About Us - Gift of Life Foundation

OUR MISSION

The Gift of Life Foundation has been established to make Australians aware of our organ transplant crisis and encourage more Australians to become donors. We work with ‘organ ambassadors’, including sportsmen and women, sporting organisations and corporates to actively support organ donorship.

The members of the Gift of Life Foundation board donate their time, expertise and business acumen to support the ongoing work of the foundation. Their efforts will ensure the foundation’s success well into the future.

The Gift of Life Foundation

The Gift of Life Foundation works with ‘organ ambassadors’, including sportsmen and women, sporting organisations and corporates to actively support organ donorship. The Gift of Life Foundation has an objective of working to save more lives through the gift of life and increasing registrations on the Australian Organ Donor Register.

Patrons

The Hon. Laurie Brereton
The Hon. Deidre Grusovin

Board Members

OUR BOARD MEMBERS

Philip Pike

Chairman & Founder

Thanks for your interest in the Gift of Life Foundation.

This has been a passion of mine since I received my gift of life in 2004. It came from an unselfish, anonymous Australian, who generously donated their organs and I was lucky enough to be a suitable match for one of their kidneys.

I’m grateful each day of how blessed I am to have received my gift of life.

Peter McKeon

Peter holds the position of CEO and Managing Director at Excelsia College.

Excelsia College, Australia’s leading Christian Higher Education provider has an innovative and creative community of people, who are passionate about growing academically, professionally, personally and spiritually.

Prior to joining Excelsia College, he was Managing Director Oceania for Sony Mobile Communications and Chief Executive Officer for ZTE Australia / New Zealand, in charge of mobile devices, network infrastructure and enterprise business.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Business degree from the University of Technology, Sydney. Peter has held senior management roles in Australia and overseas for over 30 years with companies such as Sony, Telstra, Panasonic, Sharp, Bridgestone, Citizen and Philips.

Peter is currently a Board Director at Gift of Life Foundation, and former Board Director of Australia-Japan Society and AMTA (Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association). He also has past associations with the Australian Marketing Institute and Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD). Peter is a current Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce.

Nathan Azouz

Originally from the UK, but now based in Sydney with his wife and two children, Nathan is a keen follower of all sports, listener of music and podcasts and fielder of questions to his young children. It was after recently experiencing terminal illness in his immediate family overseas that he saw how important the work not for profits and charities do at this challenging time was and wanted to make a difference closer to his new home here in Australia.

In his current role at Google he has had the opportunity to help and support multiple charities to date however the stress of being so far away from his family through the recent times that brought him to the point of hoping to make a real difference with the Gift of Life and inspiring his children to do more as they grow up.

John Brown

John is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia with 34 years of experience at KPMG including 24 years as a partner. He is currently an independent external member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Australian Taxation Office. John was a director of Integrated Research, a member of the National Health and Research and Medical Council and the chair of several audit and risk committees in both the private and public sector.

Stuart Bird

Stuart Bird started his boutique global telecoms, media, and technology advisory firm, Gyrfalcon Consulting, in May 2019. Here, he dedicates his time and unrivalled energy to a select range of change oriented Boards, CEO’s, and Founders motivated to take their business to the next level at pace, and typically in highly competitive, new, and or challenging markets.

Prior to setting up his advisory firm, Stuart spent over 15 years in the telecoms sector most recently serving as Managing Director of Singtel Optus' $1.2bn Wholesale and Satellite Divisions reporting to the CEO and part of the Executive Team. Stuart had end to end business unit responsibility including product, sales, service, marketing, operations, HR, finance, and networks and commenced the role in 2017. Prior to this role, Stuart was based in Singapore as Consumer Managing Director reporting to the Singtel Singapore CEO.

Stuart joined the Singtel Group from Telstra Corporation, Australia's incumbent telecoms company, where he spent 8 years, most recently serving as Executive Director of the $5bn Home and Business Product Division. Prior to this role, he spent 5 years in the Mobile division, most of which was spent running the Telstra Pre-Paid Mobile business where he led the highly publicised turnaround of that business from a distant number 3 category to outright market leader in no less than 3 years. Prior to Telstra, Stuart held a number of senior marketing roles for Vodafone Group over a 5-year period.

Before his move into the telecoms sector, Stuart spent 5 years with Hyatt International Hotels and Resorts running their Strategic Marketing Group in Asia Pacific which saw him based in the Chicago and Hong Kong head offices. It was here where Stuart developed his now relentless passion for customer service.

Stuart holds a Behavioural Sciences Degree and a Post Graduate Diploma in Statistics from Griffith University in Queensland. At 21 years of age, while completing his Masters Degree, he was appointed to the Academic Staff of Griffith University as a Lecturer of multiple undergraduate subjects including statistics, market research methods, and marketing management. He is currently completing a Certificate in Global Management at INSEAD in France.

Stuart is a Director on the Board of the Australian Foundation, Gift of Life, where he and his prominent colleagues donate their time to raise money and awareness for organ donation, a cause he personally believes deeply in. He also sits on the Advisory Board of Realy, a Real Estate and Prop-Tech company serving home owners across Australia.

Be Pannell

Be Pannell is an Associate Professor of coaching and counselling, specialising in leadership development. With a background in senior management, education and research, she brings a wealth of experience, working with thousands of people over 15 years. Her work focuses on supporting individuals and teams to flourish by building leadership capability and resilience through education and coaching programs using applied psychology and neuroscience.

Be holds a PhD in Education, a Masters in Coaching Psychology and numerous professional affiliations.

Cameron Cooper

Cameron Cooper is currently the CEO of the Telstra Licensee Association (TLA). He has had a combined 25 years’ experience in leading global organizations (inclusive of Telstra, Brightstar, Motorola, Nissan and Ericsson) at an executive level. Cameron has an outstanding track record of commercial success delivered through stakeholder engagement, leadership, sales, marketing and customer advocacy across multiple markets. Cameron has led many innovative solutions/game changes and prides himself on developing excellent customer/partner relationships. Cameron has an Executive MBA from the University of NSW.