Case Studies

Melba Support Services

Case Study: Building an Integrated Executive Leadership Team Over Time

Melba Support Services is a leading not-for-profit organisation supporting people with disability to live meaningful, self-directed lives. With more than 50 years of impact and a strong human-rights foundation, Melba is recognised for its commitment to inclusion, quality service delivery and innovation in the disability sector.

As Melba entered a period of sustained growth and transformation, the organisation required progressive strengthening of its executive leadership capability over multiple years.

Rather than a single recruitment assignment, Galvin-Rowley Executive partnered with Melba across three consecutive executive appointments: Chief Financial Officer in 2023, Chief Employee Experience Officer in 2024 and Chief Melba Experience Officer in 2025.

Each appointment addressed a different pillar of organisational performance, helping Melba build a more cohesive, future-ready executive leadership team.

Melba Support Services

Case Study: Building an Integrated Executive Leadership Team Over Time

The Challenge

Melba required executive appointments that could support growth, organisational maturity and continued alignment to its values-led, human-rights-based framework.

The challenge was not simply to fill three senior roles. Each appointment needed to build on the previous hire, strengthen the overall executive team dynamic and contribute to long-term organisational capability.

The Chief Financial Officer appointment was critical to financial sustainability, governance and scalable infrastructure. The Chief Employee Experience Officer role focused on workforce strategy, capability and culture. The Chief Melba Experience Officer role strengthened customer experience, service excellence, engagement and insight.

Together, the roles needed to support Melba’s ability to grow within the NDIS environment while maintaining its commitment to person-centred, human-rights-based support.

Our Solution

Galvin-Rowley Executive approached the engagement as a multi-year strategic partnership, not a series of isolated searches.

This enabled a deep understanding of Melba’s culture, strategy, leadership gaps and evolving organisational needs. It also supported continuity in candidate messaging, market positioning and assessment across each assignment.

Across all three searches, Galvin-Rowley Executive immersed itself in Melba’s vision, purpose and strategic priorities, including growth, workforce empowerment, innovation and the “Melba Way”. This ensured every appointment balanced technical capability with cultural alignment.

A consistent search methodology was applied across the partnership. This included national talent mapping across not-for-profit, health and adjacent sectors, assessment of transferable leadership capability, diverse and balanced shortlists, and structured evaluation aligned to Board and CEO expectations.

The searches were sequenced to support Melba’s evolving executive structure. The CFO established financial discipline and scalable infrastructure. The CEEO built workforce capability and organisational culture. The CMEO enhanced customer experience and market positioning.

The Impact

Across three years, Galvin-Rowley Executive supported a step-change in Melba’s executive leadership capability.

The appointments strengthened the organisation across financial governance, workforce strategy, organisational culture, customer experience and service delivery.

Each hire was made with consideration of team dynamics, capability gaps and long-term organisational design. This supported a more cohesive and complementary executive leadership group.

The combined impact has helped Melba build a sustainable growth platform, with stronger capability to expand services in the NDIS environment, innovate across workforce and customer experience, and maintain leadership in human-rights-based disability support.

Key Placements

Galvin-Rowley Executive supported three executive appointments across three years.

Chief Financial Officer, 2023: leading financial strategy, governance and performance, with oversight of corporate services including finance, payroll and assets
Chief Employee Experience Officer, 2024: designing and implementing a contemporary workforce strategy, strengthening engagement, retention and capability across the workforce
Chief Melba Experience Officer, 2025: leading customer experience across the full service journey, embedding person-centred service delivery and aligning marketing, engagement and insights functions

Together, these appointments created a layered leadership model designed to strengthen Melba year on year.

Melba Support Services’ engagement with Galvin-Rowley Executive demonstrates the value of a long-term, advisory-led executive search partnership.

By sequencing appointments around Melba’s evolving strategy, Galvin-Rowley Executive supported the development of a future-ready executive leadership team that is financially robust, people-focused and deeply committed to delivering meaningful outcomes for the individuals and communities Melba serves.

What Our Clients Say

Jennifer’s management of the candidate side of searches is exemplary. Too often, candidates are left wondering where we are in the process, what’s next, and, without good advice, going into interviews. Jennifer and her team are the opposite of this. I felt informed about the process and given background on the hiring company and its executives, enabling me to move confidently into interviews. Jennifers always delivered on the promised timing of updates. Her attention to detail on the client side of the recruitment is precise and focused. It has been a pleasure to work with Jennifer, and I can highly recommend her services.

Allison Smith

Board Chair, Dandenong Market

I first met Jennifer as a candidate. Having touched most of the major search firms as a candidate for executive roles and experienced first-hand their generally low level of candidate care, I have had no hesitation in recommending Jennifer to colleagues who are searching for a new job, or in using her myself as a preferred provider when in need of HR staff.

Mike Johnson

Former HR Director, SKILLED Group

Jen has really invested in understanding our culture and what attributes to look for to ensure a seamless team-fit. In addition, her definition of quality and high-calibre is the same as ours.
That makes life so much easier, and means we are consistently forced to make tough choices at the end of a relatively short recruitment period.
What else could we ask? Highly professional, and a calmly positive influence on us all.

Russell Parker

CEO, Kikki.K
Former CEO, Hallmark International

Galvin-Rowley Executive is a boutique executive placement agency that delivers above and beyond service with integrity to its clients.
The Director, Jennifer Galvin-Rowley, takes the time to understand her clients’ needs and then searches through her amazing network of contacts to find the right people for the right jobs.
Whilst I was CEO of BeyondBlue, Jennifer and her team were a delight to work with and I wouldn’t go anywhere else if I was looking for a key executive.

Dawn O’Neil, AM

Former CEO, BeyondBlue

For nine months we’d searched in vain for a HSE Manager. This was a difficult project: candidates were scarce, our standards were high, and the role was in the country.
When Jen was referred to us, she stood above the other recruiters for three reasons: she dealt in specialist OH&S Managers; she knew how to fill rural roles; and she didn’t advertise—she searched.
Jen approached the task with imagination. Her ideas were unusual, yet so logical. She handled candidates with promptness and respect, and we swiftly found and hired a great fit. I therefore suggest you let Jen recruit your next manager.

Jim Cooper

Former CEO, Port of Portland
Former Managing Director and CEO, Terragen Holdings Limited
Chair Audit & Risk Management Committee and Non-Executive Director, Dandenong Market
CEO, Continence Health Australia