Our Team

Sean Gordon - Founder

Having been principal of four schools in two states over a period of 18 years and after serving on many state and national peak association committees for principals (APPA, ACPPA, APAPDC and ACSP), Sean was awarded Life Membership of the Australian Primary Principal's Association (2004) and the Australian Catholic Primary Principals' Association (1991).

Sean's community involvement saw him recognised as an ambassador for the Year of the Outback, Gold Duke of Edinburgh recipient and Premier of NSW Award for his involvement at the Thredbo landslide rescue. Sean and his wife Jo-Anne live in Redcliffe in QLD where they share the parenting of 4 beautiful children: Josie, Caitlin, Michael and Cristin.

Click here to listen to Sean talk about the impact of kids helping kids and our philosophy on ABC radio.

Rob Irving - Chairman

Rob co-founded Forte Communications in 1992 and he coaches on executive performance, communication, messaging, presentations and pitches. Rob is passionate about mentoring people, pitching, brand communication and writing.

He has over 20 years management experience at multi-national advertising agency J Walter Thompson and has held CEO positions in Johannesburg, Cape Town, London and Sydney involving communication planning, business development and competitive submissions. Rob also has strong community involvement, across a number of social and business initiatives.

Martin Dalgleish

Martin was the recent Executive Director of Consolidated Media Holdings Limited (CMH) and was accountable for maximising CMH's performance through its portfolio of media investments. He is also a Director of Premier Media Group and NineMSN, and an alternate director of PBL Media, FOXTEL and SEEK.

With experience extending across Australia and the UK, Martin has held a variety of consumer and technology management roles with leading global brands including IBM, PepsiCo, Dixons and The Rank Group. He has an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management in the UK. He also holds a Bachelor of Business (Information Technology) from the Western Australian Institute of Technology.

Tony McGruther

Educationalist - As a primary principal and teacher for thirty five years the opportunity to serve SchoolAid accords with Tony's belief that a truly educated person is one who exercises understanding, compassion, generosity and optimism.

For Tony, SchoolAid lives where education meets philanthropy: "The anonymous coin dropping into a tin may change the life of the receiver but when that coin is tracked to its impact and its context then we also stand to change the life of the giver."

Narelle Barker

Narelle joined the SchoolAid Board late 2009. The Head of Junior School at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney, she has been a teacher and leader in government and independent primary schools, across two states, for thirty seven years. Narelle is passionate about primary education and has represented the Independent Heads of Primary Schools (NSW) on the Australian Primary Principals' Association NEC for nearly four years. Her strong belief that primary students can achieve incredible things to help others through a variety of ways, inspires her to encourage and work with students in assisting them to develop a world view perspective. A newcomer to the Board, Narelle is keen and committed to SchoolAid and is looking forward to making a positive contribution

Richard Sauerman

Wake Up Tiger - Richard is a brand storyteller and public speaker, with an advertising background and a decent education in literature, philosophy and psychology. He grew up in Cape Town, and has been living and working in Sydney for over twenty years. After completing full-time service in the ad industry, Richard left to chase his dream to make a difference. He believes that all people have the desire and the capacity to be EXTRA-ordinary human beings, given the right encouragement, support and 'the space to be'.

He is married to Claire with three EXTRA-ordinary kids Nick, Sophie and Roxy.

Pat McKeon

Pat McKeon is the Global People and Change Leader and the Global Advisory Human Capital Leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He took up these roles on 1st July 2010 and is responsible for all strategy, infrastructure and development in these business sectors across all Global PwC Territories. Prior to this, Pat was the Australian Advisory Leader and a member of the Australian Firm Leadership Team. Pat lead this team for four years and was responsible for growing the Firm's Performance Improvement and Transactions businesses across key industry sectors. During his leadership the Australian PwC Advisory Business was awarded 'Australia's Best Large Management Consulting Firm' at the BRW client choice awards.Pat was previously the Chief Operating Officer of PwC Australia and was responsible for the Finance, IT, Operations, Infrastructure and Human Capital functions of the Australian Firm. Pat first joined PwC in November 2001 as Australian Human Capital Leader. Pat's primary focus in this role was restructuring the Human Capital function to a shared services model and leading the high performance culture journey for the Firm. Prior to joining PwC, Pat held senior HR Director positions at Whitbread plc and Airtours plc..

