Board and leadership

St John of God Foundation Board Members

Our Board directors ensure that the Foundation operates responsibly, maintaining the highest level of ethics, to enable transformational care to our patients and their families to help provide better health outcomes in our communities.

Justin Carroll
Chair of the Board, St John of God Foundation

Justin is an Assurance Partner based in PwC’s Perth practice and is also an experienced board member. He has over 35 years’ experience leading audit engagements and providing audit, tax, accounting, merger and acquisition and consulting services in Perth, Sydney, Singapore and London.

Justin has previously served as a non-executive director of the University of Notre Dame and St John of God Health Care and is currently a member of the St John of God Health Care Finance and Investment and Audit Committee.

Justin has also served as Chair of PwC Australia’s Governance Board and was previously a member of PwC’s Asia Pacific Governance Board. He was also the Managing Partner of PwC’s Perth office for a five-year term.

Justin has led PwC’s WA Assurance Practice and continues to lead the audits of several major Western Australian-based organisations, and subsidiaries of large international groups.

Justin’s broad sector expertise includes working with clients in the Resources, Utilities, Banking, Agribusiness and other capital-intensive industries. He has experience advising clients with inbound and outbound investments from/to China, Japan, Southeast Asia, North America, UK, Europe and various jurisdictions throughout West Africa.

Bryan Pyne
Group Chief Executive Officer, St John of God Health Care 

Bryan joins the Board as St John of God Health Care's Group Chief Executive Officer, with more than 23 years’ experience in senior health care management and finance roles, including his previous role as Group Chief Operating Officer (Hospitals) and Group Director of Finance.

Brian is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and was a recipient of the 2010 40 under 40 Award (WA). Brian is a Board member and Chair of the Finance Committee of Newman College.

Nadia Lefroy
Board Member, St John of God Foundation 

Nadia has held a long association with the Foundation as a director of the Tony Fini Foundation, providing generous philanthropic support for multiple projects across St John of God Health Care.

Nadia started her career at Fini group in 1991 as a salesperson and in 2000 was Project Coordinator for The Homeswest New living program in Karawara and part of the project team for all inner-city projects. Nadia was involved with the design and development of many of Fini group’s inner-city projects.

Since 2001 Nadia has been running her own consultancy business and now a building company that specializes in bathroom and kitchen renovations, where she undertakes all the design work and project management herself.

Tina Chinery
Chief Executive Officer, St John of God Subiaco Hospital

Tina is a health executive leader with significant and broad experience in the hospital and health care sector across all service areas.

Tina also has extensive experience in health strategic service planning, capital project management, implementation of new technology, research and education.

Having started her career as a nurse, Tina is strongly committed to delivering high quality person-centred care and is pleased to work within an organisation that is focused on the values of hospitality, compassion, respect, justice and excellence.

Tony Howarth AO, CitWA, Hon LLD WAust, SF Fin, FAICD
Board Member, St John of God Foundation 

Mr Tony Howarth AO joined the St John of God Foundation Board as Chair in October 2019.

Tony is a former Chair of the St John of God Health Care Board (January 2004 to May 2018), during which time the organisation grew from employing 5,700 caregivers with 10 hospitals and pathology and radiology services, to employing more than 13,000 caregivers and running 23 facilities in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and New Zealand.

Tony’s career spans more than 30 years in the international banking and finance industry. He brings a diverse range of executive experience to the Foundation Board, and currently holds non-executive director roles with Alinta Energy, BWP Trust and Viburnum Funds.

St John of God Foundation senior leadership team

Bianca Pietralla - BComm. GAICD.
Chief Executive Officer, St John of God Foundation 

Bianca is CEO of St John of God Foundation. In this role, she leads the Foundation's fundraising strategy and philanthropic revenue generation, oversees its executive team and operations, and is responsible for building relationships with donors, partners and stakeholders who enable the Foundation’s mission. Bianca brings 25 years' experience across health care, higher education, financial services, entertainment and telecommunications, spanning general management, philanthropy and marketing.

Bianca is GAICD-qualified through the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an organisational member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia. Alongside her Foundation role, where she reports to the Board, she also serves on the Advisory Board of Curtin University's School of Marketing & Management, bringing governance experience to complement her executive leadership.

Rachel Bruechle
Director of Operations 

As the Director of Operations, Rachel drives brand awareness, oversees community fundraising campaigns, appeals, and events, and leads the communications program with the Foundation’s supporters.

Rachel has over 20 years’ marketing experience, most recently as Senior Manager, Marketing for Royal Flying Doctors Service (WA). Her previous senior roles include Head of Marketing and Intelligence for Activ Foundation, Director of Development and Communications at Murdoch University, and Group Marketing Manager at Lotterywest.

Preema Wong
Director, Philanthropy & Director, Subiaco Campaign 

As the Director of Philanthropy and Campaigns, Preema leads the national strategy for one-to-one relationship fundraising with individual donors, trusts, foundations and philanthropic partners.

Preema has over a decade of fundraising experience in the higher education sector, and most recently led the donor engagement, bequests, and major gift portfolios at Deakin University. Her previous roles include Acting Director, Donor Relations and Senior Manager, Donor Engagement.

Neville Wepener
Director, Mental Health Campaign 

As Campaign Director, Neville is responsible for leading a campaign to establish a national platform for psychological trauma education, research and collaboration, to improve and deliver high quality treatment outcomes for veterans and first responders.

Neville has a proven track record in fundraising, team building and strategic development, following 15 years with World Vision and more recently the Fred Hollows Foundation. He brings extensive experience in donor engagement, campaign capabilities and sustainable major gift programs.

Our directors ensure that the Foundation operates responsibly, maintaining the highest level of ethics, to enable transformational care to our patients and their families to help provide better health outcomes in our communities.

Read more about the Foundation’s current projects