The Team

Melissa Argent is the CEO of Rockpool Residential Aged Care.

Moving into a Residential Aged Care facility is a life changing process for many people, their families and friends. Melissa is determined to ensure Aged Care provides support, dignity and trust, as well as a happy environment for all.

Melissa has over 20 years of diverse Healthcare and Financial Services experience. Melissa commenced her career as a Registered Nurse receiving her Bachelor of Nursing from Griffith University, a Graduate Certificate in Health Management from QUT and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern QLD.

Early in her clinical career, Melissa found her passion for the Aged Care sector and has since worked in a variety of specialties both in Australia and internationally. Her experiences have reinforced her commitment to ensuring the provision of exceptional Aged Care services. It is this commitment combined with her passion and enthusiasm for the sector that ensure Rockpool residents live their best life whilst receiving the care, support and compassion that they need.

Melissa is committed to leading a culture of excellence which always focuses on the resident and their family, ensuring professionalism, quality outcomes and collaborative practice.

Karen has a passion for nursing leadership and provides clinical supervision as the Care Manager within Rockpool. The Care Manager role is central to leading and overseeing safe and effective care undertaken by our health workers. Karen has over thirty years’ experience in health with expert clinical knowledge in a range of practice settings including Medical Surgical, Residential, Subacute, Rehabilitation, Brain Injury and Psychogeriatric.

Karen facilitates the delivery of high-quality nursing care, blending her skills in chronic and acute illness to ensure an individualised person-centred approach to the nursing care of all our residents. Karen is very approachable and has an enthusiastic attitude to her work and the desire to ensure the aged care industry has a voice.

When not at work Karen will be boating on the high seas, actually she is really a fair-weather boater who is terrified of the high seas and is devoted to her family.

Matthias has cooked and catered private dinners for the likes as American Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush at the Ritz Carlton Double Bay, Luciano Pavarotti’s private dinners during his last 2 Sydney visits, The Arias, Gala dinners and Movie premier's at Fox Studios and worked at some of Australia’s best-known 5 star Hotels and also alongside Australia’s best-known chefs.

Matthias began working within the aged care sector in 2017 as catholic healthcare national hotel and support services manager after ten years as managing director of his own hospitality group.

Other culinary highlights include working in top hatted restaurants and 5 star Hotels in Austria, Germany and Italy as well as some of Sydney’s most iconic restaurants including Gecko at Sheraton on the Park, Ritz Carlton, Hilton, Bank Restaurant Martin Place, Multi award winning Navara Venues and lastly his own Hospitality group of 7 Restaurants and Bars over 10 years. Matthias has now embraced the opportunity to bring to the aged care sector his vast restaurant experience along with his love for ‘honest’ foods where the ‘flavours do the talking’ through fresh, seasonal and sustainable produce and innovation in modified meals.

Matthias also embraces and endorses for all his leading chefs to attend Maggie Beer’s creating an Appetite for Life schools.

With over 25 years in Aged Care, Desma has filled a variety of positions across Australia including Quality and Compliance Manager, Staff Development and Training Manager, Facility Manager, Chief Executive, Industry Consultant, Quality Assessor and Mediator. Desma is skilled in change management and team development. She is passionate about creating a culture that values cooperation and collaboration to achieve common goals.

Desma believes that by leading and partnering with team members, a sense of community is built which empowers the team to provide care and services in a way that enhances the quality of life for those who live in residential aged care. Desma has no doubt that Rockpool is an organisation that can offer these values to any resident seeking residential care.

Jimina is one of Aged Care leading Resident Relations Managers and comes to Rockpool with a breadth of experience of relationship building for our resident relations team and has over 20 years’ experience in Client Relations and Sales teams.

Jimina is responsible for leading Rockpool’s occupancy and engaging with local community groups. She works closely with teams on the ground to ensure our new family’s experience a smooth transition into aged care. Empowering and supporting Rockpool’s team to deliver exceptional care to every resident as they make their journey into Rockpool’s Residential Aged Care.

