South Australian Advisory Board

The National Heart Foundation of Australia values the commitment of the South Australian Advisory Board, which forms an essential component of our national arrangements, allowing the Heart foundation to connect strategy, local community engagement and external stakeholder expertise.

Arabella Branson (Chair)

Arabella Branson has practised as a lawyer in the area of commercial transactional and advisory law since 2000 and operates a commercial legal practice providing advice to a range of businesses in relation to transactional and leasing matters. She is a Board member of SYC Ltd, Lifetime Support Authority of SA, Country Racing SA, Regional Development Australia (Adelaide Hills, Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island) and Chair of the Oakbank Racing Club. Ms Branson is also a member of the Law Society of South Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Ms Anne Young

Anne Young has worked in the pharmacy, community health advocacy person-focused care and retirement industry for the majority of her working life. She worked for Chemplus Head-office for over 20 years, and prior to this was a consultant via her company Young Resources.

Anne is an experienced senior executive and business owner with a background in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, sales, management, leadership, people development, marketing and communications. Anne has a firm view on " developing business by developing people".

She is also passionate about Philanthropy and sharing her expertise and time. Working to make things better for others, gives her a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Mindful of her life/ work balance she enjoys walking, reading, supporting retail, the food and wine industry along with home renovating and garden design.

She is also a current Director on the Board of Arthritis Foundation SA.

Melinda Oleary

The has extensive experience in recruitment and HR including as SA State Operations Manager for Select Staff and SA General Manager for Manpower. 

Ms OLeary is the Chair of the Lifetime Support Authority and the SA community representative on the Council for the Order of Australia.

She is a member of the Institute of Personal Consultants, has a Professional Certificate in Management from the Adelaide University Graduate School of Management, and has successfully completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

She is a former Chair of The Hospital Research Foundation and its HR Committee, the former Deputy Chair of the Training and Skills Commission a former member of the Defence First Principles Review, a former Board member of Time for Kids and has been a volunteer carer for 10 years.

Richard Hillis

Richard has had a career in the university and resources sectors. His positions at the University of Adelaide included Mawson Professor of Geology and Pro Vice-Chancellor. Richard was also CEO of the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET CRC). He was awarded South Australian Scientist of the Year 2018. He has been a director of several technology and resources companies and is currently a non-executive director of AuScope and HILT CRC, and non-executive chair of Investigator Resources.

More importantly, Richard had a cardiac arrest on Australia Day 2019 on the pavement of Kensington Road, Adelaide, and two days later a quadruple heart by-pass at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Richard is eternally grateful to, and humbled by, the caring and skilled nurse and soldier who stopped and performed CPR at the time of his cardiac arrest, and the amazing ambos, nurses, doctors, surgeons, perfusionist, GP, and cardiologist (to name a few!) who returned him healthy to his family.

Dr Alicia Chan

Dr Alicia Chan is a clinical and academic Cardiologist who specialises in heart failure and implantable devices therapy. She has also a keen interest in heart disease in women.

Dr Alicia Chan graduated from the University of Adelaide in 2000 and completed her clinical cardiology training at The Queen Elizabeth and Lyell McEwin Health Hospitals. She undertook further training at The New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland and a postdoctoral fellowship in implantable devices therapy at the University of Calgary, Canada. Her academic interests include heart disease in women, having completed her PhD (Dean’s list 2013) entitled “Cardiovascular Risk Assessment in Women: Impact of Ageing, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and Menopause on Nitric Oxide Signalling” and also heart failure mechanisms and therapeutics, with international presentations and publications in peer-reviewed journals in these fields.

She is the current Chair of Cardiac Society ANZ (CSANZ) SA branch and Cardiology Females in SA (CAFE-SA, CSANZ), and continues to be active in teaching through the University of Adelaide.

Peter King

Peter King is a retired educator of 42 years including 24 years as a School Principal. During this time he became a trained Mediator with the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre and represented the Department of Education on the Board of the Down Syndrome Society.

During the last 6 years Peter has been involved as a Consumer Representative with the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network (SALHN).  He has contributed as a Mental Health Representative, been involved with many consultative committees and has been the Consumer Lead in the Division of Medicine.

For the past 4 years he has been the Consumer Co Chair of the major consultative committee, the Partnering with Consumers Advisory Group, and is a member of the SALHN Community Engagement Board Sub Committee.

Recent focal points have been in developing strategic links between Consumers and Research and supporting Consumer Access to remote monitoring of implanted devices following being the recipient of a pacemaker at the end of 2021.