Professor Mary Foley AM FTSE has a distinguished career in the Australian health sector, having held leadership positions in state government, national roles, the private sector and not-for-profit healthcare. Most recent senior executive roles include Mary’s 5 year term as NSW Secretary of Health, responsible for the state’s public hospital and health care system during a period of major structural reform, and Managing Director of Telstra Health, Australia’s largest digital health company, where Mary oversaw the implementation of national digital health infrastructure.

Previously Mary has been the CEO of St Vincent’s and Mater Health, a not-for-profit hospital group in Sydney providing public and private hospital care, National Health Industry Leader for one of the major consulting firms, a senior executive in, at the time, Australia’s largest private hospitals and health care public company, a board Director of a number of Australian health and medical research institutes, Deputy Chair of the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council and a board director of Research Australia, a national advocacy group for health and medical research.

Mary is an Adjunct Professor at Western Sydney University, where she has also served as a Board member and Deputy Chancellor, and teaches postgraduate students in the Master of Public Health and Health Management programs. Mary is a Board Director of Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, a tertiary cancer hospital (part of the Royal Prince Alfred health campus in Sydney), governing Committee Chair for the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Research Institute, and Chair of the Central Coast Research Institute (a joint venture of the University of Newcastle and Central Coast Local Health District) which fosters health services research working with the local regional community. Mary is a member of the Victorian government’s Health Information Sharing Management Committee which oversees the roll out of shared digital health records across Victoria’s public health system and is a Non-Executive Director of the Health and STEM Group of the Champions of Change Coalition for Gender Equality.

Mary has received national honours including as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contribution to public administration in health and education, the national award of Digital Woman Executive Leader, the Federal Government’s Centenary Medal for her business leadership and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Western Sydney University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Digital Health and a member of Chief Executive Women.

Mary has written extensively about public policy in health with particular focus on the governance and funding of health systems, the design of new models of care in the context of new technologies, and the interplay of public and private sectors in the funding and delivery of health and social care.