Sarah Albon
Chair
Sarah is one of the club’s longest serving employees, and commenced her current role as General Manager of Community in 2011.
Over that period, Sarah has led the club’s efforts in the community space, building award winning programs that positively impact on the community. The club’s programs central purpose is to build a better and healthier community with particular focus on children of school age.
Sarah’s role is to develop and manage these programs in collaboration with many partner organisations that bring professional expertise from the health, education and community service sectors to ensure programs are evidence based and ethically sound.
In 2019 Sarah spearheaded the club’s sensory zone, a project that allows those with sensory needs to enjoy a day at the football. This project was two years in the making and included wide consultation both locally and internationally.
Sarah commenced her time at the Geelong Football Club as a university intern in 2001 and over eight years held roles in events, marketing, public relations and communications. Sarah enjoyed two years in the United Kingdom working for both the International Cricket Council and England & Wales Cricket Board in 2008 and 2009, returning home to take on the role of director of marketing for EMC group before re-joining the Cats in her current role. Sarah has served as the Cats acting CEO on multiple occasions and studied at Harvard Business School in 2018.
In addition to her role at the Cats, Sarah currently holds roles on three boards including Read the Play, Active Geelong and Geelong Mums.
Sarah lives in Geelong with her husband and three sons.
Matt Cowdell
Vice-Chair
Matt is a highly experienced and respected digital marketer. Kicking off his professional career with News Corporation, Matt performed a range of media and marketing roles, specifically with the Herald Sun, The Weekly Times, and Fox Sports where he was responsible for developing digital content strategies.
After a 10 year stint at News Corp, Matt joined Open Universities Australia as head of Partnerships and Lead Generation, working with internal and external stakeholders to find future students via a range of digital marketing endeavours. It was in this role that Matt developed his skills and passion for lead generation which led him to establish the boutique marketing agency, Arthur St.
Arthur St is an open, transparent, results driven digital marketing agency that works with an impressive range of Australian businesses and brands. Arthur St specialises in developing strategy, implementing lead generation campaigns, finding insights from data and training marketing teams.
Matt brings experience as a CEO as well as marketing and communications knowledge to the board.
Keith Fagg
Board Member
Keith Fagg OAM holds an B.Ec (Hons) and had a long career in his family timber & hardware business and was Geelong’s first directly elected Mayor 2012-13.
Keith has held a number of Board positions over the years and continues to volunteer on many community boards such as Samaritan House, Salvation Army, Hope Bereavement Care, Geelong Advertiser Music Trust and is an independent member of the Victoria Police Regional Leadership Team.
Keith is an accredited mediator with the Department of Justice & Community Safety. Keith’s involvement in Read the Play is driven by his interest in pro-actively improving the well-being of young people by making them aware of mental health issues and where to seek help.
Chris Niven
Board Member
Chris is a Senior Manager at Bendigo Bank and has extensive experience and success in senior roles in the banking and finance industry in Regional Victoria.
He specialises in community and stakeholder engagement activities, business development, leadership and coaching. He has a Diploma and Advance Diploma of Management and a post Graduate Certificate of Management from Federation University.
Andy Mathers
Board Member
General Manager of 10 years with Geelong Broadcasters; radio stations K rock and bay 93.9
17 Years in senior management: Specialising in people leadership, stakeholder engagement, commercial partnerships and strategic concept generation.
Twice winner Australian Commercial Radio Award – General Manager of the Year. Finalist 2019 Geelong Business Excellence Awards – Business Leader of the Year. Advanced Diploma of Business Management University of Ballarat. Commission member Basketball Geelong.
Father of three beautiful kids, one at Uni, one at Kardinia International and one at Barwon Valley Special School…an amazingly tolerant and loving wife (Ali) and after 20+ years in Geelong, almost a local?
Nicola Wojcik
Board Member
Nicola Wojcik is the Director, Research at WorkSafe Victoria. Nicola is a multidisciplinary communications, stakeholder engagement, project management and research professional with over 20 years’ experience at the top levels of these areas.
Nicola started with WorkSafe Victoria in 2016 and has had a number of different roles in that time. She commenced managing the communications for the relocation of WorkSafe’s head office from Melbourne to Geelong and spear headed the Geelong Integration Program. She has had roles in managing marketing, WorkWell program and stakeholder engagement & communications for the Legislation and Policy division before heading up the strategic priority project responding to the emerging disease, silicosis prevalent in stonemasons.
She has spent much of her career in private industry working in the energy, water and mining sectors and in trade & investment with those roles seeing her work in Perth, London, Port Hedland, Melbourne and Geelong. She loves to be active and takes her love of sport to the Boardroom where she has been a commissioner for AFLBarwon for 5 years and has recently joined the board of Read the Play. She has been involved in the judging for the Give Where You Live grants, Pako Festa multicultural festival and the Geelong Business Excellence Awards for a number of years.
Outside of working life, Nicola enjoys spending time with her family, keeping active, reading and travelling.
Nikketa Anderson
Board Member
Nikketa is an experienced lawyer at Mast Lawyers in Geelong with a demonstrated history in Corporate and Commercial practice. She is skilled in commercial and retail leasing, acquisition and sale of businesses, shareholder and partnership agreements and general commercial law.
Kris Rendevski
Board Member
Kris is the CFO of the Kempe Group. Kris joined the organisation in June 2017 as the Treasurer and has responsibilities which include the financial management, compliance and governance of the organisation. Kris brings a strong experience and knowledge of financial management to the organisation.
Our Founder
Dave Langley
Founder
As the founding member of Read the Play, David has brought his passion, drive and commitment to the organisation for over 14 years. Although the Program has developed successfully David is keen to ensure that Read the Play continues, as an important educative program for youth, long beyond his own involvement.