Our Board

LifeWorks is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee reporting to a Board comprised of nine non-executive directors who generously volunteer their valuable time, expertise and skills.

We acknowledge and appreciate the contributions Peter Harcourt (Chairman), Judith Peirce, Andrew Brookes, Christine Clough, Alan Sherratt, Dr Muriel Porter and Ross Hodgens make to the strategic direction, good governance and positive leadership of LifeWorks Relationship Counselling and Education Services together with LifeWorks CEO, Kaye Swanton and Corporate Services Manager, (and Company Secretary) Peter Holmes.

For much of his working life Peter Harcourt has been involved in general management, strategic planning and its implementation. Over thirty years were spent in the general insurance industry, the last 25 years of which were with the Colonial Mutual Group, managing all aspects of their general insurance arm. Peter's role concluded as general manager of the Australian operation.

Peter has also spent time as a finance and administration consultant for a large national law firm and nine years as the CEO of Melbourne's largest IVF clinic. He developed and implemented the strategy that underpinned sustained and profitable growth which helped pave the way for continued expansion and subsequent amalgamation.

With over fourteen years as a churchwarden at St. Mark's Anglican Church, Camberwell, Peter has had many years involvement in church administration and in addition he serves as the Secretary and Treasurer to The National Home Mission Fund. Peter also has a lifetime involvement as a volunteer with the Emerald Tourist Railway, where he is a member of the Strategic Planning Committee.

Judith Peirce has over thirty five years experience as a solicitor and barrister in private practice and in the community sector. She was an Accredited Specialist in Family Law and worked as a community lawyer in the western suburbs of Melbourne and as CEO of the Brimbank Community Centre (now Community West.). Her interest in the intersection of family law and family violence led her to work to establish a national funded program of children’s contact centres and she was awarded an Australia New Zealand Trust Fellowship to study and promote the contact centres in New Zealand. 

In 2003 Judith was appointed as a full time Commissioner to the Victorian Law Reform Commission. Judith led the Reference on family violence and was responsible for community law reform. Involving the community and giving voice to the victims of violence was a key component of the Commission’s approach. The Family Violence Reference resulted in the publication of a consultation paper, two interim reports and a final report which was tabled in Parliament in 2006. The Victorian Government substantially adopted the recommended reforms, passing a  significant reform Act in 2007. 

Judith has held the positions of Treasurer and Vice-President of the Law Institute of Victoria, Deputy Chair of the Family Law Section of the Law Institute of Victoria, was a Founding Member, Co-Convenor and Treasurer of The Australian Children’s Contact Services Association, Board Member of the Public Interest Law Clearing House and an active member of a number of committees dealing with social and legal issues including access to justice and services for victims of crime. In 2006, Judith was elected as the President of the Spray Point Wild Coast Area Conservation Group Inc, on the Mornington Peninsula, a community based organisation concerned with the preservation of local heritage values, conservation and the environment. 

Andrew Brookes currently holds the position of Chief Executive of the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, a Trust which has distributed over $85 million to charitable institutions situated in Victoria. Prior to this, Andrew spent over twenty two years with the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited in a variety of roles both in Australia and overseas, including Group Compliance Manager, Group Superannuation Manager and leading the team responsible for negotiating the contract for the joint venture life insurance operation in the Peoples’ Republic of China. Following the takeover of the then Colonial Limited by Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Andrew joined Colonial Foundation as Executive Officer, responsible for all aspects of the operation of the private charitable fund.

Andrew is a member of the Melbourne Health Human Research Ethics Committee, the Melbourne Grammar School Investment Committee and the Council of the Australian Youth Orchestra. He is a Director of Deakin Foundation and the Victoria Police Youth Foundation.

Christine Clough is a barrister who works mainly in the area of child protection. She has been a member of the Victorian Bar for sixteen years, following three years as a Judge’s Associate in the County Court of Victoria. Christine acts at times for the Department of Human Services and also for parents and children where issues of child safety and well-being are before the courts.

