Our senior leadership team is made up of our Chief Executive Officer, our National Medical Director and our Chief Operating Officer.
Chief Executive Officer
Lucinda Barry AM has been the Chief Executive Officer of the OTA since 2017. She is responsible for leading the day-to-day operations of the OTA and is a member of the Board.
Lucinda has extensive experience in health care, both clinical and policy. She has held senior leadership roles within government, the public service and in health service management and delivery.
Lucinda represents the Australian Government on a number of national and international committees including: The Australian COVID-19 Donation and Transplantation Rapid Response Taskforce; National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce; Commonwealth “Tribute to Life” International Advisory Panel; International COVID-19 Donation and Transplantation meeting. In addition, she is a member of Australia’s Jurisdictional Organ Donation, Retrieval and Transplantation Steering Committee and the Jurisdictional Eye and Tissue Steering Committee.
Lucinda is the Australian Government’s national media spokesperson on organ and tissue donation and is an invited speaker at both national and international conferences.
National Medical Director
Associate Professor Helen Opdam MBBS FRACP FCICM was appointed as the OTA National Medical Director on 1 July 2014. She is a Senior Intensive Care Specialist at the Austin Hospital in Melbourne and Director of Warringal Private Hospital Intensive Care Unit.
Helen held the position of the inaugural State Medical Director of DonateLife Victoria from 2009 to June 2015. This was preceded by leadership roles during the National Organ Donation Collaborative (2006–2009), which included participation on the National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) Advisory Committee, and consultant to the Victorian Organ Donation Agency, providing medical suitability and other clinical advice on donation cases.
In 1998 Helen led the development and implementation of a pilot program in Victoria to understand where barriers and missed opportunities existed in hospitals that limited donation. This process has evolved to what is now the DonateLife Audit and is undertaken in all DonateLife hospitals. She continues to provide guidance as Chair of the OTA Data and Audit Working Group.
Helen contributes to numerous committees and workings groups. She is a Council member of the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) and a regular program committee member for the international Congress meetings of ISODP and The Transplantation Society. Helen participates on key Australian committees, including the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Death and Organ Donation Committee and the National Health and Medical Research Council Expert Advisory Group for the development of ethical guidelines for organ transplantation from deceased donors. She is a regular invited speaker at national and international conferences.
Chief Operating Officer
Belinda Small commenced as the Chief Operating Officer of the OTA in July 2021 and is responsible for leading the corporate functions within the OTA.
Belinda has extensive experience in leading organisational strategy, complex transformation agendas and corporate teams.
Belinda is passionate about shaping positive workplace cultures, building sustainable capability in organisations, and collaborating to achieve positive outcomes for the community.
Belinda holds a Bachelor of Commerce and is certified as a change management practitioner. Belinda has previously held positions at the Bureau of Meteorology, Department of Health and the Department of Finance.