Greg Sharman

Lisa Nijssen-Smith

Lisa is an Assurance Partner at global accounting firm Ernst & Young and brings to the Board over 18 years of experience in accounting and finance. She holds a Bachelor of Financial Administration from the University of New England, is a Chartered Accountant and a Registered Company Auditor. One of the most rewarding periods of her career is the 2 years she spent working in the Solomon Islands where her role included assisting farmers in the set up of sustainable and profitable businesses.

She has two young children and is passionate about education in primary school.

Tony Ryan - Honorary SchoolAid Ambassador

A former teacher, Tony Ryan is an educational consultant and writer, and offers professional support to school organisations throughout the world on issues such as lifelong learning and quality classroom practice He has presented over 1500 keynotes and workshops at state, national and world conferences in the past 15 years. Tony also has been engaged as a teacher-in-residence in over 500 schools throughout several countries. In this role, he teaches extensively, and offers guidance to teachers with their everyday practice. He is a prolific author of books on effective thinking and learning. These books include The Ripple Effect, Thinkers Keys for Kids, Mindlinks, Brainstorms, Thinkfest and The Clever Country Kits. His website and blog at www.tonyryan.com.au contain numerous free downloads of his material.

Julie Urquhart, CEO

Julie joined SchoolAid as its inaugural CEO in January 2008.

She has had extensive executive and senior management experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors, most recently as Head of Community & Reputation with the Commonwealth Bank and CEO of the Dymocks Literacy Foundation.

She serves on the Board of Australia's leading percussion ensembles Synergy Taikoz and the Management Committee of the Karuna Foundation Children's Fund.

Melanie Greblo, Operations and Development Manager

Melanie has contributed to the non-profit sector for over 12 years. She has held strategic positions in large organisations such as RMIT, CanTeen, Art Gallery ofNSW, The Benevolent Society, The Victorian College of the Arts and most recently, founding CEO of HOME Hospice. In 2007 she led the co-founders to formally launch HOME Hospice and took the organisation from a negative bank balance to raise over $1.5m, secured long-term partnerships and alliances, and increased participation in programs by 600%. She has been fuelled by a vision of a future where dying is a compassionate, community-led experience.

Melanie has a deep passion, interest and commitment to social entrepreneurship as a means to addressing the crippling social and environmental issues plaguing our society today. This passion is coupled with her on-the-ground experience setting up a dynamic social venture. The learnings she has gained not only on her own journey but also from that of her peers has increased her capacity to understand and create new markets resulting in projects and programs with high impact and social change at a systemic level.

Julie Martin, Project Manager, Kids Helping Kids Awards

Julie has worked in many spheres during her career, including foreign policy and 2nd track diplomacy, government and Industry initiatives, as well as the corporate and the nonprofit sectors, including the University of NSW, The Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership, United Way, Aftercare, The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association and Sydney Ports Corporation.  

Julie brings a wealth of project management, marketing and communications experience to SchoolAid, managing the inaugural 'Kids Helping Kids Awards' in 2010.  Julie is passionate about equity, education and social issues, and as a mother of two, is very proud to work for SchoolAid and to contribute to its mission.  Julie's other long term interest is Chinese politics, culture and history.

Jess Barr, Campaign Manager

Jess has worked in the nonprofit sector since 2007, taking roles with the White Ribbon Foundation and SMILE Foundation prior to joining SchoolAid in 2009. She has a background in media and communication as well as in hospitality and event management. Jess is responsible for SchoolAid's media, PR and communications as well as managing and implementing the exciting campaigns offered via SchoolAid. Jess is passionate about the nonprofit sector and is currently undertaking postgraduate study in business majoring in philanthropy and nonprofit studies at QUT. Jess was the recipient of QUT's 2009 Global Philanthropic Prize.

Nicky McEnery, Operations Manager

Nicky has a diverse background including office management, sales and property. Her work experience is predominantly London based, and she is new to the non-profit sector. Originally from Zimbabwe, she is passionate about values education and the vision of creating a resilient and caring generation of philanthropists. She is excited to be a part of the SchoolAid development team, with the primary focus being geared towards in-reach development amongst Aussie kids.