Gains won in early childhood accumulate; disadvantage compounds
Living by the principle of “more money, more mission” is fundamental to our long-term financial sustainability. It’s intrinsic to our ability to deliver ongoing, positive social impact for Australia’s children and their life-long outcomes.
Goodstart is a catalyst of positive change in the early years in Australia, bringing local and international academics in early childhood together to collaborate and translate evidence into practice to make the biggest impact to Australia’s children.
We are using our unique strengths every day to improve the lives of children and families – within Goodstart and beyond. That’s why I love belonging to Goodstart.
They take everyday responsibility for leading our organisation’s strategic direction – our roadmap for the ongoing delivery of social impact – to give Australia’s children the best possible start in life.
Fostering high quality early learning experiences within every centre, creating a great place to work for our people and ensuring great experiences for our families and children in our care – are all in a day’s work for our executive team.
Click here to learn more about decision making at Goodstart and our Centre-led approach.
Our Chief Executive Officer
PhD; LLB; BSW; BA
Our CEO has dedicated her career to advancing early intervention and education for all Australia’s children.
Ros is a leading Australian education executive who has spent the last 25 years working and partnering around the idea that early intervention and education are the keys to addressing intergenerational disadvantage. Since starting her career as a frontline social worker in child protection, Ros has worked across government and with partners in the community and research sectors to maximise understanding, investment and effective interventions for children and families. Before joining Goodstart, Ros was the Deputy Secretary for the Australian Government Department of Education and former First Assistant Secretary, Social Policy Division of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
With a strong background in public policy as both a leader and policy analyst, in addition to consultancy experience, Ros brings a deep understanding of issues affecting children, families and the sector, benefitting Goodstart’s vision and purpose and ongoing focus to deliver on our strategic goals. In designing solutions, Ros is an advocate of partnering closely with families, educators and early learning services who know and understand children the best. With four children of her own, she believes that every person is different and differently capable, and that everyone has the right to a great start in life.
Our Deputy Chief Executive Officer
BBus; FCPA; MAICD
Jeff provides both a strategic and day-to-day focus over our operational functions.
Jeff provides both a strategic and day-to-day focus over our operational functions and the delivery of our strategic goals, purpose and vision. Jeff joined Goodstart in 2014 as the Chief Financial Officer bringing many years of experience in senior commercial finance roles across not-for-profit, private and public sectors. During his tenure at Goodstart, Jeff has secured our financial sustainability to help us achieve maximum social impact – with our social purpose investments increasing from $12.5M to more than $47.3M in 2022. Jeff has been instrumental in leading our centre growth strategy and executing sector-leading capital projects, to helping establish our charitable cause the Early Learning Fund with Uniting (NSW/ACT) and The Benevolent Society, and overseeing the strategy and implementation of our child safeguarding framework.
Jeff became the Chief Operating Officer role in early 2019 and led the transformation of a new way of working at Goodstart, placing centres at the centre of everything we do. In early 2023 Jeff was appointed Deputy CEO, a role to which he brings his strong leadership focus to create a thriving organisation where all children and Goodstarters feel a strong sense of belonging.
Our Social Impact General Manager
BEd; BBus
Myra oversees Goodstart's social impact strategy, policy, measurement, research and evaluation and social inclusion programs and initiatives such as EChO (Enhancing Children’s Outcomes) and Family Connections. Myra and her team amplify the delivery of Goodstart’s social purpose and impact across the country.
Myra brings significant experience to Goodstart, as a driving force of social policy and reform that has helped transform and improve the quality of life of Australians. She has been the senior social policy advisor to two Australian prime ministers and has worked across early childhood education and care, schools, community services and health policy at state and national levels. Myra’s career began as a teacher in the northern suburbs of Brisbane. She is deeply committed to supporting those Goodstarters working closest with children and is a passionate believer in the power of early learning to transform children’s lives. Myra co-wrote Preschool – Two Years are Better Than One with Dr Stacey Fox at the Mitchell Institute which aimed to help compel Australia to pursue a national commitment to ensuring all three-year-olds have access to high-quality early childhood education by offering a second year of preschool. Myra has also been a Goodstart mum, with her children attending Goodstart Kedron.
Our Chief Financial Officer
GAICD, BCom, FCPA, MAppFin
Peter is an experienced CFO who enjoys working in a "for purpose" environment and is passionate about shaping a stronger future for Goodstart, bringing a strategic focus to financial sustainability, risk and assurance and the longer term success of Goodstart.
