Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM and Tamara Flynn appointed as directors
At a directors' meeting on 7 October 2026 the directors appointed Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM and Ms Tamara Flynn to the board.
At a directors' meeting held on 7 October 2026, the directors resolved to appoint Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM and Ms Tamara Flynn as directors of The Serendib Endowment. Both appointments take effect immediately, bringing the board to five.
Dr Palipana has advised the fund since June 2026 and now joins the directors. He is a doctor in the emergency department at Gold Coast University Hospital, and a researcher and senior lecturer at Griffith University, where he co-leads the BioSpine spinal cord injury research team. He was Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021. He was a senior adviser to the Disability Royal Commission, is an ambassador for the Human Rights Commission's IncludeAbility program, and is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia. He is a John Monash Scholar, doctor to the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby team, an advisory board member of HealthyLife, an independent non-executive director of George Steuart & Co, the oldest company in Sri Lanka, and a non-executive director of the Housing Hub.
Ms Flynn has spent almost twenty years as a community engagement specialist, building engagement capacity across local and federal government and working to put community ideas at the centre of decision-making. She was Director of Community Engagement at the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, has held a director role at the Department of Social Services, and a leadership position at Empower Autism. Her focus is on making engagement safe and accessible for everyone it affects.
Both appointments strengthen the board in the areas the fund most needs as it grows. Dr Palipana brings medicine, research, law and governance, including direct experience of Sri Lankan institutions. Ms Flynn brings the discipline of asking communities what they need before deciding what to give them, which is the harder half of grant-making and the part that is easiest to skip.
The directors welcome them both. Directors of the company serve in a voluntary capacity; the constitution prohibits directors' fees.
