SchoolAid's Board

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. 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.

His first engagement with SchoolAid was in 2008 running a strategy planning session for the Board under the aegis of Social Ventures Australia. This culminated in being invited to join the SchoolAid Board. Rob is passionate about making a difference, sharing talent and putting something back, building a spirit of giving among kids as the philanthropists of tomorrow and focusing on governance, strategy and motivating high team performance.

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 at the end of 2009. The Head of Junior School at Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney, she has been a teacher and leader in government and independent primary schools, in South Australia and here in NSW, in co-ed and single sex schools, for thirty nine 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  four years. She currently represents IPSHA on the NSW branch of Principals Australia. 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. Narelle is keen and committed to SchoolAid and appreciates and thoroughly enjoys the opportunity to spread the wonderful work of SchoolAid in her own school community and beyond.

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), a role he has held since 1^st July 2010. Pat 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 led 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.

During his spare time Pat enjoys spending time with his four children aged 16, 14, 6 and 4 and for the past two years has enjoyed coaching the rugby team of his youngest children.

Pat has held the position of board member for SchoolAid for 12months and is looking forward to his continued involvement in making a difference to the values and compassion of Australian school children.

Greg Sharman - Acting Chairman

Greg brings extensive corporate marketing and management experience to SchoolAid. His management background includes senior positions with Westpac, Unilever, Kimberly Clark and AC Nielsen. Additionally, Greg has co-founded several successful start-ups in the e-commerce, web development and interactive marketing sectors. His career interest has been in 'how to optimise the value proposition and build competitive advantage'.

Greg runs a marketing communications advice firm, Interactive Marketing Group Pty. Limited and he also manages a fashion design business with wife Michelle. Married with three children and three grandchildren, Greg has long-term involvement in community projects, with a special interest in helping children achieve their full potential. He also serves as Chairperson of the Board of Good Beginnings Australia.

Greg has been with SchoolAid since 2006 and his role on the Board is to lead its strategic focus on growth and quality communications and engagement with key stakeholders.

Lisa Nijssen-Smith

Lisa is an Assurance Partner at global accounting firm Ernst & Young and brings to the Board over 19 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.

Norm Hart

Norm was proud and privileged to serve his colleagues as State President of the Queensland Association of State School Principals (QASSP) from 2008 to 2010. During this time he was also the QASSP representative on the APPA National Executive Council and quickly understood the need for there to be a united primary school voice across the three sectors which could contribute positively to the burgeoning national education debate.

In 2009, Norm was elected President of the Australian Government Primary Principals Association (AGPPA). In this role he was the AGPPA observer on the APPA Secretariat and worked closely with his APPA colleagues to contribute to its work around the Australian Curriculum, the Funding Review, Principal Standards and the transparency agenda. In 2010, Norm was elected by the APPA National Executive Council as President of the Australian Primary Principals Association.

Norm joined the SchoolAid Board in 2011. He is enthusiastic about the capacity of SchoolAid to help those children responding to appeals learn more about other children and themselves as a result of working together to overcome adversity.

Tony Ryan - 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.

Martin Dalgleish - SchoolAid Ambassador

Martin Dalgleish is a Chairman/Director and Adviser to a number of media and technology businesses in Australia. He has significant Board experience with some of Australia's leading Media brands, including Nine, Foxtel, Premier Media Group, Ticketek, Hoyts, Seek, Carsales, NineMSN and Betfair. He is presently Chairman of iSelect, an advisor to Ellerston Capital and FetchTV, and a director of Deals Direct and Intrepica.  His career has taken him from Perth to Sydney to London and back to Sydney again with companies of the calibre of IBM, PepsiCo, Rank, Dixons and Optus - where he was Managing Director of the Consumer Business until 2005. Most recently, Martin was CEO of New Media for PBL, and an Executive Director of Consolidated Media Holdings.

Martin has two primary age children. He previously served on the NSW Board of Starlight Foundation - as through his own children he understood the importance of empowering kids to help kids.