Renee Hayden birthed the idea of APMHA in 2015 and led the founding members in the initial Company design and redesign to a Not-for-Profit. As the CEO of APMHA, she comes from a diverse executive, management and clinical background firmly cemented in mental health, AOD and primary care. She has an extensive history working with and leading management and executive teams.

Renee’s Board experience and training has led to various Board positions, overseeing governance, operational and strategic matters. Renee has transitioned with the primary care sector from its initial roots in Divisions of General Practice, then Medicare Locals and now working alongside primary health networks and other national funders to deliver commissioned services. Renee has steered APMHA to truly resemble the National Mental Health Commission’s vision of stepped mental health care and reform for Australia’s most vulnerable. She is passionate about care that is excellent, high quality, accessible and equitable.

Sian Pritchard is a Nurse Practitioner, CMHN with a Dip AOD. Sian has 39 years of experience in the healthcare sector. Sian founded Pritchard Health in 2015 and formed the Pritchard Health Alliance, delivering commissioned services in the Geelong/Otway region for eight years.

Sian has attained numerous positions of influence to drive change in the Australian Health Care system and has represented the ACMHN, Mental Health Australia and the ACNP’s on Government committees. These include the APS Workforce Transition Support Project, Improved Models of Care Working Group in Canberra, and Psychiatry MBS Review Committee. Sian was a member of Western Victoria PHN Regional Clinical Council for six years and has been recognized with awards for mental health nursing leadership, innovation in business and women’s community health.

Transforming the nursing profession by challenging the norm, and believing in equitable access to mental health services, Sian believes that working with the APMHA team will further develop service excellence through partnerships in Primary Care.

Donal McGoldrick is a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse with over 20 years’ experience in senior Mental Health Nurse and management roles in addiction, clinical mental health, forensic, community mental health and primary mental health. He has worked at a senior management level within the Department of Health and Human Services, specialist State-wide services and NGO’s.

Donal has applied his experience of business operations, as well as business and clinical governance to his role as General Manager Business Operations. As one of the founding members, he has led compliance across contracting, reporting, quality & safety, recruitment, HR, and risk management. Donal is an experienced Board member, and fulfils the Deputy CEO role throughout the year. Donal chairs APMHA’s Finance Risk and Audit Board Committee.

​Michael became a qualified doctor after graduating with an MBCHB from Manchester University in 2009. Working across multiple hospital wards and eventually medical practices in the United Kingdom, Michael completed specialty training in general practice in 2014. After 4 successful years within general practice, Michael emigrated to Australia, where he has been treating patients in his local area of St Kilda practice and a period of time in Shepparton.

Within his GP work, Michael specialises in mental health, AOD (Alcohol and other drugs), urgent care and sexual health as well as routine general practice consults. Michael became a board member at APMHA in 2022, and hopes to bring his unique experience in the medical realm to this growing and developing team, to help provide greater care, to greater numbers of clients, in a greater number of areas.

Cherie Krake has a variety of skills developed over a 30-year working career. Currently working in a Business Development Management role with a core focus on Sales and Marketing. Previous roles include general management and strategic creative marketing manager. Cherie gains professional satisfaction by guiding a team to achieve company goals whilst empowering them as individuals. Cherie loves working with people displaying a passion and natural skill for understanding them, their motivations, preferences, and decisions. It is that love of people and family experiences that has led to a interest in mental health and assisting in the improvement of systems and processes.

Cherie enjoys volunteering at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital in her free time and has a love of learning with interests in renewables, sustainability, neuromarketing, strategy and problem solving.

Thai Ohtsuka is a bilingual clinical and health psychologist who has extensive experience working in private and public mental health services. Her special interest has been in the use of data-driven and information technology in combination with interpersonal relationship building to understand and influence positive change at both individual and systemic levels.

Over the past 20 years, she researches, evaluates, assesses, designs, educates and implements evidence-based interventions for a range of emotional and behavioural health issues in clinical, social and organisational settings.