Established under the National Blood Authority Act 2003, the National Blood Authority (NBA) Board provides advice to the General Manager about the performance of the NBA's functions. The Board is not a decision making body and has no formal or direct role in the governance or management of the NBA. The Board does however, consider key strategic issues facing the NBA.
The NBA Board’s roles and responsibilities fall into three main categories:
- Providing strategic direction;
- Helping to ensure effective governance, including the provision of advice on fraud, audit and risk management and the monitoring of the NBA’s financial reporting; and
- Liaising with stakeholders to strengthen relationships, promote the role of the NBA and contribute to the development of the organisation in a manner that furthers stakeholders’ requirements.
Membership
The Board is appointed by the Australian Government Minister for Health for a four-year term, based on nominees selected by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council (former Standing Council on Health (SCoH)). The Board is required to consist of:
- A Chair;
- A person representing the interests of the Commonwealth;
- 1 or 2 persons representing the interests of the States and Territories;
- A person representing the community
- A person with expertise in public health issues relating to human blood; and
- A person with financial or commercial expertise.
Further information is available from the NBA Board Secretariat by email (board@blood.gov.au) or by telephone (02 6151 5000).
Current Board Members
Dr Amanda Rischbieth AM - Chair
Dr Amanda Rischbieth AM has over 30 years’ experience in health and academia including CEO and non-executive directorship roles across health care delivery, clinical (critical care), public health, research, ethics, and corporate governance. She is an Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Adelaide, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Governor’s Leadership Foundation Fellow, and a former Telstra Business Women Awards Finalist in two categories.
Following her twelve month Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellowship in 2017, Dr Rischbieth was invited back as a Visiting Scientist to join Harvard’s Culture of Health team – a partnership between Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Business School. Her previous directorships include the Australian Organ and Tissue Authority, the National Heart Foundation SA, National President of the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses, South Australian Public Health Council, and the South Australian Motor Sport Board. Formerly a Director of Research for Calvary Health Care where she led the establishment of an international cancer clinical trials unit, Dr Rischbieth established and co-led a private cardiac and general Intensive Care Unit.
Dr Rischbieth has received various awards and recognition for her business and community contributions. In 2018, she travelled to Sri Lanka working on a humanitarian project team fitting prosthetic hands to over 240 land-mine and other victims.
Dr Rischbieth was appointed Chair of the NBA Board in March 2019.
Late Professor Chris Brook PSM - Vale Professor Chris Brook PSM
Professor Chris Brook PSM, late member of the National Blood Authority Board passed away on 4 May 2022.
Professor Brook was a long term and highly valued member of the NBA Board. He was a jurisdictional member from 2003-2007 and 2011-2022. He served on the Board longer than any other member and was always an active and highly effective contributor, friend, colleague, mentor and holder of the ‘corporate memory’. His deep knowledge and experience were always valuable to Board deliberations. He was articulate and insightful, often provocative, always collaborative and constructive, and always motivated by the best interests of patients and the Australian blood sector.
A key driver and supporter of many blood sector reforms over more than two decades, Professor Brook contributed enormously in a sustained and impactful way to a wide range of policy and operational blood sector issues (as well as to the health sector more broadly).
As a member of the Blood Review Implementation Steering Committee, he had responsibility for guiding the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of the Australian Blood Banking and Plasma Product Sector (the ‘Stephen Review’) and the drafting and negotiation of the National Blood Agreement and National Blood Authority Act 2003.
He was a member of the Jurisdictional Blood Committee (JBC) as Victorian representative. He was also a member of the government-stakeholder working group which developed the arrangements for full national funding for access to recombinant clotting factor products for all haemophilia patients in Australia. This represented a breakthrough in the provision of safe and secure supply therapies for patients with this debilitating and life-threatening chronic disease.
He co-authored the Towards better, safer blood transfusion report for the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care. This important report was a catalyst for the highly successful national Patient Blood Management program, the national Haemovigilance Program, and the inclusion of a Blood Management Standard in the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards.
