ACSA top job up for grabs
The association’s new CEO will be based in Canberra, not Melbourne.
By Tim Dixon
The search has officially begun for a new CEO to lead the nation’s largest peak industry body.
Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA) advertised the role in major national and metropolitan newspapers at the weekend.
The search for a new CEO follows the departure of longstanding chief, Greg Mundy, at the end of 2010.
Although the group’s national office is currently located in Melbourne, the advertisement stated that the new CEO would be based in Canberra.
ACSA president, Klaus Zimmerman, said the association had already located an office in Canberra.
“The current senior staff spend an enormous amount of time in Canberra,” he said.
“Therefore as an organisation that says [it wants] to be a major advocacy and lobby group for the industry, we need to have our senior people based in Canberra.
“The senior staff will be located in Canberra and the functioning of the office can be split between Canberra and Melbourne and around the rest of the country where we have offices as well. We do want to maintain the intellectual capital that we have in Melbourne.”
The new CEO will play a pivotal role in ACSA’s restructure plans if they go ahead.
“Should the proposed transformation from a federation to a unified Australia-wide entity be accepted by the membership, the CEO would influence what are presently state based teams comprising about 100 staff and a $17 million budget,” the advertisement said.
“Any fundamental restructure process could then take place over the next several years, guided by a nationally represented board.”
ACSA plans to conduct a membership survey next month on the proposed changes.
It is anticipated that an appointment will be announced within the next two to three months.
“[The successful candidate will] need to be charismatic, articulate, able to open the right doors around the country with various stakeholders and they need to have a good media presence,” Mr Zimmerman said.
