• Member of the Order of Australia
• 2017 Telstra Business Woman of the Year and national winner of the For Purpose and Social Enterprise category
• 2018 AFR 100 Women of Influence
• 2018 InStyle Women of Style Community Champion

Violet Roumeliotis AM has spent nearly 40 years leading for-purpose organisations, providing human services that promote equal opportunity and change the lives of individuals and families experiencing inequality.

She is currently the CEO of Settlement Services International (SSI), a community organisation and social business that supports newcomers and other vulnerable individuals in achieving their full potential. During her 11 years as CEO, Violet has taken SSI from a Sydney-based organisation with 68 staff to a 1200-plus workforce that supports more than 50,000 people nationally each year across a range of human services.

Violet is a previous National Telstra Business Woman of the Year and one of the AFR 100 Women of Influence. Her Non-Executive roles include the Australian Council of Social Services board, a member of the NSW Women’s Advisory Council, the NSW Ageing and Disability Commission Advisory Board, and the International Metropolis Project Deputy Chair.

Yamamah Agha is an executive leader, humanitarian and advocate dedicated to creating lasting, meaningful change for refugees and newcomers.

Driven by respect and compassion, Yamamah has spent nearly 20 years supporting new arrivals to settle in Australia, with a particular focus on women’s rights and ensuring people with lived experience influence the services they receive.

As General Manager, Newcomers, Settlement and Integration, Yamamah leads all settlement programs at Settlement Servies International (SSI), a national nonprofit organisation that delivers human services to around 50,000 people annually, including 20,000 refugees.

Yamamah has extensive frontline experience in settlement, including complex case support and case management, which – coupled with strong problem-solving skills and strategic thinking – have led to a leadership career traversing migrant resource centres and program management before moving into her current executive role with SSI.

A former Pro Bono Australia’s Impact 25 Awards winner, Yamamah brings a global perspective to local service delivery and has undertaken extensive international advocacy, including leading an Australia delegation at the 2018 Annual NGO Consultations, where she acted as Rapporteur.

She holds a degree in Sociology from the Lebanese University Institute of Social Sciences and a Diploma in Management.

Eric is a senior executive leader with 28 years of experience across diverse social and public service portfolios. He brings extensive expertise in policy and program design, financial governance, and service improvement spanning social welfare, education, aged care, disability services, health/mental health, housing, and economic participation.

With qualifications in policy administration, program evaluation, finance, and applied behavioural science, Eric specialises in strategic program development, integrated service delivery, and digital transformation. Key areas of Eric’s expertise include intergovernmental relations, whole-of-system change and stewardship, collaborative engagement, and uplifting human-centred practice capability.

Eric is passionate about social justice and thought leadership in social and public policy implementation. He has a long-standing interest in reducing unconscious bias in social service design while promoting inclusion and prosperity for vulnerable people and communities.

Katia is a senior leader with over a decade of experience leading and building high-performance teams, delivering business improvements and leading complex change initiatives across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

She is an experienced manager with a strong focus on continuous improvement, stakeholder and project management, and has a successful track record in creating and bringing together strategy, operations and people.

Reporting to the CEO, she helps drive the successful delivery of SSI’s many initiatives from development through to successful execution.

Katia is passionate about ballet and founded a small NFP (Ballet Without Borders) that brings ballet education to children who would otherwise not have the opportunity to experience this art form. She holds a Diploma in Commerce, Graduate Certificate in Business Management and an MBA.

Ram has a proven track record of strong strategic thinking, innovation, change management, commercial astuteness and leadership roles across the core disciplines of finance, IT, governance, procurement and risk management in both commercial and NFP organisations in Australia and globally. Ram has led overall operations of a diverse nature of NFP organisations, transformed financial management systems from routine accounting functions to highly valued business partnerships, developed and implemented risk management systems, undertaken value for money and impact assessments, and developed and implemented business processes to scale up organisational capacity to effectively deliver services. He held similar roles in Habitat for Humanity Australia, The Fred Hollows Foundation and Camp Quality Limited, prior to joining SSI.

