HG Welcomes Christine Leahy as State Manager

29 Jun 2023

HG is delighted to announce the appointment of Christine Leahy as our inaugural State Manager for Victoria.

Christine is a highly accomplished people and culture specialist with deep expertise in leading transformational change, organisational redesign and strategic workforce development, including succession planning, leadership development and high-performance coaching.

Uniquely Christine has proven her own leadership agility having held senior roles domestically and internationally, including Victoria, Asia Pacific, Europe, the UK, the US and across a range of sectors including Health, Aged Care, Pharmaceuticals and Financial Services.

As the State Manager, Christine will lead the coordination and implementation of HG’s strategic plan and in doing so ensure we are of great service to our valued clients across Victoria.

HG’s Chief Executive Paul Ingle said, “I am so pleased to have someone of Christine’s calibre to join our team. Her expertise and strategic insights will undoubtedly enable us to be of greater service to our valued Victorian clients at a time where there are significant headwinds in workforce attraction, retention and development”

Christine commences Monday 28th August 2023.

We had the opportunity to delve deeper into Christine’s career and leadership style and here’s what she shared with us:

In my view, the most important element in fostering a positive and inclusive workplace is ensuring that everyone in the team has good intent towards one another. When we feel supported by our colleagues we can be open and honest with each other and work together in a constructive way to achieve the best for the Company and its stakeholders. This also helps with inclusion as everyone can be themselves and bring their diverse perspectives to the table, knowing they will be heard and valued. Diversity fosters better decision making and outcomes and of course ensures that everyone has a fair go at contributing and achieving their potential so I genuinely value it greatly.

Transparency, empathy, curiosity, integrity and being comfortable with taking calculated risks

Transparency and integrity are very important to me personally and this flows through to my leadership. I like to work in partnership with my key stakeholders and to be considered a trusted advisor.  

I am a naturally curious person, I love learning new things and hearing people’s stories. I believe that this enables better decision making as a leader as I listen to others and seek out information to ensure that I am making well informed decisions. This also builds empathy as I am better able to put myself in others’ shoes because I have taken the time to understand things from various perspectives.

Risk taking is not something that comes naturally to me, I am a cautious person. I need to push myself to take risks sometimes. When I need to, I will seek the counsel of those that have more of an appetite for risk to balance out my risk aversion.

This year I am completing the Williamson Community Leadership Program. Throughout the year we reflect deeply on our values and how we can best contribute to our community. Healthcare is an area I have enjoyed working in throughout my career and I decided I wanted to return to the sector.

I had worked with Paul when I was on the Board of Barwon Health when we were looking for a new CEO. When he mentioned the HardyGroup was looking for a State Manager for Victoria I was immediately keen to hear more as the HardyGroup have a great reputation in the healthcare sector and I knew Paul was great to work with. After meeting with a number of people in the HG team I was very happy to accept the role as they were all great people, with good values and that means a lot to me.