Delivering an Executive Search to strengthen clinical governance and medical leadership for a major regional health service
The Brief
Future Leadership was engaged by a large regional public health service in Victoria to appoint a Chief Medical Officer during a period of significant transformation. The organisation is the principal specialist and acute services provider across a broad regional catchment and was strengthening its clinical governance systems, restructuring its medical administration model, and shifting from a visiting medical officer model to a salaried specialist workforce.
The Chief Medical Officer role was central to this evolution, with responsibility for elevating medical governance standards, developing a sustainable medical workforce strategy, and supporting the executive team in delivering a consistent, organisation‑wide approach to safety, quality and accountability. The timing of the appointment was particularly important. The organisation was adopting a new matrix leadership structure and progressing a long-term vision to build a regional model for medical administration. This required a senior medical executive who could navigate complexity, guide organisational change, and build enduring relationships across a diverse group of senior clinicians, executive leaders and partner health services.
Future Leadership has a well-established relationship with the organisation, having previously appointed the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nurse, and the former Chief Medical Officer. This continuity enabled a deep understanding of the organisational context, leadership expectations and cultural dynamics, ensuring the search strategy was aligned to both current operational challenges and future strategic direction.
The Process
Future Leadership undertook a comprehensive and methodically structured search process tailored to the unique needs of this large and complex regional health service. The approach was designed to ensure coverage of both national talent pools and candidates with proven experience in regional and rural contexts, where clinical governance demands and workforce challenges are distinct.
Key steps included:
- Briefing and Strategy Development:
Future Leadership with the Chief Executive and executive stakeholders to define in detail the leadership profile, clarify expectations for governance oversight, workforce reform and cultural leadership, and understand the organisation’s evolving strategic priorities under the new matrix structure. The team also analysed current operational challenges, including the transition from VMO to salaried models, medical workforce shortages, and the need for stabilised governance systems. - Targeted Candidate Search:
Drawing on extensive national networks, the team identified individuals with experience in medical administration across mid to large metropolitan and regional health services. This was supported by a coordinated advertising campaign across Future Leadership channels, LinkedIn, SEEK and the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators (RACMA) platforms, ensuring strong visibility to both active and passive candidates. The search also leveraged previous assignments, referral networks and trusted industry contacts to identify high‑potential leaders. - Candidate Assessment:
Candidates were evaluated against essential criteria including clinical governance capability, experience leading large medical workforces, understanding of regional health challenges, accreditation experience, stakeholder influence, and alignment with organisational values. In-depth interviews examined leadership style, judgement, crisis decision-making, workforce strategy experience, and capacity to deliver reform. - Final Evaluation:
Shortlisted candidates participated in panel engagements with the Selection Committee, demonstrating their strategic leadership approach and responding to scenario‑based questions reflecting the organisation’s challenges. Future Leadership provided detailed assessments to support deliberations, enabling a confident, evidence‑based final selection.
Emerging Capabilities
Governance and Compliance
Establishes, champions and measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s regulatory and reporting systems. Identifies and evaluates risks, develops strategies to mitigate risk.
Stakeholder Relationships
Establishes rapport with stakeholders, builds and sustains trusted and collaborative relationships. Identifies and draws on relevant and diverse perspectives and integrates them to support productive interactions.
Adaptability and Resilience
Demonstrates positivity, curiosity, and the ability to pivot when confronted with change, pressure, adversity and disruption. Responsive to strategic environmental, social and corporate challenges and opportunities.
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function /organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context. Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Communication and influence
Articulates messages with clarity and impact to build understanding, inspire action, persuade others and enable information exchange. Considers the audience and draws on different styles to create impact.
The Outcome
The search concluded with the appointment of an accomplished senior medical executive who brought 25 years of clinical and administrative experience across regional health services. The successful candidate had a deep background in strengthening clinical governance systems, having chaired risk and medication safety committees and led multiple organisations through accreditation cycles. Their leadership experience extended across a substantial multi-site regional network, where they oversaw large senior and junior medical workforces and developed innovative training pathways that significantly improved retention and workforce sustainability.
The appointee’s career was marked by the redesign of clinical services, including emergency care models, short-stay and assessment units, obstetric service improvements, and the introduction of virtual care pathways that broadened access to specialist services in rural communities. The candidate had also demonstrated exceptional crisis leadership, coordinating medical responses to natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring continuity of care in highly challenging circumstances. They were widely regarded for a collaborative and empathetic leadership style, a strong ability to build consensus, and a commitment to developing resilient medical workforces. This appointment equipped the organisation with a seasoned and adaptable leader capable of guiding the next phase of clinical governance maturity and workforce reform.