Prior to Aged Care, Jimina worked in Public Relations, Insurance, Sales Management, Client Relations and Property Sales working closely with developers on the Sunshine Coast. She currently holds licences and certificates from Financial Services Institute of Australia and Property Sales.

Jimina is constantly recognised for going the extra mile from start to finish when assisting families when making difficult decisions with their journeys into aged care.

As development manager, Roman's responsibilities lay mainly within ensuring Rockpool deliver the best built form outcomes for our residents. However he takes an interest in all parts of the operations of Rockpool to ensure we use learnings from all facets of our business. As most in aged care, he has a varied past, undertaking studies in engineering and psychology. The common thread being a passion for critical thinking and problem solving.

Roman is passionate about photography, basketball and food. He takes great delight that his friend's often can't tell the difference between the food photos taken at Rockpool or at fine dining. Residents often recognise him as the man with the camera during special events. Roman also works closely with Cathy Meyer on the Living Memories project, documenting some of the interesting facets of our resident's lives.

Brandon is a professionally trained chef with a business education in culinary management. With over 15 years of experience in food and hospitality, Brandon has worked for a number of well-known venues and chef elites, including the Annual Grammy Awards in the U.S. and Wolfgang Puck.

Brandon always strives for excellence and is passionate about delivering the best quality service. When he is not working, Brandon loves to enjoy my time surfing or rock climbing.

With over 17 years’ experience in Aged Care, Candice has shown a great deal of passion and drive within the industry. She is dedicated to making everyone’s day, going the extra mile however she can, to enrich and enhance the lives of residents and her team. Candice truly believes in making Rockpool a Remarkable home for everyone.

Jessica is an Enrolled Nurse, working primarily in Aged Care since 2005. Jessica has recently moved from Victoria to Queensland and she joins the Rockpool team with over 11 years experience as an ACFI Coordinator.

Jessica is passionate about the residents care needs and making sure that our documentation is reflective of this. Jessicas role within the organisation allows Rockpool to be able to provide our residents with superior care and exceptional facilities.

Outside of work, Jessica enjoys exploring Queensland with her family.

Chris has been a long stayer - working in residential aged care for over 30 years. With a desire to be an advocate for the seniors who live in residential care. As a Registered Nurse, Chris continues to be involved with Clinical Coordination, ensuring residents have someone who can explain in everyday language the clinical terms and treatments recommended by other Health Professionals, yet recognising this is now ‘’home’’ and can just as easily provide a hug from her and your new extended family.

With a background in most aspects of residential care management and the business management requirements unique to residential care, Chris continues to see the resident journey into a residential community as a personal journey and with other committed care staff encourage independence, choice, love, hugs and laughter.

Having moved from NSW, Chris was looking for a role in a residential community that expresses just the values that Rockpool is offering, including safe, secure, inclusive, reflective, contemplative and vibrant with life, in this delightful environment.

Allan has worked in aged care now for over 12 years in which he was the maintenance supervisor for 7 years overseeing 3 aged care facilities as well as 2 retirement villages. During the past 5 years, Allan has worked as a maintenance officer including the last 3 months with Rockpool. He loves finding a fix for everything and anything.

Allan enjoys the care and compassion that all of the team members at Rockpool have and how Rockpool is consistently striving to reimagine and redefine the sector.

Outside of work Allan enjoys boating, fishing, camping, watching rugby league, playing golf and walking his little dog.

Rowena plans and manages the Rockpool Lifestyle Program with daily recreational activities that enrich the lives of our residents and their families. She has a background in providing structured support to residents with significant cognitive impairment.

Rowena has 8 years experience in the Aged care sector. Prior to aged care, Rowena had 20 years’ experience in the creative field as Decorator Consultant and Visual Merchandiser for several retail companies. She believed being creative was not enough to fulfil her life’s purpose and that she wanted to give back to the community. That is where she found the perfect balance of creativity and caring in the role of a Lifestyle Assistant.

Rowena believes she has been lucky enough to find the perfect career that enables her to nurture growth and create community within aged care facilities.