Simon Havercombe

Simon Havercombe · Chief Marketing Officer · Australia

A career built around what happens after information is published

Chief marketing officer

Orlaven Health

Sector
Diagnostic and specialist outpatient services
Ownership
Clinician-founded private group; founders retain control after a minority growth investment in 2018
Company scale
A$420 million revenue in 2025
Employees
1,800 employees in 2025
Geography
Melbourne headquarters; fifty locations across Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland
Reporting to
Chief executive Fiona Ashcombe
Team
Twenty-eight employees through four direct reports; twelve agency personnel separately
Financial scope
A$12.8 million marketing authority for 2026; clinical decisions, referrals, treatment and clinical staffing excluded

Mandate

Connect the group's public account with accurate, usable information about reaching and contacting its services.

Outcomes

  • Created a maintained confirmation and publication record after a fourteen-location information audit.
  • Retained a visible telephone choice alongside the digital administrative route.
  • Reviewed twelve service labels with clinical, operational and participant input.
  • Established a listening programme with feedback use separated from publicity permission.

Decisions in context

As CMO I lead the marketing account of a fifty-location outpatient group without taking clinical authority. I report to Fiona Ashcombe and manage twenty-eight employees through four direct reports, with twelve agency personnel separately. My A$12.8 million authority for 2026 concerns marketing; the group's A$420 million 2025 revenue and 1,800 employees describe its wider scale. I work with Marcus Fenlow and operations colleagues when a public explanation depends on a professional or local fact that marketing cannot establish alone. The current case record concerns location information, contact choices, terminology, fee-enquiry routes and a listening programme still in progress. These decisions require a clear account of what has changed and what remains unconfirmed. I have presented relevant matters to the board as an executive since July 2020, while holding no directorships. My priority is to develop a marketing organisation that treats continuing practical accuracy as seriously as the first impression of a campaign.

Reason for the move

Current role; considering a compatible first non-executive contribution with appropriate preparation.

Director of brand and patient-access communication

Orlaven Health

Sector
Outpatient network brand and administrative access communication
Ownership
Clinician-founded private group; minority investor joined in 2018 while founders retained control
Company scale
A$278 million annual revenue by June 2020
Employees
1,220 employees by June 2020
Geography
Melbourne-based group responsibility across thirty-six locations
Reporting to
Chief marketing officer
Team
Twenty-three employees through four direct reports by June 2020
Financial scope
A$7.6 million annual brand and access-communication authority by June 2020

Mandate

Make practical service information and its review responsibilities part of the expanding group's brand work.

Outcomes

  • Brought local confirmation requirements into group publication planning.
  • Connected clinical and operational review with the early communication brief.
  • Developed four managers across brand and access-information responsibilities.

Decisions in context

This appointment moved me from a regional account to the communication responsibilities of the group. By June 2020 I led twenty-three employees through four direct reports and held A$7.6 million annual authority, reporting to the CMO. Orlaven had reached thirty-six locations, 1,220 employees and A$278 million annual revenue. The minority investment in 2018 brought another perspective to growth planning, while clinician founders retained control. I worked on how a common identity could accommodate the practical differences between locations without allowing public information to become inconsistent. Clinical and operational colleagues needed to influence the brief before the design was treated as settled. I also began to examine the continuing responsibilities created by each new publication, including who could confirm a change and which records needed updating together. The experience prepared me for the CMO role by connecting brand decisions with maintenance, resources and the professional limits of the marketing function.

Reason for the move

Appointed CMO in July 2020 to lead the complete marketing remit.

Regional marketing head

Orlaven Health

Sector
Regional outpatient-services marketing
Ownership
Privately held clinician-founded group
Company scale
A$156 million annual revenue by June 2014
Employees
760 employees by June 2014
Geography
Regional responsibility within a twenty-two-location Australian network
Reporting to
Marketing director
Team
Sixteen employees through three direct reports by June 2014
Financial scope
A$3.8 million annual regional marketing authority by June 2014

Mandate

Connect common brand presentation with accurate local descriptions and administrative contact information.

Outcomes

  • Incorporated location-specific facts into regional publication work.
  • Made local service owners part of the communication review.
  • Built management responsibility across a sixteen-person regional team.