Under his stewardship as Chair, the JBC Intravenous Immunoglobulin Working Party guided the detailed clinical review work to develop criteria for patient access to publicly funded immunoglobulin in Australia. Based on this seminal initial work, Australia has now implemented a National Immunoglobulin Governance Program which enables the sustainable ongoing provision of immunoglobulin for a wide range of beneficial uses within a high standard of clinical governance.
Some of the formal accolades Professor Brook received over the years in recognition of his significant contribution to public health policy and administration include honorary life membership to the International Society for Quality in Health Care; the Public Service Medal; the Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Safety and Quality; and the National Emergency Medal (twice).
We acknowledge and thank Professor Brook for his enormous contributions to public policy, operations and health management issues generally, and to the blood sector.
He will be fondly remembered for his collegiality, bonhomie and dry wit.
The NBA and the NBA Board extend our condolences to his family and friends.
Professor Lyn Beazley AO - State/Territory representative (small jurisdiction)
After graduating from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, Professor Lyn Beazley built an internationally renowned research team in neuroscience that focused on recovery from brain damage, with much of her investigations undertaken as Winthrop Professor at the University of Western Australia. Currently she is Sir Walter Murdoch Distinguished Professor of Science at Murdoch University.
Professor Beazley was the Chief Scientist of Western Australia from 2006 to 2013, advising the WA Government on science, innovation and technology, as well as acting as an Ambassador for science locally, nationally and internationally. Professor Beazley serves on several boards including the Federal Government’s Bionic Vision Australia and the WA State Government’s Technology and Industry Advisory Council. Professor Beazley was a Trustee of the Western Australian Museum from 1999 to 2006 and currently is Patron of the Friends of the Museum. Recently, Professor Beazley joined the Board of the Western Australian Art Gallery Foundation.
In 2009 Professor Beazley was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia and elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. In 2011 Professor Beazley was inducted into the inaugural Western Australian Women’s Hall of Fame and was elected a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and a Companion of Engineers Australia. Professor Beazley has worked to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to the community, especially to young people, and in 2012 became the second recipient of the Governor’s Award for Giving, in recognition of her enthusiastic philanthropy. In 2015 she was inducted into the Western Australian Science Hall of Fame and was also announced the 2015 WA Australian of the Year.
Professor Beazley was appointed to the NBA Board in January 2017.
Mr Paul Bedbrook – Financial expert
Mr Paul Bedbrook has had a connection with blood issues via his personal involvement with haemophilia for over two decades. He is the father of two adult sons with haemophilia. For much of this time Mr Bedbrook has been involved with the Haemophilia Foundation NSW (HFNSW) and the Haemophilia Foundation Australia (HFA). He is a past President of HFNSW and past Treasurer of HFA. He brings his personal experiences with blood issues to the Board as well as feedback from a community of individuals who rely on the blood and plasma products distributed to Australia's health services under the auspices of the NBA.
Professionally, Mr Bedbrook has had over 30 years of experience in financial services. His current roles include: Chairman of Zurich Financial Services Australia Ltd, Independent non-executive Director of Credit Union Australia (CUA) Ltd, Independent Chairman of ASX listed Elanor Investors Group, and Chairman of Disability Sports Australia.
Mr Bedbrook was a senior executive for over 20 years with the Dutch global banking, insurance and investment group, ING. Mr Bedbrook’s early career was as an Investment Analyst and Investment Portfolio Manager at ING, and between 1987 and 1995, he was the General Manager Investments and Chief Investment Officer for the Mercantile Mutual (ING) Group in Sydney. In the decade to 2010, Mr Bedbrook was President and CEO of INGDIRECT Canada, CEO and Director of ING Australia and Regional CEO of ING Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong.
Mr Bedbrook has been a member of the NBA Board since May 2011 and was appointed to his current Board role as financial expert in August 2013. Mr Bedbrook is also a member of the NBA Audit Committee.
Associate Professor Alison Street AO – Public health expert
Professor Alison Street graduated in 1971 from Monash University with first class honours in medicine.
