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Management and Marketing Advisory Board

Chair

Nicole Cikarela

Chief Executive Officer
The Push-Up Challenge

External Members

Tracy Al Saidi

Director of People and Culture
Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA (CCIWA)

Paul Coghlan

Co-Founder and Creative Partner
Moonsail

Andy Haddon

Chief Technology Officer and Head of Delivery
Atos ANZ

Neil Le Febvre

Group Chief Executive Officer
Motor Trade Association of Western Australia 

May Leung

Partner
KPMG

Bianca Pietralla

Chief Executive Officer
St John of God Foundation

Internal Members

Professor Vanessa Chang

Pro Vice-Chancellor
Faculty of Business and Law

Professor Julia Richardson

Head of School, School of Management and Marketing
Faculty of Business and Law

Paul Coghlan

Paul Coghlan is the Co-Founder and Creative Partner of Moonsail – an award-winning Perth-based independent agency, specializing in CX strategy, advertising, and design.

Across his 20+ year career, Paul has worked for both network and independent agencies across Melbourne, Auckland and now here in Perth, creating award-winning work for local, national, and international clients. Alongside board experience, he has held industry positions including Head of AWARD School WA, Sirens National Creative Council, AWARD Awards judge, and more.

Along with nurturing his amazing team, Paul’s focus these days is very much on brand growth through strategic and creative lenses, working closely with C-suites to unlock their true growth potential.

Nicole Cikarela

Nicole has over 25 years’ experience in business strategy and operations in organisations in Sydney, Perth and North America. Nicole has had a diverse career, spanning both consultancy and in-house roles, working in product management and marketing in FMCG, financial services and lotteries businesses. Nicole was General Manager at Marketforce until 2019, leading strategic development and project management for Perth’s largest marketing and management teams, defining customer experience strategy in often disruptive business categories. In 2019 Nicole joined HBF as the business embarked on a company-wide member-centric transformation. Service, product and technology improvement programmes require complex cross-functional collaboration, which Nicole leads with a unique blend of enthusiasm, innovation and pragmatism.

Nicole holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing and International Business) from the University of Technology, Sydney. Since moving to Perth Nicole has worked with Curtin University in various capacities, including sessional academic roles at both the Perth and Hong Kong campuses. Sharing practical, real-world experience with business school students is both enjoyable and valuable for Nicole, who has two young boys of her own who hope to study at Curtin University one day!

Haylee Felton

Haylee is General Manager of Brand and Marketing at RAC, WA.

Prior to this, Haylee led the brand and marketing function at Bankwest. This includes brand strategy and communications, sponsorship, product marketing and social engagement. Haylee has a diverse background of strategic marketing experience from a long career including both agency and client-side marketing. Haylee’s greatest passion is uncovering value adding consumer insights for brands, and ensuring all strategic decisions and creative solutions are insight driven.

Haylee enjoys the management of key delivery partners to ensure diverse and collaborative problem solving that directly influences commercial outcomes. Haylee’s previous experience includes many well-known brands within both the Perth market (through clients of The Brand Agency), in the retail utility sector in the UK (British Gas), as well as working within a-number of well-known creative, marketing and CSR agencies in the UK providing a breadth of experience in solving unique business problems.

Andy Haddon

Andy works closely with clients and leads teams of technology experts delivering thought leadership on technology strategy, innovation, and digital transformation. He is an energetic and forward-thinking problem solver. Andy’s contributions to the technology community focus on sustainability, being future-ready and meaningfully providing advice to clients delivering usable insights and practical outcomes.

Andy has 30+ years of experience working in Australia, Asia, North Africa, and the UK, gaining invaluable knowledge and understanding of different cultures, industries, and market dynamics. His experiences have come from roles in R&D, multinational technical leadership, co-founding an IT consulting and development business, large-scale software development, technology incubation, and executive leadership in organisations in Australia.

Neil Le Febvre

Neil is a growth-focused business leader with 30 years of experience operating internationally at executive and board level in customer marketing, operations, digital, distribution and strategy roles. His experiences range from leading a $70m start-up with a major bank in Europe – establishing businesses in the UK & Spain – to investor relations roles that have seen him involved in securing over $500m in capital, and executive management roles responsible for delivering $1.6bn in revenue.

