People

Julie Saunders

Board member since 2020. Julie is an urban planner/strategist and property specialist with over 30 years of experience working in diverse roles around the country.

She is currently a Director at Urbis, focused in strategic advisory, policy and strategy in the social infrastructure sector. Julie has a very wide experience across various levels of government, the not-for-profit sector as well as in the private sector.

She started her career in town planning and is a prominent advisor on housing and other social infrastructure. She has also undertaken large scale master planning for communities across South East Queensland

Julie has also undertaken roles involved in the reform of the planning system through her work in the Queensland State Government, advocacy work across the education sector through the Queensland Schools Planning Commission and as a manager of large-scale development assessment teams in local government. Her interest is in the social infrastructure pipeline, particularly in education, health and social housing.

Julie was reappointed by the Minister as the Chair for the Housing Supply Expert Panel and is the past Chair of the Queensland Chapter of Learning Environments Australasia. She joined Bric Housing as Chair in 2020.

Gillian Brown

Board member since 2020. Gillian has over 20 years’ experience as a director on private, Government and for purpose company boards.

Gillian was a Partner at a leading Australian law firm for over 20 years, including three years as the first female Chair of the firm. Gillian’s legal experience included advising across the entire lifecycle of financing projects and corporate transactions.

Gillian is a director of Suncorp Group Limited, QIC Limited and the Queensland Community Foundation, Electricity Retained Interest Corporation-Ausgrid and Ausgrid partnerships, and the High Speed Rail Authority. She is formerly a director of Australian Rail Track Corporation Limited, One Rail Australia Holdings Limited, the Queensland Treasury Corporation and DBCT Holdings Pty Ltd.

Hiro Kawamata

Board member since 2018. Hiro brings over 30 years of experience in strategic property portfolio management in the private, government and not-for-profit sectors.

He has extensive experience in social housing management including eight years as Executive Director responsible for the management of the 60,000 Queensland state owned social housing dwellings in the Department of Housing and Public Works.

Hiro is currently Group Manager – Property, in a not-for-profit organisation, and is responsible for the strategic and operational management of the organisation’s property portfolio.

Sandra Long

Board member since 2024.  Sandra is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years’ experience as a finance professional and leader in the health services, religious, primary industry and energy sectors across both government and not for profit organisations.

Joanne Jessop

Board member since 2021. Joanne is a skilled and experienced director, having held roles across a broad range of NFP organisations for over 15 years. Jo has leadership skills and expertise across primary health care and human services sectors including commercial and not-for-profits.

She brings strong customer focus, values-based decision making, strategic expertise and a creative and innovative approach to social challenges. Jo has a passion for initiatives that change health and social outcomes for people across our communities.

Jo has been Group CEO of Vertaview Group, comprising several entities focused on leveraging social impact, since 2021, and before that was CEO of Multicap since 2006. Jo has an Executive Master of Business Administration from the University of Queensland and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business to further her knowledge around Social Entrepreneurship and Leading Change and Organisational Renewal.

Jo is currently Chair of Open Minds Australia Limited, and a director of Workability International and Ability Roundtable.

Kate Raymond

Board member since 2021. Kate has over 25 years’ experience working within the building and construction industry, including leadership, senior advocacy roles, senior executive public sector experience and has worked as a construction lawyer in the private and public sectors.

Currently the CEO, Master Electricians Australia, prior to that Kate has held roles as the General Manager, Policy & Advocacy, Master Builders Queensland; National Policy Lead, Australian Constructors Association; and the Assistant Commissioner (Service Trades and Regulatory) at the Queensland Building and Construction Commission. Kate has also had a lead role in establishing the contracts and procurement of many significant projects in Queensland including the Nation Building program of works, and played a key role in policy development and legislative amendments.

Kate holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland with first-class honours and a university medal and an Arts Degree with a Government major. She also has a Builder Low Rise – Site Supervisor QBCC licence.

Graeme McKenzie

Board member since 2022. Graeme is a highly experienced project delivery and advisory professional specialising in the delivery and management of social infrastructure including social housing and most recently health facilities. With more than thirty five years’ experience in the property and construction industry, he has developed the expertise to meet the challenges facing the optimisation of a property portfolio.

Graeme has held senior executive roles within both the public and private sectors and has also run a specialised consultancy business. These diverse roles have provided differing perspectives to managing people, assets and infrastructure. Combined with his ability to forge strong relationships, Graeme is well-placed to understand the infrastructure challenges to support the delivery of services to the community.

Jane West

Jane is an experienced housing professional, having held senior roles in the social and affordable housing sector in the UK and in Australia over the past 25 years. In Australia, prior to her recent appointment to the CEO role at Bric, she spent four years as Executive Manager Housing Services, and Chief Operations Officer. Prior to joining Bric, she headed up business development at Q Shelter and also worked in a variety of policy roles in CHPs and the Department of Housing. In the UK, she held a Senior Executive role responsible for business development, strategy and assets with a large housing association in London. She also worked extensively in the field of supported housing, and for several years worked as a senior consultant on large scale community-led housing estate regeneration projects.

Julie Laughton

Julie brings significant experience of commercial structuring and project delivery in community housing, most recently at a Tier 1 CHP active at scale in Queensland and Victoria.

She is also an experienced CFO in the private and not for profit sectors.

Andrea Ritchie

Andrea is a highly experienced executive manager with expertise in Australia’s community housing sector and the UK’s government housing and homelessness sector. She has proven ability achieving results, whilst demonstrating strong leadership skills in a dynamic and complex environment.

Andrea has served as an Executive since 2018, during which she led the largest stock transfer in Australia. A housing professional with extensive experience in project management, change management and team building. As Executive Manager Housing & Impact Andrea is leading our focus on Housing services and Social Impact across Bric housing programs.

Clare Phythian

Clare has over 17 years’ experience working in the housing sector in Australia, New Zealand and the UK in organisations varying from small and large NFPs, a peak-body representative training organisation and Government.

Clare’s experience includes executive management, operational management and business improvement. Clare is a level 3 certified housing professional (Australasian Housing Institute) and holds a professional membership with the Chartered Institute of Housing (UK).

Dane Adams

Dane is an internationally experienced Chartered Accountant, with over 17 years’ experience in finance and leadership across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and the UK.

Dane joined Bric Housing in January 2018 as Finance Manager, managing and overseeing Bric’s financial activities and stepping into acting CFO role August 2024.

Prior to joining Bric, Dane’s experience includes strategic finance within a higher education institution and chartered accounting for accounting firms.

Dane has a proven track record of managing projects and developing systems and processes to create improved efficiencies for organisations, including spending 2019 as a Project Manager for Bric before becoming permanent in the Finance Manager position.

Dane is committed to lifelong learning, recently completing his MBA and GAICD, combining his commercial mindset with a passion for advancing the lives and livelihoods of the community through Bric Housing’s mission.