NEW Vinnies CEO Paul Trezise wants to break the cycle of poverty in Canberra.

Coming from a background in the public service, Mr Trezise worked as a volunteer for one St Vincent de Paul Society’s women’s refuges for eight years in the ‘80s.

The experience left him shocked at the level of need in Canberra, and sparked his interest in Vinnies.

“Canberra is an affluent city so that experience was a wake up call, but it also left me very impressed by the work Vinnies does and the expansive areas they are involved in,” he said.

Mr Trezise moved into the top role in March when, after 22 years as chief executive officer of the St Vincent de Paul Society, Bob Wilson retired in March without too much fuss.

That modest, quiet demeanour seems to have rubbed off on his successor.

“It’s the way of the society – our leaders are here to serve and not to go around big-noting themselves and I’m very comfortable with that,” Mr Trezise told “CityNews”.

However, there are a few things he’s got his eye on changing, and he says one of them is breaking away from the society’s “quiet achiever” attitude.

“If we want to attract people to join us, volunteer or donate money we actually have to show them what we’re doing so they can see where their money is going so that’s why we maybe need to be a little more upfront about what we’re doing and not so shy to be able to tell people about us,” he said.

“Also we want to further develop our youth programs; working with schools, disadvantaged children and young carers. I’d love to find ways to grow these programs, as I think we’re just scratching the surface of what we can do there.”

Mr Trezise is originally from Melbourne, moving to Canberra in 1982. He has a background in spatial science, and has worked in management and leadership roles in government agencies, including Geoscience Australia.

For him, a change of career was pure timing.

“I wanted to get into something a bit different and something that was a bit more directly beneficial than what I was doing, and to me that was helping people in need,” he said.

“Vinnies was a very natural place to look since I had that experience with them before and, coincidentally, the job came up, Bob retired after 22 years, and the timing was just right.”

Five months in, Mr Trezise is enjoying working with a wide range of people and says it’s the type of job “where you can’t really get bored”.

He hopes his background in government and financial management will prove beneficial for the society’s development.

“Having a fresh perspective helps. I’m experienced in dealing with government contracts and we deal a lot with those at a Federal or ACT level,” he said.

“Having a sound understanding of financial management is also important; even though Vinnies deals with a relatively small amount of money compared to the Government, there’s a lot of complexity as it comes from donations, Government funding and appeals.”

Mr Trezise is quick to point out the vital part Mr Wilson played in paving the way for him.

“I want to recognise the work Bob did; 20 years on the job, that alone deserves a medal, but he also had a tremendous relationship with the community,” he said.

“I’d like to continue that, but any person coming in to a new role that’s got a different background has an opportunity to look at things in different ways and bring their own flavour to it.”