Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is responsible for our overall performance and reports annually to our joint ministers. (See: Governance)
The DHA Board comprises directors consisting of:

a chair appointed by our joint ministers
four directors with expertise in residential property, real estate, building, social planning or finance
three directors nominated respectively by the Chief of the Defence Force, the Secretary of the Department of Defence, and the Secretary of the Department of Finance
the Managing Director of DHA is appointed by the Board and is the only Executive Director.

Hon J.A.L. (Sandy) Macdonald AM

Chair
Appointed: July 2008
Reappointed: October 2011, January 2014, February 2018 and February 2021
Acting Chair: November 2014 to February 2015

Qualifications
Bachelor of Laws (Sydney)
Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Biography

Mr Macdonald was appointed as a member of the Board in July 2008 and was appointed Chair in February 2015. He has considerable public and private company experience. He was elected to the Australian Senate in 1993 and served multiple terms before retiring in 2008. His Parliamentary service includes eight years as Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, and periods as Deputy Leader of the National Party in the Senate, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence and Parliamentary Secretary for Trade. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2021 for significant service to the people and Parliament of Australia and to public administration. He is a wool and beef producer near Quirindi (NSW).

Mr Barry Jackson

Managing Director
Appointed: May 2019

Qualifications

Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
New Zealand Certificate in Quantity Surveying
Quantity Surveyors Registration Board

Biography

Mr Jackson was appointed as Managing Director in May 2019. Prior to DHA he was Deputy Secretary, Service Delivery Operations at the Department of Human Services. His Australian Public Service career includes senior executive roles within the Department of Human Services, the Department of Finance and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He also has more than 25 years’ experience in the private sector, primarily in the areas of construction, property management, and strategic and business process management. He was Chief Executive Officer of UGL Services Australia and New Zealand from 2009–11, Australia’s largest provider of property management services. He is the Deputy Chair of Goodwin Aged Care Services, the ACT’s largest not-for-profit aged care provider. He is also on the Board of Koomarri, an ACT/NSW based not-for-profit organisation specialising in supporting people with an intellectual disability or acquired brain injury to achieve their life goals.

Mr Simon Lewis AO PSM

Director
Appointed: April 2019
Reappointed: April 2022

Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts (Economics, Statistics)
Graduate Diploma of Computing Studies
Graduate Diploma in Strategic Studies
Completed Harvard and Wharton Business School’s Advanced Management Program

Biography
Mr Lewis was appointed to the Board as the nominee of the Department of Finance Secretary in April 2019 and was reappointed in April 2022. He had a distinguished career in the Australian Public Service spanning more than four decades, including a five-year term as the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs and senior roles at the Department of Defence and the Department of Finance. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 for distinguished service to public administration, transformational change and organisational design. He was awarded a Public Service Medal (PSM) in 2007 for outstanding public service and the Centenary Medal in 2001 for his contribution to Australian society and government. His former board appointments include President of the Repatriation Commission, Chair of the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission and a member of the ANZAC Centenary advisory board.

Brigadier Leigh Wilton AM

Director
Appointed: December 2019

Qualifications
Master of Arts (Strategic Studies)
Master of Management
Bachelor of Business
Graduate Diploma in Information Systems
Graduate of the Australian Command and Staff College (ACSC)
Graduate of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies (CDSS)
Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course

Biography
Brigadier Wilton was appointed to the Board as the nominee of the Chief of the Defence Force in December 2019. She graduated from the Royal Military College to the Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps in 1991. Her early appointments included regimental and staff positions as a supply officer and as a project manager. Her command experience includes a posting as the Officer Commanding Supply Company, 7th Combat Service Support Battalion and the inaugural Commanding Officer/Chief Instructor of the Army School of Ordnance. Brigadier Wilton has held a range of staff appointments at both Lieutenant Colonel and Colonel. She has held positions as the Senior Officer Manager within the Career Management Agency, directing staff at both the Australian Command and Staff College and the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies, and as the Chief of Staff for Headquarters 633 – Afghanistan and Chief of Staff for Army Headquarters. Brigadier Wilton was appointed as the Director General Personnel – Army in 2016. In this role she also held the appointment as Deputy Head Army People, and was recognised for her work by being awarded the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) on the Queen's Birthday 2018. In 2019 Brigadier Wilton was appointed to her current position as the Director General Career Management – Army.

Mr Robert Fisher AM

Director
Appointed: February 2016
Re-appointed: February 2019, February 2022, May 2022

Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Education

Biography
Mr Fisher was appointed to the Board as a commercial director in February 2016 and was reappointed in 2019 and 2022. He had a distinguished career in the public service spanning more than four decades, including being a member of the Australian Trade Commissioner Service and Chief Executive Officer or Director General of various Western Australian (WA) government departments. He was Agent General for WA, based in London, from 2001 to 2006. He was one of five commissioners on the Australian Government’s National Commission of Audit in 2013–14. He was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2003 for service to the public sector in WA.

Ms Andrea Galloway

Director
Appointed: November 2016
Reappointed: February 2023

Qualifications
Bachelor of Business Administration
Graduate of the Executive Program (University of Michigan)
Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Justice of the Peace

Biography
Ms Galloway was appointed to the Board as a commercial director in November 2016 and was reappointed in 2019, 2022 and 2023. She has over 30 years of executive management experience for national and multinational commercial organisations, including leading Spherion, Lucent Technologies and AT&T in the Asia Pacific and South Pacific. She was most recently Managing Director of Evolve Housing, one of Australia’s largest community housing providers, from 2011 to 2019. She is on the board of Coleman Greig Lawyers and is a member of the Advisory Board for The Salvation Army Australia—NSW/ ACT. In 2014, she was awarded the Australian Telstra Business Woman of the Year and the NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year for Innovation.

Ms Kate Louis

Director
Appointed: June 2020

Qualifications
Bachelor of Laws (1st Class Honours)
Bachelor of Arts

Biography
Ms Louis was appointed to the Board as the Secretary of Defence’s nominee in June 2020. She has 20 years’ experience in the Department of Defence including appointments as Director, Chief of Staff and Assistant Secretary within the Capability Development Group. In 2014, Ms Louis was appointed as the Assistant Secretary White Paper Enterprise Management to develop industry related Defence policy including Shipbuilding and the Defence Industry Policy Statement. Ms Louis was the First Assistant Secretary Defence Industry Policy Division from November 2015. In this role she was responsible for the effective implementation of the Government’s approach to Defence Industry policy. Ms Louis joined the Australian Industry Group (AI Group) in August 2017 as the Executive Director of the AI Group Defence Council, and is now also Head of Defence and National Security.

Ms Gai Brodtmann

Director
Appointed: February 2021

Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts (Politics, Sociology and English)
Bachelor of Arts (Public Relations)
Graduate Certificate in Business
Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia

Biography
Ms Brodtmann was appointed to the board as a commercial director in February 2021. She currently sits on the boards of Old Parliament House, Endometriosis Australia and Fearless Women, and is a member of the Sapien Cyber advisory board, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and National Security College Futures councils and the Canberra Business Chamber Policy Taskforce. Ms Brodtmann is also a presenter and panellist at the National Security College, Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Australian Defence College.

Elected as the Member for Canberra from 2010⁠–⁠2019, Ms Brodtmann served as Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence from 2013⁠–⁠2016 and Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security and Defence from 2016⁠–⁠2019. She also served on various committees, including the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit.

Prior to her political career, Ms Brodtmann was a small business owner from 2000⁠–⁠2010 and non-executive director, and a federal public servant, mostly with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney-General's Department from 1990-2000.