Simon Bird
Simon Bird is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and former Director and Fellow of CPA Australia. Simon has accumulated over 30 years corporate experience. This includes roles as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer with large public companies together with Directorships on listed company boards and not for-profit organisations. As part owner of two childcare centres and parent of two adult children, he has a keen interest in the welfare of our youth. Simon joined the Board in February 2016.
Shen Wilson
After growing through the adversity of poverty and youth homelessness, Shen now lives and works in Merrylands N.S.W with her four children and partner Bec.
After working in Youth work and Education, Shen shifted her focus and began a journey toward independent business ownership and upskilling herself.
She attributes her success to her inner strength and the support, guidance and education she received whilst living in the residential premises of Stepping Stone House.
Shen is a Stepping Stone House Ambassador and an Advocate for Ending Youth Homelessness.
Cate Sydes
Cate Sydes is a registered Psychologist and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has over 30 years of experience working with at risk young people and their families. This experience includes working with children and young people under the care of the Minister of the NSW Government in Residential Care and Out of Home Care.
Cate, until her retirement in 2022, was CEO of a newly established organization Loreto Ministries Australia and South East Asia (2017-2022). She worked closely with the Board and the leadership team implementing the strategic objectives for the organisation which involved improving risk compliance, including child safety in Australia and South East Asia. Prior to this, Cate was CEO of Marist 180 (2006-2017) a specialist provider of services for youth at risk with operations and programs across approximately forty sites, 350 FTE staff, and a $47 million annual budget. Primarily operating in Western Sydney also with sites in Newcastle, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Canberra.
Both Cate’s working and personal life has focused on the development, safety and care of children and young people. She joined the Board at the end of 2022.
Benjamin Balasigamany (Bala Benjamin)
Bala is a Chartered Accountant with many years of experience providing quality finance and management services in the private, public and not-for-profit sector. For the past 5 years, he has worked at St Augustine’s College Sydney as the Director of Business and Finance and previously worked at Marist Youth Care Ltd as the Executive Manager-Corporate services for 10 years. He is enthusiastic about contributing to the success of Stepping Stone House, and joined the board in January 2024.
Jennifer Mulveny
Jennifer Mulveny is the Director of Government Relations for Asia-Pacific for Adobe Corp, based in Sydney. Before joining Adobe in 2017 Jennifer was Director of Policy for ANZ and Southeast Asia at Intel Corporation. She lived and worked in Washington, D.C. for almost 20 years, launching her career in public policy, before moving to Australia in 2014 with her husband and two sons.
Jennifer has held several advisory roles within government and business, specialising in matters of international trade and technology policy. She also has advised non-government and charitable organizations focused on mental health and youth safety. She is passionate about teaching and regularly delivers public policy lectures at universities in the US and Australia.
She received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her post-graduate degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University in Washington D.C. She is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher and regularly runs community mindfulness classes.