Our Leadership Team

Daniel Wordsworth, CEO, World Vision Australia

Daniel Wordsworth, Chief Executive Officer

In January 2021, Tamworth-born Daniel Wordsworth took on the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Australia’s largest international Non-Government Organisation (NGO), World Vision Australia, after 25 years working in the world’s conflict hotspots.

Prior to joining World Vision Australia Daniel spent 12 years as the CEO of US-based Alight (formerly known as the American Refugee Committee), providing health care, clean water, shelter, protection and economic opportunity to more than 2.5 million people in 15 countries each year.

Before this, Daniel spent 12 years with the Christian Children's Fund (CCF). During his tenure with CCF, Daniel built the foundation of CCF's emergency response programs in East Timor, Sierra Leone, India, Afghanistan and Northern Uganda.

Daniel has lived in, and worked with, the urban poor in Australia, Hong Kong, China, India, Vietnam, and Thailand and has written numerous publications on children and poverty. He started his career in the Royal Australian Navy.

When announced as CEO of World Vision Australia in December 2020, Daniel said he felt “compelled and called” to work with World Vision, an organisation dedicated to helping the world’s poorest children and which, since its inception, has reached more than 200 million children worldwide. He said he was also greatly inspired by the strength of the organisation’s faith-based mission.

“We can look in the news and see what is supposedly wrong in the world, but after having worked in what some people would call the worst places in the world, I can tell you there are many more good people in those places than bad.

“Each time something happens in those places, there are hundreds of people rushing to actually help and get people back on their feet, so the World Vision story is actually one of an amazing world, of a beautiful world and a world full of people doing good things. Our job is to connect Aussies to that spirit.”

For more information on Daniel visit LinkedIn.

Maryanne Tsiatsias, Chief Marketing Officer

Maryanne joined World Vision Australia’s leadership team in November 2019. She has more than 20 years' experience in marketing, product, strategy and operations, and commenced her journey with World Vision at the start of her working life, using her first pay cheque to sponsor a child.

Maryanne was formerly the Head of Brand for AIA Group, however the bulk of Maryanne’s career was spent with Telstra and Ericsson. Over her 16 years with Telstra, Maryanne held several executive leadership roles. These included Director of Operations Delivery & Engagement, Director of Prepaid Mobile Product Management and Director of Consumer & Small Business Marketing.

Prior to Telstra, Maryanne worked at Ericsson for five years in various strategy, marketing and product roles in Europe, USA and Australia.

Maryanne has a proven track record working in complex, fast-paced technology environments where new territory needs to be chartered. Her passion is to ensure her team is high performing and best practice, but also that they look back at their experience and see it as challenging, fun and rewarding.

Graham Strong, Chief Field impact

Graham brings two decades of strategic oversight, field experience and leadership to his role at World Vision Australia. He enjoys working in an organization where staff share a commitment to helping every child enjoy life in all its fullness. He embraces diversity and seeks to find the good in all people, and amplify the ways in which their unique talents can contribute towards the global welfare of children.

Graham works with stakeholders worldwide to uphold the quality and goals of our programs. He has led our work in some if the world's most fragile contexts, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, he has also worked in leadership roles across the Middle East, Eastern European and Asian regions, including Mozambique, Armenia, the Russian Federation and Indonesia. He is an effective leader of multicultural teams in post communist, Islamic, conflict and post-conflict zones. He believes there is nothing more exciting than working collaboratively to make the world a better place for children, their families and communities.

Gordon Allison, Chief Financial Officer

Gordon joined World Vision Australia’s leadership team in November 2019. Gordon was a member of the World Vision Australia Board from 2017 – 2020, and Chair of the organisation’s Audit and Risk Committee. He was formerly Executive Manager, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, at National Australia Bank, and has 15 years experience in financial services in various roles including finance, risk management, treasury, and product and portfolio management. Prior to his career in finance, Gordon worked in community health, delivering health services to marginalised residents of rooming and boarding houses.

