New CEO appointment brings deep aged care provider experience to Aged Care Decisions as the organisation strengthens its focus on families, providers and the future of aged care navigation in Australia.
Key Takeaways
- Michelle Kay-Clough has been appointed CEO of Aged Care Decisions, commencing on 6 October 2026.
- She brings more than nine years of senior leadership experience in aged care, including with Bolton Clarke and Allity.
- Her appointment supports Aged Care Decisions’ next phase of growth, with a stronger focus on families and provider partnerships.
- Michelle will lead investment in customer experience, digital capability, educational content and decision-support resources.
- She will also oversee Care Decisions and the organisation’s work in the NDIS sector.
- Andrew Henderson and Ken Ray will transition to Executive Director roles, focusing on strategy and long-term growth.
Aged Care Decisions has announced the appointment of Michelle Kay-Clough as Chief Executive Officer, marking an important next chapter for one of Australia’s leading aged care placement and comparison services.
Michelle will commence as CEO on 6 October 2026, succeeding Aged Care Decisions Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Henderson, who will transition into an Executive Director role alongside fellow Co-Founder Ken Ray.
Michelle brings more than nine years of senior leadership experience with Bolton Clarke and its predecessor Allity, where she has served as Group Sales Manager, building extensive experience across residential aged care, sales leadership, occupancy, customer engagement and provider operations.
Her career prior to aged care included senior sales and commercial roles across other industries, providing a broader perspective across customer experience, relationship management, team development and commercial growth.
Michelle is also already well known to Aged Care Decisions, with the founders having worked with her for more than seven years.
Meet Michelle Kay-Clough, Our New CEO
Watch Aged Care Decisions’ new CEO Michelle Kay-Clough in conversation with Co-Founder Andrew Henderson as they discuss the leadership transition, Michelle’s experience in aged care, and their shared vision for the future of Aged Care Decisions.
Read the video transcript
Andrew Henderson:
So, thanks for joining us today. And for those of you who are watching, a really exciting opportunity for me to introduce our brand-new CEO, Michelle Kay-Clough.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
Thank you, Andrew.
Andrew Henderson:
Welcome, Michelle.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
Thank you. It’s lovely to be here.
Andrew Henderson:
And the purpose of us sitting down really is to talk about the transition going on with Aged Care Decisions at the moment, really exciting transition at that and the important role Michelle will play in that transition, and frankly why Michelle. Which I’m keen to delve into some of your background and the experience that you bring to our team.
But really excited to have you here. You’ve been in the role since.. Well, officially last Monday you started, but it was a public holiday in Queensland, so your first day was a day off.
Congratulations on that one. Five days with your feet under the desk. What are your achievements? No, I’m kidding. I won’t ask you that.
How are you finding things so far?
Michelle Kay-Clough:
I’m loving it.
I think it’s; it’s been a very welcoming approach.
Walking in seeing 100 people and trying to get to know everybody’s names has been interesting.
But yeah, very welcoming, very caring team.
I feel very empathetic and yeah, been wonderful.
Just trying to get my head around all the angles of the business.
And having worked with Aged Care Decisions for such a long period of time, I find I’ve slipped quite easily into the role and understanding, maybe a couple of new terminologies, but generally I feel I’ve got a very quick handle on our model and where we’re going to.
And it’s exciting.
It’s an exciting time.
And I think it’s going to be an exciting time for our providers and for our residents that we..
Our clients that we look after.
Andrew Henderson:
Yeah.
I mean, when we rigidly decided as a board that..
We wanted to transition Aged Care Decisions, we loosely said ACD 1.0 to 2.0.
When we talked about that, we talked about the importance of bringing more aged care knowledge into the business.
Many would know that I previously held the role of CEO and Co-Founder and my business partner Ken, who was also a Co-Founder instrumental in the business all the way through.
We knew this was a step change for us as well. But we knew it was an important step change because when we started Aged Care Decisions, aged care in itself was a lot simpler than it is today.
And you, you would have seen the complexities and that, that’s both in residential aged care and home care and ACD 1.0 The original business that we’ve always had reflected some of that simplicity.
But where we want to head is a reflection of where the market has gone and that complexity that providers face.
And in a moment, we might get to talk about what some of those changes are.
But probably important to just talk a bit about your experience.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
Well, as you know, I’ve been in aged care for the last 10 years, nearly, I love what I do.
I think aged care is a, an industry I wouldn’t want to change from. The ability to be able to assist residents, families, loved ones, in finding care for their loved one has been instrumental, in me achieving what I’ve done and also enjoying what I’ve done over the past.
I think coming into Aged Care Decisions and we’ve had a long relationship over the years and I think the ability to get to know a lot more of our providers and to be able to assist them is going to be really important.
You mentioned changes and the simplicity now being very complex.
I think the providers are very, very focused on those changes at the moment and I think that’s where we can assist them.
From November last year, as you know when the legislation changed, the focus for providers has had to be on their compliancy and meeting the requirements of the acts and not only for aged care providers but also for Support at Home.
And I think that’s where we can step in.
As you indicated earlier, Aged Care 1.0 really focused on the on the actual client and the resident.
And I think that link with the providers is so important.
For any business or any providers business to be sustainable, there has to be growth.
And I think that that is where we can step in and assist understanding their business models, working with them really closely to see which way, we can assist them in growth areas.
I think it’s really important.
Andrew Henderson:
Yeah.
And as you’re well aware, because we’ve been talking for some time on this about the changes that we’re mapping ahead for Aged Care Decisions.
But you could sum it up very easily.
