The leadership team

  • Vicki Condon AM - Founder & CEO

    Vicki is committed to impacting adolescent wellbeing and engagement in Australia through mentoring. Her career spans HR management, teaching at TAFE, and running a small business. 

    Vicki holds a BA degree from UNSW, a Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling, a Cert IV TAE, and a Mental Health First Aid certificate. Vicki is a graduate of the AICD and her work has been recognised with awards like Pro Bono Impact 25, Marie Claire Glass Ceiling and the Telstra Business Award.

  • Matt Clarke - Operations Director

    Matt is a project and change leader and qualified accountant with 20+ years’ experience working for Australian publicly listed companies including the past 14 years with Macquarie Group.

    With an extensive background in Operations Leadership and Management covering Finance, Risk, Compliance and Technology, Matt has a wealth of experience in project management and leading strategic projects through to implementation.

    As Operations Director at Raise, Matt brings his energetic, positive and collaborative style to the Raise leadership team and is responsible for Finance, Technology and executing our strategic impact plan.

  • Lucy Snowball - Data & Youth Insights Director

    A data and evaluation expert, Lucy is passionate about using evidence to improve outcomes. Lucy joined Raise Foundation as the Data and Youth Insights Director in June 2021. Leading program evaluation, Lucy also ensures the youth voice is embedded across the organisation. 

    Prior to Raise, Lucy held a range of evaluation, policy and research leadership roles, most recently Lucy was the Director, Evaluation and Effectiveness at the NSW Department of Education.

     


  • Adelaide Thompson - Marketing and Fundraising Director

    A strategic fundraising and marketing expert, Adelaide brings over 10+ years’ experience in the ‘for purpose’ sector across a breadth of revenue streams from individual giving to campaigns to philanthropy.

    Prior to joining the NFP industry Adelaide worked on some of the most sophisticated loyalty schemes in the UK at leading marketing agencies such as M&C Saatchi resulting in a passion for data driven marketing.

    As Marketing and Fundraising Director, Adelaide’s role is to create a diversified fundraising portfolio to enable Raise to grow sustainably. This will assist Raise in achieving its ambition of being in every public high school in Australia so we can ensure Australia is showing up for our young people.

  • Kathleen Vella - Strategic Project Director

    Kathleen is one of Australia’s leading authorities on youth mentoring having founded the Australian Youth Mentoring Network, Australia’s first peak body for the youth mentoring sector.

    Kathleen developed the minimum operational standards that all mentoring programs in Australia are encouraged to meet. Passionate and driven to deliver programs that enable the best possible outcomes for young people, she continues to consult privately in the sector.

    As the Strategic Project Director at Raise, Kathleen is responsible for the implementation and successful delivery of new and exciting social enterprise initiative.

  • Tamara Salamacha - Program Director

    Tamara leads our Programs Team nationally delivering hundreds of programs for thousands of young people across the country.  She joined Raise in 2020 as our NSW State Manager leading our team to deliver over 100 programs across metro and regional NSW and ACT.

    Tamara's previous experience includes Programs Director with the AIEF for 6 years.  Prior to that she was the General Manager of The Shack Youth Service, Residential Program Manager for Impact Youth Services, and Program Coordinator for Life Without Barriers.  She brings a wealth of program delivery and people management expertise to the Raise village. 


Patron, Chair and Board of Directors

David Gonski AC - Patron

David Gonski is a highly regarded and well-known business executive who is active in matters of philanthropy and education in Australia. He sits on numerous Boards and leads various government enquiries, along with his role as Chancellor of the University of NSW. As our Patron, David is a strong advocate for mentoring. David is the Chair of our Patron’s Advisory Council which is instrumental to our vision of scaling our mentoring programs towards a national reach.

Leon Condon - Chairman

Leon is an experienced executive with a solid track record of business achievement in blue chip corporate and successful start-ups. Leon is currently Chairman of Engagis which brings engagement through the use of digital solutions in physical spaces. Leon holds a degree in engineering and is a Fellow of the AICD. He brings a wealth of expertise to Raise and is a key partner in the success of the organisation since inception.

Andrew Birch – Non-Executive Director

Andrew has over 25 years’ experience across the global technology sector in senior executive roles for both listed and privately held companies, most recently appointed as CEO of Micromine. Prior to this Andrew was with MYOB, Vodafone and Honeywell. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Engineering from Swinburne University of Technology, an MBA from RMIT and has studied at the IMD school as part of the Vodafone Global Leader program.

Jun Bei Liu – Non-Executive Director

Jun Bei is lead portfolio manager for Tribeca’s Alpha Plus fund which she has doubled and, at over $1bn, is now one of the largest long-short equity funds in the Australian Market. She is a motivated and dedicated investment manager having built a 16-year career at Tribeca as an analyst, portfolio manager and then taking over Alpha Plus in 2019. Jun Bei holds a Commerce Degree from UNSW, as well as GAICD and CFA.

Tim Bishop – Non-Executive Director

Tim has 30 years of Investment Banking experience, joining Macquarie Group in 1999 as part of the acquisition of Bankers Trust Australia. He held various senior roles at Macquarie before retiring in July 2019, including Global Head of Macquarie Capital, Executive Committee member of Macquarie Group from 2012 to 2019, and Macquarie’s US Country Head. Tim founded Macquarie’s real estate business and was Global Head of the Industrials and Financial Institutions groups.

Dr Matthew Miles - Non-Executive Director

Matthew brings to Raise outstanding experience in executive leadership, marketing, communications, fundraising, advocacy, change management and scaling organisations, with strong NFP sector experience.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the GO8 ranked University, The University of Queensland, and a post-graduate Masters (MBA) from the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) at the University of NSW. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Managers and a Graduate of the Australian Institute Company Directors.

Joost de Kock

Joost de Kock has over 25 years senior leadership experience in both the private and public sectors and brings strategy, digital transformation, and technology innovation expertise to Raise. Joost has had a long career as a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group and more recently has held several senior government roles including Deputy Secretary, Customer Strategy, and Technology at Transport for NSW. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Aruma Disability Services and served on the Redkite (children's cancer charity) Board for nine years. Joost holds an Engineering degree from Cambridge University, a DPhil (PhD) in Medical Electronics from Oxford University, a Cranfield MBA and GAICD.

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