Gordon is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

B.Physio (Hons), Grad Dip Bkg&Fin, Grad Dip Acct, M Appl Fin, F Fin, GAICD

Andrew Binns, Chief of Private Funding

Andrew joined World Vision Australia’s leadership team in August 2018 as Chief of Private Funding, after serving as Acting Chief of Field Impact.

In his time at World Vision Australia Andrew has held many senior and technical roles, providing direction and oversight to multi-disciplinary teams accountable for business development, thought leadership and impact measurement across key sectors of Livelihoods and Economic Development. 

He has more than 15 years of experience in program development and management, business development and research across areas including land administration, geographic and land information system, food security and climate change.

In previous roles, he provided technical advice and support to the management and implementation of programs across Africa, Asia and the Pacific as well as developing and negotiating finance for projects, including several carbon projects registered under the UNFCCC and the Gold Standard Foundation. 

Andrew holds a Master of Geomatic Engineering Degree focussing on Land Administration from the University of Melbourne.

Nathan Callaghan, Chief People & Culture

After a career in recruitment consulting and a brief stint in marketing, Nathan decided to work in a purpose-driven organisation where his skills and passion for working with people to enable them to achieve their goals could be leveraged for greater impact. Joining World Vision in 2006 as a Recruitment Advisor, Nathan has enjoyed a career that has seen him contribute to the organisation through leadership roles in People and Culture, Shared Services, and Strategy and Innovation.

As Chief People & Culture, Nathan leads a passionate team focused on continuing to make World Vision a great place to work through the functions of business partnerships, talent and performance, HR operations and faith and development. This work involves ensuring World Vision’s people are supported through all aspects of People and Culture's function to achieve their potential and deliver outcomes that have the greatest impact on eliminating poverty and its causes.

Nathan is driven by the challenge of unlocking the potential of the organisation through its people. He draws inspiration from the amazing things that are achieved when people bring diverse perspectives, focus on a goal and work together to get the best possible outcome.

Simon Kilner, Chief Information Officer

Simon Kilner brings the experience, vision and humanitarian commitment needed to navigate the fast-changing technology landscape in the NGO sector. Simon is a values-driven leader who has directed significant IT transformations for large commercial organisations. He has deep IT experience across strategy, architecture, infrastructure, applications, business engagement and vendor management.

Prior to joining World Vision, Simon delivered major infrastructure transformation projects at Baptcare, including disaster recovery in the cloud, mobility and desktop refresh, and network and security refresh. He transformed and consolidated five major retail divisions into a common technology platform while IT General Manager for the PAS Fashion Group, and cut his teeth in the industry as Head of IT at Clicks, a wholesale and retail pharmaceutical company in South Africa.

Simon is responsible for delivering digital and ICT capabilities. He facilitates effective links between the business strategy, revenue-focused teams, field work, risk management and finance, to align and strengthen World Vision’s capacity to maximise returns from IT investments and improve operational effectiveness.

Simon sees his role as key to World Vision’s transformation into a digital-first organisation that continues to find innovative ways to connect supporters to the life-changing work in the field that they’re helping to make possible.

Elisa Lurato

Elisa Iurato, Acting Chief of Retail & Supporter Experience

Elisa joined World Vision Australia in 2019, after an extensive career leading brand, marketing and customer experience for some of the world’s most prominent retail brands across automotive, luxury and telecommunications.

Prior to joining World Vision Australia, Elisa was the National Marketing Manager (Australia and New Zealand) for Maserati, led brand and integrated marketing for five years at BMW and spent six years in management roles with Australia’s largest telecommunications company, Telstra.

Elisa has more than 15 years of experience in integrated marketing for B2B and B2C, brand management, charity and philanthropy, automotive, consumer, telecommunications, sponsorship and events management.

Elisa graduated with a Bachelor of Business Marketing from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 2004.

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