Ram brings a wealth of experience in international development. Ram has worked in Australia and more than 70 countries in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, South America and Europe in different capacities for UN organisations (such as UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO), bi-lateral organisations (such as DFID, Sida, CIDA, SDC, DFAT), inter-governmental organisations such as Partners in Population & Development (PPD), INGOs (such as International Planned Parenthood Federation, International Federation of Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity International, Marie Stopes International, and Save the Children) in leading the delivery of services and programs, undertaking independent monitoring and evaluation, value for money assessments and developing and assisting in the implementation of Strategic Plan.

Ram is qualified Chartered Accountant trained with Deloitte, a member of CPA Australia, holds PhD degree and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Sonia is an executive manager with over 20 years’ experience, has significant skills and knowledge of, the multicultural sector, migration and resettlement.  She has strong leadership, strategic and stakeholder engagement skills; and a proven track record in developing and maintaining effective partnerships with key stakeholders including all tiers of Government, academia and civil society.

She is currently employed as the Victorian State Director at Settlement Services International, has held the position of Director Partnerships & Community Development at Eastern Community Legal Centre, Acting CEO at South East Community Links, previously she was the Principal Advisor of Operations at Anglicare Victoria, National Manager of Community Migration Programs at Australian Red Cross and before that her role was Manager Settlement & Family Services at Spectrum MRC.

Sonia holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in PsycSonia is an executive leader whose career has been shaped by her advocacy for, and in-depth understanding of, the multicultural, migration and settlement sectors. With over 25 years’ experience, she has strong leadership, strategic and stakeholder engagement skills; and a proven track record in developing and maintaining effective partnerships with key stakeholders including all tiers of government, international institutions, academia and civil society.

Currently, Sonia holds a dual role at non-profit organisation SSI of Victorian State Director and General Manager Clients, Partnerships & Business Growth. She is a former Victorian Multicultural Commissioner, in this role, she built on her extensive leadership experience in community service organisations and NGOs to advise and foster ties between Government and our diverse communities.

Sonia’s current non-executive positions include the Australian Financial Complaints Authority Advisory Panel, the board of Banyule Community Health Service, and the Diaspora Humanitarian Advisory Board – Australian Council Linkage Project on Diaspora Humanitarians: How Australia-based migrants help in crises abroad, a research Partnership with Monash, Deakin Uni, RCOA.

Sonia holds a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology & Human Movement, a Graduate Diploma in International Law, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Trauma Counselling & Psychotherapy. She is also a Registered Migration Agent.

Dane is a values-driven leader, policymaker and campaign strategist with a strong track record of driving social impact across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He is passionate about creating system-level change through partnerships, evidence and original thinking.

Dane is Chief of Advocacy and Public Affairs at SSI, leading the organisation’s efforts to influence positive systemic change to create a more inclusive and equitable Australia. In this role, he oversees SSI’s policy and research, advocacy campaigns, media, events and government and stakeholder engagement – all aimed at addressing the root causes of inequality by raising public awareness and collaboratively driving policy reform. Dane has led SSI’s national advocacy alliances, including the Billion Dollar Benefit coalition and Activate Australia’s Skills campaign to reduce employment barriers so more migrants can work at their full potential and, in doing so, add $9 billion to Australia’s economy each year.

Prior to joining SSI, Dane headed public policy for Australia’s largest international development NGO, World Vision Australia. He also worked at the heart of government in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and in the public sector strategy practice of the Boston Consulting Group. In these roles, he contributed to major policy reforms spanning foreign aid, humanitarian assistance, climate change, women’s safety, cyber security and First Nations policy.

Dane is a former Rotary World Peace Fellow, Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum, Chant Legacy Scholar with the Governance Institute of Australia, and Community Leader Scholar at UNSW. He holds a Bachelor of Journalism, a Master of International Studies, an MBA (Social Impact) and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance and Risk Management.