Rob Heferen was appointed to the position of AIHW Chief Executive Officer, commencing in July 2021.
Prior to this, Mr Heferen was Deputy Secretary Higher Education, Research and International in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. He has also served as Deputy Secretary, Energy at the Department of the Environment and Energy and had responsibility for energy policy including electricity and gas markets, and fuel security. Mr Heferen was also Australia’s representative on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board.
In April 2016 Mr Heferen was Deputy Secretary with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science with responsibilities for Energy, Resources and the Office of Northern Australia. Before joining the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Rob was the Deputy Secretary, Revenue Group at the Treasury from March 2011 – April 2016, with responsibility for tax policy, tax legislation and revenue forecasting. Mr. Heferen was first promoted to Deputy Secretary in 2010 to the Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, with responsibility for Indigenous Affairs.
Mr Heferen joined the Australian Public Service in 1989 as a graduate in the Australian Customs Service, worked at the Australian Taxation Office, and then had a number of years at the Treasury working on tax policy, Commonwealth/State financial relations and social policy.
Matthew James is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Institute. He leads the Deputy CEO Group and provides broad oversight of the Community Services Group, Data Strategies and Discovery Group, Population Health Group the and the Indigenous Group. Matthew also oversees the production of the Institute’s Flagship reports, Australia’s Health and Australia’s Welfare.
Prior to joining the Institute in November 2016, Mr James held leadership roles in performance, information and evaluation as Assistant Secretary, Indigenous Affairs Group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and as a Branch Manager within the former Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. He was also a Branch Manager in the former Department of Education Employment and Training, where he worked on employment policy and implementation as well as workplace relations policy and analysis. From 2002 to 2004 he was Counsellor—Employment, Education, Science and Training in the Australian Delegation to the OECD in Paris. Mr James was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2016.
Fadwa Al-Yaman is responsible for the Indigenous Group, which leads the Institute's data collection, development, reporting activities and stakeholder relationships in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Dr Al-Yaman has wide-ranging experience in statistical analyses and reporting, demographic techniques, data development, data quality assessment and improvement activities, and in building collaborative stakeholder relationships. She has a strong research background in health, and a keen interest in knowledge translation and the link between research, policy and practice. She holds a PhD in Immunology from the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a Masters of Population Studies from the ANU. Dr Al-Yaman was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990 and the Australian Public Service Medal in 2008.
Mat Rogers is the Chief Information Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at the Institute. Mat is responsible for the delivery of strategic ICT capability and delivery of services at AIHW.
Mat began his career as a uniformed Defence personnel and has worked in senior roles across multiple Commonwealth Departments, ACT Government and leading private sector companies in ICT infrastructure, security, portfolio management, commercial services, applications and business development. Mat specialises in delivering change through the successful identification and appropriate use of digital services to enhance organisational capability. Mat holds an Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management, a degree in Public Administration, certifications in ITSM, Prince 2 and Project Management, several industry-based training certifications and most recently completed a Masters of Politics and Policy.
Michael Frost is responsible for the Data Governance Group (DGG). The group manages the AIHW’s data and corporate governance. It protects the confidentiality of data holdings and the privacy of those the data are about through data governance leadership and support to the AIHW Ethics Committee. It works to build and enhance national data and information governance infrastructures and leads engagement with senior government health officials on national health data and information strategies. DGG provides expert assistance for national health and welfare metadata and manages METeOR, our online national metadata repository. The WHO Family of International Classifications Australian Collaborating Centre is run out of DGG with staff working closely with WHO colleagues on the development of international health classifications. DGG is also responsible for data custodianship of the National Integrated Health Services Information Analysis Asset and when available, My Health Record data for research and public health purposes.
DGG’s corporate governance responsibilities include the provision of support to the AIHW Board, senior executives, the Strategic Committee for National Health Information and intergovernmental committees that oversee performance reporting. Other corporate governance responsibilities include strategic and corporate planning, performance reporting, the coordination of Parliamentary and ministerial activities, legal services, risk management and information management.
