As the mother of Leila, Tracy knows first hand the challenges and lack of understanding that families and friends experience caring for a child with rare cancer.  Through Tracy’s own personal journey she has a wealth of knowledge and experience that she can share with others.
Tracy successfully owned and operated a busy hairdressing salon for over 11 years in Warrnambool, giving her a strong track record in small business.  With long established friendships and contacts and a very supportive community, this gave Tracy the drive to establish a foundation where she knows she can help others experiencing a similar journey.

With over 35 years combined medical administration and management experience, Trish brings enormous knowledge and excellent organisational skills to the Leila Rose Foundation.  This experience includes, staff management and training, recruitment, financial management and general practice management tasks.
Trish first joined the team at Cambourne Clinic in 1977.  At this time, the clinic consisted of two Doctors and three administration staff.  Trish has played an integral role in the expansion of the clinic which now involves five partners, twelve doctors, eight administration staff and eight nurses.
Having grown up in the Warrnambool area, Trish has very strong community and business connections and brings valuable knowledge to the Foundation.
Trish is married with three children and enjoys spending her spare time with family and friends.
Patricia is a founding member of the Board.

A long career as a Real Estate Valuer and Property Consultant has underpinned Roger’s strong belief in honesty and integrity in life and business.  Thus, he is highly respected in his profession and in the community. – valuable attributes for the LRF board.
As a resident of Warrnambool for the past 28 years Roger brings a wealth of community engagement and volunteer experience to the Board being an active member of Rotary (Rotary Club of East Warrnambool – Board member in various capacilities, also Club President), and his Church (Finance and Property Committee).
Roger is a dedicated champion for community service.

Peter has had 35 years’ experience in the Financial and Banking Sector in Warrnambool, Geelong and other townships in Victoria.  He currently holds the position of Agricultural manager for the NAB in Warrnambool.
He has a lifetime of involvement on local boards and committees ranging from Financial, Pastoral, Fund Raising and other wider community groups.  Peter comes from a racing family in Warrnambool and whilst attending school, he was an apprentice jockey and held a 80% win/place ratio.
Peter is married to Sharon and they have 4 children.  Peter enjoys home cooked meals, horse training, events and supporting people to succeed in their activities and pursuits.

Andrew has worked as an accountant for 14 years in Warrnambool at local firm McLaren Hunt where he currently holds the position of Senior Accountant. He completed his Bachelor of Commerce at Deakin Warrnambool before continuing his studies to become a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand. Andrew accepted an invitation to join the board in February 2018 and will provide his finance and business knowledge to the foundation. Andrew is a keen sportsman having spent 18 years playing for the Warrnambool Football Club. He is married to Jessica and has two young children.

After an interesting career as an engineer/executive with Telstra in Australia and overseas (Pakistan for 4 years), Andrew played a key role in the establishment of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, including setting up the ongoing fundraising strategy for that organisation.  The Alannah and Madeline Foundation was created in honour of the two young girls who died at the Port Arthur tragedy and is a national charity protecting children from violence and its devastating effects. The foundation runs programs which prevent violence in the lives of children and plays an advocacy role against childhood violence.

Andrew then became the CEO of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, the largest community foundation in Australia. The LMCF provides philanthropic opportunities and pathways for donors who wish to make a contribution to the health and wellbeing of their community.

Andrew has three 3 children, has a passion for music and enjoyed playing in a commercial band in an earlier life.

Gemma Sutherland joined Leila Rose Foundation as a Family Support Coordinator in March 2020. In this role Gemma supports families caring for a child with rare cancer, helping them to navigate the healthcare system and the challenges of caring for a child with a rare cancer.

Gemma is a Registered Nurse and Public Health Practitioner who has worked in the cancer field for the past nine years in a vast array of clinical areas, these include Adult Oncology, Haematology, Radiotherapy, Palliative Care. Gemma has also been fortunate enough to have worked in cancer support services such as Very Special Kids Hospice and Cancer Council Victoria.

