Scope - About Us - Board Members

The Board in Profile

Diana Heggie, (Chief Executive Officer)
Jenny Fitzgerald (President)
Alasdair Norton (Vice President)
David Colliver (Treasurer)
Alison Brideson (Company Secretary)
Christian Astourian (Deputy Vice-president)
Annie Duncan (Dr)
Richard Gould (Dr)
John Lloyd (Hon)
Irene Kwong
Janet Torode
Rod O'Loan

Diana Heggie
(Chief Executive Officer)

Diana is the Chief Executive Officer of Scope in Victoria. She has worked in the disability field for over 25 years, in Ireland and Switzerland, and for the last 19 years in Melbourne. She took a lead role in Scope when they embarked on the name change from the Spastic Society of Victoria to Scope.
She has chaired two National Disability Conferences, is a member of the ACROD National Ageing & Disability Committee and a National Workforce Planning Committee.
She is a strong advocate for client empowerment and would like to see a future world where families and clients hold the purse strings and make choices of their own.
She also believes in the strength of the partnership approach and believes this is one of the key drivers in supporting people with disabilities to have their needs met in a locally responsive way.
Diana is married with two children and enjoys boating and walking in her spare time.

Jenny Fitzgerald (President)

Appointed to the Board in 2003. She first commenced employment with the Spastic Society of Victoria in 1984 and was employed as the Senior Physiotherapist, Pennyweight Park Centre, Senior Clinician, Physiotherapy, and finally as Discipline Specific Adviser, Physiotherapy for Statewide Specialist Services. Jenny is currently employed at Ballarat Health Services as Clinical Manager of Physiotherapy services.
Jenny holds a Graduate Diploma of Physiotherapy, and a Masters of Business Administration. On
completing a B. App Science in Physiotherapy in 1981, she returned to Ballarat and has lived and
worked there since.
Jenny Fitzgerald is married with four children.

Alasdair Norton (Vice President)

Alasdair was appointed to the board as Treasurer in 2004. Prior to immigrating to Australia in 1999, Alasdair was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse First Boston, an investment banking firm. Alasdair currently manages a small investment business and chairs the advisory board of a small consulting firm. He also serves as a board or committee member for a number of not-for-profit groups.

Alasdair read his MA in Engineering, Economics and Management at Balliol College , Oxford .

Alison Brideson (Company Secretary)

Alison Brideson is a lawyer with a background in private legal practice and as in-house lawyer to a number of corporations, including the not-for-profit sector.

As an officer in the Australian Army Reserve, she served for twelve years with the Australian Army Legal Corps.

Alison Brideson was appointed as the first Executive Company Secretary to Scope in April 2006.

Christian Astourian (Deputy Vice-president)

Christian Astourian has been a Board member of Scope since 2003. Christian is a Disability Consultant for three committees within the Department of Human Services, and an active public speaker for government and
non-government organisations on issues related to disability. He is on the State Government Disability Service Board and on the City of Melbourne Disability Advisory Council Board and also has his own company in diversity consultancy, Wings of Freedom.

Annie Duncan (Dr)

Dr Annie Duncan has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Western Australia. She spent many years
teaching and undertaking medical research at Universities in WA.
She became interested in the promotion of science to young people and worked in science centres in Perth and Canberra.
She has also run her own consulting business where she developed competency standards, ran workshops, assisted groups with their strategic planning and taught TAFE courses both in person and via videolink.
She now works with Our Community in Melbourne contributing to a newsletter for business on corporate social responsibility. In her “other” life Annie has been on the boards of NFPs in WA, ACT and Victoria including the Cancer Council, State Training Board and Family Planning. She is currently a Board member of The Melbourne Community Foundation.

Richard Gould (Dr)

Richard was appointed in 2003. He chairs the Board’s Risk and Audit Committee, and is a member of the Board People and Governance Committee. Richard is also a member of the Council of Victoria University.
He has contributed to eight other Boards over the last 20 years and particularly enjoys strategy, governance, marketing, finance, and risk management.
He holds a MBA, a doctorate in business, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
His prior roles include senior lecturer in marketing at Deakin University, Australian Trade Commissioner, national sales and marketing manager of Brownbuilt Ltd and director of Hilton Distributing Company.
Richard has an artist wife and two adult children, and says that he tries to socialise, keep fit and read.

John Lloyd (Hon)

John was appointed to the Board in 2005.
John is the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner. He has worked in the industrial relations field for most of his career. John has been a Board Director of Cerebral Palsy Association WA and Hartley Lifecare ACT.
One of John's children, Ruth who is now deceased had cerebral palsy.

David Colliver (Treasurer)

David was appointed Honourary Treasurer to the Board of Scope (Vic) Ltd in November 2007 and has been a member of the Board Finance Committee since October 2005.

David has a background of leadership roles in finance and operations, including technology enablement, organisational change programs and corporate governance in Australia and United Kingdom and is currently employed at ANZ.

David is also a Honorary Treasurer of the Childrens Protection Society of Victoria and a member of the Board Audit Committee of The Foundation for Young Australians.

Irene Kwong

Irene Kwong was elected to the Board of Directors of Scope in November 2007.

She is a proud second generation Australian born Chinese. Irene was educated at Yooralla and achieved Intermediate Level. In recent years she attained level 1 Workplace Trainer Certificate and upgraded this qualification to Certificate 1V Trainer and Assessor.

She has worked with Scope for forty one years, currently as telephonist/receptionist at High Point Industries. In 1982 she was elected to Scope’s Governing Council as the first employee with a disability to achieve this and served two terms. She is also a professional public speaker and is familiar to Scope members as MC of the Annual General Meeting from 1997-2005.

In December 2004 Scope Vic. bestowed a Life Governorship award on her in recognition of her support of the work of Scope which she deems a great honour.

Janet Torode

Janet was appointed to the Board in 2007. She has worked in the disability field plus been an advocate for people with a disability for over 20 years. Janet has two adult children. Her daughter Hayley attends the Lifestyle Options program at Scope in Geelong . Janet has served on numerous regional committees in the disability sector. She is a paediatric dietitian who works as a senior clinician in an Early Childhood Intervention Service for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and maintains a private consultancy business. Janet’s Board interests are in client services and facilities.

Rod O'Loan

With a working career expanding 40 years, of which 23 have been at board level, Rod has an extensive background in management generally and logistics specifically. Senior executive positions held include CEO of V Line Freight and MD of a major storage and road transport provider. (P.Cleland Enterprises Ltd). Prior to the above appointments Rod worked for several major manufacturing and sales organisations including Ford Motor Company, Caterpillar and International Harvester. Since retiring from executive commercial life, Rod has remained active, advising on a regular, part-time basis, a not for profit environmental organisation and serves on Scope’s (Capital) Fund Raising sub-Committee. Rod obtained his degree in Economics from the University of Queensland, is married and has two adult sons.