Samantha Hunter: The accidental CEO
Samantha Hunter
CEO
Occupational Therapy Australia
If culture eats strategy for breakfast, Samantha Hunter will have both sorted by lunch.
The CEO of Occupational Therapy Australia – who prefers to be called Sam – has doubled the organisation’s staff and its revenue since she took on the top job in 2018.
How? By simply applying her strengths: leadership, creativity, versatility and strategy.
Strengths that have developed in spades thanks to her hyper-diverse background, no-nonsense boundaries and an insatiable curiosity about the world and the people in it.
This self-confessed “accidental CEO” grew up in country Victoria before moving to Melbourne in her early teens. She dropped out of high school in Year 11, became a legal secretary and went overseas for four years before coming back to Australia.
She completed high school as a mature-aged student through RMIT, gained a bachelor’s degree from La Trobe University and launched into a solid decade of community relations, marketing and communications consulting in the commercial and for-purpose sectors.
One of Sam’s clients was so impressed with her skills and insights that she was asked to step into the role of chief executive. Between 2012 and 2017, she was CEO of Crime Stoppers Victoria, while also serving on the national board and also on the Board of the Country Fire Authority.
Director stints at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale (2018 – 2019) and Werribee Football Club (2017 – 2020) also feature in this period, including a position as Chair of the Community Engagement and Women in Football Committees.
Whether accidental or not, it seems that executive leadership roles have sought Sam out and led her here, to guide the national association representing more than 11,000 ‘OTs’.
“The thing that interests me the most about being a CEO is not the power, which everyone thinks we hold, but the ability to strategise to make immediate change and impact,” Sam says.
“I like being able to see an opportunity or the potential for change and act on it. Creativity and strategy are not unlinked.
“Being creative and being able to see things from a variety of perspectives allows you to look at a strategy and imagine the different ways it could be elevated and executed, and then explore how you can shape that into a story to influence or create change.
“I do think we need more creatives and natural communicators in CEO positions, particularly in the for-purpose area. We're telling stories to make impact and change; and all of the for- purpose sector has beautiful stories to tell.”
The Occupational Therapy Australia role represents Sam’s first step into association leadership and her first step into allied health. She found a kinship with both the diversity of the profession and its emphasis on relationships.
“What I have discovered (at OTA) has way exceeded any expectations I may have had,” she says.
“When I started, the number of other allied health leaders who reached out to have conversations and the community and support of other CEOs have far outstripped any kind of collegiality I have experienced in any other sector.
“There's a lot of collaboration, a lot of support, a lot of people connecting and swapping resources.
“And I love people, I love stories, I love talking to people. So, because I had no preconceived ideas (about the industry), I just asked a lot of questions to find out who we needed at the table to create change or come together around a common goal.
“I don’t see my career as transactional. It’s about relationships and sometimes, friendships.”
“Creativity and strategy are not unlinked.”
In 2024, Sam is taking part in the Vincent Fairfax Fellowship, a year-long program centred around ethical leadership and moral courage.
“I wish I was told when I first became a CEO the importance of deeply understanding your strategy and your Board relationships,” she reflects when asked for her top three tips for new CEOs.
“Get to know your Board, what drives them, how they like being communicated with and what you can do to ensure you’re a collaborative team because it’s impossible to do your job without that harmony.
“Also, pace yourself. Remember, some things take a long time.
“And finally, find your tribe. It’s great if you have friends who have different professional interests to your own, but it is equally important to have strong relationships with professional peers who understand the challenges of executive leadership”
Other notable Sam-isms include turning off voicemail, not replying to emails immediately and minimising pointless emails and meetings.
“I have firm boundaries because I believe very strongly in work-life balance and I have great staff who are much better equipped to answer questions than me,” Sam says.
“I try and empower my staff to have ownership over issues and they escalate to me only when there is a risk to reputation or revenue.
“I have built a team over the past six years that can operate without me, and I have a good relationship with my Board.
“These relationships have enabled our transformation and growth at OTA and really, it has been career highlight to show the consistency in growth and adaption – much of it was conducted during COVID, which was very difficult.
“To grow at pace at a time when health was under enormous pressure was challenging and difficult.”
Sam’s now eyeing opportunities with that ever-present future focus.
“We have been talking to ourselves, about ourselves for 80 years. Where are we looking out and asking for other voices?
“As a response, we’ve recently appointed an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person and a person with a lived and living experience of OT to our Board as Independent Directors.
“This was so important as sovereign relations and the lived experience are core principles underpinning our new strategy. It’s the first time that we haven’t had a Board of Directors purely from an OT background and it’s really exciting.
“These two people will give us an external view and new perspective of how we’re perceived, and where the opportunities are for growth and innovation.”