Our Team

The New Way to Stay team provides a combination of industry experience, along with personal empathy for improving lives.

Louise Mace - Founder and Managing Director

While it is industry skills and experience that have enabled Louise to create the business, it is actually Louise’s firsthand experience with her late father that drove her to change career direction and focus on the innovative concept that is New Way to Stay. As the business’s founder Louise’s greatest wish is to empower clients who may be struggling with important later life issues and provide them with a proactive and streamlined approach that will give them more control and a clearer direction towards their goals.

Louise’s career spans more than 35 years including working in senior executive roles within the Health, Aged Care and Biotechnology sectors. This includes a decade of running her own project management consultancy which provided research and strategy to successful Global and Australian organisations. As such Louise has been responsible for leading teams of nurses and other allied health professionals who were tasked with the application and implementation of a diverse array of health and aged care therapies. Louise has developed comprehensive commercial and clinical experience working with those key therapies and medical devices such as advanced wound care, compression therapy, respiratory, urological, surgical, ICU specialty equipment, continence management and capital equipment needed for hospitals and aged care. Her work has enabled Louise to gain a broad spectrum of experience, ranging from direct patient interface through to interaction at Board Level focused on product design and strategy implementation.

Louise has now entered what she believes is the most rewarding chapter of her career, and is proud to be leading a new generation business that is making a positive difference in the lives of her clients and their families.

Les Mace - Director

Les has built a successful career in the financial services industry in Australia over the past 40 years. He has held Chief Executive Officer’s roles for the past 15 years and is an experienced Company Director having served on several Boards, multinational working committees and industry associations.

As the Chief Executive of a large Australian Financial Services Licensee, Les was responsible for the advice given by financial planners across Australia including the quality of advice and compliance standards. He is passionate about ensuring that people receive quality advice and that their best interests are always put first.

Working at the forefront of the Australian financial services industry, Les has observed the fast-growing need for better financial solutions in the aged care sector. At the same time, he has witnessed first-hand the need to help provide Australia’s ageing population with a full range of services.

Les joined the Board of New Way to Stay in 2018.

Wynette Monserrat - Client Advocate

Wynette has a Bachelor of Science with Honours and a Master of Business Administration and has held senior management roles in healthcare for over 30 years. Her experience spans the delivery of community therapies for chronic diseases, advanced wound care treatments and continence management. Wynette’s corporate background in community health and aged care, and her personal experience in caring for a brother with an acquired brain injury, has fuelled a passion for helping older people to live a happy and healthy life.

Tanya Harper - Client Advocate

Tanya worked in both the public and private sector at management levels in corporate communications for nearly 30 years prior to undertaking a new business direction focussing in the workers compensation/liability area where she operated her own business for over ten years gaining the trust and respect of the people around her for her ability to listen and interpret people’s needs, and communicating tailored solutions to meet their requirements. Tanya’s personal experience in managing the decline of her own ageing parents provides a valuable insight into how best to help families navigate their way through this difficult process.

Libby Bakewell - Client Advocate

Libby is based in Melbourne and has over 30 years of experience working in the aviation industry including as a commercial pilot, and many years specialising in risk management, safety compliance, auditing and training. She also has direct experience in trauma counselling and is tertiary qualified in mediation and conflict resolution. In addition to a career of being responsible for the safety and wellbeing of others, Libby has gained direct empathy after taking on the role as advocate for her father's physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing. That experience has driven Libby to be part of a team that is committed to supporting older adults and their families to deliver an effective gateway that will provide them with tools, advice and knowledge they require, to effectively navigate the transition into ageing.

Gemma Chilton - Communications Specialist

Gemma has a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney, and has spent over a decade working in media, publishing and marketing. She is passionate about applying her experience as a writer and communicator to New Way To Stay's mission of empowering ageing Australians.

Our Founder’s Story

In 2014, Louise was at the threshold of a hard-earned career in health care. She and her husband had started to build their dream home and were celebrating the happy stage of life that saw her become grandmother to a growing brood.

That same year, she received a phone call from her ageing father with the difficult news that his health had taken a serious decline. It was a phone call that would change her life and his. He was in hospital and the prognosis was dire.

In the months that followed, her father’s ability to live independently declined. He wanted to stay in his own home and was not prepared financially, emotionally, practically, and physically. He reluctantly found himself in unchartered waters, without a map or a compass.

Louise felt compelled to step up and reprioritise her own life so she could help him navigate the complex journey he was on. She left her career to become his full-time advocate and began to experience fatigue.

After her dad passed away, Louise reflected deeply. The question kept coming back to her.

“What if we had been better prepared and had access to a professional advocate to help us navigate what needed to be done?”.

In 2016 New Way to Stay was conceived.

Combining industry skills with personal experience today we are a dedicated team with a robust process that is providing guidance and support to many clients throughout their transition into ageing.