Our team

Melanie Raymond OAM, Chairperson

An experienced independent, non-executive director and Chairperson with multiple other board and committee positions including Chair of Connected Communities Melbourne,  Director of the new Moreland Affordable Housing Association, Victorian Ice Taskforce and Taskforce on Rough Sleeping. In 2012, Melanie was named one of Australia’s Top 100 Most Influential Women and awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 2017. Melanie has a MA (Hons) and studied executive management at the Harvard Business School, bringing her extensive experience across policy, strategy, government, communications and media.

Connect on LinkedIn

The Hon Monica Gould, Deputy Chair

Elected as the first female President of the Legislative Council of Victoria, Monica held a number of positions during the union movement, served on the Board of VicForests and is a Director of the LUCRF Community Partnership Trust. She brings extensive experience as former Minister for Industrial Relations, Youth Affairs and Education Services and experience in aged care, coupled with personal interests in human rights and emergency housing. In 2018, Monica was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Mark van Miltenburg, Director

A Senior Real Estate Investment and Development Executive with extensive experience in creating investor value in commercial real estate. Holding senior roles at leading funds management businesses including Charter Hall, Macquarie Bank, Mirvac and LendLease, Mark’s expertise includes real estate investment strategy, development management, transaction investment, partnerships and financial accountability.

Srinath Sursala, Director

Srinath works in Management Consulting in IT advisory after previously working in a variety of major government projects over the last 6+ years. Srinath is currently undertaking his MBA at Melbourne Business School and also keeps busy looking at all things 'blockchain'. Outside of work you'll find Srinath immersed in all things sport - especially the AFL, NBA and Formula1.

Ben Vasiliou, Chief Executive Officer

As the proud Chief Executive of Youth Projects, Ben has been leading us on our incredible journey for more than 4 years. He is an experienced CEO and Board Director with a genuine passion for breaking the cycle of disadvantage and creating equal access to social and economic participation for all people.

Ben is a social entrepreneur who seeks to add value through strategy, good governance, and modern leadership and recently graduated from the Executive Education in Social Entrepreneurship Program at Stanford University (USA). He was recognised in the Top 5 CEO’s of 2021 by Third Sector, and by Pro Bono Australia as Innovator of the Year and one of the Top 25 most influential and inspiring people in the social economy in 2020.

Connect on LinkedIn

Carl Roberts, Chief Financial Officer

Carl manages a complex financial system with diverse sources of revenue, stringent compliance and reporting requirements as a key member of our executive team. Carl's leadership and 25 years of experience with the organisation has been instrumental in the sustainability and health across all areas of our work, sometimes over and above his formal role as our CFO.

Natascha Tjendana, Executive Manager Corporate Services

BAppFin, MCom, CPA 

Natascha is our most recently appointed executive leader who heads up Corporate Services at Youth Projects. As a CPA qualified executive with a Bachelor of Applied Finance and Master of Commerce, Natascha brings extensive experience and knowledge across financial performance management and modelling, risk management and compliance, continuous systems improvement, cross-function team management, planning and IT.  

She understands the lean environments nonprofits work within, but that we must also be financially progressive and sophisticated across our operations. With over 15 years’ experience in the nonprofit, Disability and Aged Care sectors and commercial industries, Natascha brings a unique set of skills and cross-sector understanding of business operations that she is eager to use at Youth Projects and support us through the next phase of significant growth and modernisation.  

Wendy Caspar, Executive Manager Employment, Training & Social Enterprise

From grassroots youth worker, leader, senior leader through to Executive Manager Employment, Training and Social Enterprise, Wendy's passion and extensive experience is centred around developing high performing operational teams and developing innovative models and programs designed to create impact and life-changing opportunities for the most vulnerable in the community. Wendy has over 17 years in the community sector, enabling and empowering young people to lead meaningful lives through employment and training pathways.

Richie Goonan, Operations Manager Community Health

With over 22 years experience in the housing and homelessness sector, Richie brings an authentic and adaptive leadership style, leading through positive decisions, driving high performance through motivation and inspirational leadership to achieve our goals and live our mission. In complex policy and operational environments, Richie finds creative and innovative solutions to achieve positive outcomes for our community health services.