Our Executives
Acting Chief Executive Officer
Dr Sarah Benson PSM
Dr Sarah Benson has been appointed acting Chief Executive Officer of Sport Integrity Australia for 3 months as of 5 August 2024.
Sarah holds the substantive position of Deputy CEO – Safety in Sport, driving the agency’s response to sport integrity issues with a focus on anti-doping, integrity frameworks, safeguarding, education, capability and partnerships.
Sarah is committed to working with partners to strengthen the sport integrity environment, including the global anti-doping environment for athletes to ensure transparency and a level playing field for all athletes.
Prior to joining Sport Integrity Australia in 2023, Sarah was the Chief Forensic Scientist for the Australian Federal Police (AFP). In this role, Sarah was responsible for executive leadership and management of the AFP Forensics Command providing operational and capability leadership across the AFP’s domestic and international policing responsibilities and providing high-level strategic advice to the AFP Executive, Australian Government and external committees, including the Australia-New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee, Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency and INTERPOL. Sarah coordinated Australia’s law enforcement support following the 2019 volcanic eruption on White Island in New Zealand. Sarah was also instrumental in the forensic and disaster victim identification support offered to the Netherlands and Ukraine following the 2014 MH17 disaster.
Sarah studied at the University of Technology, Sydney and holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Science) – Forensic Analysis of Explosives using Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (2009) and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Applied Chemistry – Forensic Science (2000).
In 2021, Sarah was awarded the Public Service Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List; the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) Alumni Award for Excellence (Faculty of Science); and the UTS Chancellor’s Award for Excellence.
Deputy CEO - Corporate
Luke McCann
Luke brings over 25 years’ experience spanning the public and private sector, with 15 years in Sporting and Law Enforcement Agencies.
Luke is the Deputy CEO of the Corporate Division at Sport Integrity Australia. Luke’s role is to lead the corporate teams to produce quality outcomes to both internal and external stakeholders. Luke brings to the agency a commitment to athlete and child safety, Redress and responses to historical practices, having been instrumental in designing the AIS Restorative Program.
Prior, Luke was the Chief Operating Officer at the Australian Sports Commission where he managed the internal operations including Finance, People and Culture, ICT, Governance, Property and Security. Luke also led the Child and Athlete Safety function and the ASC’s engagement with the redress scheme and response to historical abuse matter.
His extensive experience includes his role as Chief Financial Officer at the AFP managing finances, external budgets and logistics, enterprise transformation, coordinating functional and efficiency reviews.
Luke has various educational and professional qualifications, including Associate Member at the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Global Executive Master of Business Administration (MBA) Certificate at Monash University and a Digital Transformation Strategy Certificate at NYU Stern school of Business and Global Business Strategy, INSEAD, Fontainebleau France.
Acting Deputy CEO - Safety in Sport
Dr Paul Oliver
Paul is a senior executive with 25+ years’ experience in public and private sectors (in Australia and overseas). He founded and managed his own sports publication business, and a sports consultancy that has assisted federal and state governments and NSOs/SSOs and clubs over the past 10 years to address challenging contemporary issues in sport.
Paul has worked across all levels of the sports industry (including with Paralympics Australia as the Director for Government & Stakeholder Engagement) and with social justice organisations (including the Australian Human Rights Commission as Director of Communications & Education). He is passionate about promoting and addressing issues impacting sport such as inclusion, safeguarding, good governance and integrity, and has a deep understanding of these issues and how they affect sport and society.
