The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Rob Kennaugh as the new Chief Executive Officer, effective from Monday 3 June 2024.
Rob was chosen after a thorough and extensive executive search process. His appointment represents an important milestone for the Y NSW, marking the beginning of a new chapter and the continued building of our organisation’s journey towards greater success and positive social impact.
Rob has a passion for working with young people in helping them realise their potential and creating an organisation where people can be their best every day.
Over the past 30 years, Rob has:
- Lead resilience and connection programs for young people from domestic violence settings.
- Established a business which ran programs for young people assisting them to develop important life skills sucha as goal setting, financial planning and resilience.
- Established "free" employment services for people facing disadvantage and financial hardship.
- Written a best-selling book on parenting called Family Time.
- Created essential services for victims of domestic and family violence.
- Run youth counselling services.
Rob has held executive positions at organisations such as Telstra, the Commonwealth Bank, Country Energy, and more recently at iCare NSW as the Executive Director Transformation and Reform. He also holds non-executive director positions with the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart and Community Connections Australia.
The Board is looking forward to working with Rob to build on the work to date and deliver with even greater social impact.
Commenting on his appointment, Rob said “It is a privilege to join the Y NSW, a remarkable organisation with a long history of service to children and young people and communities in NSW, and part of the world’s largest youth movement, the YMCA. I look forward to meeting everyone across our team, working together to inspire the children, young people and communities we serve, and ensuring a commercially sustainable future that remains strongly aligned to our purpose.”
Rob takes over from Interim CEO and Executive Director Prue Warrilow who has been in the role since August 2023. The Board members share their sincere gratitude to Prue for her dedication and achievements during the interim period.
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