Board Members

of SydWest Multicultural Services

  • chandrika subramaniyan 1a

    Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan

    Chair

    Dr Chandrika Subramaniyan is an award-winning solicitor and dispute resolution provider who is well known to and recognised by the Indian and Sri Lankan communities of Sydney. She received the Premier’s Medal for Peace and Harmony in 2019. 

    Chandrika has vast experience in addressing domestic violence and is a speaker with wealth of knowledge and experience and written nearly twenty five books in English and Tamil in the areas of community development, media, law and leadership. She has previously served on the SydWest Board 2011-2016 and is a board member for several other community services.

  • naveen jayavarapu 1a

    Naveen Jayavarapu

    Director

    Naveen is a Civil Engineering Project Manager, who brings 15 plus years’ experience to the Board. Born and raised in India, Naveen moved to New Zealand and then to Australia in 2010. 

    Since then, he has been involved in a number of charity organisations through his family. Naveen is particularly passionate about helping new migrants and refugees settle down without much inconvenience.


  • angela tsoukatos 1a

    Angela Tsoukatos

    Director

    Angela is an experienced and versatile Executive General Manager with a successful track record in Australia’s largest water utility, local government and the Not for Profit sector. Angela has built several high performing senior teams who have provided services and led significant improvements in stakeholder and government relations, customer services, culture and corporate governance. 

    Between 2013-2017, Angela was a director on the Board of the NSW Energy and Water Ombudsman. Angela has supported and advised several boards, government forums and Customer Councils. In 2018, Angela was selected as one the Top NSW Public Sector Women.

  • Headshot PZ

    Emeritus Professor Peter Zelas, AM

    Director

    Peter graduated in Medicine from Sydney University and practised as a General Surgeon, specialising in colorectal surgery. Following the establishment of the School of Medicine at Western Sydney University in 2007, Peter was appointed the Clinical Dean at Blacktown and Mt Druitt Hospitals. 

    He has also been associated with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), undertaking surgery in Liberia, Somalia and Indonesia as well as in Ghana and Nepal. In 2006 Peter was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to medicine in Western Sydney and in 2021, the Member in the Order of Australia (AM) for services to medicine, to health administration and humanitarian health initiatives. 

    Peter continues to teach medical students and enjoys the satisfaction of teaching and mentoring the next generation of health professionals, contributing to the health care in developing countries.

  • Peter Zangari Director

    Peter Zangari

    Director

    Peter is the founder and managing partner of an executive search, career coaching and public affairs business in Sydney. Peter has over 20 years’ experience working in public affairs and has worked as a ministerial advisor in the NSW Government across Treasury, Infrastructure, Transport and Housing portfolios.

    Born to Italian immigrants, Peter has a traditional sense of community and provides ongoing pro-bono support to a range of NFP and community-based organisations. He is a strong advocate for mental health, skills development, and diversity.

    Peter holds a Bachelor of Communications from Western Sydney University, is an Executive Central accredited career coach and has completed the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs residential institute.

  • Matthew Pancino 2 1 scaled

    Matt Pancino

    Director

    Matt is currently the Director of Industry Technology at Google Cloud. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Wilson Asset Management (ASX:WAM appointed in June 2020), Greenstone and SydWest Multicultural Services (appointed in November 2022).

    Matt has over 20 years’ experience in financial services leading large technology and operations teams, holding senior leadership positions at Perpetual, Suncorp and CBA. Previously, he spent several years in Telecommunications, Media and Entertainment, serving in roles ranging from CIO and CTO.

    He is passionate about unlocking the potential of organisations through digitisation and effective management of operations and technology risk. His experience in delivering cultural transformations; leading organisations through large scale technology and operational transformations have enabled some of the most successful technology-enabled business initiatives in Australia.