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Dr Domenique Meyrick

co-CEO

Having studied creative arts, cinema and theology, Domenique brings a creative perspective to the industry. She’s been involved in frontline volunteering in a range of areas, including working with people affected by homelessness and people experiencing mental health issues.

Domenique has been with FCA since 2017 and was previously the Director of Development. She has represented FCA in many external forums on a variety of policy issues, and most recently directed the FCA’s annual conferences. She has been involved in projects to further professionalize the sector, working in areas including training, professional development and contributing to a workforce development plan.

She led a number of key initiatives during the pandemic to address workforce issues, including the intern project and the development of an online simulated placement (Steps). She shares leadership of FCA with co-CEO Peter Gartlan.

Domenique finds it rewarding to be part of a small, but dedicated team that shares a great sense of collegiality and purpose while achieving meaningful results.

Peter Gartlan

co-CEO

Peter has been working with FCA since 2020, leading the financial counselling sector’s response to disasters. He has been part of the sector for many years, including time as the Executive Officer at Financial Counselling Victoria.

Peter has also been involved with Knowmore Legal Service on the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Peter also undertook project roles with the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network, YFS Logan City and Anglicare East Arnhem.

Peter is a director of the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) and is Independent Chair of the Consumer Advisory Panel at Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). He shares Leadership of FCA with co-CEO DR Domenique Meyrick.

Lauren Levin

Director of Policy and Campaigns

Lauren became involved in financial counselling after admission to the Supreme Court as a ‘later lawyer’ and volunteering at the Consumer Action Law Centre for six months. Lauren’s varied skills are put to use in her broad role at FCA in policy and campaigns.

Lauren’s earlier professional roles were in the brewing and malting industries, working for public companies, including Foster’s Brewing Group and a large malt exporter. Job roles covered taxation, marketing strategy and communications.

Lauren also set up and ran an own agency for performing artists for a number of years (which explains why the FCA conference now includes a performance element in between the serious sessions). Lauren’s career shows that deviations (while your children are young) never go to waste!

Rita Battaglin

General Manager Projects

Rita has worked in the community sector for more than 15 years, including five years managing financial counselling, employment and child support programs. She has also been a member of the Consumer Utility Advocacy Centre Reference Group and United Energy’s Customer Consultative Committee.

Rita joined the team as Business Services Wage Assessment Tool (BSWAT) Payment Scheme Project Manager in 2015. She manages data reporting for the  National Debt Helpline, supports the Financial Counselling Foundation and coordinates the Day in the Life project, that arranges for federal politicians to visit a financial counselling service to gain a better understanding of the work of financial counsellors and the issues faced by their clients.

Rita finds her work meaningful and rewarding because financial counselling makes a positive difference to people’s lives and is proud to be part of a great team at FCA.

Lynda Edwards

Coordinator Financial Capability Community of Practice

Lynda is a descendant of the Wangkumara people of far west NSW and is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion, fairness and financial resilience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.

After spending more than a decade in the finance sector, Lynda joined the consumer advocacy movement. As program manager at CentaCare Wilcannia-Forbes, she was involved with a number of projects that delivered financial literacy and awareness. She also advocated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including in the Do Not Knock campaign and superannuation and funeral insurance products.

Lynda has completed the Diploma of Financial Counselling and has been involved with consultation groups around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander financial literacy, the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council, Indigenous Financial Services Network, Indigenous Financial Resilience Research Project with First Nations Foundation, Australian Council for International Development and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Financial Literacy Forum, which is now in its 10th year.

Jill Keating

Finance Manager

Jill has extensive experience in the accounting and finance sector, having worked as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and also having contracted for the Australian Tax Office, Australian Grand Prix and many others. She also worked at the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (now the Australian Financial Complaints Authority) for 17 years.

Since starting with FCA at the beginning of 2017, she has been responsible for all of the organisation’s accounting and finance, including payroll, reporting and bookkeeping. Jill enjoys being a part of the lovely team environment and rewarding work of the organisation.

Jenny Peachey

Strategic Project Adviser

Jenny has been working with Financial Counselling Australia on a range of strategic projects since late 2018, particularly those aimed at building the capacity and capability of the financial counselling sector and in ensuring it is adequately funded on a sustainable basis.

Jenny has had a long career in senior executive roles in Commonwealth and State public sector agencies and at the Financial Ombudsman Service. She has deep experience as a strategy and commercial senior executive having led and implemented significant funding, organisational structure, workforce planning and policy and governance reviews across a range of organisations.

Vanessa Hood

Strategy and Evaluation Adviser

Vanessa is an energetic and skilled evaluator, facilitator and trainer with over 16 years’ experience in a range of contexts. With qualifications in Science, Vanessa has led a range of organisational and community behaviour change programs in sustainability and agriculture.  Vanessa was the Evaluation Lead at Sustainability Victoria and is a Director with Roooftop Social, where she works to help people use evidence to plan their work and measure their impact.

Vanessa has a demonstrated track record in building individual and organisational capability for evaluative thinking, integrating training, coaching and mentoring with structural system-level changes to help establish evaluation and outcome-focussed approaches. Vanessa joined FCA in 2016 to assist with project evaluation and strategic planning.

She is passionate about working with people and is known for her use of participatory approaches and creative group facilitation techniques to embed learning and adoption of new ideas.

Maura Angle

Director of Community Engagement

Maura joined Financial Counselling Australia in April 2020 as the Director of Community Engagement for the National Debt Helpline. She is also responsible for communications and media for FCA.

Maura’s aim is to raise the profile of financial counselling in Australia and central to this is making it easier for those in financial hardship to find a financial counsellor so they can get back on track. 

Maura has almost 30 years experience in media and communications. For the past nine years she managed her own media training and communications business. Maura has managed some key national campaigns as well as media and communications planning, development and strategy for Government and private organisations. She has  also trained executives and spokespeople from a wide range of national organisations in how to talk to media. Maura has worked in newsrooms across Australia and overseas. She is a former chief-of-staff for ABC in Melbourne and senior radio producer with 774. 

Lody Stewart

Financial Counselling Knowledge Management and Advocacy Lead

Lody is a seasoned financial counsellor with a wealth of experience as a consumer advocate and strong commitment to supporting vulnerable clients.

Currently, Lody works as a financial counsellor at the Financial Rights Legal Centre and is also the Financial Counselling Knowledge Management and Advocacy Lead at FCA. She is currently leading the FCA’s strata levy payment difficulty reform project and writes content for the financial counselling sector Toolkit and National Debt Helpline websites.

Lody has previously worked as a Senior Financial Counsellor with the Women’s Legal Service NSW, delivering specialist family violence financial counselling, and as a specialist small business financial counsellor at the Small Business Debt Helpline.

Before transitioning to financial counselling, Lody held senior-level roles in the investment, insurance, and financial services sector for over 25 years.

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