National Seniors Chief retires
David Deans
Changing of the guard: National Seniors Chief retires
David Deans, the long serving CEO of National Seniors, is retiring in September after 15 years of lobbying for older Australians. Queensland based, but more often seen in Canberra when Parliament is sitting, he has seen NS membership rise from 36,000 to 300,000. However he has also seen the collapse in 2005 of the Council on the Ageing (COTA )- National Seniors partnership which he initiated and led.
At 67 David is comparatively ‘young’ to be retiring, as his organisation has long pushed for increased and continuing workforce participation of mature Australians past 65 years. However an illness last year helped him make up his mind- as presumably did his other passions- his golf, wife and family. He hopes to continue working worldwide on ageing issues ‘in some form’ .
He is not retiring from everything. ”Retirement-what does that mean? I’m just retiring from this position; I’m not retiring from life.”
