United by our
love of animals

Sinead joins the business with a deep experience as a leader in care-centred industries who are people-centric and with aspirational growth plans. Her most recent experience includes leading Dentistry group Abano Healthcare, as well as the Junior Adventurers Group – an education and primary school care provider where Sinead is still on the Board as a Non-Executive Director.

Sinead’s focus over the coming months will be spending time traveling to clinics across Australia, NZ and Singapore so she can get to know team members and look for opportunities to continue building a strong and sustainable business.

Sinead is based in Melbourne Victoria where she lives with her partner Mark and son Ronan, along with her lab Tate, and staffy Zues, affectionately called the “the twins”.

Dr Brett Hodgkin has a broad and diverse history as a veterinarian, after qualifying in 1989 from Murdoch University. Brett has practiced and lead many teams, he started out in mixed animal practice in the South West of Western Australia, worked in the UK as a locum and moved back to his home town of Adelaide in 1994. Here he joined Vets4Pets a group of seven practices in Adelaide as a small animal associate before being offered partnership in 2000 and going on to become a senior partner with the group. Today Brett is the Chief Veterinary Officer for VetPartners, he loves the down to earth nature of the veterinarian profession and the diversity how people have achieved success in the profession. He feels privileged to be involved with VetPartners in a role that will help provide opportunities for many passionate people in the profession for many years to come.

Brett enjoys facilitating an environment that allows people to be the best they can in a safe and fun working environment. He loves a team environment and solving challenges through empowerment and trust of the people he works with.

Being involved with a great team of talented passionate people with a diverse set of skills and being able to help that team achieve individual and collective growth year on year for nearly two decades has been a real highlight.

Away from work he loves nothing more than spending time with his family, travelling, playing a round of golf for a dollar or two with old mates and sharing a meal and a big Barossa red with good friends.

Kristy Murphy has spent most of her career in human health working across several businesses such as Sanofi-aventis, Sonic Health and Ochre Health Medical Centres. Kristy joined VetPartners as Acquisition Director in January 2017. For many of our practices, she is the first person they speak to and meet.

Since joining VetPartners Kristy has successfully acquired 25 independent community vet hospitals to join the VetPartners family. Kristy, along with her team, will continue to talk to hospitals owners about succession planning for their business, employees and clients with the intention of building our community with like minded business owners.

Kristy is passionate about connecting with hospital owners and discussing the different options to move forward whilst protecting the legacy that they have worked so hard to build. Kristy aims to work with a high level of integrity at all times, operating with transparency and honesty throughout the entire acquisitions process.

Outside of work Kristy enjoys spending time with her husband and son and although they do not own a family pet just yet, they look forward to selecting the perfect puppy for their family very soon. Suggestions for breed are welcome!

Lisa Skene is the Executive Director of GP Operations. Having worked for many large organisations across Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand, Lisa brings extensive general management and leadership experience to the team.

Prior to VetPartners Lisa held several senior leadership roles across a diverse range of retail organisations. Lisa brings to the role a strong focus on customer experience, operational execution and delivering results.

Lisa is passionate about creating high performing cultures and developing others to reach their full potential to achieve organisational objectives.

In her spare time Lisa loves to travel, read and go for walks with her husband, son and Pug X Jack Russell, Yoda.

With more than 15 years of working experience across Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific, Stephen is an accomplished growth strategist and passionate advocate for customer-led business improvement and digital transformation.

Stephen’s extensive background in human health spans Aged Care, Primary Care, Health Insurance and Dental operations. Prior to joining VetPartners, Stephen helped establish and grow Bupa’s aged care services, led their customer agenda in the International Markets division and progressed industry-leading propositions for the dental profession at Bupa Dental.

Stephen joined VP executive leadership team in 2021 with accountability for driving new business strategy and transformative enablers aligned with VetPartners’ growth ambitions.

Stephen holds an MBA from Macquarie University. In his spare time, he stays fit by chasing after his three kids and French Bulldog Georgie, and loves coaching his daughter’s League Tag team and is a long-suffering Wallabies supporter.

Rob has over a decade of experience in private equity-owned companies, guiding them through transformative stages from founder-led operations to sophisticated, high-growth enterprises.

Most recently, Rob served as CFO at Linkly, a payments technology company, where he led the integration of two separate businesses. Prior to that, he spent six years as CFO at Laser Clinics Australia overseeing expansion from 40 clinics to over 200 across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the UK. During his tenure, the company transitioned ownership from the founders and The Growth Fund to KKR, marking a period of significant growth.

Originally from England, Rob came to Sydney on a one-year working holiday visa in 2007 and has since become a proud Australian citizen. He lives in Sydney with his wife and their two children.
The Trowler family includes Kimmie, a rambunctious 2.5-year-old cocker spaniel. Though Kimmie’s primary residence is with the in-laws, she is a frequent and beloved visitor to the Trowler household, especially when the in-laws are holidaying.

Keiron joins VetPartners as Executive Director of Specialty & Emergency with over 20 years’ experience managing complex hospital operations, including emergency department, ICU and CCU services. Since migrating to Australia from the UK, Kieron has held senior leadership roles in hospitals in the public, not-for-profit and private sectors, and is passionate about achieving the best possible experience and clinical outcomes for patients.

At home, Kieron lives with his wife Josie, son Declan, daughter Jordi and their dog, Star. In his spare time, Kieron enjoys supporting his children with their sporting interests, spending time in the garden, and cooking.

Ben Waterhouse is the Chief Information Officer of Vet Partners, with over 17 years’ experience across all areas of enterprise IT teams. He was recognised as one of the top 50 CIO’s in Australia in the 2020 and 2021 CIO magazine awards. Ben is big advocate of Agile practices and is passionate about Digital Transformation, helping organisations get the most from technology by providing a seamless customer experience.

Away from work Ben loves spending time with his wife, daughter and their three cats and when time permits enjoying the colder months at the snow.

John joined VetPartners in May 2024. In his role, John is focused on delivering transformation initiatives to help drive positive change that benefits both our network of clinics and hospitals, and the sustainability of the profession.

John is a collaborative leader and experienced in a variety of businesses globally, including most recently catch.com and Kmart. He is passionate about challenging others towards shared goals, and has been successful in developing and nurturing a team culture which delivers great customer experience and value.

John lives on the Mornington Peninsula with his wife and son and their two beagles.

Emily has over 15 years’ experience in senior roles across Private Enterprise, ASX listed and Global companies guiding them through people and organisational transformation.

In recent years Emily has established a successful consulting business focused on organisational change, people strategy and WorkPlace Relations.

Prior to this Emily served as the HR Director at Minderoo Foundation and Tattarang, Village Roadshow, Kaufland and Forever New. Prior to this Emily’s time was with Coles during the turnaround where she held several senior roles in the Human Resources, Operations and Commercial areas.

Emily lives in Melbourne with her family in bayside Melbourne. The Duran household includes Mollie– a very enthusiastic and friendly labradoodle, Harpo– an extraordinarily happy cavoodle and our most recent addition to the household as we have recently adopted him. Atticus– a shy tabby who only comes out when the other two are asleep, he is not as keen as they are to play