Ben Lancken - Chief Improvement Officer

“At Opal, we're driven by the important social purpose of caring for our elders and I'm excited to work alongside the dedicated Opal team to help re-imagine the residential aged care experience by leveraging the formidable power of people, processes and technology. At Opal, we're focused on putting our residents and their families at the heart of everything we do, and I am passionate about driving greater transparency, engagement and personalisation to measurably improve the quality of life of those in our care."

Ben joined Opal in January 2019 to lead our Customer Experience Transformation Program, and now leads our ICT & Business Improvement team, a multi-disciplinary team of technology, customer experience, project management, process improvement, data, risk, and compliance specialists. Together with his team, Ben is responsible for building and scaling the infrastructure, systems & processes that support our residents to live their best life in our Care Communities and enable our team to bring joy to those we care for.

Before joining Opal, Ben worked in the hotel sector for 12 years where his career spanned various leadership roles both in Australia and Europe. Ben holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of New England & Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School, a Certification in Strategic Management from Cornell University and is a Graduate of the Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)

Ben is passionate about leveraging technology & data to improve the lives of older Australians. In 2022, Ben was appointed to the Aged Care Quality Sector Reference Group which provides advice to the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care on the development and implementation of aged care quality reform initiatives to support improving the quality of life and outcomes for older Australian’s accessing aged care services.

Ben is also the head of the Opal HealthCare Academy Hospitality School. From teaching to innovation to industry connections, our Hospitality School focuses on supporting our hospitality professionals to deliver first-class aged care hospitality experiences and develop their hospitality careers in the elder care sector.