May Leung

May has over 20 years of experience partnering with clients and delivering large-scale transformation programs, through defining technology strategies, implementing leading digital applications, and bringing innovation with industry-specific context. May’s particular passion is to champion inclusion & diversity and people development throughout her career, leveraging her experience working across multiple geographies and industries across the world, creating high-performing teams, and focusing on values for clients and for individuals.

May holds a Master of Engineering in Computing from Imperial College London and values any continuous learning opportunities to continue to grow.

Bianca Pietralla

Bianca oversees the operations and day-to-day running of St John of God Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of Australia’s largest Catholic not-for-profit health care and community services organisations.

Bianca has 25 years’ experience in marketing, development and general management across a number of industries including health care, higher education, financial services and telecommunications. Her professional experience spans senior roles with iconic commercial and for-purpose organisations including Bankwest, Royal Flying Doctor Service WA, Curtin University and St John of God Health Care. Bianca holds a Bachelor of Communications majoring in Advertising and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Bianca blends values-based leadership with commercial acumen and is passionate about making a difference to the lives of people and populations. She loves the vibrancy of the Bentley campus and the University’s focus on innovation and collaborating with industry.

Bianca is pleased to join the Advisory Board to contribute to the important role higher education plays in providing opportunities for people to develop and thrive.

Professor Vanessa Chang

Professor Vanessa Chang commenced as Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Business and Law in September 2022 following a nine month period in the role as Interim PVC. From May 2019 to December 2021, Vanessa was the Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor.

Professor Chang joined Curtin in 1989 as a Tutor in the School of Information Systems. Her previous leadership roles in the University include Director of Learning Innovations where she led innovation and project teams to develop Massive Open Online Courses as well as leading transformational IT projects at Curtin, Dean of Learning and Teaching, and Head of School of Information Systems.

Professor Chang is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and an experienced leader in higher education. Her information systems research are focused in leadership, governance, and the use of data and systems in organisations. As an educator, she conducts research in learning pedagogies, in immersive and online learning.

Professor Julia Richardson

Professor Richardson is the Head of the School of Management and Marketing at Curtin University and an internationally recognised expert in Careers and Human Resources Management. A former chair of the Careers Division of the Academy of Management, she has enjoyed a global career in the private and public sectors in the UK, Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand and Canada and has won multiple awards for her research and teaching.

Professor Richardson’s current research examines ‘The future of careers’, career sustainability, changing work practices and relationships, and work-life balance. Her work is regularly featured in local, national and international media and her co-authored book ‘An Intelligent Career: Taking Ownership of Your Work and Your Life’ (Oxford University Press) – published in English and Mandarin – has been ranked as a top resource for business executives. Her co-edited book ‘New Ways of Working in a Changing World’ (Routledge) examines the changing nature of work and work relationships and the implications for employees, management and public policy makers.

Professor Richardson regularly delivers keynote addresses on contemporary careers and work practices and facilitates Executive Education on leadership development, career management and organisational culture. She also sits on the New Zealand Expert Business Performance Panel working with the NZ Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Tracy Al Saidi

Tracy is an award-winning People & Culture Executive with diverse, multi-disciplinary Human Resource management experience acquired in internationally renowned organizations.

Before relocating back to Australia in 2020, Tracy’s career was based in Dubai where she held senior HR management and executive roles with AXA, Emirates Airlines, Jumeirah Group, Emaar Hospitality, and Emirates Global Aluminium (Dubai).

Tracy has successfully defined and led major people transformation initiatives across the Middle East, Europe & Africa, leading HR transformation across the full employee life cycle, including employer brand, culture, D&I, and digital transformation to create an optimal employee experience.

Tracy holds an MBA from Hult International Business School and is currently the Director of People & Culture and a member of the Leadership team at CCIWA.

Tracy’s passion lies in helping organizations reengineer the employee experience to accelerate culture transformation through leadership, a differentiated people strategy, attracting and developing the best talent, and building a culture of inclusion, connection, learning, and innovation.