National Breast Cancer Foundation announces the appointment of Associate Professor Cleola Anderiesz as the Foundation’s new CEO

Associate Professor Cleola Anderiesz

BSc(Hons), PhD, GCHEcon, MBA, GAICD

Cleola is senior executive leader with over 20 years of experience across the academic, not-for-profit, and public sector. She has qualifications in science and health economics, a PhD, a Senior Executive MBA, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors with extensive national leadership experience in strategy development, program design and implementation, and building productive cross-sector partnerships.

Cleola has worked as a medical researcher nationally and internationally in the field of reproductive biology. After leaving research, Cleola spent six years in the in the not-for-profit sector and 15 years with the Australian Government in a range of national leadership roles.

During her public service career, Cleola established and implemented national cancer initiatives spanning research, clinical trials, data, service development, and clinical practice. In particular, Cleola designed and oversighted the conduct of Australia’s first national audit of cancer research funding, and designed and implemented Australia’s first national collaborative cancer research scheme, bringing together 13 organisations to co-fund over 300 national cancer research projects totalling $113 million.

She also developed and implemented the policy and research funding strategy to provide infrastructure funding for Australia’s 14 cooperative cancer clinical trials groups, and established the policy and funding framework tor health economic, quality of life, and genomic trial services to support the national clinical trials groups.

Cleola has led Australian-first data initiatives. She engaged all states and territories to codesign and collect Australia’s first national data on stage at diagnosis for a range of adult cancers, and led the development of the National Cancer Control Indicators website – Australia’s first national on-line adaptive hub of national population-based cancer control data to guide policy and practice.

In 2018, Cleola led the implementation of the Australian Government’s first health Mission – the Australian Brain Cancer Mission, consolidating and developing over $47 million in funding partnerships. Most recently as Deputy Chief Executive Officer at Cancer Australia, Cleola provided senior executive oversight of a Ministerially requested enquiry into lung cancer screening in Australia, and executive leadership toward the development of the first Australian Cancer Plan.

Cleola is an Honorary Principal Fellow at the Melbourne School of Population & Global Health at the University of Melbourne, and has held positions on a variety of international, national and state committees including being a member of the International Cancer Research Partnerships (ICRP) Clinical Trials Outcomes Evaluation Committee, a member of Canteen’s National Reference Group for the Australian Youth Cancer Framework, and the Australia Institute of Health and Welfare’s (AIHW) Cancer Monitoring Advisory Group.

Cleola is also the current Chair of the Victorian Fisheries Authority’s Snobs Creek Fish Hatchery Advisory Board. The hatchery produces and grows fish for recreational fisheries and conservation stockings in Victoria.