Nici Andronicus

CEO since 2025

Nici Andronicus is the Chief Executive Officer of Can Assist, leading our mission to ensure that people with cancer living in rural and regional NSW receive the financial and practical support they need at one of the most challenging times in their lives.

Nici brings a strong mix of executive leadership, fundraising expertise, and a deep personal connection to the cause. She has spent her career working across community organisations, high performance sport, and major charitable initiatives, always driven by a desire to build stronger, healthier, and more connected communities. Her approach to leadership is energetic, optimistic, and anchored in purpose. She believes strongly that people in the city have both the opportunity and the responsibility to help ease the burden on families in country areas who often travel enormous distances just to access essential cancer treatment.

Before joining Can Assist, Nici held senior roles across the not for profit and sports sectors where she built partnerships, lifted organisational performance, and delivered large scale fundraising and community engagement programs. She is also a former professional triathlete who represented Australia on the world stage, bringing with her the focus, resilience and discipline that comes from elite sport.

Nici has a deeply personal understanding of the emotional and financial strain that cancer places on families because her husband Paul needed to travel from Australia to the USA for treatment for his very rare brain cancer. This lived experience of cancer shapes her commitment to ensuring that Can Assist continues to reduce hardship for the more than 5,000 country patients we support each year.

She now leads Can Assist into its next chapter, building on our 70-year legacy and working alongside our Board, Chair Justine Turnbull, and more than three thousand dedicated volunteers across sixty branches. Her focus is on expanding our impact, strengthening our advocacy, and growing the support available to rural and remote communities across NSW.

Nici is passionate about compassion, fairness, and the power of community to make a meaningful difference. She brings energy, clarity, and genuine care to her work, and she is driven every day by the people and families who rely on Can Assist during their most difficult times.

You can reach Nici on CEO@canassist.org.au

Justine Turnbull

President and Chair since 2024

Justine has had a legal career spanning more than two decades during which Justine has amassed considerable specialist experience, particularly at executive level, advising on all types of workplace misconduct, including discrimination, bullying and harassment. As a founding partner at Seyfarth Shaw Australia and former partner at Herbert Smith Freehills, Justine advised private and public enterprises on national and global levels. Justine currently works as a workplace consultant conducting workplace investigations and culture reviews. She brings extensive experience advising on a wide range of workplace issues such as disciplinary and performance matters, employee hire and retention, pay practices and processes and workforce reductions.

Through her interaction and communication with employees at all organisational levels across countless industries, including financial services, media, gaming, retail, manufacturing, recruitment and property, Justine gained an acute understanding of the depth and scale of employment challenges faced by workplaces.

Justine is a current independent director of Pepper Money Ltd (ASX:PPM) and Chair of the Remuneration & Nomination Committee. Justine is a former board member for Catholic Schools NSW/ACT, Access EAP and TAFE NSW where Justine has played instrumental roles in driving both commercial business success and rapid industry growth. 

Justine and her husband spend their time between Northbridge (Sydney) and Yass where she grew up.

 

Sharon Flynn

Director since 2024

Across Sharon’s career she has undertaken a range of leadership and chair roles with organisations in the rural and regional health sector. Her career both in the Air Force and then health-related not for profits has allowed her to live and work in rural and regional centres, now being semi-retired in Tamworth.

She has chosen to spend the last seven years of her not-for-profit C-suite career in an organisation committed to the highest quality of patient care for cancer patients and those exposed to medical doses of radiation (diagnosis and treatment).

Sharon has extensive governance experience in the not-for-profit space. She has been the CEO of the Australasian College of Physical Scientists and Engineers in Medicine (ACPSEM) and a member of the Radiation Oncology Alliance (ROA) and in these roles she has passionately advocated for and worked with other national and state-based organisations to bring as many qualified doctors as possible to the bush.

With both a business and management accounting background she has been involved in grass roots community organisations and a valued strategic member of the Board of the RAAF Welfare Trust Fund, the Board of the Uniting Church in NSW and on the Board of Wesley College at Sydney University. Sharon has an affinity with Can Assist’s vision, because of her lived experience as the spouse of a cancer survivor in a family that has lost too many people to cancer.

Natalie Phillips

Director since 2024

As a long-time resident of the Junee Shire, Natalie has been actively engaged in the community for the past 20 years. For the past decade, she has served on the executive board of the Junee Can Assist Branch, holding all executive positions during this time. Additionally, she has been Chair of the Board of Directors for Golden Chain Australia, one of the country’s largest accommodation providers with over 200 properties across Australia and New Zealand, and locations in Asia and the Pacific. She has also been actively involved with the Global Alliance of Private Hotels (GAPH) and the ASURE Group New Zealand. Her commitment to community extends to her role as the secretary of Junee Business and Trades, local chamber of commerce, for the past eight years.

Natalie has valuable experience in governance, corporate speaking, event management, marketing strategies, and networking. Her experience with the Junee Can Assist Branch has given her insight into significant impact Can Assist can have on individuals’ lives through our support and services.

Kym Bramich

Director since 2022

With a career of over 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Kym has a deep understanding of the healthcare environment and its complexities in Australia.  She is currently Head of Marketing and Communications for the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre, trading as Omico, a not-for-profit organisation focused on improving outcomes for Australians with cancer by accelerating the use of precision oncology.  

Previously, Kym has held several executive roles in large global companies and so brings significant experience in organisational leadership, creating and directing strategy, leading large businesses and teams, and building collaborative stakeholder relationships.  

Kym continues to have a strong drive to positively impact the health of others.  She is passionate about having a clear purpose, driving forward progress, and rising to challenges to do so. 

With experience as a carer for close family members who have had a cancer diagnosis, Kym understands the burden to patients, carers and families that come with this.  Kym is originally from Tasmania and is based in Sydney.  She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of Women on Boards.

Marcus Lewis

Director since 2022

Marcus is the founder and managing Director of Sanctuary Media Group, a specialist strategic media planning and buying agency based in Surry Hills.  Marcus launches SMG to specialise in working with NGOs in 2016 to help drive their fundraising and donor bases.  SMG and Marcus work with 20+ NGOs in Australia and New Zealand

Born in Birmingham UK  Marcus has been working in Marketing, Media and Fundraising since 1995, he started his career in the UK with one of the largest Global advertising groups McCann Erickson before spending time with MediaVest and MediaCom in London and Manchester.  He moved over to Australia with his family in 2011 to work with the leadership team at PHD Australia to help deliver their Analytics and Direct Response expertise.  

Marcus and his family  fell in love with NSW and Australia very soon after arriving in Sydney and they  quickly decided to make it our permanent home.  Outside of work he has worked with community sport in organisation and sponsorship duties and has done voluntary work with the Australian Direct Marketing Association.   

Gary Humphreys

Director since 2018, Member of FA&R committee

Gary has significant experience in operating large businesses and was a senior executive for over 15 years in the electricity industry.

From 2012 to 2017, he was the Chief Operating Officer of Essential Energy and prior to that held senior executive roles covering areas such as regulation, business development, customer service and asset management. Gary currently holds various other board positions. Gary has a strong affiliation with regional and rural NSW. He lives in Port Macquarie and owns rural land in the North West and North Coast parts of the state.

Gary is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and has completed the Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School.