Earlier this year, Chairman of the Council of Private Higher Education (COPHE), Dr Donald Owers, announced that COPHE's co-founder and long-time CEO, Mr Adrian McComb, had elected to step aside from his role sometime in the following 6 – 12 months in order to provide for effective succession.

The COPHE Board then needed to face the challenge of finding an executive with the skills, experience and understanding that would further enhance COPHE’s capacity to provide for the needs of its members and to continue its positive influence on higher education policy. After a thorough, nation-wide search, the COPHE Board decided recently, by unanimous vote, to offer the position to Mr Simon Finn. Mr Finn has since confirmed his acceptance of the Board’s offer and will begin his new role at COPHE on 16^th January 2017. 

Currently employed as an Executive Officer by Professionals Australia, Mr Finn is a highly motivated leader and executive manager. He has extensive experience at senior levels of government and in public sector leadership, including serving as an MP and Minister in the Queensland government. His capacity and passion for strategy development, together with his skills in policy, advocacy and management will enable Mr Finn to build on the excellent work done by hos predecessor. To help ensure a smooth transition Mr McComb has agreed to continue at COPHE for the time being in a part-time advisory role.

Mr McComb has worked passionately and tirelessly to establish COPHE’s administration and significant range of member services, to nurture valuable stakeholder relationships and to position COPHE as a key peak body for private higher education. Nobody could have worked harder or more consistently for equity, choice and diversity in Australian higher education. COPHE owes Adrian a huge debt of gratitude and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.