Our people

Michael Pervan commenced as the Chief Executive Officer of IHACPA on 1 February 2023. Prior to this appointment, Michael held positions as Secretary of the Departments of Health and Human Services, Natural Resources and Environment, and Communities Tasmania. He holds positions as Professor of Health Services, University of Tasmania and is a Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Executives. Michael is a Churchill Fellow and was previously National Councillor at Australian Health and Hospitals Association, and a board member of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. Michael is currently the co-chair of the Board of the Commonwealth Leadership Institute.

As Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Tasmania, Michael was responsible for designing and implementing major health sector and organisational reforms. He has represented Western Australia and Tasmania at the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council of which he was also a Chair and has served on numerous national forums on health system reform, health workforce and mental health over the past 3 decades.

Joanne Fitzgerald has worked at IHACPA since 2012, and currently holds the position of Executive Director, Hospital Policy and Classification. Prior to this, she was Director, AR-DRG Development where she was responsible for developing and managing the Australian Refined Diagnosis Related Groups classification system.

Joanne holds a degree in Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Information Management) from the University of Sydney. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a health information manager working with health classifications in both the public and private health sector. Joanne has worked as a clinical coder, manager of medical record departments and at the NSW Ministry of Health.

Kees van Gool is IHACPA’s inaugural Health Economist. He is professor of health policy and systems at the Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics and Data, University of Sydney. Kees has extensive experience in international, national and regional health policy research. He has quantitative skills in micro-economic modelling and has established a strong track record in using linked data. Kees has previously worked at the University of Technology Sydney and the OECD.

Sarah Neville leads the teams responsible for the pricing and analytics functions undertaken by the agency. Sarah is a Senior Harkness Fellow in Heath Care Policy and Practice with the Commonwealth Fund, spending twelve months at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2022–23. She is also adjunct Associate Professor at the Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics and Data at the University of Sydney. Sarah has worked in the Australian health system for over a decade, setting the price of hospital services to make hospital funding more transparent and equitable.

Julia Hume is currently the Executive Director, Costing and Data Infrastructure, and has worked at IHACPA since 2013. As the Executive Director, Costing and Data Infrastructure, Julia leads the teams responsible for the functions of costing, pricing, data acquisition and IT infrastructure.

Julia has worked extensively on the National Hospital Cost Data Collection for both the public and private sectors. She holds a degree in Bachelor of Applied Science (Health Information Management) and a Masters in Political Economy from Sydney University. She has previously held roles across the health sector including working in health insurance and cancer research.

Julia has worked in the international development sector in several post-conflict countries.

Olga Liavas joined IHACPA in 2015 and currently holds the position of General Counsel and Executive Director, Corporate Affairs. She leads the Corporate Affairs branch in delivering a range of corporate and communication services. This includes secretariat services for the Pricing Authority, key advisory committees and working groups, internal and external communications, legal services, corporate governance and reporting, workforce development, office and building services, and executive support.

Olga was admitted as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of NSW in 1992 and joined the Australian Government Solicitor in 1993 where she advised on complex and high-profile administrative and competition law matters, including challenges to the constitutional convention and the decision to build the OPAL nuclear reactor. In 2004, Olga joined the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. As Branch Head, Legal and Corporate Services, she represented Australia on the OECD Nuclear Law Committee and in numerous international delegations providing advice on the development of legislation for radiation protection and nuclear safety.