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!

Shane Matthews is an experienced corporate counsel with over 18 years legal experience. Shane joined VetPartners in September 2018 as our Group General Counsel and he is excited about building a legal services function that will support and serve the VetPartners group across Australia and New Zealand.

Shane has been in house counsel for several large organisations across a range of sectors. Shane started his career as a government lawyer before moving into private legal practice. Shane’s desire to build a career as an inhouse lawyer led him to the role of legal counsel at Ernst & Young. Shane’s legal career has spanned several geographies, including Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and other parts of the Pacific and South East Asia. Most recently, Shane was General Counsel, Company Secretary and Head of Governance and Compliance at Kaplan, one of the world’s leading education companies. Shane has worked pro-bono supporting Vets Beyond Borders and it is his passion for pets that has drawn him to VetPartners.

Shane enjoys building legal and compliance teams from the ground up, where there is scope for the role of a lawyer to innovate and enable and support business growth.

Shane has a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degree, a Masters of Laws and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance. Shane’s work as an inhouse lawyer was recognised early in his career as the winner of the Young In House Lawyer of the Year Award in 2004 and more recently as a finalist twice in the Lawyers Weekly Corporate Counsel Awards in 2016 and 2017.

Outside of VetPartners, Shane loves travelling and spending time with his two miniature Dachshunds, Diesel and Elle.

Lisa Skene is the Executive Director of GP Operations. Having worked for many large organisations across Southern African, 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.

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.

Michelle is currently Chief People Officer for VetPartners, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. She was previously General Manager HR AusPac – Business Partnership and Talent for QBE Insurance, Group Head of Talent, Leadership and Learning for Coca-Cola Amatil APAC and Vice President HR APAC for Brown-Forman as well as HR Director for Kellogg Company ANZ. With a PhD in Culture and Identity (UTS) and an MA in HR Management (Charles Sturt University), Michelle is passionate about culture, leadership and talent and workforce strategies. Michelle serves as a Board Director of Vet Nurse Plus NZ, Chair of the AHRI D&I Panel and Chair of AusDance NSW. She resides in Sydney’s Northern Beaches with her family and dog George, and is an avid dancer.

Dave has gained extensive commercial, financial and systems experience across different sectors, including fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), higher education and health. He holds a Bachelor of Economics and Philosophy, a Masters in Business Administration, and is qualified with both CPA and CIMA. Dave loves partnering with commercial and operations teams within businesses and working closely with them to achieve better outcomes.

Dave is kept busy with three kids at home and in his limited spare time is a keen swimmer. He doesn’t currently have a pet, but after years of pestering from his kids, has (finally) agreed to get a puppy soon.

David graduated Sydney University in 2003, with first class honours in veterinary medicine, and also holds a Master of Veterinary Studies in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery. With almost 20 years’ experience as a veterinarian, he began his small animal practice career at the RSPCA in Yagoona, before moving to the Sutherland Shire, where he worked, owned and managed a group of practices in the area until joining VetPartners in 2021.

At VetPartners, David has held senior roles in the Customer Experience and GP Operations teams, and also holds key leadership positions in the veterinary profession. He is the current President of the Australian Small Animal Veterinarians (ASAV) Group of the AVA, as well as being Convenor and past Chair of AVAs Accredited Veterinary Hospitals of Excellence Scheme. Dave holds dual memberships with the Australian and New Zealand College, in Avian Health and Small Animal Medicine.

David lives in the eastern suburbs of Sydney with his wife, 3 children, two dogs, and bird, and a keen lover of all sports!