based upon mutual trust, are essential if efforts to strengthen lives, families and communities are to have real and enduring impact.

Graham is actively serving on several not-for-profit boards and was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by PowerHousing Australia in 2017 for his contribution to the development of the Community Housing Sector.

Judith Carpenter, Member

Judith Carpenter is the founding director of Judith Carpenter & Associates and former Board Chair of Baptist Care NSW/ACT. Judith has over 25 years’ experience in human resources consulting, the recruitment and selection of senior executives and middle managers and business development.

Judith has worked with leading Australian and multi-national companies in banking and finance, insurance, professional services, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, information technology, telecommunications, retail and business services sectors. She has worked extensively with local, state and federal government organisations as well as with the not-for-profit sector.

Prior to establishing JCA, Judith worked as a consultant for KPMG, Price Waterhouse Urwick and a number of boutique consultancies. 

Judith has a Bachelor of Arts and teaching qualifications, is an accredited MBTI facilitator and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Management Consultants. 

Paul Madden (AM), Member

In 2005, Paul and his wife Barbara, founded Bright Futures Child Aid & Development Fund Australia, an international development agency with projects in India, Kenya, Pakistan and Uganda.  An interest in the emergent field of social impact investment led him to co-founding the Social Impact Investment Network SA (SIINSA).

He has held senior roles in the community sector and has undertaken reviews on behalf of government in child abuse prevention and Indigenous substance misuse.  Paul was also the Former Chief Executive of the Wyatt Trust.

In 2001 Paul was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to the community. More recently, he was awarded a Member (AM) of the General Division of the Order of Australia in the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours for significant service to the community of South Australia, particularly to social welfare and humanitarian organisations, and to philanthropy. His academic qualifications include a Master's Degree in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Peter Adcock, Member

Peter is a highly regarded entrepreneur and successful business and community leader. In the early 1990s, Peter pioneered a new area of environmental science being the use of wetlands to bring about sustainable industries and positive environmental outcomes. Peter is now a leading wetland specialist in Australia and also founded three successful businesses: Australian Wetlands, Greater West Landscapes and Australian Wetlands Nursery.

Peter is also the Cofounder of Greater West for Christ - a movement with a vision of suburban transformation in Western Sydney through 100 Healthy Churches of all denominations.

Being a leading philanthropist and devoted to making the world a better place, Peter in 2012 transferred all of his business shareholdings to the Greater West for Christ Trust, a ministry of the Baptist Association of NSW & ACT. Peter still manages those companies as the Trustee.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Science with 1st class honours and is also a Director of Morling Bible College, Greater West Landscapes, Mission Connect Limited, and Australian Wetlands Nursery.

Lauren Levin, Secretary 

Lauren is currently the Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing at Minter Ellison. 

Throughout the course of her career, Lauren has been at the forefront of developing and delivering training programs with a focus on Inclusive Leadership, Unconscious Bias, Flexibility, Workplace Behaviours and Equal opportunity

Lauren has worked on the design and implementation of diversity and inclusion, and specifically flexibility related, strategies, the delivery of career and learning initiatives, mentoring programs (as a mentor, mentee and program manager), the development and maintenance of workplace policies and precedent employment documents, the development, execution and analysis of engagement and diversity survey results and the preparation and analysis of gender metrics and similar reporting.

Lauren has previous experience as a lawyer specialising in Industrial Relations, Employment Law and Workplace Health and Safety.