Our Board

Our Secretary John McKenzie joined the Wavecare Board in 2012, where at the time he was working for Telstra as a Project Manager. In addition to his job, John wanted to give something back to the community and thought that using his corporate experience, in conjunction with his passion for helping people, working with Wavecare was a perfect match. John’s favourite part about working for Wavecare is the opportunity to work with amazing, dedicated people from different backgrounds and work through challenges together. Outside of work, John spends the weekends playing golf, going on long walks and, of course, backing Richmond in the AFL.

Denis Carruthers is the chair of our board and has been working with Wavecare since 2016, first as Vice Chair before later moving into his position as Chair. Denis was born and raised in New Zealand, in the southern Scottish city of Dunedin, growing up in Auckland and Christchurch. In 1980, he moved with his wife and eldest daughter to start a new life here in Melbourne.
Denis spent most of his career working in the retail industry in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, having spent 25 years working in senior management roles in Westfield Shopping Centre Group. For many years, Denis was a Regional General Manager, managing all states in Australia except for NSW. Denis’ last role with Westfield was Director of Shopping Centre Management & Marketing in the UK between 2005-2010, based in London.
After retiring from Westfield, Denis spent several years consulting as a Retail Property Specialist both in Australia and Overseas. In addition to his professional life, Denis has had a long association with community service groups, commencing in 1975 in New Zealand as a charter member of a new Round Table Service Club. In 1980, Denis joined the Apex Club of Box Hill, obtaining a life membership in 1990. From here, he was a charter member of the new Lions Club of Wheelers Hill in 1994 and has been Club President three times and has recently spent three years on District Cabinet as Zone Chairman and District Membership Chair.
It was through Denis’ Lions association that he became involved in Wavecare and hasn’t looked back since.

Wavecare’s Treasurer, Lalitha has been a resident of Monash since she migrated from London to Melbourne with her family over 30 years ago. Lalitha is an experienced executive with over 25 years in the corporate sector heading Finance, Strategy, Operations and Business development. By profession Lalitha is a Certified Practicing Accountant. (FCPA)
Combining her passion for cooking and business, Lalitha started her own healthy Indian concept restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD and ran that for 4 years before selling it in 2018. This provided her a lot of insight into challenges faced by small & medium businesses and set the course for her to help SME's with consulting and advisory services.

During her time in advisory, Lalitha learned about Wavecare from one of its board members & knew from then on that she had to find a way to help them. Since Sept 2020, Lalitha has been a member of the board and is excited to be working with its dedicated team of staff and other board members to ensure Wavecare can continue and grow.

Dr Paul Ng is dedicated to contribute to the wider community. He has been a Medical Advisory Board Member to the Delmont Private Hospital since 2019 and a Medical Advisor to the Chinese Cancer and Chronic Illness Society of Victoria since 2015. With fluency in Mandarin and Cantonese, Dr Paul Ng has promoted mental health to the Chinese speaking community through the ‘Multicultural Mental Health Webminars’ organised by the Mental Health Foundation Australia and the programs of SBS Radio (Cantonese and Mandarin). Being an experienced mental health clinician with public, private and transcultural experience, Dr Paul Ng is delighted to join Wavecare as a board member to serve the local community which he has a strong affiliation with since teenage years

Our most recent board member, Sunitha joined the Wavecare board in February 2021 and is really looking forward to working alongside the other board members to support Wavecare through our next stage of growth. Sunitha’s professional career spans nearly 40 years across several countries, having worked the first half of her career across various industry and Government sectors.
While this was fulfilling, Sunitha was always seeking more purposeful work and finally found her niche in the not-for-profit sector. For over 20 years now, Sunitha has had the privilege of contributing to the shaping of legislation, policy and programs in the child and family welfare, health and early childhood sectors, working in organisations that support children and families who find themselves in difficult circumstances.
Sunitha strongly believes that small organisations, like Wavecare, play an integral role in serving their local community, and knows first-hand the challenges they face to sustain themselves. As a result, she is inspired by the dedicated staff and people who run the organisation that provide support, guidance and hope to those who are struggling. Being on the Wavecare board has given Sunitha the opportunity to continue making a meaningful contribution to help people in need and make a difference.
In her spare time, Sunitha runs a small social purpose business that handcrafts home and body care products to raise much needed funds for charitable causes. She also enjoys furniture making, gardening and has recently added pottery-making to her ever-growing list of hobbies.