Christine’s earlier career was in social work, including intensive care and organ donation, but predominantly in adolescent health. Christine was a part of the team that established the adolescent ward and outpatient service at Westmead Hospital in Sydney in the early 1980’s. Passionate about the care of children, adolescents and their families, she is currently a member of the Developmental Board of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

Alan Sherratt was born in Birmingham England and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in England and is now a Fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Having spent some years in the accounting profession Alan pursued his interest in “what makes a business tick”, left the profession and joined a major British public company where he rose to be a director of a large subsidiary (1500+ employees).

Alan moved with that company to Australia as a local director in 1979 and two years later joined a Melbourne public company where he became CEO of their printing interests. He later became managing director and one third owner of a book printing company. He is now in partnership in a financial planning practice bringing him close, in a business dynamics sense, to where he started.

Dr Muriel Porter is  is a well known Melbourne author and journalist, a frequent media commentator on religion, and a leading Anglican laywoman. She is a member of Melbourne Synod and Archbishop-in-Council and a member of both General Synod and the General Synod Standing Committee.

Muriel has written numerous books on current issues concerning religion in Australia, the most recent being Sex, Power and the Clergy (Hardie Grant Books, 2003), The New Puritans: The Rise of Fundamentalism in the Anglican Church (MUP, 2006) and Women in Purple: Women Bishops in Australia (John Garratt Publishing, 2008). An expanded and updated edition of The New Puritans entitled Sydney Anglicans and the Threat to World Anglicanism will be published by Ashgate (UK) in August 2011.

Formerly a Principal at Russell Kennedy, Ross Hodgens has retired from this role and now acts as a Consultant to the firm. An accredited specialist in workplace relations and commercial litigation Ross has extensive legal experience and expertise in the areas of industrial relations, employment law, equal opportunity, freedom of information and occupational health and safety. He has also lectured part-time in employment law at Victoria University.

Kaye Swanton is the CEO of LifeWorks Relationship Counselling and Education Services. Kaye has a 25 year history in governance, strategic management, business development, financial management and senior executive positions.

Before joining LifeWorks, Kaye was the Manager of the Employment, Education and Training Department within the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI). Prior to this position, she was the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Enterprise Education Centre, an independent company established by VECCI to act as a focal point for linking industry with education, and to win employer support for vocational education and training. Through these positions she gained extensive experience, at national and state level, in formulating and representing policy positions to government.

Kaye has studied in the areas of psychodynamic psychotherapy, organisational consulting from a system psychodynamic perspective and holds a Masters in Applied Science (Organisational Dynamics). She has completed a specialist course in relationship and couple counselling and is a qualified facilitator and mediator having trained in Alternative Dispute Resolution with the Trillium Group in collaboration with the Law Faculty of Melbourne University, and Advanced Negotiation and Mediation with the Trillium Group in collaboration with the Faculty of Law and Management, La Trobe University.

Kaye has previously been a city councillor and has served on numerous community boards and committees, including the board of Family Services Australia, the national peak membership body for the family services sector. She is a current member of the committee of management of No To Violence, is also a founding director of the Family Violence Prevention Foundation of Australia and is the chairperson of the National Institute of Organisation Dynamics Australia.

Kaye has a particular interest in the development of the capacities of individuals, groups and organisations and the challenges (and rewards) this can bring to the individual themselves and to modern workplaces.

Kaye also holds a passionate concern for the prevention of family violence and in particular the safety of women and children who experience or witness violence and abuse. She understands the profound dislocation that can be suffered as a consequence of violence and abuse, particularly its impact on the lives of young children, their hopes and dreams.

She believes that when young lives have been interrupted that psychotherapy and education can offer true healing and the hope that life can be rich and rewarding in spite of those difficult beginnings.

The Manager of Corporate Services, Peter Holmes, worked for twenty eight years in the public sector, including 26 years with the Australian Taxation Office. During that time he worked in the areas of accounting, audit, human resources, information technology, risk management and senior management. He has also managed the administration area of another not-for-profit organisation and run his own business. He has a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Economics) from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Diploma of Business (Management) and Masters of Business Leadership from RMIT University. 

Peter is an accredited Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) practitioner and is also a qualified Psychotherapist, Counsellor and Gestalt Therapist. His passion is to assist organisations and people to discover their true potential by using his skills, experience and qualifications in the areas of management, leadership, psychotherapy, counselling, training, coaching and facilitation to enable this. 

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