Our People

Anton joined the Council as CEO in late 2016, bringing with him a proven international executive management track record, and a passion for innovation, transformation and human-centred and for-purpose organisations.

Anton’s leadership style is grounded in his deep conviction that the success of any organisation or endeavour is determined by its people, and how that organisation interacts with the people it exists to serve.

He is a strong partnership builder, outcomes-focused, innovative and visionary strategic leader, with strong commercial experience and an entrepreneurial spirit.

As CEO, Anton leads his team of staff who are dedicated and committed to the excellence of the Australian physiotherapy profession. He has strengthened and deepened the Council’s working relationships with its key partners including Ahpra, The Physiotherapy Board of Australia, the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA), the Council of Physiotherapy Deans of Australia and New Zealand (CPDANZ) and World Physiotherapy.

With an international professional career spanning numerous countries including South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, Anton has been in senior leadership and executive roles in the insurance, education and training development and accreditation and regulation sectors.

Anton holds a Bachelor of Arts, Public International Law, Post Graduate Diploma in Organisational Management and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors Course.

Aside from his CEO role at the Council, he sits on the Board of an international charitable trust supporting underprivileged children in Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa.

Anton is known as a wholehearted, empathetic and generous leader and friend, who builds a strong organisational culture that enables every staff member and guest to feel welcomed, valued and dignified as they step into the Council’s offices.

Leanne brings to the Council, extensive experience gained through more than 30 years in the education and training sectors. This includes teaching business studies in the vocational sector, managing accreditation and compliance in training organisations and higher education providers, participating on academic boards, and holding directorships on not-for-profit boards. She has managed instructional design teams and trainers and developed training solutions for a range of corporate clients.

Originally gaining an Accounting degree, Leanne has postgraduate qualifications in Education and a Masters in Business Management. She is highly competent in process improvement activities, and assisting education providers with their quality improvement and accreditation journey to ensure the Australian community has access to safe physiotherapy practitioners.

Leanne is responsible for managing the Council’s Accreditation and monitoring processes for entry-level Physiotherapy programs under the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for health practitioners. She collaborates with a team of accreditation assessors across Australia and works closely with tertiary education providers delivering entry-level physiotherapy programs.

Leanne is also a valued member of the Executive Leadership Team, who brings wisdom, experience, and pragmatism to the decision-making, management, and planning that the Leadership undertakes.

With a comprehensive understanding and applied knowledge of social and public health policy analysis, planning and development, policy wonk Darren Lee has devoted the best part of the last decade to the physiotherapy profession.

After completing his conscription in Singapore’s National Service, Darren, being drawn to liberal arts, went on to study media and communications and later completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne.

His journey in policy began with his work with the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) during the National Health Reform, which purposed a holistic understanding of the health system in Australia. During this time, he helped formulate recommendations and advocated on behalf of primary health care nurses.

Moving from one essential healthcare profession to another, Darren later represented physiotherapists within public policy and advocacy at the Australian Physiotherapy Association where he remained for five years.

Exposure to the work of physiotherapists in Australia enabled his seamless transition into the Australian Physiotherapy Council to oversee its assessment function in 2014. As a quick learner with no prior knowledge of assessments, Darren’s analytical and non-linear thinking benefited the Council with a fresh perspective on assessments and stretched the innovative scope of the department. Leading the Assessment department today, Darren still applies what he learnt in policy, which he describes as ‘reading - a lot, facilitating discussion, synthesising ideas… and applying some common sense’.

Darren is extraordinarily skilled, dependable, and humble. Known to have “more skills than Bunnings have tools”, and an ability to see the big picture and predict outcomes of any given solution path, Darren is profoundly respected for his input by the team at the Council.

Megan has over 20 years experience in accounting services, business administration and management across a range of clients, industries and sectors, including global professional services firms, privately owned companies and franchise businesses.

Being the General Manager - Corporate Services, she is responsible for leading the financial, HR, and administrative functions of the Council. Megan’s leadership style is warm, collaborative, and confident to continue improving processes and systems to support the Council’s staff to deliver our accreditation and assessment services.

As part of the Council’s Executive Leadership Team, Megan brings her expertise in financial management and strategic foresight to align business priorities with effective decision making as she helps steward the organisation’s resources.

Megan is a Chartered Accountant in Australia and New Zealand and holds an MBA.

In her spare time, Megan can be found enjoying walking along the beach, maintaining her garden, or cheering on her AFL team.

Rachel brings 20 years of professional experience in strategy, transformation, innovation, systems thinking, engagement, governance, HR, policy, NFP, social enterprise, Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Government. Her approach is collaborative, highly relational and solution orientated, with a strong ability to design fit for purpose solutions that leverage an organisation’s strengths and build greater capacity to achieve positive outcomes.

As part of the Council’s Executive Team, Rachel leads the Engagement department that helps communicate and engage with our external audiences and stakeholders. She also contributes to our strategic priorities and initiatives that help us achieve our organisational mission and purpose.

Rachel is passionate and dedicated to leading and enabling high calibre, meaningful and innovative work, within a positive culture and workplace.

At the Council, Peter is responsible for designing perfect-for-purpose solutions and managing all IT projects while guiding and mentoring the team to advance and innovate in its use of technology.

With an extensive career in systems engineering and IT service management, including serving as the IT Manager and Solutions Architect for Telstra iVision where Peter delivered an organisation-wide transformation, he has a proven track record of leadership, business outcomes, and customer focus, as well as applying logic and systems thinking to optimise customer-centric processes.

Professionally, his passion includes understanding complex business requirements, simplifying, and executing real-time digital solutions. He underpins kindness and trusting people as a professional anchor that helps him successfully navigate all work situations.