Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation's Vision

Lynne was firstly diagnosed with breast cancer in 1988 and again in 1995 – having had two mastectomies. She then became committed to the breast cancer cause, originally joining the Golf Day Sub-committee of the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation in 1999 and the main committee in 2001, becoming President for the first time in 2002. In 2005 Lynne was awarded an Order of Australia Medal - OAM – for services to the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.

Following a few years leave from the Foundation Lynne returned as President in 2015 and retains that position now as Chair of Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation Ltd overseeing the 2022 separation from Chris O’Brien Lifehouse setting up as an independent charity. Lynne, her husband Richard, her family and Richard Crookes Constructions have supported SBCF since 1999 as major sponsors as they devote themselves to the fight against breast cancer. Lynne has been or is currently involved with St Vincent’s Hospital through the Curran Foundation, Mosman Art Gallery and Ngununggula Art Gallery through their Strong Women’s Circle programs. Plus many charities through the Crookes Family Foundation. Lynne has 3 children and 8 grandchildren.

Healthcare Executive for a global organisation, experience in growing businesses, expanding markets and building strategic partnerships through a diverse network. As a director she committed to giving back and driven by a desire to make a difference in the healthcare industry through collaboration, innovation, and challenging the status quo. Dedicated to driving positive change and making an impact on peoples lives.

Deborah is Joint Principal and Founder of SydneySlice and a Licensed Estate Agent. Deborah graduated from Sydney University with 1st Class Honours in Economics Law and worked as a Corporate Lawyer for 7 years before founding SydneySlice in 2000.

Lucy has worked in Australia and Hong Kong and focuses on the Retail sector. She currently CEO of Rachel Gilbert Pty Limited, one of Australia’s most famous fashion houses.

Lucy started her career as a solicitor practising in commercial and insolvency litigation. In 2004 Lucy was appointed licensee for Giorgio Armani in Melbourne operating their flagship store on Collins Street.

Lucy has worked with boards, financiers, major suppliers and individual stakeholders and organisations of all sizes from ASX listed top 100 corporations through to SMEs and government entities. 

Laura Durkan is an energetic Executive leader who understands the importance of placing people at the heart of business success.  With deep expertise in leading People, Culture and Strategy Laura is able to help businesses drive superior performance and building company and employer brand excellence.

Laura is currently Director, People for the FOXTEL GROUP and been on the board of the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation since July 2018

Miriam has over 25 years' experience as an intellectual property lawyer and is the Practice Leader of the Allens Intellectual Property, Patents & Trade Marks Attorneys group. She works with Australian and multi-national corporations to develop strategies for the protection, commercialisation and enforcement of their IP rights. Miriam is an experienced ligitator and provides strategic brand protection and advertising advice, and handles the trade mark portfolios for some of Australia's and the world's most recognisable brands.

Miriam was a director of St Lucy's School for 11 years and OzHarvest for 10 years. She is currently on the Board and the Risk and Compliance Committee of Saint Ignatius’ College Riverview Limited. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law (Hons) from the University of Sydney.

Simon is a banking, risk and technology professional with 20 years’ experience in local and global banks and consulting firms. He’s currently at CommBank, where he leads a multi-disciplinary team of 50 technology professionals across Australia and India driving digital and technology transformation in retail credit risk management. Simon is a graduate of the AICD Company Directors Course, committed to effective governance practice. He joined the Board in November 2022.

Master of Applied Finance (Macquarie University)

Bachelor of Agricultural Economics, Honours, First Class (University of Sydney)

Professor West worked as breast surgeon at the Rachel Foster Hospital and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital from 1971. In the early 1990's he was a member of the team that conducted the pilot screen for breast screening in Australia. After the success of the pilot programme, the Breast Screening programme was introduced for women all over Australia. The introduction of breast screening and advance treatments for breast cancer has resulted in a 90% survival rate for patients with early breast cancer. He still performs regular clinics at Breast Screen. He was Head of the Department of Breast Surgery at RPAH and Head of the Sydney Breast Cancer Institute. He led a team which resulted in the introduction of multidisciplinary clinics for breast cancer bringing together surgeons, oncologists, radiotherapists, radiologist, pathologists, breast care nurses and paramedical staff. The Institute was one of the first to employ breast care nurses to support patients through their journey with breast cancer.

Professor West is the founding member of the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation which he and a group of colleagues in 1995.

Dr Kylie Snook is a specialist breast surgeon based on the lower North Shore in Sydney, working in both the private and public setting.   She has over 15y experience managing around 200 patients with breast cancer/year with a multidisciplinary approach through the Mater Hospital, North Shore Private Hospital and Hornsby Ku-ring-gai hospital and is a Visiting Medical Officer at BreastScreen NSW.  She has been an investigator on multiple clinical trials and embeds research in her clinical practice.

