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The Work

A few we've built.

Each is written and designed around the director it belongs to — never a template. Move between them to see the range.

Helen Whitcombe
Risk & financial services
David Mahlouf
Infrastructure & public sector
Priya Anand
Technology & health
helenwhitcombe.com
Helen Whitcombe
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Non-Executive Director · GAICD

Governance for companies in transition.

Two decades of risk and audit leadership across listed, government and for-purpose boards — brought to bear when the stakes, and the scrutiny, are highest.

Helen Whitcombe
Sydney, Australia
5
Board appointments
18
Years in governance
Profile

Helen chairs audit and risk committees for boards navigating regulatory change, ownership transition and recovery — the moments when governance is tested in public.

Before her board career she spent fifteen years in financial services, latterly as Chief Risk Officer of a major Australian insurer, where she rebuilt the risk function through the Royal Commission and its aftermath. That operating background is what chairs reach for: a director who has sat on the other side of the table when the regulator calls.

She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of CPA Australia, and writes regularly on the board's role in risk culture and AI oversight.

Areas of focus

Risk & audit oversight

Chairing the committees that hold management to account on controls and assurance.

Financial services

Prudential regulation, capital and conduct, from the inside out.

Transformation & M&A

Steady oversight through restructures, integrations and ownership change.

Risk culture & AI

The board's evolving role in technology, conduct and accountability.

Current appointments
Meridian GroupASX 200

Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee; member of the Nomination Committee.

2022 — present
The Hartley FoundationFor-purpose

Non-Executive Director; Chair of the Finance & Investment Committee.

2019 — present
State Water HoldingsGovernment

Non-Executive Director; member of the Remuneration Committee.

2020 — present

A board's job is not to remove risk. It is to understand it well enough to take the right ones, in the open.

From “The risk-literate board” · 2025
Helen Whitcombe
board@helenwhitcombe.comSydney · GAICD · FCPA

Illustrative examples, created to show the range — names and details are representative.

It does in one page what my CV never could — it speaks to the people deciding, before I have said a word.

Evelyn, GAICD