Velma was appointed principal of St John’s Primary School in January 2019. Her teaching experiences have been ranged from early childhood, primary and secondary education. Velma has held a number of short-term principal roles in both single stream and double stream primary schools, across the Perth Metro, Goldfields and the Wheatbelt. These principal experiences have enriched Velma’s professional leadership journey, as they have been extremely rewarding and have provided her with the opportunity to establish valuable networks, friendships, learn from the community and pass on new knowledge and experiences to the school communities.

Velma’s commitment to Catholic education is that every child should be given an opportunity to strive for excellence in learning, in a safe and supportive environment. Being an instructional leader, Velma has a passionate belief that a school must continue to offer the best programs and learning environments that cater for the needs of each child. Working closely with the St John’s staff, Velma encourages a keen sense of collaboration as well as empowering each individual to contribute to create an innovative learning environment.

Velma is very focused on building schools, where people feel supported and ‘community spirit’ is enhanced. At the same time, ensuring that people are challenged, both collectively and individually, to improve themselves and the educational standards and opportunities within the school.

Velma and her husband Scott have three children, two sons and one daughter who is currently at university.

Fr Christian Irdi was appointed parish priest of Scarborough on 1 September 2021. He was ordained to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Perth on 2 August 2014, after having studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Fr Christian served as assistant priest at Willetton parish from 2015-2018. From 2018-2021, he completed postgraduate studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and obtained the degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology (Fundamental Theology).

Simon is an internationally accomplished and versatile Board Director and Non-Executive with a 15 year track record of success, working across differing territories in acquisitive wealth management firms, large commercial practices and commercial privately-owned SME’s in a high growth phase.

Having served as Chief Executive Officer in a number of organisations, Simon combines high levels of financial acuity with advanced planning and business development skills to shape and execute M&A roadmaps, operation strategies, go-to market plans and transformation programmes which maximise profitability/performance for stakeholders.

Besides being awarded the ultimate accolade in Management, becoming a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the CMI and achieving a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in 2018, ranked in one of the top 1% of global business schools, Simon is a proud member of St John’s School Advisory Council since 2021 and aims to help assist the school with it’s strategic plan.

Simon has a daughter in Year 6 at St John’s and he enjoys seeing her happy at such a lovely school and outside together with his wife, the family are very much great explorers of Australia and in particular our wonderful state of WA which they have seen from top to bottom multiple times.

Greg is currently the Chief Executive Officer for WGH Holdings Pty Ltd, a private family office which owns and controls large agricultural assets both in Australia and overseas. Prior to this Greg was the Finance Director, Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer for the public company Wellard Limited, one of Australia’s largest Agricultural businesses where Greg oversaw the Group Finance, IT, HR and Media Relations functions.

Previously, Greg has served as the Group Financial Controller for the public company Austal Limited and has previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Westpac Bank, City of Stirling and Dominion Mining.

Greg joined the St John’s Board in July 2018 and is passionate about the St John’s community and brings expertise in all aspects of finance, corporate affairs, governance, and statutory reporting to the Board.

Greg has three children with his youngest boy currently enrolled at St John’s in Year 4.

Mark is a Partner at Ernst & Young, a multinational professional services firm. Mark is a registered company auditor and specialises in the provision of assurance services to large public and private companies in Australia with a focus on the resources and energy sectors.

Previously, Mark has served as treasurer of the Petroleum Club of Western Australia (2014-2018).

Mark joined the St John’s Advisory Council in November 2020. Mark was a member of the Assets and Maintenance sub committee during 2021 and now serves as Vice Chairperson and a member of the Finance sub committee.

Mark has two children with both currently enrolled at St John’s in Year 4 and Pre-Primary.

Lisa has worked in Corporate Banking for over 20years in various management roles across Domestic and International markets. She currently works for HSBC in the Corporate Bank as a Senior Manager in a national position overseeing corporate loan pricing & structuring, capital management and strategic & business development initiatives.

Past experience in Banking involved Project Finance, M&A, Portfolio Management along with managing the Corporate Bank’s Graduate program. Lisa is passionate about career development for junior staff as well as equality of opportunity and sits on various committees within the Bank to promote this.

She is married to Paul and they have two children at St Johns, Jordan in Yr6 and Abigail in Yr1.

Stephanie is a member of the senior leadership team at Western Power, currently heading up the Customer Experience Function. Previous to this role, she served 3 yeas as head of their Governance, Risk and Compliance Function, has experience leading a significant business transformation program as well as serving several years as a Finance Manager.

Prior to moving from the US to Australia with her husband Ryan, Stephanie as a Senior Manager at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in NYC for ten years.

Stephanie joined the St John’s School Board in February 2020 as the P&F Representative and joined the Advisory Council as a member in 2022. She loves being part of the St John’s community and her tow sons are currently in Year 5 and Year 3.

David is the current Chair of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Council. He sits on the board as a representative of the parish community. David is currently a Development Officer for Surf Life Saving WA, responsible for the Nipper and Youth Programs across the state. Formerly he taught in catholic schools and held the position of Assistant Principal for fifteen years.