our team

Dianne Underwood was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Home Base in February 2023.

Dianne brings a broad range of experience over 25 years across insurance, law, utilities, tourism, and hospitality sectors.  Dianne’s main areas of practice include strategic planning, business transformation, change management, employee, and customer experience management.  Dianne has played a leadership role in various corporate organisations and on various committees and Boards and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.  Dianne is currently a Director on the Board of Metro Tasmania.

Dianne is a member of the National Youth Employment Body, the Tasmanian Youth Employment Alliance, Housing Connect Collaborating Partners Group, and a member of the Ministerial Working Group on Housing.

Dianne is passionate about improving the social and economic outcomes for all young Tasmanians and believes that everyone deserves an opportunity to showcase their talents and skills.

Angela joined Home Base in November of 2019 and brought with her a broad range of experience across the hospitality, corporate, vocational and higher education sectors, spanning over 20 years.  Her primary focus has been business, strategy, HR and operational management within these industries which she is now applying in the community services context.

Angela holds a Bachelor of Business Management degree from the University of Tasmania and she is passionate about her involvement within the community and supporting Tasmanians to achieve their goals in life.

Clare Pearson commenced as Home Base’s Chief Impact Officer in June 2023 having worked in suicide prevention for close to a decade with both OzHelp Tasmania Foundation (as Executive Officer) and Lifeline Tasmania (as Deputy CEO).

Clare holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications (Theatre/Media) from Charles Sturt University and spent more than thirteen years in a variety of roles within performing arts organisations in Hobart, Melbourne and Edinburgh.

Clare is passionate about harnessing the power of interpersonal connection and collaborating with others to support a connected, thriving Tasmanian community.

Olivia joined Home Base in 2012, bringing a range of experience from the hospitality and tourism sectors. Olivia has worked in roles across the housing division since 2015, leading the Housing Connect Front Door program since 2016. Olivia utilises her frontline experience in housing and youth programs to ensure that we deliver services in a way that is community centred and keeps people at the forefront of everything we do.

Olivia holds a Bachelor of Arts and Graduate Certificate in Public Policy from the University of Tasmania and is passionate about working with the whole of community towards ensuring all young Tasmanians are safely and affordably housed.

Toby has over 15 years experience working in service delivery and management roles across youth and family programs, including 9 years working within Home Base youth programs.

Toby joined our executive team in 2023 to support our youth programs to design and deliver models of services that best meet the needs of young people in our community.

Toby holds a Bachelor of Social Work and is passionate about best practice that is informed and led by the young people we work with.

Norm is an experienced senior executive and non-executive director across the energy, infrastructure and community sectors. Building on his early career in the Australian and international utility sectors, Norm progressed his career in Tasmania over the past 20 years, with CEO roles including Aurora Energy, two major Government Departments and major Aged Care provider, OneCare Limited. In parallel to his executive career, Norm has gained extensive non-executive director and management consulting experience across the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.

Sophie has dedicated her career to addressing complex issues across the nexus of disadvantage, education, community wellbeing, climate and biodiversity.  She has scaled positive impact and business growth locally, and within the Asia Pacific, the United States and Europe.

Sophie’s governance experience spans not for profit, education, government and business.  She brings client and customer-centricity, commitment to innovation, commercial acumen, cultural awareness, and expertise overseeing technology transformation.  Sophie enjoys connecting people committed to making a difference with solutions to some of our community’s most challenging problems.

Mel has been working in the ICT industry for over 25 years and has held many senior roles including Chief Information Officer at Aurora Energy and ICT Leader at TasNetworks.
In 2016 she started her own ICT Advisory and Project consultancy business in Hobart, Ignite Project Services which currently employs ten people and has contracts with large Government departments and Government owned entities.
She is also been a Director and Vice Chair of StLukes Health Insurance since 2015.

Mel has extensive experience in developing and implementing ICT strategies, along with a passion for leading and developing people and elevating organisational culture.
Mel was recently awarded “Outstanding Contribution by a Women in ICT’ by TASICT for her dedication and commitment to the industry.

Josh is a Social Impact professional, with expertise in housing, employment and positive mental health outcomes. He is the founder of the Just Be Nice Project; integrating, managing and co-ordinating social impact outcomes for non-profit, community and for-profit organisations across the globe. With a wide variety of professional and entrepreneurial experience across multiple industries, Josh is passionate about helping people, help people.

Amy is a senior finance leader with over 20 years of experience in the finance industry and Energy sectors, having worked across various finance and leadership roles during that time.  She is currently working in the role of Leader Finance at TasNetworks, a position she has held for the past six years.
Amy is a Chartered Accountant and graduate of the Tasmanian Leaders Program.  A proud Tasmanian who enjoys connecting with others and is passionate about using collaborative leadership to enable people to become the best version of themselves.

Louise is a Tasmanian born, Melbourne trained corporate and commercial lawyer who has advised clients in the energy and resources sectors for over 20 years. While working at leading law firms in Melbourne, Perth, London and Dublin Louise maintained her strong ties to Tasmania and returned home to live in Hobart in 2018.

She is actively involved with Dress for Success and a number of other community, arts and social justice initiatives and brings to the Colony 47 Board an international perspective and wide ranging legal and commercial experience.

Tony is an accomplished executive leader known for his transformative work in infrastructure strategy, development and operations. With a career spanning 30+ years, he has consistently delivered innovative solutions that drive positive customer and community outcomes.

In addition to his corporate achievements, Tony has been a dedicated supporter of community development. He channels his passion into empowering junior and senior sporting organisations, mentoring individuals and fostering collaboration between organisations. Leveraging his expertise, he’s assisted with developing sporting facilities that not only elevate performance but also unite communities.

Tony enjoys seeing the positive impact that people who care can make on the longer-term outcomes within the community and is dedicated in assisting those who are disadvantaged to make positive steps to improve their lives.

Catherine Robinson is Associate Professor in Communities and Social Justice at the University of Tasmania and a Board Director of Homelessness Australia and the Youth Network of Tasmania.  Catherine leads a research and impact program addressing complex social disadvantage in Tasmania and beyond.  The current focus of her work is on strengthening policy and service responses to unaccompanied child and youth homelessness and rough sleeping.

During her career Catherine has also worked in frontline and research capacities in the community sector with Salvation Army in Sydney and Anglicare Tasmania in Hobart.

Catherine is also known for her work with Blackfella Films as Series Consultant and Co-Host of the SBS factual documentary Filthy Rich and Homeless.

Mat is currently the CEO of Lady Gowrie Tasmania, a not-for-profit early childhood education and care provider with 45 services across Tasmania.

Prior to this Mat has spent most of his career in the community services sector working in and managing services related to children and families.

He was CEO of Relationships Australia, Tasmania, from August 2009 until March 2020.

Mat is Social Work trained and qualified and has post graduate qualifications in Community Sector Management.

Mat is also a former CEO of TasCOSS, a Deputy Chief of Staff to two former Tasmanian Premiers and was Chief of Staff to the first Tasmanian Minister for Human Services.

Mat has a strong background in advising, lobbying and advocating social policy to governments at all levels.

Mat is also an experienced board member, is a current Chair of Hamlet, previous Chair of Relationships Australia, National Board, and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Mat served on the TasCOSS Board for a number of years including  as President, and also served on the Board of ACOSS.

Mat’s commitment to children is that every child should have access to the education, care and support they need to achieve their full potential in life.