Decisions in context

Regional leadership made the difference between common identity and local usefulness much more visible to me. By June 2014 I managed sixteen employees through three direct reports with A$3.8 million annual authority, reporting to the marketing director. The employer then had twenty-two locations, 760 employees and A$156 million annual revenue. I worked with location colleagues on material that had to feel part of the same organisation while accurately describing a particular service setting. A consistent visual system did not remove the need to confirm an entrance, contact arrangement or administrative step. I learned to ask who would maintain those details after publication and to recognise when a central instruction did not match local operations. My authority was marketing authority; clinical care and staffing were not part of the remit. The move into group brand and patient-access communication in July 2014 allowed me to address those relationships across the network rather than only within regional programmes.

Reason for the move

Moved to the group brand and patient-access communication role in July 2014.

Patient-information manager

Orlaven Health

Sector
Outpatient service information
Ownership
Private clinician-founded organisation established in 1996
Company scale
A$62 million annual revenue by June 2007
Employees
320 employees by June 2007
Geography
Ten Australian locations; Melbourne-based coordination
Reporting to
Operations director
Team
Eight employees through two direct reports by June 2007
Financial scope
A$1.1 million annual communications authority by June 2007

Mandate

Organise practical patient-facing explanations with the appropriate local and clinical confirmation.

Outcomes

  • Connected publication work with location teams' practical knowledge.
  • Recorded the owners of administrative explanations and necessary specialist reviews.
  • Developed an eight-person information team without assuming clinical authority.

Decisions in context

I joined Orlaven in July 2000 because service information had a practical consequence that interested me beyond the publication itself. The role was administrative communication, not clinical practice. By June 2007 I led eight employees through two direct reports with A$1.1 million annual authority, reporting to the operations director. The clinician-founded group then had ten locations, 320 employees and A$62 million annual revenue. I worked with local teams to understand which questions people were trying to resolve and which facts needed confirmation before publication. Clinical content retained its professional owner. I learned that a correct central account could become inaccurate when a local arrangement changed, even if nobody had deliberately changed the wording. That observation shaped my later attention to maintenance and responsibility. The regional marketing appointment in July 2007 expanded the work into public presentation and gave me a wider setting in which to connect the identity with the practical service it described.

Reason for the move

Appointed regional marketing head in July 2007 to take broader responsibility for local public presentation.

Product coordinator

Trellivale Publishing

Sector
Professional publications
Ownership
Privately held publisher
Company scale
A$18 million annual revenue by June 2000
Employees
Eighty-five employees by June 2000
Geography
Melbourne, Australia
Reporting to
Publisher's marketing manager
Team
Individual contributor in a six-person product group; no direct reports
Financial scope
No delegated budget; publication schedules and coordination within the manager's authority

Mandate

Coordinate professional-publication details and help readers and distribution colleagues understand their practical use.

Outcomes

  • Maintained publication details and delivery schedules within the product group.
  • Documented recurring questions from readers and distribution colleagues.
  • Learned to review an explanation through the task a reader needed to complete.

Decisions in context

After completing my commerce degree in June 1994, I entered Trellivale Publishing the following month as a product coordinator. I worked in a six-person professional-publications group under the marketing manager, without staff supervision or a delegated budget. The publisher employed eighty-five people and reported A$18 million annual revenue by June 2000; those were company figures rather than a business unit I managed. My work included schedules, publication details and the questions that readers and distribution colleagues raised about using the material. I learned that presentation and usefulness were related but not interchangeable. A document could be well produced while leaving its reader uncertain about the next action. I did not yet have the wider authority I would hold later, but I developed a habit of recording the question behind a request for clearer wording. Moving to Orlaven in July 2000 gave that habit a different setting, where practical service information needed local and professional confirmation as well as editorial care.

Reason for the move

Joined Orlaven Health in July 2000 to apply communication experience to practical outpatient service information.

What I am looking for next

I would like to bring my experience of a dispersed service brand into a first non-executive role while continuing my CMO responsibilities. I have no director appointments, and the board presentations in my record are executive work. A suitable next step would recognise the contribution I can make and the wider preparation I would need, rather than use a board title to repackage a marketing project.

I propose twenty-two annual days, subject to employer consent, relationship review and the actual meeting, preparation and exceptional-demand calendar. I would be interested in a service organisation whose public account depends on coordination across locations or professional groups. My contribution would concern the quality of service information, the assumptions behind growth communication and how an organisation learns from practical difficulties. Clinical judgement is outside my competence. I would also need induction into the company's economics, governance and other material risks before deciding how to contribute most effectively. A bounded advisory assignment may be more appropriate where the immediate need is a specific communication review.