Meet Cara’s Chief Executive and Senior Team
Cara’s Senior team are focused on Cara’s strategic objectives and transformation, to provide the very best service of to our most important stakeholders – our clients.
John van Ruth
Chief Executive Officer
John joined Cara in October 2023 as Chief Executive Officer and holds a number of non-executive directorships.
Prior to joining Cara, John spent three and a half years as Chief Executive Officer at another respected disability support provider.
John is a Chartered Accountant and spent his early career working for large accounting firms in Australia, Canada and Holland. John then spent many years in senior finance and technology roles with iconic South Australian companies before transitioning to the not for profit and services sector.
Alison Gallo
Chief Financial Officer
“I am excited to work with Cara, and utilise my skills and experience to work with Cara towards its vision to support South Australians with disability to lead rich and fulfilling lives.”
Alison is a Chartered Accountant Fellow who joined Cara in June 2022 with over 20 years’ experience across both public practice and the not-for-profit sector.
With an extensive background in the disability sector and a deep understanding of the NDIS, together with a values-driven approach to her work, Alison is focussed on sustainability and driving Cara’s growth and future success.
Prior to joining Cara, Alison held Executive General Manager and Chief Financial Officer roles with other South Australian disability service providers and spent a decade working for professional services firm PwC.
Soula Dagas
Chief Operating Officer
Soula has extensive experience in disability, stakeholder engagement and marketing. Passionate about delivering support that give people with disability every opportunity to live rich and meaningful lives, Soula is committed to continuously improving services that are tailored to each person.
Having worked across a number of industries including finance, employment and disability, Soula is focused her career on building strong relationships.
Aphrodite Tsakalos
Chief People Officer
An accomplished Human Resources, Organisational Development, Industrial Relations and Work Health and Safety professional, Aphrodite has extensive experience working in global publicly traded and privately held businesses and the not for profit sector.
Providing robust leadership in the areas of strategic human resources management, compliance, workplace culture, change management, talent management, mentoring programs, health, safety and wellbeing, Aphrodite is responsible for developing Cara’s team to continuously achieve outstanding customer services.