Having such a broad background allows Gemma to provide a holistic bio-psycho-social approach to cancer support and care for children with rare cancer and their families.

Professor Grant McArthur is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and holds a Ph.D. in Medical Biology. He is the Executive Director of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre; inaugural Lorenzo Galli Chair of Melanoma and Skin Cancers at the University of Melbourne and Senior Principal Research Fellow (NHMRC). He is also Head, Molecular Oncology Laboratory -Cancer Research, and Senior Consultant Medical Oncologist -Cancer Medicine, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Professor McArthur was the inaugural winner of the Translational Research Award of the Foundation Nelia et Amadeo Barletta, held the Sir Edward Dunlop Clinical Cancer Research Fellowship of the Cancer Council of Victoria, won the inaugural Martin Lackmann medal for translational research, and in 2017 he received the Medical Oncology Group of Australia, Novartis Oncology Cancer Achievement Award. He is national and international study co-chair of a number of clinical trials of targeted therapies. Professor McArthur is on the editorial boards of Annals of Oncology, Anti-Cancer Drugs, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the Open Clinical Cancer Journal, Therapeutic Advances in Medical Oncology and the Journal of Personalised Medicine. He has published over 200 papers including senior or first author publications in many leading global medical journals.

Marc Leishman is one of Australia’s top ranked international golfers.  With his current world ranking in the top twenty, Marc demonstrates all of the attributes of a true sports professional. On top of that he is a devoted family man and a wonderful role model.  Marc and his wife Audrey have established the Begin Again Foundation in The United States, which aims to bring life’s most pressing needs to families experiencing medical and life crises. After a number of years of direct support for the Leila Rose Foundation in Australia we are delighted to formally welcome Marc as a member of our team in his new role as an LRF Ambassador to support our efforts to beat rare childhood cancer.

Theo Hnarakis spent 20 years working for News Corp and PMP Communications occupying a variety of managerial roles including managing director of Southdown Press and Pacific publications which included notable titles such as New Idea and TV Week. Theo joined Melbourne IT in 2000 and served as CEO until 2013 growing the listed company into an ASX 300 company with over $200m in revenue and over 700 employees globally. During this time, Theo also served as an Ambassador for the Starlight foundation. Since 2014,  Theo has served on a variety of Technology oriented boards including the listed companies, New Zulu and Crowd Media. He continues to serve as the Non – executive Chairman of ASX listed Dropsuite and and the Private company Provenir.

Matthew Monk has been immersed in Warrnambool and its’ region for most of his life.

Matt finds himself busy year round hosting a breakfast radio show on Coast FM in Warrnambool and owns and manages The Flying Horse Bar & Brewery. While he’s not living his day to day life which includes a busy family of 6, he is travelling the country and overseas as an Emcee with the Mclaren F1 racing team and other official events such as the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, Vodafone, Zambrero, NT YMCA as well as several charity, sporting and community groups more locally.

Matt is well known to the foundation being a key influence over the Leila Rose All Stars Football game in 2016.

Born and bred in Warrnambool, but recognised at a national level for his great success as an AFL footballer, Jordan Lewis was a very welcome addition to the Leila Rose Foundation when he accepted the role as Ambassador.
When approached by the Board, Jordan’s response was “I would love to help out in any way I can”, and true to his word has been very generous in his support of the foundation.
Jordan became a dad himself in September 2015 so now more than ever understands how important this foundation is in supporting those families of young children diagnosed with rare cancers.

As the uncle of Leila, Justin has served on a voluntary basis to support the foundation’s technical support from website development to administering donations and fundraising events. Justin’s objective is to minimise administrative costs to ensure that we maximise the support provided to our families.
Justin has spent almost 20 years in financial services including various management roles at NAB whilst currently working in Product Management at Xero.
Having 2 young girls of his own, he appreciates the small contribution he makes can have such a significant impact on the foundations families.