Headhunt for new CEO of Goodstart Early Learning as Julia Davison announces departure

Goodstart Early Learning chief Julia Davison says she’ll be ‘very sad to leave’, revealing why she opted to quit the company she founded.

Goodstart Early Learning chief executive Julia Davison will step down from the position. Picture: Supplied

Australia’s biggest childcare chain, Goodstart Early Learning, is headhunting for a new chief executive.

Long-time founding chief executive Julia Davison has advised the board of the not-for-profit daycare provider that she will leave at the end of this year, triggering a “comprehensive recruitment process’’.

Goodstart chairman Paul Robertson said Ms Davison’s decision was based on her commitment to “strong leadership renewal which allows for new ideas and new perspectives’’.

Ms Davison, who has a background in the health and public service sector in the UK and Australia, became the inaugural CEO of Goodstart 11 years ago after a group of philanthropists secured federal funding to buy Eddy Groves’ collapsed ABC Learning empire.

Goodstart now operates 664 childcare centres, with 15,639 staff educating nearly 70,000 children.

The not-for-profit company has driven quality improvements across the childcare sector, paying its staff above-award wages and cross-subsidising services to ensure underprivileged families can afford childcare.

But in a tragedy that shocked Australia, Goodstart was fined $71,000 when a three-year-old boy died after staff left him on a childcare bus in Cairns in 2020.

The entire childhood sector has been under financial pressure since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, due to rising rents and crippling staff shortages.

Goodstart, which is owned by the charities Mission Australia, Benevolent Society, Brotherhood of St Laurence and Social Ventures Australia, lost $13 million in 2020 despite the receipt of $169 million in JobKeeper payments.

But in 2021 it returned a $26.7 million surplus, after JobKeeper provided $23 million to pay staff wages.

Ms Davison said on Tuesday that “I love my job as CEO’’.

“I will be very sad to leave at the end of 2022, but it is time for me to move on, with plenty of time to ensure we have an orderly transition,’’ she said.

“I strongly believe in leadership renewal and the need for new ideas and new perspectives.

“I look forward to spending the rest of this year supporting the extraordinary team across the organisation as they work to implement our ambitious strategic plans and continue our recovery from the impact of the Covid pandemic.’’

Mr Robertson said Goodstart’s financial position had been “precarious’’ when it first started, and praised Ms Davison as an “extraordinary leader’’.

“She has juggled the tension of running a billion-dollar national enterprise with business discipline … with a constant drive to provide the very best possible learning outcomes for all children in the year before school,’’ he said.

“At the same time her commitment and passion has ensured the organisation also focused on social inclusion, reconciliation and safety.’’