Take time out of your busy day and make a Donation to an amazing cause. Shed some light on Heart Awareness
Take time out of your busy day and make a Donation to an amazing cause. Shed some light on Heart Awareness
Tanya Hall has contributed over 17 years of work in the not-for-profit sector. Through her personal experience of living with heart disease, she founded Hearts4heart in 2011, a national organisation dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for Australians and New Zealanders living with heart disease. Tanya also currently serves on the Board of the World Heart Federation.
Under Tanya?s leadership and advocacy, Hearts4heart has grown exponentially and is now recognised as an expert voice in patient education and support for heart disease, including arrhythmias, heart valve disease, and heart failure. Following its success in Australia, Hearts4heart has expanded to New Zealand. Tanya is frequently invited to contribute to research, present at health industry conferences, and provide expert commentary to the media on cardiac-related topics.
Her commitment to improving the lives of those affected by heart disease is both professional and personal. Having lost her father to a heart condition and managing her own heart disease, she has an intimate understanding of the challenges patients face. This lived experience has shaped her approach to advocacy and fuelled her passion for creating meaningful change in heart health globally.
Tanya?s goal is early detection and equitable access to therapies worldwide. Her passion for raising awareness about heart disease and ensuring patients have access to proven treatments has led her to establish strong relationships with key stakeholders, including clinicians, politicians, and health industry leaders across the globe.
As CEO of the only cardiac patient advocacy group actively involved in market access discussions with government, Tanya has played a pivotal role in reinvigorating the Australian cardiac community?s focus on patient access to therapies. She has united stakeholders- clinicians, industry leaders, and politicians through roundtable meetings and regular teleconferences to deliver a unified voice on these issues. Tanya?s contributions have been instrumental in improving access to therapies shaping various government health policy reforms.
Tanya has been involved in several key committees- some of which include the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Device Reform committee, ECG review committee, Cardiac Services and Prostheses List Reform, HTA reform, ANZACTS Committee, Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand Australasia (CSANZ)? Cardiac Procedures Outcomes Registry, CSANZ Cardiac Device Outcomes Registry, Global Heart Hub Heart Valve and Heart Failure Committees, Continuity of Care Collaboration Committee, and was a co-author of the Australian Atrial Fibrillation Clinical Guidelines, Australian Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation Clinical Guidelines and Catheter Ablation for Ventricular Tachycardia and CSANZ Telehealth Position Paper.
Recently elected to the World Heart Federation Board, She has also made significant contributions within political circles, forming the Parliamentary Committees, ?Friends of Heart & Stroke further cementing her influence in bridging policy-making and grassroots patient advocacy.
Awards and Recognition
Tanya?s dedication to advocacy and patient support has been widely recognised through numerous prestigious awards. In 2023, she was named a semi-finalist for CEO of the Year at the Third Sector Awards and earned the Advocacy Champion of the Year and ?Catalyst for Change? awards from the Health Industry Hub. Hearts4heart, was also a finalist for NGO of the Year at the Prime Awards, and Tanya was a semi-finalist in the Policy & Advocacy category for the Health Industry Hub?s ?Catalyst for Change? award. In 2022, she received the Health Industry Hub?s ?Catalysts for Change? award for uniting clinicians and patient advocacy to drive policy changes in heart disease.
Earlier in her career, Tanya received the CALI (Community, Action, Leadership, and Inspiration) Award in 2012, was a finalist for Body and Soul?s Woman of the Year in 2013 and achieved significant recognition in 2015 with the Medical Technology Association of Australia Outstanding Achievement Award and the Global Bakken Invitation Award. The latter honours individuals with implanted medical technology making a global impact through charitable service.
Andrew?s Career in Healthcare spans 38 years. In his current role with Amazon Web Services, Andrew has responsibility for Healthcare Public Policy, supporting AWS public policy teams across the APAC region
Previously Andrew led the Health Economics, Market Access, Policy and Government and Stakeholder Relations functions for Medtronic in Australia and New Zealand, in addition to coordinating Government Affairs for the APAC region.
