Chief Executive Officer

The organisation

The College began with the establishment of the Australasian Association of Psychiatrists (AAP) in 1946 at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons’ building in Melbourne. The AAP was designed to be a medical specialist body with membership limited to ‘legally qualified Medical Practitioners engaged in the practice of Psychiatry’. The Association comprised branches in the Australian states and New Zealand, which were considered integral to its function and purpose. Sixty-seven practising psychiatrists in Australia and New Zealand were inducted as Foundation Members.

In the 1950s the AAP moved to establish a formal qualification; the Diploma of Psychological Medicine (DPM) administered by the Association. Following on from this, in the early 1960s, a transformation from the Association into a College occurred, positioning the organisation as a legally constituted body under which the new qualification could be registered.

The College was granted the ‘Royal’ prefix on 9 May 1977, and moved to its current location in Latrobe Street Melbourne in 1994.

A leader in the mental health sector, the College works to prepare medical specialists in the field of psychiatry, support and enhance clinical practice, advocate for people affected by mental illness and advise governments on mental health care.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) is responsible for training, educating and representing psychiatrists in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

The College has over 7,700 members, including more than 5,500 qualified psychiatrists (consisting of both Fellows and Affiliates of the College) and over 2,100 members who are training to qualify as psychiatrists.

The brief

Brooker Consulting successfully recruited two former Chief Executives for the RANZCP, and the Board kindly invited Brooker to submit a formal proposal for the most recent recruitment project. Having been awarded the assignment, an extensive briefing process ensued, which involved detailed interactions with the Board Sub-committee, as well as with the retiring Chief Executive.

The process

A comprehensive combination of external advertising and targeted executive search generated a high-quality shortlist.

The outcome

Extensive reference checking and further presentations to the Board resulted in Sharon McGowan accepting the role. She left her position as National CEO of the Stroke Foundation to take on stewardship of the RANZCP early in 2023.