Executive Team

Michelle Phillips

Chief Executive Officer

Bachelor of Business, Chartered Accountant

Location: Gubbi Gubbi Land (Sunshine Coast, Queensland)

Michelle has almost 20 years’ senior executive leadership in I/NGO and commercial organisations with the advancement of women as the common thread. She has extensive international and local business experience in national strategy, change management, community engagement, funding and commercial partnerships.  

From Country Director delivering and advocating for lifesaving women’s health services in Asia and Africa, to establishing the highly successful national Westfield W-League and CEO roles with the Hyundai A-League football clubs, Michelle is a true social business leader driven by improving social impact and financial performance.

Jon Ackary

General Manager, Song Businesses

Management – Hilton

Location: Gadigal Land (Sydney, New South Wales)

Jon is manager of YWCA Australia’s Song Businesses. His description of YWCA is simple: inclusive, kind and ambitious.

Jon has over 30 years’ experience including 20 years’ at General Manager level operating Hotels, Restaurants and Events for major Hotel and Event operators including Hilton Hotels and Event Hospitality.

He made the move to Profit For Purpose as he could see that a charity with a vibrant commercial division puts the organisation in a strong position to maintain independence and grow funding for programs and advocacy work.

Charlotte Dillon

General Manager, Housing

Location: Naarm (Melbourne, Victoria)

Charlotte is an experienced leader whose decade of experience spans the community housing and homelessness sector, in both government and not-for-profit roles.

Prior to working at YWCA, Charlotte’s career has been nurtured through various leadership positions in the housing sector working across Victoria, and regional Northern Territory.

Charlotte’s expertise is in business development and governance of programs to deliver government and organisational priorities.

Charlotte is passionate about social justice, driven by the belief that housing is a human right.

Joanna Mallon

Director, Organisational Capability and People

Bachelor Social Science, Member of AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institute)

Location: Gadigal Land (Sydney, New South Wales)

The three words Joanna would use to describe YWCA? Passionate, inclusive and feminist. They’re values she brings to work everyday for her role as Director, People and Culture.

Joanna has more than 15 years’ human resource leadership experience across the manufacturing, retail, financial services and not-for-profit sectors. She’s also managed sales and service teams as Regional Manager with HCF.

She has particular expertise in developing and implementing programs and advising leaders in organisations on leadership, culture, change management, employment relations, remuneration strategy and WHS. Joanna is passionate about the support and development of people in an organisation and how people initiatives can contribute to an organisation’s strategic outcomes and success.

Faisal Mukhtar

Chief Financial Officer

MBA, CA, ACCA, Grad Dip in Management, Grad Dip in Applied Corporate Governance, B.Sc. (Hons) Applied Accounting

Location: Gadigal Land (Sydney, New South Wales)

Faisal brings significant leadership and strategic experience in business transformation and consolidation, merger and integration, designing and implementing growth strategies, and business expansion.

He has previously worked for some iconic businesses within the not for profit, education, hospitality, private equity investee entities and professional services sectors including Marriott International Inc, University of London, Deloitte, RSM and Australian Institute of Management (a Scientia Education Group business owned by CHAMP Ventures).

Faisal is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Governance Institute of Australia, and Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. He is a Managing Director of C-Kandar Pty Ltd., a Non-executive Director and Chair of Finance Committee of the Australia Performing Arts Conservatory, a founding trustee of Sedum School of Special Children and a former director of Asian Association of Management Organisation secretariat.

Hannah Murray

Company Secretary

BA (International Studies), M. International Relations, GIA (Affiliated)

Location: Naarm (Melbourne, Victoria)

Hannah started with YWCA Australia in 2017, amassing a vast amount of historical knowledge about the YWCA movement and governance knowledge in that time. She is the proud owner of a Certificate in Governance Practice from the Governance Institute of Australia, a creative and effective communicator and lover of frameworks and processes to improve governance structures. Hannah is a firm believer that feminism without intersectionality is the patriarchy in a new hat and looks forward to working with YWCA as it transitions from emerging intersectionality to embedding it into practices.

Anna Paris

General Manager, Service Delivery

Bachelor Social Science, Post Grad in Social Science, Research and Evaluation

Location: Naarm (Melbourne, Victoria)

Anna has 27 years’ experience in the specialist homelessness services and housing sectors, in Western Australia and Victoria, and now nationally.

Anna is passionate about leading organisational and sector transformation to deliver real impact, especially for women and those experiencing chronic homelessness. 

Prior to joining YWCA Australia, she has contributed to regional, state and national reforms in the specialist homelessness services sector in both Victoria and Western Australia to progress a more socially just system and promote inclusive communities for people experiencing disadvantage.  Anna has a long history of client-centred service design, service delivery, evaluation and outcomes measurement, most notably in the area of partnership models between homelessness services and housing to end homelessness. 

Kate Whittle

General Manager, Advocacy and External Affairs

Bachelor of Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Master of International Studies

Location: Jagera and Turrbal Land (Brisbane, Queensland)

Legally qualified, with a background in advocacy and government relations, Kate brings a wide range of skills and experience in advocacy to government, policy development, and media relations.

Kate has worked with leading decision-makers across government, not for profits, corporates, and peak bodies, and has secured a variety of legislative and regulatory change through her advocacy work. Prior to joining YWCA Australia, Kate was a senior ministerial advisor in the Queensland Government. 

With deep and practical understanding of the workings of government, Kate is focused on achieving outcomes through strategic advocacy, effective stakeholder engagement and building partnerships to drive change.

As a professional spokesperson, Kate has appeared before state and federal parliamentary committees and inquiries and featured across all major media platforms such as The Australian, Australian Financial Review, ABC, Sky News and Bloomberg. Kate’s upbringing in social housing has fostered an unwavering commitment to advocating for safe and secure housing for women and gender diverse people. For her, the personal is political, fuelling her passion to create inclusive and equitable housing solutions for those that need it most.