Over the span of his career Andrew has had a variety of roles within the Medtech Industry, across business and functional leadership. Andrew originally trained as a Registered Nurse and has worked in the Pharmaceutical Industry as well as a brief stint in the Hospitality Industry. He holds a MBA from the University of New England and a BA in Media from Griffith University.
Andrew is a Board member of ARCS Australia and has previously held several Directorships including of the Medical Technology Association of Australia (MTAA), He is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and a previous Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia (AmCham) and a founding member of the AmCham Australia Health Committee, and is Chair of the MTAA Digital Health Advisory Group and an active member of the APACMed Health Data group.
George is currently General Manager Strategy at Prime Super and has a wealth of senior management and corporate governance experience. In a career spanning more than 27 years he has developed a special focus on board development and strategic planning. He is also a Fellow of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA). He is currently Chair of IPC Health, one of the largest primary health care networks in Melbourne and was previously the Chair of Combined Super, retiring at the end of 2018. He has throughout his career developed significant experience in assisting organisations achieve their goals by implementing best practice,? raising corporate profiles, awareness and improved stakeholder engagement.
George also has strong experience in mergers and acquisitions as well as depth in the implementation of new budgetary systems in both the public / private schools sectors and the health industry.? He has been responsible for all operational functions, procurement and finance, having developed partnership programs with councils and boards to develop strategic plans.
Academic achievements include a Bachelor of Business and Accounting, Graduate Diploma of Taxation and a Diploma of Superannuation Management. In his downtime George enjoys long walks and movies and is an avid reader of poetry.
Dr Geoff Lester is a vascular and internal medicine physician, researcher, health economist, advocate, and patient. He brings this rare combination of perspectives to deliver strategic advice and deep expertise in clinical governance, system innovation, and public health leadership. A Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD), Geoff combines frontline medical experience with a strong foundation in population health, economics, and policy reform.
He is nationally recognised for his work in cardiovascular medicine and patient advocacy. He has led campaigns that raised over $7.5 million for the Heart Foundation and helped launch the Australian arm of the global ?THINK Aorta? initiative in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. His academic background spans medicine, economics, business, and public health, including a Master of Public Health and a Master of Philosophy exploring the epidemiology, mortality, and economic burden of aortic disease.
Geoff is a senior lecturer at the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He advises health, research, advocacy boards, and working groups and offers perspectives on transparency, strategic governance, risk, and stakeholder engagement.
Geoff brings clinical insight, operational understanding, and system-level thinking to the boardroom?anchored by lived experience and a commitment to evidence-based, patient-centred, and economically sustainable outcomes.
Joni Thomes is Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs at HCF, Australia?s largest not for profit health fund. A communications professional with over two decades of experience across technology, healthcare and the not-for-profit sector, she specialises in thought leadership, stakeholder engagement and shaping the public narrative on health policy and patient advocacy.
Previously, Joni was Associate Director and Head of People?&?Culture at Palin Communications, leading communication strategies for pharmaceutical and NFP clients and co authoring an internationally recognised white paper on AI in healthcare. She also served as the National Communications?&?Strategic Projects Manager at Bowel Cancer Australia, where she drove award winning awareness initiatives and influenced government submissions in partnership with highly engaged patient advocates.
She holds a Master of Arts in Health Communications from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Arts (Magna?Cum?Laude) in Mass Communications from the University of California, San Diego.
A proud mother of young adult children, Joni lives by the mantra ?It?s how you live, not what you say,? striving to be a role model in both her personal and professional life.
Sean started his career as a research scientist and is now a Partner in Healthcare Advisory with Deloitte. Sean has over 13 years? experience working with Boards and Executives to evaluate and improve the performance of healthcare programs, organisations and systems. This includes not-for-profit providers and advocacy groups, and organisations at the state and federal government levels across Australia and Canada.
Sean is particularly interested in the use of technology and data to facilitate better understanding and management of health and human services clients and system performance, and the development and evaluation of collaborative networks.
In his spare time, Sean enjoys playing golf, spending time with family, and building things.