Mr Frost’s experience spans nearly 20 years in federal and state governments, in policy advice, performance reporting and administrative roles. Previously, Mr Frost was Executive Director, Strategic Initiatives for the (former) National Health Performance Authority. Prior to that he was the Deputy Head of Secretariat for the COAG Reform Council for more than 6 years, where he oversaw the council’s performance reporting in the health, education, skills, disability, housing and Indigenous sectors and in microeconomic reform. He also led the council’s review of the strategic planning systems of Australia’s capital cities. Mr Frost has held various policy and management roles within the NSW Government Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Office of Community Housing. This included periods managing the Cabinet Secretariat and advising on portfolios including treasury, finance, commerce, arts, health, Aboriginal affairs, youth, and intergovernmental relations and regulatory reform. Mr Frost has a Bachelor of Economics (first class honours in political science) and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration (with Merit).
Richard Juckes is currently responsible for the Health Group at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. The Health Group collects data and reports on the health of Australians, covering population health and disease monitoring. This includes health inequalities, risk factors, international health comparisons, mortality, the burden of disease, and specific chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, musculoskeletal conditions, and respiratory conditions.
Mr Juckes has been working in health policy and health data roles for over 20 years, primarily at the Commonwealth Department of Health.
Gabrielle Phillips is the Senior Executive, Housing and Specialised Services Group and leads the Institute's data collections, reports and analysis on housing, homelessness, justice, education, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
She has previously worked in a number of Commonwealth, State and local government roles related to housing, income support and family assistance policy, education and early childhood evidence and analysis roles.
Andrew Kettle is responsible for the Business & Communications Group, which works closely with internal and external stakeholders to deliver value-for-money corporate services that support organisational objectives. Mr Kettle qualified as a chartered accountant in the United Kingdom and worked for Coopers & Lybrand in Canada and Australia. He was Chief Financial Officer at the Australian Fisheries Management Authority before joining the Institute in 2006 as a senior executive.
During his time at the Institute, Mr Kettle has at various times held senior executive responsibility for finance, human resources, governance, information and communications technology, office accommodation, websites, publications and media. Mr Kettle has a degree in engineering with management studies from the University of Cambridge, England, and a diploma in computer science.
Adrian Webster heads the Health Systems Group. This Group focuses on the activity, performance and financing of the Australian health system. This includes maintaining the national hospitals data collections, producing the annual record on health spending in Australia, monitoring the performance and safety of the health system and reporting on activity in the medical, dental and pharmaceutical sectors.
Adrian has worked in a variety of roles at the AIHW since 2009 spanning disease monitoring, primary health care data and health and welfare workforce and expenditure monitoring. He is a sociologist with more than 20 year’s experience studying and working in the health and welfare sectors in Australia and overseas. This has included heading the monitoring, evaluation and research department in an international aid organisation, providing consulting services to government agencies in Australia such as Medicare Australia and reporting on hospital performance at ACT Health. Before commencing at the AIHW, Dr Webster was working in an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation in remote Australia providing drug and alcohol and community development services.
Louise York is responsible for the Community Services Group, which develops, maintains and analyses national data to support reporting on the health and welfare of key population groups including children and youth, older Australians and people with disability; and on the use of services within a range of health and welfare sectors including child protection, youth justice, aged care and disability services. The Group has also recently established programs of work on family, domestic and sexual violence and on using income support (Centrelink) data to better understand experiences and outcomes for key population groups.
Ms York has more than 20 years’ experience at the Institute, including in leadership positions in both health and welfare areas, and one year at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Ms York holds postgraduate qualifications in population health and bachelors’ degrees in economics and science.
Fleur de Crespigny is our acting Group Head of the Data Strategies and Discovery Group, whose core functions include leading the development of the Institute's strategies for acquiring, managing, and integrating major data assets (linkage), managing key relationships across government in support of the public sector data agenda; reporting on veterans' health and welfare, including suicide monitoring; and leading the development, monitoring, and reporting of information and statistics on maternal and perinatal health.
Fleur has nearly 15 years’ experience in health-related statistics, research, evaluation, and policy. Since joining the AIHW in 2017, Fleur has held the role of Head of the Chronic Conditions Unit, and since 2019, Head of the Dementia Unit. Fleur has significant prior experience in the public sector, having held various roles at Safe Work Australia including Director of Research and Evaluation, and Director of Data and Analysis. Fleur has a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Leeds and a Bachelor of Science – BSc (Hons) from the University of Melbourne.