Management team

Linda Allen – Chief Executive Officer

Linda first joined St John of God Health Care in August 2019.

Linda has extensive experience as a hospital executive and has held CEO and Director of Nursing positions in a number of private hospitals throughout South East Melbourne.  Linda joined St John of God Berwick Hospital as Director of Corporate and Day Services.  

In May 2020 Linda transitioned to St John of God Pinelodge Clinic as Acting Chief Executive Officer where she led the team through the redevelopment and relocation to St John of God Langmore Centre.  

Shelley Cooper – Director Clinical Services, Mental Health

Shelley is a UK trained mental health nurse with over 15 years’ experience in clinical, education and leadership roles. Shelley holds a Masters of Business Administration (Health), completed at ACU.
Prior to joining St John of God in 2016, Shelley’s roles included Assistant Director of Nursing and Clinical Services Manager at Australian Private Mental Health Hospitals. Shelley has also lead the development of a greenfields inpatient and day patient mental health service. Shelley is passionate about recovery-orientated practice and patient centred care. 

Rhonda O'Connor - Director of Mission Integration – South East Melbourne Hospitals

Rhonda O’Connor joined St John of God Berwick Hospital following a long history of working in youth ministry, pastoral care, education, parish and diocesan ministry. Rhonda is passionate about ministry and mission. She has been involved in social outreach in Timor Leste, youth mental health, refugee and asylum seekers, adult education and mission development.

She enjoys the joys and challenges of supporting and mentoring caregivers as St John of God South East Melbourne continues to grow. She is passionate about ensuring all caregivers are supported in living out St John of God Health Care Values and delivering exceptional compassionate care in our community. 

In 2020 Rhonda took on the responsibility of mission integration across the South East Melbourne hospitals including St John of God Berwick Hospital, St John of God Frankston Rehabilitation Hospital and St John of God Langmore Centre. 

Rhonda has completed a Bachelor of Theology degree.

Danny Antonopoulos - Director of Finance  South East Melbourne Hospitals

Danny is an experienced finance leader and CPA with extensive knowledge across commercial private hospital operations.

Prior to this role, Danny served in various senior Finance Director roles in medium to large sized hospitals for over 16 years.

Danny has a breadth of experience working closely with executive peers and frontline managers to help enable hospital and clinical service objectives.

Sara Crees - Director of Corporate and Hotel Services South East Melbourne Hospitals

Sara joined St John of God Health Care in September 2021 and holds a Bachelor of Business and Commerce majoring in Human Resources and Management at Monash University (BBusCom) as well as a Diploma in Business Management, Cert IV in Workplace Health and Safety and is a Certified Practitioner of Human Resources with the Australian Human Resources Institute (CPHR).

Sara is an innovative and passionate senior executive with experience in a number of roles across different industries and specialises in organisational development, talent acquisition, employee development, industrial relations, and team management.

Eveline Soon - Clinical Governance Manager South East Melbourne Hospitals

Eveline joined St John of God Berwick Hospital in June 2015 and has postgraduate qualifications in Health Administration Management and Project Management.

With over 10 years of experience working in quality and risk in health care, Eveline has developed a passion for quality healthcare delivery, risk management and clinical governance.

Her achievements to date include implementing a surgical safety checklist across a large metropolitan health service, developing risk registers in consultation with medical and nursing staff, streamlining clinical processes to ensure patients benefit most from nursing care and supporting various health services to achieve ACHS accreditation.

Dr Usman Riaz - Director of Medical Services

Dr Muhammad Usman Riaz is a Fellow of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists with a sub specialty in addiction psychiatry through RANZCP. He holds a Master of Public Health with a major in Occupational Health and Safety from Monash University and a Master of Psychiatry from the University of Melbourne. 

Throughout his medical career he has experienced leadership roles in public and private health sector. He also coordinates the RANZCP psychiatry training programme at Monash Casey Hospital. He is employed part time by Monash Health and also provides consultation liaison psychiatry service at St John of God Berwick Hospital.

Suzanne Hallifax - Business Development Manager South East Melbourne Hospitals

Sue joined St John of God Health Care in 2021.  With over twenty years’ experience being a member of senior hospital leadership teams, Sue has significant knowledge of the Victorian private health care industry and extensive experience in business development within this environment.

Sue’s focus is to identify and build strong working relationships with medical specialists, health executives, GP's and practice managers to continuously expand and grow the South East Melbourne Hospital services.