Executive leaders

Michele is an accomplished Chief Executive and Non-Executive Director who has spent nearly 40 years working in the health sector. An experienced Consultant, Certified Chair™ and Registered Nurse, she was appointed to our board and then took on the Interim Group CEO role in 2024. Prior to joining Ochre, she was CEO of the North Eastern Community Hospital in South Australia for nearly five years and, before that, CEO of SA Health’s Eyre and Far North Local Health Network for over ten years. Michele’s leadership in these positions has highlighted her ability to navigate complex health systems, drive organisational transformation and deliver high quality healthcare services. They culminated in her receiving the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2023 for services to medical administration. Her leadership style is marked by authenticity and a pragmatic and collaborative approach, ensuring sustainable, community-centric outcomes in complex healthcare and public policy environments.

A Chartered Accountant, Patrick qualified at KPMG, spending seven years in the firm’s Audit and Advisory divisions. He then moved to London, where he held senior finance roles in the media and financial services industries, before moving to New York, where he was Finance Director of American Stock Transfer & Trust (now Equiniti US). Returning to Australia in 2020, he established a CFO advisory and deal support consultancy firm through which he formed a relationship with Ochre. Taking on the role of CFO in 2024, Patrick is responsible for all of our financial operations, including strategy, planning and team leadership, to facilitate our market-leading support for GPs and their delivery of quality healthcare.

Francois is an experienced GP Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) with specialist skills in obstetrics, skin, paediatrics and emergency medicine. He began his career in South Africa before moving to Australia in 2003 and taking up a general practice partnership in Victoria. He relocated to Queensland in 2013, becoming Director of Medical Services of the Central West Health Service, Medical Director of the Townsville Rural Hospitals and Medical Superintendent of Charters Towers Hospital. He leads clinical governance for Ochre, focusing on improving the services we provide to the independent doctors who engage us as well as training programs. Francois also chairs ACRRM’s IMG Assessment Committee as well as sitting on other committees of the College.

With 20 years of experience in senior executive roles including at McDonald’s Australia and Telstra, Jason has spent the last decade in the healthcare sector. In this time, he has focused on building, growing and improving organisations’ systems, processes and people capabilities across telehealth, occupational medicine, allied health and specialist services areas. As Chief Operating Officer, Jason is responsible for the national management of medical centres, supporting doctors in patient care and operationalising “The Ochre Way” to ensure that our clinics are easy to access, friendly to deal with and operating efficiently – every time, every day.

Holding professional memberships with APS and AHRI, Jenna is an empathy-led accredited MAHRI practitioner with 20 years of multi-disciplinary experience. Having joined Ochre Health in 2023 as Capability & Culture Manager, she is passionate about helping nurture and embed people-centric cultures underpinned by a core value of ‘HR with heart’ – understanding that ‘People’ and ‘Culture’ are the guiding north stars of any successful organisation. With tertiary qualifications in HRM and as a Certified Psychometric Profiler in DISC, Values, TEIQue, HBDI and TMP, she is currently completing her Masters in Business Psychology and she is excited to build on the Ochre origin story.

Nick cut his teeth working for Raine & Horne in the sale and leasing of commercial property before being appointed as Petbarn’s National Property Manager. He then moved to veterinary clinic operator Greencross where he spent nine years, firstly as Regional Development Manager and then as General Manager of Property, with a major focus on optimisation and growth projects including acquisitions. He joined Ochre Health in 2021 to lead our Acquisitions Team and our efforts to identify quality practices aligned with The Ochre Way and bring them into the family.

Sean has over 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, business development and customer experience leadership roles spanning healthcare, professional services and consulting. He is a Fellow and Lifetime Member of the Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) and he has won four AMI Marketing Excellence Awards at national level including the Campaign of the Year. As Chief Marketing Officer, Sean is responsible for marketing strategy and campaigns founded in “The Ochre Way”, supporting both our growth targets and our model of being engaged by independent GPs in their delivery of quality, patient-centric care.

Before moving into healthcare, Damian spent over ten years with Coles Group including as Store Manager for a number of the company’s major supermarkets in Canberra. He joined Ochre Health in 2019 as a Practice Manager before taking on roles across the business including Regional Manager of Tasmania and NSW, leading our HotDoc patient experience transformation project and leading the launch of six new practices in Western NSW. In his current role, having recently completed his MBA, Damian focuses on our partnerships with GP clients practicing in our medical centres as well as locums, registrars and Local Health Districts.

A registered nurse by background, Linda has over 25 years of experience in the healthcare sector. She worked as a nurse and a nurse educator in various major hospitals in and around Brisbane before joining Medibank Health Solutions in 2012. There she led the Resource Nurse Team before becoming Practice Manager for Nurse Triage Operations and then Head of Mental Health. She joined Ochre Health as a Regional Manager in 2017. In her current role, she leads a team focused on improving the support, skills and performance of medical centres and people across the organisation.

Clinton leads our property management portfolio, including handling leasing, rental agreements and facilities management. He is also responsible for procurement and new business opportunities. He has a finance background, including CPA and CIMA qualifications, as well as an MBA from the University of Auckland, and his roles before joining Ochre Health in 2020 included Commercial Manager of Sunshine Coast Airport and Commercial Manager of Humes, a division of Fletcher Building Group.

Before moving to the healthcare sector, Melissa spent 20 years in retail and consumer goods in a wide variety of commercial, divisional, regional and product management roles. These included stints with David Jones, Sheridan, premium brand importer/distributor Sheldon and Hammond, Luxottica and Coles Supermarkets. She joined Ochre Health in 2017 with responsibility for our fast-growing network of medical centres in the ACT, where we are a service-provider to nearly independent 100 doctors, and our rural and regional practices in Southern NSW and Victoria.

After spending over 20 years working for businesses focused on animal nutrition and care, including Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Petbarn and veterinary clinic operator Greencross, Sean made the transition to human healthcare when he joined Ochre Health in 2020. He is applying his expertise in managing multi-site service operations, as well as building and leading high performing teams, to our network of medical centres from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to Northern NSW.

Before moving into healthcare, Tegan worked in customer service before spending over 20 years in the NSW Police Force, rising through the ranks to District Manager. She holds an MBA and, having spent her life and career in regional and remote NSW, she is a passionate advocate for retaining and attracting skills in those areas.  She joined Ochre Health in 2023 and she is applying her ‘branch network’ experience to managing our practices across central and western NSW, from Wentworth Falls to Bourke.

Darren has spent his whole career working in customer-focused organisations with extensive ‘branch’ networks. Before joining Ochre Health in 2021, he was Store Operations Manager for Super Retail Group – BCF. Prior to that, he spent 30 years with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) in management roles for regions including Tasmania, the Central Coast of NSW, Sydney and Melbourne, before becoming Executive Manager of Group Retail Sales & Service. Based in Hobart, he is responsible for our Tasmanian practice network and our contracts to support local hospital emergency departments.