Our Team

Kate is a leading international expert on playgroups, child development and parenting. Kate brings strong strategic planning, leadership, and governance skills, having been the President, Vice-President, and Treasurer of multiple school boards, Vice President of the Australian Music Therapy Association, Chair of the QUT Equity Education Committee, Founding Director of the QUT Centre for Child & Family Studies, prior Research and Policy Manager for Playgroup Queensland, and Executive Manager of Operations for Play Matters Australia. 
Kate holds five university degrees and has completed the Australian Institute for Company Directors Governance for Not for Profits course, along with executive media training. 
Kate brings integrity, evidence-based decision-making, and ethical governance principles to her work. She enjoys building capability in others, and working alongside colleagues, families, and communities to enhance education and health outcomes.

Caroline is a highly accomplished professional with a diverse background in healthcare, strategy, and service design. Her early career as a paediatric speech pathologist specialising in early childhood, gave her extensive experience with diverse and vulnerable groups of children, families and communities, particularly in First Nations communities, and children with a range of physical and developmental disabilities.

With a deep commitment to improving the well-being of children and youth and their communities, using a strengths-based approach, Caroline has experience in leading large-scale strategy and service design projects in the social and health care sectors. Some examples included the redesign of child development, child health, paediatric cardiac services and child and youth mental health service at Children's Health Queensland Health and Hospital Services.

She recently led the development of Health and Wellbeing Queensland’s strategic plan 2023- 2025 with a strong emphasis on prevention through early intervention, systems change and equity in her role as the Director of strategy, policy and impact. Most recently, Caroline has established Macaulay Consulting where she continues to deliver strategy and service design services to the child, youth and family sectors across Australia.

Caroline is an Industry Fellow with the Menzie's Health Institute Qld at Griffith University, and a member of the Australian Institute of Intergenerational Practice. She has also contributed to significant publications in the areas of child development.

Christine is a Certified Practising Accountant with experience in fast-moving consumer goods, hospitality and services industry, small-to-medium enterprises, and in the not-for-profit sector. She is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia, and Member of Australian Institute of Company Directors, CPA Australia and Queensland College of Teachers. Christine is a mother of four and passionately believes in play-based learning and the beneficial developmental outcomes of playgroups for children, their families and communities.

Mia is a registered teacher, early childhood researcher and professional facilitating and leading innovations and partnerships in the early childhood education and care sector. Mia has been a teacher for nearly 30 years working in early childhood, primary, secondary, and tertiary contexts in remote, regional, and urban settings in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia.

For the past fifteen years Mia has worked as an academic at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Mia’s teaching and research focus has been and continues to explore early childhood education for sustainability, STEAM interdisciplinary capability build, and accessing and elevating young children’s voices. As an academic Mia has led the initial development and ongoing redevelopment of initial teacher education units and courses across the Bachelor and Master of Teaching Early Childhood degrees. Mia’s collaborations and advisory roles have intersected with the Department of Education Queensland, Queensland College of Teachers, C&K Queensland, and Lady Gowrie Queensland. Mia’s research for her Doctoral thesis made a significant contribution to the field of early childhood education and care because it enabled the voices of young children, specifically in relation to the complex concept of sustainability, to be heard. The next challenge is to ensure these voices are acted upon.

In 2020 Mia was the recipient of the prestigious Jean Ferguson Memorial Award in Early Childhood Education recognizing the significant contribution my Doctoral studies have made in building the capacity of teachers and educators to support young children’s access and engagement in early childhood sustainability education. In 2021 Mia joined G8 Education, the second largest provider of early childhood education and care centres in Australia. At G8 Education Mia has acted as the Head of Early Learning and Education responsible for the early education of 45 000 children and supporting 11 000 team members. In 2022 I moved into the permanent role of Education Innovations and Partnerships Manager, working cross-functionally with internal and external stakeholders. Mia brings strong governance knowledge in particular in relation to early childhood policy.

Cecilia is a senior corporate lawyer with 10 years’ experience. Cecilia is currently Senior Legal Counsel at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, specialising in strategic transactions and head office advisory matters. Cecilia’s prior experience was gained at top tier firm Minter Ellison and international development organisation Adara Development (as a pro-bono secondee and subsequently as volunteer).

Cecilia has a Bachelor of Laws and Commerce (Hons) and is a member of the Law Society of New South Wales.

Cecilia is a mother, an active member of her local Play Matters affiliated playgroup and is passionate about supporting families of young children.

Robyn Smith has 20 years of expertise as a finance professional for public and private companies across the manufacturing, agriculture and mining sectors. Her background began in external audit and has since extended to industry where she has held Financial Controller and more recently CFO and Company Secretarial roles.
 
Robyn is a Chartered Accountant (CAANZ) and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Accounting, Financial Management, Audit and Tax.

Mike is a finance and corporate governance professional, with over 30 years of Australian and international experience. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a registered tax agent, and holds a Bachelor of Business (Accy & BusLaw) from QUT, graduating with Distinction. He has worked in London and on Wall Street, and held board and executive roles in the IT and telecommunications, radio communications, banking, and property industries. Most recently he was CFO and Company Secretary of ASX-listed Vonex (ASX:VN8), and CFO, Company Secretary, and Head of M&A at ASX-listed Over the Wire (ASX:OTW), and is a founding partner of corporate advisory firm The Hidden Persuaders.