Warrigal’s long-time Chief Executive Officer, Mark Sewell, is retiring in October 2022, in order to spend more time with his large family, starting a leadership transition process over the next two months. Mark’s decision to retire will bring to a close a remarkable career of 40 years managing human services including 20 years at Warrigal.

Mark first joined Warrigal in 2001 after working for the state government in the child protection, youth work, and disability sectors. During his tenure Mark has led the organisation to grow in both size and impact. He, along with his executive team, grew Warrigal from being an organisation of 300 employees, to a much larger operation with 1,750 staff members and over 300 volunteers. It now operates 25 essential services at 14 locations across NSW and the ACT.

Under his leadership, Warrigal has won the prestigious ACSA award for best Australian Aged Care Provider in 2018 and 2021, and has developed a reputation for being a trusted and transparent organisation. He has also been a relentless advocate for a customer focussed culture the managers and staff display within the organisation that is now widely recognised as best practice within the industry.

Mark says, “I feel confident the timing is right, both for myself and the organisation. The future of Warrigal looks good, with an exciting new strategic plan called Towards 2030 and many improvement initiatives planned to continue to expand our services and help support even more older people.”

“While Warrigal will be welcoming a new CEO, our continuity of governance and leadership will remain the same with our eight inspiring voluntary directors, and five impressive executive leaders, leading the customer culture called The Warrigal Way.” he continued.

Wyn Janssen, Chairman of the Warrigal Board said, “The growth Mark has overseen, as Warrigal has pressed forward to ensure we grew bigger and better even during difficult times, means we are now of a size and quality that means we can withstand nearly any of the challenges human services will face in the future. Mark has left us in an outstanding position, and myself along with the entire board now have full confidence in our ability as an organisation to succeed in this next new exciting chapter for aged care and retirement living services in Australia.”

He continued, “We would like to thank Mark for his impressive contribution over the past 20 years, and for all that he has done for older people and Warrigal. He will truly be missed, we are grateful to be in such a strong position moving forward to continue to be even bigger and even better, offering quality services for anyone who need it.”

Warrigal and the aged care industry has benefitted from Mark’s passion for the rights of older people especially in his other role as Regional Chair and spokesperson for the Aged & Community Care Providers Association (ACCPA). He has consistently raised the level of discussion across all modes of media and with governments at the state and federal levels, to pursue improved aged care and retirement services for older people in Australia.

Warrigal’s Board of Directors have now commenced the search for a new CEO, engaging specialist recruiter Wexford Hayes to assist in the process as they prepare to welcome their new CEO by October, 2022