Lorena Di Carlo
CO-PRESIDENT
INDEPENDENT REPRESENTATION
Lorena has had more than 20 years’ experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sector and is currently Managing Director, China for Danish research-based company Lundbeck.
Lorena has fulfilled senior global corporate roles in mental health and neurology where patient support has been a priority.
Lorena began her career at Lundbeck in 1995 and was promoted to roles including Vice-President, Marketing, Managing Director of Lundbeck Australia and Vice- President of Neurology in the United States.
Lorena holds an MBA from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and speaks four languages.
Jennifer Johannesen
co-president / secretary
independent Representation
Jennifer is a Senior Associate at Marque Lawyers in Sydney where she specialises in commercial and IP law, including franchising, advertising and competition law. She has also completed a secondment to Amnesty International. Jennifer is a board member of SMART Recovery Australia.
Brett Saarela
Vice President
SMart recovery usa representation
Brett is a mental health professional who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) by the State of New York. She received her BA from Carleton College and her Master of Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of New York. She practiced for ten years as a psychotherapist in New York City (NYC) specialising in mental health and addiction treatment for older adults in psychiatric in-patient units and out-patient clinics. She has been actively involved in SMART Recovery in the United States since 2001 and was a founding member of the NYC Chapter. Brett has been board member of SMART Recovery USA since 2009, she became vice president in 2011. After relocating to London in 2014, Brett became a SMART Recovery UK trustee.
Tony Wales AM
Treasurer
SMART recovery australia representation
Employed as a qualified chartered accountant with the firm, KPMG, for 12 years, Tony formed his own accountancy practice in 1974, which he grew to employ 60 staff members. He joined Computershare Ltd and took a major interest in the company in 1980, becoming its finance controller through 1989, then executive finance director. Mr. Wales took the company public on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1994, then internationally in 1997. Tony joined the SMART Recovery Board USA in 2007 currently the Chair of SMART Recovery Australia.
Darren O’Brien
SMART Recovery Ireland representation
Darren is the Chairperson of SMART Recovery Ireland CLG. An accredited counsellor with Addiction Counsellors of Ireland (ACI) holding a Hons degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy and a Masters in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Darren currently works within the addiction services and has vast experience within the area of Addiction Recovery. He is an active board member of several community and voluntary organisations.
Due to his own experiences Darren was one of the first to train as a peer facilitator and started the country’s first peer led meeting in Carrick on Shannon in 2014. As one of the founding directors of SMART Recovery Ireland CLG, Darren believes the potential for SMART Recovery in Ireland and worldwide had phenomenal potential and is looking forward to being part of its growth.
Bill Greer
DIRECTOR
SMART Recovery USA representation
William (Bill) Greer also serves as president of SMART Recovery USA. He has forty years of leadership and communications experience in the nonprofit sector, having served as an executive for the Food Marketing Institute, representing the global supermarket industry, and SmithBucklin, North America’s largest nonprofit association management firm. He has facilitated SMART meetings for people recovering from addiction, for family members and friends, and for inmates in correctional facilities (the InsideOut® program). He has played a leadership role in SMART branding and communications initiatives. Mr. Greer earned an MSJ from the U.S. Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Shiv Sharma
DIRECTOR
UK SMART Recovery representation
Shiv is a Peer Trustee on the Board of Trustees for UK Smart Recovery. He first encountered SMART Recovery meetings in his hometown of Hounslow. He went on to become a Peer Meeting Facilitator and a volunteer in his local drug and alcohol service, which led to his employment as an Engagement and Recovery Worker. In his spare time Shiv helps out at the Outside Edge Theatre Company, which works with and for people with substance misuse issues.
Kim McCreanor
SMART Recovery International Executive officer
Ex-officio Director
Kim is an experienced Executive Manager with significant leadership and management capabilities developed over three decades of working in the community service sector. She has worked in some of the most remote areas of Australia as the CEO of AMRRIC in the Northern Territory, and as EO of KIFSA in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia. Prior to joining SMART Recovery International Kim completed a 12 month assignment with the Australian Volunteers for International Development program in Indonesia. Kim holds an Advanced Diploma Community Sector Management, Graduate Certificate of Management, Graduate Diploma Public Health and is working towards completing her Master of Public Health.
Dr Charlie Orton
UK SMART Recovery Executive Director
Ex-officio Director
Charlie left University with a Ph.D in Human Toxicology in 2002 from the University of Liverpool. She studied the effects of maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy on the placenta and baby. During this time she gained knowledge of addiction and the pathological effects of addictive substances. Since then she has led and managed large portfolios of clinical research in the public sector mainly in paediatrics. Working closely with children and their families for over 20 years has given her a deep appreciation of how complex and fragile life can be. In her most recent position working across health, education and social care Charlie led a programme of health innovations for vulnerable and isolated people living in the community with complex needs
