Board

The Board of Directors consists of nine members of the Swimming Victoria community and seek to represent the views of our stakeholders.

SV Values & Behaviours

SV Board Charter

SV Guide to Board Operations

SV Constitution

SV Board Director Nomination Form (Part 1)

SV Board Director Nominee Profile Form (Part 2) 

SV Board Director - Position Description (Updated April 2024)

  • Michelle Harris - President
  • Hailing from Gippsland in Regional Victoria, Michelle has been involved in swimming as part of her club, district and as a Technical Official.  

    Michelle brings a wealth of experience to the role. She was a former Secretary of the Victorian Canoe Association and has held many other sports club committee positions.  She currently works for a Regional Sports Assembly where she provides governance support and training as well as specialist strategic planning advice to many organisations.

    Michelle has also worked extensively in women’s leadership and improving gender equality at all levels of community sport. She has been involved in a range of programs supported by the Office for Women in Sport and Active Recreation through Change Our Game and Gippsland’s local This Girl Can Campaign “Gippy Girls Can”.

    Bringing a regional view to the Swimming Victoria Board, along with a passion for growing participation in swimming, she believes the key to this is ensuring that the sport is safe and supportive of young people.

    Michelle is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria.

  • Shelley Bowen - Director
  • Shelley brings extensive experience through a wide range of leadership, strategy, and transformation roles. She is a former Senior Public Health Advisor with the Victorian Government (2008 to 2017) and is currently the founding CEO of Health Futures Australia, a not for profit health promotion charity.

    She has a solid comprehension of data and market analytics, business operations and systems, policy development, financial planning and reporting and intelligence.

    As a member of Swimming Victoria for 7 years, with the Ballarat Swimming Club, she has

    participated as a parent-volunteer, committee member and Club President – the first female in the Club’s 50-year history. She was also an influential part of a committee process which stewarded the Ballarat Swimming Club to recognition of Swimming Australia’s Club of the Year in 2019.

    Shelley is passionate about children and young people being physically active, nutrition, and in participation and engagement, fairness and equity, and service to members.

    As a parent of two state and national swimmers, Shelley is a big believer in the value of swimming to children and young people’s mental and physical health and wellbeing, and that swimming should be an inclusive sport available to everyone

    Shelley is an appointed Director of Swimming Victoria.

  • Eric Du - Director
  • Eric is a certified HR practitioner and an accomplished aquatics and leisure professional with experience working, leading, and managing in diverse teams across public and private organisations, swim schools and sporting associations.

    He is a mentor and trainer and passionate about providing opportunities for all to swim, seeing the progression of all involved within the aquatics industry. Through his knowledge, experience and education in human resource management theories & strategies and aquatics & leisure facilities, Eric continues to drive change and innovation continually improving processes related to staff development. 

    Eric is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

  • Ellen Gandy - Director
  • Ellen brings legal and corporate expertise alongside knowledge from an athlete’s perspective. As a swimmer, she was a member of the British National Swimming Team from 2008 – 2012 and then the Australian National Swimming Team from 2013 - 2014. During this time, she was also a member of Nunawading Swimming Club and experienced all levels of competition, from the Victorian State Championships to the Olympic Games.

    Since retiring from competitive swimming, Ellen has spent over 6 years working in the legal industry in various roles. Her experience as a commercial lawyer in private practice involved project financing, contract law, and dispute resolution for major projects with a focus on the infrastructure, energy, and renewables sectors. Now, in her role as in-house corporate counsel, her legal practice is extremely varied depending on the needs of the business and is strongly aligned with its corporate strategy and commercial needs.

    Ellen is passionate about the well-being of athletes and providing a safe and inclusive environment for everyone to enjoy swimming. She is also interested in the role that Swimming Victoria can play in a swimmer’s transition out of competitive sport. Regardless of the level of competition that a swimmer reaches, this transition is an inevitable stage for every competitive swimmer and one that she believes our sport can utilise to inspire a lifelong engagement with swimming.

    Ellen is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

  • Matthew Haanappel OAM - Director
  • Matt competed for Australia at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games as well as the 2018 Commonwealth Games, winning Gold in London 2012 as part of the 4x100m Freestyle Relay. Now retired he is a huge supporter of the Multi-Class and School Sport Swimming systems and actively participates in driving further development in this area. 

    He is a strong advocate for activating our teenage population of members to become leaders and mentors in our swimming community, not just as athletes, but to also take on leadership roles within their club, including that of their Committee or Board.

    Professionally, he currently works at WynActive, heading up the Aquatic Programs, Partnerships and Operations at AquaPulse, Hoppers Crossing.

    Matt brings with him experience in Diversity and Inclusion and Paralympic Swimming and along with ideas that have been developed from his years as an athlete and involvement from other sports, he is keen to assist SV and the Board as they continue to build Swimming as a innovate and progressive sporting choice for all abilities and ages into the future. 

    Matt is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

  • Simonne Neil - Director
  • Simonne is a registered medical practitioner with 25+ years’ experience in the public, private and not-for-profit health and medical research sector. Her expertise includes research facilitation, project management, stakeholder relationships, and consumer engagement. She currently works at the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance, in a cancer research implementation role.

    Over the last two decades, Simonne’s three sons have progressed through local council Learn to Swim, club programs and school pathways to state, national, Junior Australian and Senior Australian Development representation. Simonne has enthusiastically volunteered in a myriad of ways along the journey, formally in club committee member roles, and informally as a parent of competitive swimmers.

    Simonne is acutely aware of the immense health benefits, life skills, peer group and lifelong friends swimming has gifted her boys. Additionally, she has a deep personal affinity with the water, and swimming laps for physical and mental fitness is part of her daily life. She feels privileged to be elected to the Swimming Victoria Board and is committed to ensuring all Victorians have the opportunity to pursue and benefit from swimming.

    Simonne is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

  • Leigh Taylor - Director
  • Leigh is a CPA with 20+ years experience in corporate finance with an extensive resume that includes; overseeing Finance and Administration departments; developing and managing key relationships and negotiations with Federal and State Governments and key stakeholders; management of annual financial results, budgets and cash flow; development and management of special projects; implementation of systems and restructure to ensure organisations are set up for long term sustained success.

    Professionally over the past 10 years Leigh has worked in the sporting field as a State Financial Manager (AFL NSW & ACT/AFL TAS/GSW Giants), Interim CFO (GWS Giants) & Group Financial Controller (AFL Related Entities). Leigh is currently the CFO for the Sydney Swans Limited.

    Leigh is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

  • Andrew Williamson - Director
  • Andrew has over 20 years of leadership experience in various roles in a large corporation and brings a strong background in strategy, corporate governance, risk management and interaction with multiple Victorian regulators.

    His long-term, 16-year involvement in swimming, comes as parent of a swimmer who has progressed from learn to swim to competing for the national team and that time also includes being an active volunteer and committee member in multiple swimming clubs providing first-hand experience of the challenges in clubland.

    Andrew is passionate about swimmers developing to their full potential and achieving success, but more importantly that as a sport, swimming has so much to offer in terms of participation, progression and enjoyment and he wants to see swimming continue to grow along with a continued strong club environment.

    Swimming over the next decade, with World Championships in Melbourne, Commonwealth Games in Geelong and culminating in 2032 Olympics provides a platform to really inspire more people to swim and providing the right governance and direction to achieve this outcome is an important objective for Swimming Victoria and the Board.

    Andrew is an elected Director of Swimming Victoria

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