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Two top executives at one of Australia’s biggest childcare chains, which employed accused Melbourne paedophile Joshua Brown, have stood down from their roles effective immediately.
Affinity Education staff were informed on Tuesday morning that embattled chief executive Tim Hickey and chief operating officer Nishad Alani had stepped down from their positions after months of scandals.
Affinity chief executive Tim Hickey has stood down from his role effective immediately.
Hickey ran the private equity-owned company for more than a decade but has faced scrutiny over his handling of the ongoing childcare crisis. Alani, who was recently forced to apologise to parents over insensitive comments, was appointed COO in June last year.
“Tim Hickey, CEO, and Nishad Alani, COO, have stepped down from their roles and will leave the organisation,” the company’s internal memo said on Tuesday.
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Senior compliance and quality adviser Glen Hurley, who appeared alongside Hickey at the NSW parliamentary inquiry last month, has been appointed CEO.
“Glen brings deep experience and strong operational insight and will smoothly transition into this new role having already been working closely with many of our teams,” the company’s memo said.
“He has 25 years of experience in the aged care sector in an array of senior executive roles and has also served as a senior regulator.”
Nicola Page has been appointed to the executive as Chief Compliance and Risk Officer.
Nishad Alani.Credit: Oscar Colman
A source with knowledge of the decision, who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters, said the reporting by this masthead – which revealed the childcare giant withheld crucial information from sex crime detectives’ investigation into Brown – was a major factor in the pair’s departure.
The source said the Affinity board was unaware of the company withholding information from police and Alani’s apology to parents until this masthead’s inquiries.
An Affinity spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed the pair’s departures, and said the company remains “deeply committed” to the safety of children in their care.
Last month, this masthead reported that Alani repeatedly told parents whose children attended a centre where Brown worked to stop being emotional.
Under Hickey’s leadership, Affinity went on an expansion tear after it was bought by private equity firm Quadrant in 2021, by buying centres and pushing staff to grow enrolment numbers. However, Affinity spends less than other large daycare chains on workers.
At the NSW inquiry, Hickey dodged questions about this masthead’s reporting on the Brown scandal, but admitted his salary had risen over the past three years, despite repeated safety breaches at Affinity centres. He said he could not say how much the most recent scandal had impacted his bonus.
Affinity’s chief people officer, Rolanda Mitchell, also left the company recently.
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