The leading voice for the retirement living sector, Alison Quinn, has given two months’ notice as CEO of RetireAustralia. She departs 31 March.

RetireAustralia has 27 retirement villages and approximately 3,500 residents.

Alison was recruited from Aveo, where she had been Executive General Manager, to RetireAustralia in October 2015 by the new owners, a 50/50 consortium of the New Zealand private equity firm Infratil and NZ Super Fund.

Her mandate was to build the development pipeline and introduce ‘care’ support into the RetireAustralia product and service offering, which she has done by largely rebuilding the business.

In her email announcing her departure she said:

“Placing current and future residents at the centre of our thinking we have grown our development pipeline with projects that will lead our sector for ageing in place, we are making care integral to our offering and have a stronger understanding of our residents and the core portfolio”.

In February 2016 Alison was elected President of the Retirement Living Council. She has been the voice of the sector through the challenges of the Four Corners/Fairfax media coverage and the sector response, including Codes of Conduct and a new accreditation program.

Her term as President ends next month. A successor is yet to be identified.

She tells us that “we have done the right things to aid the sector” and “the main challenge now is getting that good work done recognised by those outside of the sector – only the residents understand. We need a better loud hailer”.

She has no immediate plans but would like to stay in the sector. “It connects the heart and the mind”.

General Manager – People, Culture and Technology Anthony Heald will step in as Interim CEO until a permanent CEO is appointed.