Dr Snook is a council member of BreastSurgANZ, the peak body for surgeons treating breast cancer in Australia and New Zealand and is a committee member of the post-fellowship training committee for breast surgeons. She is the Head of Department for Breast & Endocrine Surgery at the Mater Hospital Sydney. She has had medical advisory roles with BCNA, McGrath Foundation, Pink hope and the Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.

Dr Snook enjoys teaching at all levels as well as consumer engagement and advocacy.  She is passionate about improving access to breast reconstruction and spreading the word on prevention and early detection of breast cancer. 

Dr Wendy Vincent is a Breast Physician and is currently the Director of BreastScreen Sydney Local Health District, the Director Royal Hospital for Women Breast Services, a VMO at The Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Breast Clinic and holds VMO appointments at multiple Local Health District BreastScreen Services for screen reading mammograms.

Dr Vincent completed her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Adelaide, has a Fellowship of the Australasian Society of Breast Physicians, and a Master of Clinical Leadership and Clinical Supervision.

Dr Vincent has extensive clinical expertise in the specialty of breast medicine and holds several key clinical advisory roles within BreastScreen NSW and the Sydney Local Health District.

As Director of BreastScreen Sydney Local Health District, Dr Vincent has facilitated a strong research culture, collaborating with The University of Sydney Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Institute of Academic Surgery Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Janes is a medical oncologist based at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse. She is committed to improving patient care for breast cancer through research and collaboration with other medical institutions.

In 2016, she was invited to go on sabbatical to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in Boston. From this experience she became interested in expanding the facilities at Lifehouse to enable the treatment of more patients. She is also interested in implementing more clinical trials to produce improved outcomes for patients with breast cancer.

Associate Professor Sanjay Warrier is a Sydney based Breast Surgeon at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the Mater Hospital. Having completed his surgical training at Prince of Wales Hospital, Dr Warrier has undertaken further research focusing on Breast Surgical Oncology and Oncoplastic Surgery at the Sydney Royal Hospital for Women and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

A/Prof Warrier is the current chairman of breast training in Australia and New Zealand and on the executive council for Breastsurganz. He is the designated surgical lead for Breastscreen central Sydney.

A/Prof Warrier has interests in innovation in breast reconstruction and is the first user of Spy technology in Australia and a pioneer in robotic mastectomies in the Southern Hemisphere

Dr Warrier won the Patron’s Prize for the best scientific research presentation at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in 2013. Dr Warrier's Masters degree thesis researched a novel biomarker that predicts for poor outcomes in breast cancer.

Dr Warrier has presented papers at many national and international conferences, and has published in peer reviewed journals and other publications.

A/Prof Mak completed her medical training with Honours at Sydney University. She obtained her general surgery qualifications in Sydney, before deciding to subspecialise in breast surgery.

She was appointed the Breast Fellow and Surgical Superintendent at Concord Hospital and went on to obtain further oncoplastic surgery experience at the Edinburgh Breast Unit, one of the largest breast units in the United Kingdom, where she worked as a fellow and consultant surgeon.

Having returned to Sydney from the UK in 2009, A/Prof Mak is now Director of Breast Services at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse (Camperdown) and Head of Breast Surgery at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She also operates and consults at the Mater Hospital (North Sydney). She has VMO accreditation at Strathfield Private Hospital and Hunters Hill Private Hospital, where she collaborates with her plastic surgery colleagues.

A/Prof Mak is a Visiting Medical Officer at BreastScreen NSW, a member of the Australasian Society for Breast Disease, the ANZ Breast Cancer Trials Group, the Australian Medical Association, the Australian Chinese Medical Association and is an honorary scientific officer at The Garvan Institute. She is an active member of Breast SurgANZ, the specialty society for surgeons treating breast cancer.

A/Prof Mak has been an invited speaker at national and international conferences on breast disease and has been featured on episodes of Channel Nine’s RPA program, and This Time Next Year. She regularly presents at community and GP information days. She sits on the board of The Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation.

Annie has over 30 years working in several marketing manager roles overseeing a range of iconic Australian brands such as Lady Jayne, Manicare and Nature’s Way Vitamin supplements.  Annie attended Loreto Kirribilli and went to Bond University where she completed a Bachelor of Business Management.  

One of Annie’s great passions is to educate as many in our communities of the importance of being breast aware which will lead to early detection of a disease that has a much higher survival rate if detected early enough.  Annie has 3 children in high school who keep her busy when not at work!

Jo Stiel was previously a Principal Consultant at PKL Recruitment in Sydney. Jo has a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Taxation Law, with a past career working in a Big 4 accounting firm as a Tax Consultant. Jo has experience in all areas of recruitment, including Executive, project and volume recruitment.

Jo previously held the role of General Manager of consulting at Chandler McLeod and Director of Global Human Resource Solutions at PWC.