Our Board

 
 
 

Peter Hennessy (Chair)

Peter Hennessy is a lawyer who spent most of his professional life in the area of law reform. He joined the Board of St Francis Social Services in 1984. Peter has held the office of Chair of the Board of St Vincent’s College, Potts Point. He is on the boards of several projects conducted by the Sisters of Charity and has also served on the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council. He was the CEO of St Francis Social Services from 2014-2017 and 2020-2021.

 

Carol Dettman

Carol is the publisher at Chapter & Verse, a small publisher specialising in Fine Art photography books. A dual American/Australian citizen, she has been committed to refugee support for the past 15 years, in addition to being involved in community organisations and a director of a small US-based family foundation.

 

Thuy Huynh

Thuy has over 13 years experience at KPMG, providing audit services in both Australia and the United States, having worked in KPMG’s New York office for two years. Thuy leads the audits of large, listed, global companies specialising in the real estate industry (i.e., development, construction, investment property, hospitality, government infrastructure, property funds management). She has a Bachelor of Accounting and Business Administration – Finance (Macquarie University) and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Thuy will be expanding her finance commercial experience and embarking on a financial controller role at a real estate company from 2023.

Nicholas Carney

Nicholas has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of NSW. He is admitted as a solicitor in NSW and is a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). He advises governments and private sector clients on major infrastructure transactions and complex procurements. He was formerly a member of the UNSW Council (2004-2019) and was a Board member of the Foundation of the State Library of NSW. He is currently also the Deputy Chair of the Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s Infrastructure Technology (Infratech) Taskforce.

 

Laurie Ferguson

Laurie joined the Board of St Francis Social Services in December 2017.   He holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master of Arts in History from Sydney University.  Before entering politics, Laurie worked as a Research Officer at the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union.  He served as the NSW MP for Granville  (1984 – 1990), then as the Federal Member for Reid (1990 – 2010) and Werriwa (2010 – 2016.)  Laurie’s emphasis in Parliament was on International Affairs, advancing Human Rights, Immigration and Multiculturalism.

 

Fr Anthoni Selveraj OFM

Fr Anthoni is a Franciscan friar who has worked in Asia and Australia. He is currently parish priest of St Francis of Assisi Paddington and St Joseph’s Edgecliff. He is a member of the Provincial Council for the Franciscans in Australia.

Anna Coroneo

Anna joined the Board in March 2016. Anna holds Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of NSW and is a senior associate in the corporate team at Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF). Anna specialises in providing advice to the corporate head offices and general counsels of listed companies on a range of critical corporate governance, Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rule issues. Anna is also an active member of the HSF Pro Bono and Citizenship Committee and co-ordinates the relationship between HSF and St Francis Social Services. Anna has provided governance training and pro bono legal work to a number of charities.

 

David Hardie

Over a 30+ year career, David has worked in government, not-for-profit and philanthropy organisations, most recently at the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation and The Myer Foundation. David’s professional background is the government sector, holding managerial positions at Sydney Water Corporation from 1998 to 2007.

David also has extensive volunteer experience in diverse roles, including telephone counselling, refugee settlement assistance and youth mentoring. From 2008 to 2010, he helped establish and manage a successful education support program for school students from a refugee background.

David has a Bachelor of Business (Charles Sturt), Master of Policy Studies (UNSW) and Graduate Certificates in Environmental Policy (UNSW) and Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (QUT). He is the founder and director of the Slingsby Foundation and the chair of The Social Outfit.

 

Chris Sidoti

Chris Sidoti is a lawyer and advocate and an expert on international human rights law. He is a former Australian Human Rights Commissioner and a Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission. He holds a number of academic posts in Australia and does regular consulting work for UN human rights agencies.