Chief Executive Officer

Chief Executive Officer, ACON

• Leading community health organisation
• Excellent remuneration, including salary packaging
• Surry Hills head office

The Company

ACON is Australia’s largest, and NSW’s leading, community-based health organisation, specialising in HIV, community health and inclusion for people of diverse sexualities and genders. We are a fiercely proud community organisation. For our entire history, the work of ACON has been designed by and for our communities.

We help our communities take control of their health so they can look after themselves as well as their partners, family and friends. We offer a range of services including sexual health, mental health, alcohol and drugs, safety and inclusion, domestic and family violence, and ageing.

Our head office is in Sydney and we also have offices in regional centres across New South Wales. We provide our services and programs locally, state-wide and nationally.

The Role

The role reports to the Board through the President and leads a team of 130 FTE and a budget of $25M. The purpose of the role is to:

1. Ensure ACON is the leading community-based organisation in NSW for community health, inclusion and HIV responses for people of diverse sexualities and genders.
2. Direct, drive and lead ACON staff and volunteers to ensure the quality and effectiveness of service delivery to clients.

This will be achieved by:

• Remaining abreast of developments in HIV and LGBTQ health nationally and internationally to ensure ACON’s services, advice and advocacy remain at the cutting edge of current knowledge and practice.
• Leading the implementation of ACON’s strategic plan and health outcome strategies to achieve the goals and targets set by the ACON board.
• Being the key driver of Workplace Culture and Employee Engagement with the support of the Senior Leadership team and the Manager, People & Culture. Ensure that at all times ACON provides a safe workplace of respect, diversity and inclusion.
• Ensuring ACON’s relationship with ministers, ministerial advisors and government decision makers are maintained and developed to enable ACON’s advice and advocacy to influence decision making.
• Leading and driving the development of a culture of systematic, evidence based program and campaign evaluation and research in order to report on ACON’s work and inform future work.
• Participating in meetings and other forums with government and non-government agencies to ensure ACON’s perspective is appropriately presented and incorporated into collaborative decisions regarding changes in policies, practices and partnerships.

The Person

To be successful in the role you will have significant experience in engaging with the community of ACON which includes clients, staff, an active volunteer cohort and the broader LGBTQ+ community.

You will also bring a highly developed understanding of and sensitivity to the needs of people and communities with HIV and also to sexuality and gender diverse communities’ culture and history.

Additionally, you will bring:

• Significant experience in working collaboratively and in developing partnerships to achieve organisational goals, including working with Ministers and senior staff within Ministries and varied State and Federal government departments. 
• A strong commitment to continuous learning, continuous improvement, quality initiatives and customer service principles and demonstrated experience in developing innovative responses to organisational and service challenges.
• Extensive management experience and skills, including planning, budgeting and people management skills including industrial relations and strong leadership skills for motivating, coaching and working closely with staff.
• Experience in reporting to a board, managing risk and in successfully leading and managing organisational change.
• Superior communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills, with an ability to build consensus and unity on often complex issues.
• Experience in managing media and communication activities and an ability to represent ACON in public forums.
• Tertiary qualifications or equivalent experience in health promotion, public health, health services or community organisation management, social services or a similar field.

How to Apply

For a copy of the role profile or a confidential discussion, please contact Liska Turner at Omera Partners via email to acon@omerapartners.com.

To apply, please email your CV and a 1-2 page application letter to acon@omerapartners.com

Applications close at 11.59pm AEST on Sunday 12 May 2024.