Paul has a BA in Communications, a Master's in international and Community Development, and a PhD on the power of sport to break down cultural barriers and build social bridges for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds. He is currently a member of the International Safeguarding Children in Sport Advisory Board, Centre for Multicultural Sport Advisory Board and Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Culture and Safety Advisor
Patrick Johnson
Patrick is a Kaanju man from Far North Queensland. He is the current Oceanian and Australian record holder in the 100 metres, with a time of 9.93 seconds. With that time he became the first person not of African ancestry to break the 10-second barrier. He competed at two Olympic Games (2000 and 2004), three Commonwealth Games (2002, 2006 and 2010) and four World Championships (1997, 2003, 2005 and 2007). He won a bronze medal in the 4x100 metres relay at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
Patrick has had an extensive career that includes 10 years in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and more than 20 years of advocacy work for equal rights for all Australia’s through health, education and wellbeing. He has worked for the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance NT (AMSANT) as the Indigenous Leadership project officer, supporting, developing and nurturing leaders in the 25 community controlled health services across the NT.
Patrick is a board member for the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee, Chair of Australian Olympic Committee Indigenous Advisory Council, a member of the Australian Sports Commission Executive Leadership Committee for the High Performance Strategy and Indigenous Advisory Committee for the High Performance Strategy and Deadly Choices Olympic Partnerships Manager.
Head of Anti-Doping Operations
Chris Butler
Chris holds responsibility for leading this branch, which focuses on delivering Australia’s Anti-Doping program, as well as broader intelligence and information coordination.
Chris has 20 years’ experience in anti-doping after joining the Australian Sports Drug Agency (the forerunner to the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and Sport Integrity Australia) in 2001 and has worked across nearly all areas of anti-doping with a focus on education and testing.
Chris’ international experience includes five years leading the education and testing programs for an international sporting federation, positions on the WADA Education Committee and other ad-hoc WADA working groups, and program delivery at international events including numerous World Championships and the 2008 Olympic Games. Chris was the Director of ASADA’s testing and education programs during the highly successful 2018 Commonwealth Games and, more recently, was seconded to the Department of Health for two years, leading the project to formally establish Sport Integrity Australia.
Head of International Relationships & Strategy
Darren Mullaly
Darren has worked in the anti-doping area for 16 years and is a recognised international expert in that field. He has responsibility for Sport Integrity Australia’s international engagement and strategy.
Darren has regularly provided advice to other Anti-Doping Organisations including New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth Games Federation including acting as the agency liaison during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. He was appointed to the International Weightlifting Federation’s Independent Monitoring Group that assessed the eligibility of suspended countries to return to international competition.
Darren is the Australian Minister for Sport’s Registered Deputy at WADA Foundation Board and Executive Committee meetings. He also attends the UNESCO Conference of Parties to represent Australia’s views in relation to the UNESCO Anti-Doping Convention and is an observer on the Oceania Regional Anti-Doping Organisation’s Board.
Darren was the Chair of the Council of Europe’s Ad Hoc Group of Experts on Ensuring Whistleblowers Protection, is a member of the Council of Europe’s One Voice public authorities’ platform and supervises input into a variety of Council of Europe working groups on anti-doping and competition manipulation, including sitting on the bureau for the Group of Copenhagen.
Acting Head of Sport Engagement
Alexis Cooper
Alexis specialises in leading programs that aim to prevent integrity risks in sport, and is currently responsible for Sport Integrity Australia’s Education, Sport Partnership, Safeguarding and Integrity Complaints programs.
Alexis joined the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (Sport Integrity Australia’s predecessor) in 2015, and has since led a range of portfolios including Education, Communication, and Science and Medicine. In these roles she has supported more than 100 national sporting organisations to design and deliver education programs to build positive cultures and prevent integrity issues in sport, and has overseen a dramatic reduction in the number of inadvertent doping cases in sport.
Alexis’ experience is internationally recognised and she currently serves as a member of the WADA Education Committee, WADA Unintentional Doping Taskforce and an accredited WADA Trainer in the Global Learning and Development Framework, which is focused on building the capability of anti-doping organisations around the world. In addition to her international and national level experience in sport integrity, Alexis has worked across both state sporting organisations and community clubs as a board member, high-performance coach, and volunteer.
Underpinning Alexis’ experiences is a Bachelor of Media and Communication Studies and a Masters of Bioethics, coupling her passion for communicating complex information in simple and engaging ways with her interest in understanding why and how people make decisions.