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Deloitte’s Ellen Derrick announced as new chair of youth mental health organisation Batyr

Menchie Khairuddin April 6, 2023

2 min read

batyr Australia announces Ellen Derrick, Managing Partner, Deloitte Consulting Australia has been appointed as Board Chair, effective April 2023.

Derrick succeeds Sebastian Robertson, batyr’s Founder, inaugural CEO, and current Chair of the Board who steps away from the organisation after 12 years.

With more than two decades of experience working within health and human services, social policy and regulatory agencies. She has been passionate about mental health for a long time and currently sits on the Board of the Corporate Mental Health Alliance in Australia.

Derrick is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion through her mentorship in Deloitte’s Aspiring Women and Women in Consulting leadership programs and as well as her new role at batyr already played an active role in local and national charitable foundations, including Cystic Fibrosis Australia.

Having witnessed first hand the devastating impact of mental illness on young people, Derrick wants to use her experience to instigate positive change in her new role as Chair of batyr’s board.

“My university-aged nephew took his life in late 2020. I never want anyone to have to experience what he and his family have,” she said.

“My daughter, Kate, has lived with anxiety and depression through her teenage years as she confronted the realities of living with cystic fibrosis. Kate’s courage and openness to seek help and share her experience fuels me every day. These are the north stars driving me now as Chair of the batyr board, where I will look to elevate batyr’s impact to realise our vision of a world where all young people lead mentally healthy lives.”

Derrick is committed to seeing educational institutions and workplaces foster mental health and well-being for all and was inspired to step into the role after seeing the impact batyr has had driving mental health outcomes in the school and university space since its inception in 2011.

“Mental health is the issue of our time, and I want to take the passion and ambition batyr has and do what I can to extend that, to positively impact as many young people as possible.”

Robertson is excited to hand over to Derrick and highlighted that he wanted to find someone passionate about the cause who also has a wealth of experience and a human-centric approach to leadership.

“I’m proud to say we’ve found that in Ellen Derrick. I think it shows just how far batyr has come as an organisation to have someone of Ellen’s calibre step into the role of Chair and guide the organisation moving forward. I’m looking forward to seeing all that will be achieved with Ellen at the reins.”

Batyr’s current CEO, Nic Brown, looks forward to continuing to work with founder and outgoing Chair Robertson in his skilled capacity as a leader and will continue ongoing strategic conversations with Robertson to effect change in the youth mental health space.

“His dedication to growing resources for the youth mental health space is unparalleled, and everyone who has ever worked at batyr, myself included, has absorbed his aspirational energy for progressive change,” said Brown.

The batyr team look forward to working closely with Ellen to deliver on batyr’s 2030 Strategic Plan and vision.

“Our goals of delivering school programs to 70% of all Australian High School Students and to work with all Australian Universities to reach three million young people by 2030 will require new connections, funding channels and strategic thinking – things that we are confident Ellen will bring in her role as Chair of the Board.”

Menchie Khairuddin

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Menchie Khairuddin is a writer Deputy Content Manager at Akolade and content producer for Third Sector News. She is passionate about social affairs specifically in mixed, multicultural heritage and not-for-profit organisations.