Our Executive Team
Wayne Merritt
Chief Executive Officer
Wayne is an experienced values-based leader with over 20 years’ experience in the community services sector.
After beginning his career on the front line working directly with vulnerable young people, Wayne has embraced a range of diverse roles including direct service delivery and leading large and multi-faceted teams to bring effective support to marginalised communities.
He brings to Wayss a broad experience in leadership and people management, policy and governance, strategic and financial planning and service development and integration.
Robyn Roberts
General Manager, Family Violence
Robyn has brought a people-focused, entrepreneurial spirit to a range of executive leadership positions in the community services sector and she has also led community and private sector partnerships to deliver ground breaking initiatives in microfinance and family violence prevention. In 2015, Robyn partnered with private company Protective Group to design and implement a ground breaking national family violence program, that continues to achieve significant outcomes today. Robyn’s driving motivation is to make a difference in the lives of vulnerable people and her work at Wayss provides her with that opportunity as she leads key changes to disrupt people’s experience of homelessness and family violence.
Robyn holds teaching and social work qualifications and has undertaken executive-level studies at Melbourne Business School. She has also held director and committee roles on several Boards in the community services sector.
Shari McPhail
General Manager, Homelessness and Housing Support Services
Shari has worked for over 20 years in the homelessness and housing sector in non-government and government settings, contributing to improving homelessness service provision and access to social and affordable housing. Shari has a Masters degree in Public Policy and Management and is a recent graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Shari is responsible for the delivery of homelessness and youth services programs and developing innovative and creative responses to homelessness and housing across the Southern Metropolitan Region.
Bryan Madden
General Manager, Corporate Services
Bryan is an experienced business professional who has a real desire to contribute to his community. After 30 years’ experience in financial markets covering a range of investment asset classes, Bryan decided it was time for a career and lifestyle change which would enable him to achieve his aim of contributing to the community. Having childhood connections with Dandenong, which included playing football for Dandenong in the VFA in the late 1970s and early 1980’s, Bryan found an ideal role with Wayss who he joined in 2017.
Bryan has worked in senior management roles in stockbroking and funds management, including the roles as Managing Director of both an Australian and a US-owned, full-service securities firms. He was also the Managing Director and one of the founders of Australia’s first absolute return fixed income fund manager.
Bryan holds Bachelor of Economics, a Masters of Business Administration and is a Chartered Accountant.
Tina Kiamos
General Manager, People Enablement
Tina has worked across a variety of complex and multifaceted organisations and industries to become an experienced senior HR leader skilled in transformation and cultural change in people and culture.
She brings her people-centred approach to help create environments where people can become their best so that they can provide the best support to our clients.
Ben Burrows
Head of Quality, Risk and Compliance
Ben is an experienced, collegiate, outcomes driven leader with two decades of experience in the State Government, Community Service and Humanitarian sectors, both domestically and internationally.
Having designed and run programs across a breadth of sectors and client cohorts, Ben brings a wealth of experience in service provision, program design and management, monitoring and evaluation. As a regulatory and compliance subject matter expert, he leads the Quality Risk and Compliance (QRC) team of multi-disciplinary specialists who provide technical advice, guidance and management to the organisation and maintain accreditation and compliance with legislative requirements, identifying and managing risk, undertaking compliance management and reporting, privacy, data analytics, continuous improvement, client complaints management, policy framework implementation and quality assurance at Wayss.
Ben brings to Wayss a wealth of experience in leadership, team and organisational management, system and program design and development and is a specialist in enterprise governance, quality, risk management and compliance.
