LIFELINE Albury Wodonga is seeking a new chief executive after incumbent Matt Burke resigned from the role.
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The departure came just days after a lunch featuring former NSW Opposition leader and Lifeline Australia chairman John Brogden was held at the Albury Club.
The Border Mail understands there were concerns in Lifeline Albury Wodonga about how Mr Burke handled the visit of Mr Brogden.
Lifeline Albury-Wodonga chairman Ross Passalaqua said on Thursday that Mr Burke had resigned for family reasons.
"He didn't have time to do it, not that he lacked energy but he just wanted to do other things and spend more time with his grandkids," Mr Passalaqua said.
Asked about Mr Burke's role with Mr Brogden's visit and its link to his exit, Mr Passalaqua said "that's internal politics more than anything".
The board chairman noted Mr Brogden had visited Albury at the invitation of Winter Solstice founders Annette and Stuart Baker.
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Mr Brogden did inspect Lifeline's Border call centre for more than a hour as well as inspire guests at the lunch.
"Matt has gone with our love and best wishes," Mr Passalaqua said.
"There's always some drama with some organisations but I wouldn't make any big deal about that."
Mr Burke did not respond to The Border Mail on Thursday.
He was chief executive of Lifeline Albury Wodonga from 2018, having succeeded Chris Pidd in the role.
Mr Burke is also chairman of Albury Wodonga Health and has been chief executive of Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation.
His successor at Lifeline is expected to be known soon with five applicants for the job being interviewed across Thursday and Friday.
A positions vacant advertisement for the role stated that Lifeline was "seeking a self-motivated, experienced, and empathic leader to drive the strategic development and growth of the organisation".
The chief executive switch has been accompanied by a change in board chairman.
Mr Passalaqua replaced Neville Hull in the post last month after the latter asked to step down.
A former chief executive of Falls Creek Resort Management, Mr Passalaqua joined the board at the start of this year after having been a Lifeline call taker in Melbourne from 2010 to 2017.
He is keen to see Lifeline increase its volunteer base on the Border and improve its operations.
An audit is being done to set the enterprise up to meet ongoing demand, much of it related to COVID fallout.
However, Mr Passalaqua said state and federal government aid had cushioned blows related to the trading of Lifeline's charity shops.