We have been client focused, and family focused for all of our years.
And that’s probably because of where Ken and I started and why we started the business.
And it’s not that we weren’t provider focused, it’s just that probably there was more waiting on the family.
ACD 2.O is to balance that waiting and the real recognition that providers work differently from each other.
Providers have huge compliance obligations now.
Providers have some financial pressures that they didn’t have maybe this time last year or two years ago.
And we need to work within all of that.
And, we’re super thrilled that you can bring the knowledge into the business that allows us to, I suppose, achieve that objective of saying we’re no longer one size fits all.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
Exactly.
Andrew Henderson:
We are.
We are versatile enough.
Sure, we have to have parameters that we work within, but we’re versatile enough to work with providers more within what they require from us so that we can truly collaborate and assist with that growth.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
And have true partnerships.
Andrew Henderson:
Yeah, yeah.
Which is exciting.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
And that is exciting.
That’s what I’m looking forward to.
So, I’ve made a commitment that I’m going to be contacting most of our providers in person and just introducing myself, having a meeting, trying to understand, what are their goals, what are they hoping to achieve and to see where we can fit in and help with it.
Andrew Henderson:
And I think what’s really cool is even in the last sort of 14 days and 21 days when we’ve been rolling out some of the new initiatives, we’ve seen really, really strong response from the providers on the growth partner program, on our enhanced partners, on our occupancy partners and all of these things that we’re rolling out.
So that’s been really quite exciting and the response has been strong.
And the team here, I mean, as I said, you’ve only been here what, 5 days in the office, but has responded really positively to your reason for being in aged care.
You know it culturally, people who stay with Aged Care Decisions, our staff are with us because they’ve had some personal experience.
So, they want their point in their lives where they want to feel like they’re doing something that has got a social good or a community good element to it.
I think they were really, really, really comforted by the fact that, you know, if Ken and I are no longer going to be day to day running the business and we’re going to hand over that responsibility. We’re handing it to someone who’s not in the business of selling widgets because it’s not what we do.
We work with families at the most stressful and vulnerable times of their lives.
And you’ve been doing that for 10 years.
So, it it’s very natural for you to step into that role.
What are some of the things that you’re most excited about in the new role?
Michelle Kay-Clough:
I think successful collaboration with our partners, helping them improve their business, becoming an integral part in the growth of their business.
As we’ve said with that legislation and all those changes and changes in subsidies and funding, it’s really important to I think growth, the growth aspect of every business is really important to help sustain it.
And I’m really excited about getting involved in that.
Andrew Henderson:
Yeah, well, Ken and my role, for those of you who have known us for many years, we’re both stepping into executive director roles.
We we’re still playing a part in the business, certainly not day to day.
That is officially handed over to Michelle.
She is CEO and that is a fact which is something new for me to get used to in the last five days.
I can’t make that decision anymore.
But we’re going to be enjoying watching some of these healthy changes and the growth of our business together with providers businesses at the same time.
And we’re going to be really, really excited to have some of those strategic discussions with you and where you want to take the business and some of the ways that possibly we haven’t thought on before or have thought of that won’t work and you showing us how that that will work.
So hey, welcome aboard.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
Thank you.
Andrew Henderson:
Really excited to have you.
Michelle Kay-Clough:
So happy to be here.
Aged Care Decisions Co-Founder and CEO Andrew Henderson said the combination of industry experience, cultural alignment and an established relationship with the business made Michelle the right person to lead its next chapter.
“We've known and worked with Michelle for more than seven years. She understands where we've come from, strongly aligns with the culture we've built and brings a different perspective and experience that can help the organisation continue to evolve.”
Strengthening both sides of the aged care journey
Since its establishment, Aged Care Decisions has focused on helping Australian families navigate what can be an incredibly complex and emotional period, through a free service connecting families with suitable residential aged care and home care providers.
Having established a strong consumer-focused service, Michelle’s appointment represents the next evolution of the business, with an increased focus on strengthening provider relationships and creating greater value on both sides of the aged care journey.
Co-Founder Ken Ray said Michelle’s experience from the provider side of the sector was particularly important to that ambition.
“Michelle brings deep experience from the other side of that relationship. Bringing her provider perspective together with the consumer knowledge and capability we've built creates a significant opportunity for the next phase of the business.”
Michelle will lead Aged Care Decisions as it continues to invest in customer experience, provider partnerships, digital capability, educational content and decision-support resources designed to make navigating aged care simpler for Australian families.
She will also oversee the continued development of the organisation’s broader portfolio of services and businesses, including Care Decisions and its work within the disability and NDIS sector.
Michelle Kay-Clough said the opportunity to bring together the consumer and provider perspectives was a major attraction to the role.
“What excites me about this opportunity is the ability to build on those strong foundations while looking at the aged care journey from both sides – families searching for the right care and providers delivering that care. I'm looking forward to listening and learning from the team, our customers and provider partners, and working together to shape the next chapter of Aged Care Decisions.”
Founders transition to Executive Director roles
As part of the leadership transition, Co-Founders Andrew Henderson and Ken Ray will move into Executive Director roles, with Michelle assuming responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the organisation.
Andrew and Ken will remain actively involved in Aged Care Decisions’ strategic direction and longer-term growth while focusing more of their time on strategic opportunities for the organisation.
Michelle Kay-Clough will formally commence as Chief Executive Officer of Aged Care Decisions on 6 October 2026.
“We'll remain close to the business and available to Michelle and the team, while having greater opportunity to focus on the strategic initiatives that can make a meaningful difference to the organisation's future.”
