St John of God Health Care has appointed Ms Vanessa Unwin as its new CEO at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital taking effect from 9 May 2022.
She takes over from incumbent CEO Paul Dyer, who was recently appointed CEO St John of God Midland Public and Private Hospitals.
Ms Unwin is currently Director of Nursing and Midwifery at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital, a position she has held since 2016.
Making the announcement, Chief Operation Officer Hospitals, Mr Bryan Pyne, said that Ms Unwin was selected through a rigorous recruitment process, from a competitive field of internal and external candidates.
Her deep operational experience of the hospital, outstanding administrative skills and extensive clinical credentials made her the standout candidate.
“Ms Unwin has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills since taking over a Director of Nursing at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital in 2016. She has deep understanding of the hospital, is an excellent communicator who leads by example and has acted up in the CEO role numerous times.
“She is ideally suited to take on the role of leading the hospital.”
Ms Unwin has experience across both the public and private health care systems, an important skill set at St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital which administers a number of important public contracts in addition to providing a broad range of high quality private services.
Ms Unwin said she was delighted to be appointed to the role and looked forward to continue working with a wonderful and committed team of caregivers at the hospital.
“St John of God Mt Lawley Hospital is a highly regarded and much-loved hospital in the community with an important and longstanding legacy,” she said.
“I feel extremely privileged to have the opportunity to take over the reins and continue working with our dedicated caregivers to ensure we continue to provide high quality health care services to the community, and an outstanding patient and client experience to every person who walks through our doors.
Ms Unwin commenced her career with St John of God Health Care as a clinical audit nurse at St John of God Murdoch Hospital and progressed through various leadership roles across St John of God Health Care’s Western Australian hospitals.
Mr Pyne said that a number of recent senior roles at St John of God Health Care had been internal appointments, demonstrating the importance and benefit of developing internal talent and creating career paths for outstanding employees.
“St John of God Health Care is one of the largest non-government employers in Western Australia,” he said.
“The benefits of working for a large health care provider like St John of God Health Care, is that we can offer a wide and varied career path, including opportunities to work at our network of hospitals in Victoria and New South Wales.”