Peter McNamara
CEO
Peter has more than 20 years of executive and board experience, including as Chief Executive Officer, Good Shepherd Microfinance and as General Manager, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. Peter is the former President of the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and served on its Board from 2015 to 2023. He has studied finances and strategy at Harvard Business School, Stanford Business School and Melbourne Business School and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Peter was appointed CEO of SECL in March 2021.
Marlena Kupczyk
Head of Youth, Housing and Employment
Marlena holds a Master’s degree in Counselling and a Master’s degree in Education and Counselling. She joined SECL in 2013 and has been a part of Leadership and Management Team since 2017. Marlena has two decades of extensive experience working in the community sector, is a life member of the Golden Key International Honour Society and a co-author of two educational books published in Poland.
Rachna Madaan Bowman
Head of Financial Wellbeing
Rachna holds a Masters in Business and Diploma in Community Services (Financial Counselling). She is the Head in SECL’s Financial Wellbeing Program following a career in retail banking. Rachna is a consumer representative on the Australian Banking Association’s consumer outcomes group. She was formerly a consumer representative on the Financial Ombudsman Service consumer liaison group. In 2023, Rachna was awarded the prestigious Jan Pentland Prize for her significant contributions to financial counselling and advocacy.
Desiree Kisnorbo
Head of People and Partnerships
Desiree is guiding the growth of people and culture at SECL. With 21 years’ HR industry experience, she holds a Bachelor of Business and has gained experience working for global and domestic business in renewables, manufacturing, IT, and finance industries, as well as establishing her own HR consulting business. Specialising in workplace relations and leading organisational structural changes, recruiting, managing, and keeping pace with changing work environments, Desiree enables teams to be their best. Desiree is an activist for gender equity, cultural diversity and inclusion implementing business initiatives and practices to help support realising those goals.
Jessica Basnayake
Chief Financial Officer
Jessica has a passion for numbers and people, qualified as a CIMA (UK), CPA (Aus) and an MBA. She has commercial and not for profit experience of nearly 30 years working in finance and senior leadership roles in hospitals, aged care, community health, airline and real estate sectors. Jessica’s experience in leading successful teams, contributing to growth and sustainability of diverse organisations aligns well to contribute to advance SECL’s mission and achieve its objectives.