Peter is an accomplished finance and commercial leader with a diverse corporate and operational based career across health, aged care, retirement living, not-for-profit, financial services, engineering, construction/projects and mining/energy. With expertise in finance, commercial operations, funding, procurement, IT, property, and governance, he excels in strategy, delivery and change. Peter's ability to lead high-performing teams, navigate complex change and employ broad financial skills in listed and non-listed entities sets him apart. Recent roles have included working with a distributed network of services across 400+ locations and developing a deep understanding of diverse operations. His strategic financial and risk leadership is instrumental in shaping a stronger future for Goodstart, ensuring stability, growth and the ongoing provision of nation-wide high quality early learning. Peter's dedication to excellence drives sustainable success and reinforces Goodstart's vision and purpose.
Our Senior Executive Officer
Ass. Dip (Social Science)
Meegan brings over two decades of experience in early learning and leadership at Goodstart. Beginning her career as a student in a regional Western Australia early learning service, Meegan has built a diverse skillset across roles – from operations, including Centre Director, to acquisitions management and critical incident management. She now serves as a trusted advisor to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
As Senior Executive Officer, Meegan is known for her strategic insight and deep understanding of Goodstart’s social purpose, focused on delivering positive social impact for Australia’s children, families, and communities. She plays an invaluable role in uniting and guiding the SLT, strengthening its focus on Goodstart’s vision and purpose. Known as the “beating heart and brains” of the team, Meegan amplifies Goodstart’s social impact by ensuring SLT remains aligned with Goodstart’s long term goals, championing a culture of reflection, proactive decision making and continuous improvement across the organisation.
Passionate about advancing outcomes for children, families, educators and the broader community, Meegan is committed to Goodstart’s vision and purpose. She works closely with leaders to navigate challenges and drive initiatives that bring Goodstart’s strategy and vision to life across more than 650 communities.
Our Chief Children's Officer
BEd; FCCT
Sue leads a range of work and initiatives to bring our ambition of becoming a world leader in early years pedagogy and practice to life. This sees Sue and her colleagues on any given day working closely with educators in our centres, the sector, academics and national and international thought leaders to translate and embed early learning evidence into practice.
Sue is an international thought leader in early childhood pedagogy and OBE (Order of the British Empire). Prior to joining Goodstart, Sue was the Head of Early Learning at Action for Children in the United Kingdom (UK). As a complement to her role at Action for Children, Sue provided specialist advisory services on early years and childcare policy and quality to the UK Government and relevant Ministers. In her early career, Sue spent 14 years as a teacher, including three years in the British School, Athens, and six years as Early Years and Infant Lead in the British School in Manila, Philippines. She has also been a school principal and held the regulatory role of lead inspector for the Early Years Foundation Stage (the UK version of Australia’s Early Years Learning Framework).
Our Chief Products and Services Officer
BEc
Barbara is a strategic leader dedicated to ensuring Goodstart delivers high quality early learning experiences for children and families while creating a great place to work for our people and teams.
As Chief Products and Services Officer, she plays a key role in shaping and executing Goodstart’s strategic plan, ensuring the organisation’s vision and purpose are brought to life across its national network of centres. Barbara oversees critical areas including marketing, talent acquisition, workforce planning, procurement, and centre readiness, ensuring Goodstart’s people, resources and operations are aligned to support success.
With a strong background in change management, transformation and operational leadership, Barbara has led large scale projects and business improvements across early learning, transport, media. She is known for her ability to drive positive change, strengthen teams and create impact at scale.
Passionate about making a meaningful difference, Barbara is committed to helping Goodstart’s people and centre teams thrive – so every child can benefit from the best possible early learning experience.
Our Chief Operating Officer
BEc; BRM; MBA; GAICD
Melinda is instrumental in supporting Goodstart’s 654-strong centre network and empowering our centre leaders and their wider teams each and every day to maximise the potential of every child through high quality early learning.
Melinda is a dynamic leader, who fosters innovation, is results driven and has extensive leadership experience in operations management, cultural change, business transformation and customer service.
With over 30 years of senior leadership and executive experience, Melinda brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Goodstart. Her background includes leadership roles at Woolworths Ltd and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), leading national service delivery and major change and transformation projects.
Our Chief People & Culture Officer
BBus; MAICD
Natalie excels in maintaining a great balance between organisational requirements and nurturing an exceptional employee experience to support our people to thrive.
Natalie leads our people and learning teams which maintain an unwavering focus on ensuring Goodstart provides an inclusive and thriving environment for both Goodstarters and the children we serve. Natalie brings significant HR expertise to Goodstart, with her career spanning across several roles within the Queensland Public Service, including Queensland Treasury and Queensland Audit Office. Prior to joining Goodstart, Natalie served as the Chief People Officer, leading a major HR transformation at Residential Tenancies Authority, where she also held acting positions as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Customer Experience Officer.
