Affinity Education Group executives step down after childcare scandals, including arrest of pedophile Joshua Dale Brown

Two top executives at one of Australia’s largest early childhood education providers have stepped down in the wake of recent scandals – one involving a former employee being slapped with dozens of sexual abuse-related charges. Affinity Education Group on Tuesday confirmed chief executive Tim Hickey and chief operating officer Nishad Alani had left the organisation. The company owns and operates more than 225 early education and childhood centres across Australia. In July, former employee Joshua Dale Brown was charged with dozens of offences relating to the alleged sexual abuse of several children. He has yet to enter pleas to the charges. Mr Brown worked at multiple Affinity businesses between 2017 and 2025. In a statement, Affinity Education Group said the board of directors had appointed Glen Hurley, the company’s senior adviser – compliance and quality, had been appointed as the incoming chief executive. “He commences in this role from today, Tuesday October 14,” a spokeswoman said. “Mr Hurley brings deep experience and strong operational insight and will smoothly transition into this new role having already worked closely with many of our teams. “He has 25 years of experience in the aged care sector in an array of senior executive roles and has also served as a senior regulator.” Mr Hurley will be joined on the executive team by Nicola Page, who joined Affinity as incoming chief compliance and risk officer on October 8. “Affinity remains deeply committed to providing safe, high-quality care to the families across our entire network and supporting our dedicated, professional team who nurture and educate the children in their care with compassion and integrity,” the spokeswoman continued. Mr Hickey’s resignation follows a bruising appearance before a NSW parliamentary inquiry into early childhood education and care in the state. The ABC reports evidence was given about Affinity’s breaches the rate of breaches increasing from 30 per cent above the state’s average level, to 70 per cent after the company was purchased by Quadrant Private Equity in 2021. Asked about the decline, Mr Hickey said: “I don’t work for private equity, I work for Affinity, and my job is to sustain profitability in our centres so that we can reinvest back into the educators, back into the centres.” He also struggled to answer questions about whether his bonuses were docked over rise in breaches.