CEO retiring after three decades fly by
People of the bush remain a great highlight for John Lynch
“IF YOU start something worthwhile, nothing can stop it.” So said the founder of Australia’s Royal Flying Doctor Service, the Very Reverend John Flynn.
In 1986, a 34-year-old born-and-bred Broken Hill accountant seized the opportunity to work at the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) Broken Hill base.
He had no idea how much that famed quote would reflect in his own career.
John Lynch will retire from his role as RFDS Central Operations chief executive officer in the second half of this year, after 18 years in the position and 32 years of service with the vital outback health service.
John began his working career as a cadet with Zinc Corporation, and also traversed through hardware retail. He had developed an interest in extending himself into work and qualifications in health administration, and so moved on to manage the Broken Hill Mine dental clinic, before taking up a role with the RFDS in tandem with health administration studies by correspondence through Charles Sturt University.
“The organisation is just one of those organisations that you know through history. You’re aware of what the organisation is and what it does, particularly when you live in Broken Hill,” John said.
“That provided an opportunity in my original career in accounting, plus the opportunity to get into an organisation that was providing health, that would allow me to continue my studies in health admin, that might be a stepping stone into something else. Who knew what that might bring?
“But it didn’t need to be a stepping stone into something else, because once I got into the RFDS, I’ve not left, and I’ve been privileged to have had the journey I’ve had.”
That journey has included the way-markers of shifting to Adelaide with his family (wife Anita and sons Jake and Daniel) to take up a position at Central Operations, servicing South Australia and the Northern Territory, then promotion to the CEO role in 2000.
He said that, beyond career milestones, the highlight of his years with the RFDS has been the number of wonderful people he has been privileged to meet and work with along the way.
“It’s those people out there where we deliver our services,” he said.
“Whether that be the person out there in the most remote location on a property, somebody in the community, or somebody in a regional town that’s part of our fundraising and part of our advocacy, all of those people have been incredible.
“It’s been a highlight for me, because it’s expanded the number of people I know, it’s expanded my knowledge of people for the hardships that they face in different environments, and for their total commitment, their courage to do what they do, and then still find time to support an organisation that, realistically, is there to provide them with support.
“The board is all voluntary. The board members’ contribution is just incredible, when you think of their knowledge and the commitment they bring to the table, and then to provide management with support
and mentoring, you’ve just got to applaud that.
“Then compound that with this outstanding contribution from people out in those regional areas. In Central Operations alone, we have 24 auxiliaries. They raise over $800,000 a year, and provide advocacy and community engagement for us.
“Most of them are busy in jobs out on properties, or in the community, but they find time, they make time. That’s why the highlights are the people.”
More nuts and bolts highlights included seeing the construction of a new base for Broken Hill RFDS, developed at the outback city’s old passenger airport terminal in the late ’80s, and participating in developing the Central Operations fleet, including the introduction of the specialised Pilatus PC-12s.
“The planning that was going into the development of that aircraft, the cargo door with the two-stretcher capacity, stretcher loading devices to remove sheet lift for our staff, and then the arrival of those first two aircraft in February 1995 was indeed a highlight,” he said.
Other practical steps forward for the organisation with John at the helm have included the re-development of the Adelaide base in 2016 along with all other Central region bases, the establishment of a housing village for Alice Springs staff, and the establishment of a new base and tourist facility in Darwin, and the recognition of foundation staff and other significant RFDS figures in the naming of its aircraft.
Ms Loretta Reynolds, chair of RFDS Central Operations, said John’s 32-year contribution to the RFDS had been remarkable.
“John’s passion and commitment to meeting the needs of our patients has been second to none, balanced with his outstanding business acumen, which directed unprecedented growth and financial security of the organisation,” Ms Reynolds said.
“On behalf of the board, past and present, we offer our sincere appreciation to John for his unwavering guidance and support throughout his three decades of service to the RFDS and, ultimately, the communities we serve,” she said.
John feels especially privileged to have seen the organisation through to its current 90th anniversary year.
“I took on a job with RFDS as an accountant, to continue my studies and with the hope to work in the health industry, but my privilege was that it was all with the Royal Flying Doctor Service,” he said.
“And then, some 32 years later, as we turn 90, I’m privileged that I am in the organisation, and happen to be a part of that custodianship, stewardship, of Flynn’s dream, working with these same wonderful people from the bush that Flynn would have met and journeyed with, with that same courage and that same commitment and that same purpose as to what they believed they would receive and what they knew that they needed, and were together able to communicate that together they could generate those services.
“It’s 90 years of delivering services that make a difference, and 90 years of a partnership with the community at large, whose trust and respect and engagement we value so highly.”