Rob Heferen was appointed AIHW Chief Executive Officer in July 2021.
Prior to this, Mr Heferen was Deputy Secretary Higher Education, Research and International in the Department of Education, Skills and Employment. He has also served as Deputy Secretary, Energy at the Department of the Environment and Energy and had responsibility for energy policy including electricity and gas markets, and fuel security. Mr Heferen was also Australia’s representative on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board.
In April 2016 Mr Heferen was Deputy Secretary with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science with responsibilities for Energy, Resources and the Office of Northern Australia. Before joining the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, Rob was the Deputy Secretary, Revenue Group at the Treasury from March 2011 to April 2016, with responsibility for tax policy, tax legislation and revenue forecasting. Mr Heferen was first promoted to Deputy Secretary in 2010 to the Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, with responsibility for Indigenous Affairs.
Mr Heferen joined the Australian Public Service in 1989 as a graduate in the Australian Customs Service, worked at the Australian Taxation Office, and then had a number of years at the Treasury working on tax policy, Commonwealth/State financial relations and social policy.
Matthew James is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Institute.
He leads the Deputy CEO Group and provides broad oversight of the Community Services Group, Data Governance & Integration Group, Population Health Group and the First Nations Health & Welfare Group. Matthew also oversees the production of the Institute’s Flagship reports, Australia’s Health and Australia’s Welfare.
Prior to joining the Institute in November 2016, Mr James held leadership roles in performance, information and evaluation as Assistant Secretary, Indigenous Affairs Group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and as a Branch Manager within the former Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. He was also a Branch Manager in the former Department of Education Employment and Training, where he worked on employment policy and implementation as well as workplace relations policy and analysis. From 2002 to 2004 he was Counsellor—Employment, Education, Science and Training in the Australian Delegation to the OECD in Paris. Mr James was awarded the Public Service Medal in 2016.
Fadwa Al-Yaman is responsible for the First Nations Health & Welfare Group.
This Group leads the Institute's data collection, development, reporting activities and stakeholder relationships in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Dr Al-Yaman has wide-ranging experience in statistical analyses and reporting, demographic techniques, data development, data quality assessment and improvement activities, and in building collaborative stakeholder relationships. She has a strong research background in health, and a keen interest in knowledge translation and the link between research, policy and practice. She holds a PhD in Immunology from the John Curtin School of Medical Research and a Masters of Population Studies from the ANU. Dr Al-Yaman was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1990 and the Australian Public Service Medal in 2008.
Michael Frost is responsible for the Primary Healthcare, Information Standards & Communications Group (PHISCG).
PHISCG provides expert assistance on national health and welfare metadata and manages METEOR, our online national metadata repository. Michael is also the Head of the WHO Family of International Classifications Australian Collaborating Centre supported by staff in the group and other agencies in the development of international health classifications. PHISCG also manages primary care data and PIPQI, and the My Health Record data for research and public health purposes.
PHISCG is also responsible for AIHW’s work on strategic communications, media, stakeholder engagement, parliamentary, web content, website design and development, graphic design and data visualisations.
Mr Frost’s experience spans over 20 years in federal and state government agencies, in policy advice, performance reporting and administrative roles in COAG Reform Council in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the National Health Performance Authority, the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Office of Community Housing. Mr Frost has a Bachelor of Economics (first class honours in political science) and a Graduate Diploma in Public Administration (with Merit).
Gabrielle Phillips is the Senior Executive, Housing & Specialised Services Group.
This Group leads the Institute's data collections, reports and analysis on housing, homelessness, justice, education, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs.
She has previously worked in a number of Commonwealth, State and local government roles related to housing, income support and family assistance policy, education and early childhood evidence and analysis roles.
Andrew Kettle is responsible for the Business & Technology Group.
This Group works closely with internal and external stakeholders to deliver value-for-money corporate services that support organisational objectives. Mr Kettle qualified as a chartered accountant in the United Kingdom and worked for Coopers & Lybrand in Canada and Australia. He was Chief Financial Officer at the Australian Fisheries Management Authority before joining the Institute in 2006 as a senior executive.
During his time at the Institute, Mr Kettle has at various times held senior executive responsibility for finance, human resources, governance, information and communications technology, office accommodation, websites, publications and media. Mr Kettle has a degree in engineering with management studies from the University of Cambridge, England, and a diploma in computer science.
Kym Riley is the Chief Information Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at the Institute. Kym is responsible for the delivery of strategic ICT capability and delivery of services at AIHW.
Louise York is responsible for the Community Services Group.
This Group develops, maintains and analyses national data to support reporting on the health and welfare of key population groups including children and youth, older Australians and people with disability; and on the use of services within a range of health and welfare sectors including child protection, youth justice, aged care and disability services. The Group has also recently established programs of work on family, domestic and sexual violence and on using income support (Centrelink) data to better understand experiences and outcomes for key population groups.
Ms York has more than 20 years’ experience at the Institute, including in leadership positions in both health and welfare areas, and one year at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research. Ms York holds postgraduate qualifications in population health and bachelors’ degrees in economics and science.
Louise Gates is Group Head of the Population Health Group at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. This Group collects data and reports on the health of Australians, covering population health and disease monitoring. This includes health inequalities, risk factors, international health comparisons, mortality, the burden of disease, and specific chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, musculoskeletal conditions, and respiratory conditions. Louise has extensive experience across several federal and state organisations including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the NSW Ministry of Health. She has a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours, a Masters of Statistics and Masters of Global Health / Infectious Diseases.
Natalie Cooper is our acting Group Head of the Data Strategies and Discovery Group, whose core functions include leading the development of the Institute's strategies for acquiring, managing, and integrating major data assets (linkage), managing key relationships across government in support of the public sector data agenda; reporting on veterans' health and welfare, including suicide monitoring; and leading the development, monitoring, and reporting of information and statistics on maternal and perinatal health.
Brett Henderson is our acting head of the Health Systems Group. This Group focuses on the activity, performance and financing of the Australian health system. This includes maintaining the national hospitals data collections, producing the annual record on health spending in Australia, monitoring the performance and safety of the health system and reporting on activity in the medical, dental and pharmaceutical sectors.
Bernice Cropper is our acting Group Head of the Priority Populations & Capability Group. The Group focuses on maternal health, perinatal health, defence and veterans' health. The Group also leads the Institute on best practice data analysis, data tools and geospatial analysis.