Healthdirect Australia – General Manager, Stakeholder Relations

Healthdirect Australia, an organisation at the forefront of the dynamic digital health sector, plays a key part in the Australian health system by helping consumers to manage their own health through accessing free, high-quality services delivered through the latest technologies.

Watermark was retained to assist Healthdirect in their search for a strategic senior executive to lead the development and execution of stakeholder relations strategy.  The role was unique in that it included responsibility for the marketing and communications divisions and we found that no other companies structured roles similarly. To this end, Watermark conducted an in-depth analysis of the market to source candidates whose commonalities included extensive networks in the health sector, business development and marketing nous, and strong leadership and influencing capability.   This resulted in a shortlist of executives with diverse skills and backgrounds, each of whom brought valuable strengths the table.

The successful appointee had an extremely strong commercial career within the health sector, having had a progressive career working sales, marketing, communications and running strategic innovation programs at a senior level within the pharmaceutical and medical devices sector.  While they were relatively fresh within the government arena, Healthdirect saw a strong cultural alignment and a demonstrated history of building robust senior relationships which could easily be transferred into their industry.