Ashley de Silva announced as ReachOut's new CEO

20 August 2018

ReachOut Australia today announced Ashley de Silva will be appointed as the organisation’s new CEO.

Mr de Silva is currently ReachOut’s Deputy CEO and his promotion follows the decision by current CEO Jono Nicholas to stand down at the end of 2018 after 10 years in the role, and 20 years with ReachOut in total.

ReachOut Chair, Ms Julie White, said Ashley’s strong business background had been instrumental in helping drive organisational transformation and growth over the past four years.

“Ashley beat a competitive field to be the frontrunner for the CEO position. Ashley has demonstrated a vision and passion that we believe is essential to lead ReachOut into its next growth phase and the Board is looking to forward to our continued work together to achieve strategic goals,” said Ms White.

“The Board and I also thank Jono for his enormous contribution to ReachOut over the past 20 years. He has been at ReachOut from the start and an unwavering advocate for young people. Jono leaves the organisation after a strong period of growth and success, and he should be immensely proud of his legacy. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”

Mr Nicholas said it has been an honour and a privilege to lead the world’s first digital mental health service for young people, which was now visited by over 1.6 million people annually.

“I am confident that Ashley will do an incredible job as CEO and drive the organisation to achieve its goal of reaching one million more Australians by 2020,” Mr Nicholas said.

“ReachOut has been a passion project for me. I would like to thank the young people we serve, their stories and bravery have been an inspiration during my time at ReachOut.”

“I’d also like to thank all of our dedicated staff, the Board and, most importantly, my family for all their support over the years. I wish Ashley and the team all the best for the future.”

Mr de Silva said he was excited to be taking up the CEO role, and getting on with the job ahead. He thanked the Board and Mr Nicholas for the faith they had placed in him.

“ReachOut is a great organisation with a clear purpose to help young people be happy and well. I’m proud to be part of such an amazing team driving ReachOut’s continued growth as a leading frontline service for young people and their parents and I’m determined to use my time as CEO to build on this momentum and vision,” Mr de Silva said.

Mr de Silva will formally take on the role as CEO from 10 September 2018.

About ReachOut Australia

ReachOut has been changing the way people access help since launching as the world’s first online mental health service nearly 20 years ago. Everything they create is based on the latest evidence and designed with experts, and young people or their parents. This is why ReachOut’s digital self-help tools are trusted, relevant and easy to use.

Available for free anytime and pretty much anywhere, ReachOut is accessed by 132,000 people in Australia every month. That’s more than 1.58 million each year.