After completing postgraduate training in clinical and laboratory haematology in Melbourne and Sydney, Professor Street spent three years in clinical research in Boston. Professor Street returned to Melbourne to work with Monash University and Alfred Health in 1984, where she retired from the positions of Head of Laboratory Haematology and Haemostasis-Thrombosis (including Haemophilia) in 2012.
Professor Street’s main professional interests were in haemostasis-thrombosis, transfusion medicine and teaching. During her tenure at Alfred Health, Professor Street was Chief Examiner in haematology for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia between 2001 and 2006, and President of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand between 1996 and 1998.
She was a Board member with the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) between 2002 and 2012 (Vice-President Medical between 2008 and 2012) and a Board member of the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (Lifeblood) between 1998 and 2004.
Professor Street’s current appointments are:
• Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Immunology and Pathology, Monash University
• Chair of the NBA Haemovigilance Advisory Committee
• Consultant to the Department of Health for Clinical Haematology, and
• Member of the Steering Committee for the Asia-Pacific Haemophilia Working Group.
Professor Street received the Award of Officer in the Order of Australia in 2006 for services to haematology and the community of people with congenital bleeding disorders, and is an honorary life member of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand, Australian Society of Thrombosis and Haemostasis and the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion.
Professor Street was re-appointed to the NBA Board in March 2019.
Ms Penny Shakespeare – Australian Government representative
Ms Penny Shakespeare is the Deputy Secretary of the Health Financing Group in the Australian Government Department of Health. This includes the Technology Assessment and Access Division (TAAD), Medical Benefits Division (MBD), Provider Benefits Integrity Division (PBID).
Since joining the Department of Health in 2006, Ms Shakespeare has held a number of senior leadership positions. Most recently she was the First Assistant Secretary of the Technology Assessment and Access Division (TAAD), where she led the division through a period of significant change to further build on the division’s capabilities in Health Technology Assessment.
Ms Shakespeare has also previously led the Health Workforce Division as First Assistant Secretary and as head of the Department’s Medical Benefits Branch and Private Health Insurance Branch.
Prior to joining the Department of Health, Ms Shakespeare worked as an industrial relations lawyer in the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, and in regulatory policy roles, including as head of the ACT Office of Industrial Relations. She was a member of the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission and the Workplace Relations Ministers’ Advisory Council.
Ms Shakespeare has a Bachelor of Law, a Masters degree in International Law and is admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor.
Ms Shakespeare was re-appointed to the NBA Board in March 2019.
Mr Geoffrey Bartle – Community representative
Mr Bartle has over 30 years of experience at an executive and strategic level in technology enabled business transformation and the design and implementation of business solutions. Prior to his semi-retirement, he was an independent management consultant.
Mr Bartle was previously employed with Fujitsu (previously DMR Consulting) as a Consulting Director for 13 years, where he had a proven track record of delivering genuine business benefits for his clients in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
His consulting roles included Strategy, Governance, Business Architecture, Benefits Management, Organisational Transformation, Procurement, Change Management, Business and System Analysis, Strategic Business Cases, Program Design, Business Process Improvement, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery, and the design of technology enabled solutions to optimise business outcomes.
Mr Bartle’s industry experience included human services, disability services, health, police, education, superannuation, government services, insurance, small business, sustainability and Green IT, mining, taxation, racing and wagering, social welfare, public housing and smartcards; delivered in government, university and private sector environments.
Prior to joining Fujitsu, Mr Bartle had extensive experience in a diverse range of Senior Executive Service roles in the public sector in Australia and New Zealand including national administration of large legislative, compliance, business and client service programs.
The diverse range of roles undertaken by Mr Bartle during his career has equipped him with sound business acumen, and an unusual breadth of knowledge and experience, that he drew upon to deliver high calibre consulting services. His pragmatic approach to problem solving, together with his skill in engaging with clients and stakeholders at all levels of an organisation, and his broad exposure to a variety of proprietary and industry methodologies and processes, enabled him to take on a range of challenging engagements.
Mr Bartle was appointed to the NBA Board as the community representative in October 2017.
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