Our Team
Meet our team of values-driven, creative, and skilled people who are redesigning government for the 21st century
Base Team
Base Team are the folks that dream up, launch, run and measure all of the Code for Australia programs. They exist to open up opportunities for collaboration and bring people together.
Matt Sawkill
Managing Director
Matt has 20 years of experience in design-led digital agencies as a full-stack developer, technology consultant and team leader.
Matt is obsessed with the craft and delivery of easy to use, accessible and performant digital services and products at scale. Open source software, web standards and human-centred design are the foundations of this approach.
In his spare time, you’ll find him geeking out on food, music and movies.
Esther Semo
Head of Community + Communications
Esther is obsessed with humans so you’ll often find her chatting to strangers about their shoe size or what makes them cry. She has previously worked at Gender Equity Victoria running projects aimed at stopping violence against women online.
She’s also done stints at various not-for-profits, unions, and in the music industry all while running her own business, Broad Services, which promotes feminist events and services.
At Code for Australia, Esther is psyched to combine her love of helping people with tech. She’s also excited to share as many dog GIFs as possible with our awesome community.
Cassitie Galliott
Head of Delivery + People
Cass has spent years leading programs and teams for small nonprofits, primarily in the refugee and migrant sector. Getting to know diverse communities, ranging from Melbourne’s Western suburbs to small French Pacific islands has been one of her greatest joys.
In her work, Cass noticed a lack of digital innovation was preventing her clients from receiving better services. Working for Code for Australia, she’s excited to be part of an organisation helping to change this.
In her free time, Cass is usually geeking out over board games, gorging on chocolate, or painting her next commission.
Tim Castle
Product Manager
Tim is “on the ground” in Sydney, helping to drive positive outcomes for our partners and products. He cares about how organisations engage, and thrives on models that are more open and collaborative.
He’s spent the majority of his career engaging with organisations that are purpose driven, conscious of their impact on the world; and focused on alternative value models, not just economic value.
Tim has a wealth of knowledge that he’s always will to share across social impact, social enterprise, human centred design and product innovation. An adventurer at heart (he once bought a horse in Mongolia and rode it to Russia!) chances are he’ll arrive to the meeting on a bicycle after a morning swim.
Founding Team
Our Founding Team continue to coach and advise Base Team and the wider community. Our Founders also serve as our Board of Directors.
Alvaro Maz
Daniel Groch
Jacob Lindsay
Board of Advisors
Our Board of Advisors exist to support and advise Base Team, and include experts from industry and government, our founders and a rotating position for one of our Fellows. To read more about our Board, head here.
Irina Anastasiu
Ex-Fellow, Full-Stack Software Architect & UX Designer
Lizzie O'Shea
Lawyer, Writer, Founder & Chair of Digital Rights Watch
Judy Anderson
CEO at Start Up Victoria
Tien-Ti Mak
Director & Co-CEO at Premonition.io
Jithma Beneragama
Director - Digital Engagement, Dept. of Premier and Cabinet Victoria
Anni Rowland-Campbell
Non Executive Director at Founders and Coders
Mark Woodland
CEO at Xplor, TSG & QK Technologie
Alvaro Maz
Jacob Lindsay
Daniel Groch
Current Fellows
Our current Fellows are the amazing people who are working with us for six months, alongside a government partner, to create change through our Fellowship program.
Michael Lai
Partner: Revenue NSW
Michael is a scientist by training (genetics and bioinformatics) and UX Architect by profession (specializing in data visualization and design systems).
He has also taken his inquisitive and curious mind into the areas of mental health (preventative programs, creative fitness), children’s education (language, arts, science) and sustainable industries (regenerative agriculture, aquaculture).
Since completing his first Fellowship in 2019, Michael has been involved in civic tech and social enterprises through his work with Code for Canada, Brisbane Tool Library and Civic Makers.
In his spare time he can be found moderating UXSE, teaching origami and pondering the impact of decentralization in web 3.0.
Chethana Reddy
Partner: Revenue NSW
Chethana is a developer who also has experience in design. She’s graduated with a Masters in IT from RMIT University.
She has worked internationally and remotely on projects for leading brands, startups and charities, while focusing her energy on UI and Front End Development.
Chethana deeply cares about creating world-class, useful, and beautiful products that help people and make a difference.
She’s both driven and self-motivated, and constantly experimenting with new technologies and techniques.
Ricky Liew
Partner: Revenue NSW
Ricky did Electrical Engineering at uni but decided to work as an IT Infrastructure Engineer after graduation.
He spent many years supporting the back end services of major organisations before deciding to make a switch to web development. He is now a Full Stack Developer and has worked with non-profit organisations.
Ricky is driven to create better human connections with technology. He is passionate about crafting beautiful code and designs that touch people’s lives
Sindhu Harinath
Partner: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Sindhu is an empathy-driven designer who’s passionate about understanding people and creating incredible things!
While studying psychology and IT at university, she discovered that what she loved most was actually the combination of the two – understanding how people use technology and how to make those experiences better.
After teaching herself the basics, she grew her skills and picked up new things by working as a designer in corporate and start-up environments and as a freelancer.
Outside of work, Sindhu loves to make playlists for very specific emotions, go on hikes with her friends, cook new things and hang out with her adorable kitten!
Yuguang Ipsen
Partner: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
Yuguang is a data scientist who delights in making web/mobile apps that are lovely and designed for more discovery and celebration of small joys in our day-to-day life.
Pre-pandemic, she was a lecturer in statistics and wrote a dozen technical research papers in probability and stochastic processes. She likes telling stories from data and is very keen to listen to the whole spectrum of tales that the data is willing to reveal.
She enjoys connections with people and loves to cozy up with her family, stay curious and playful, just like her two little kids.
Ram Parameswaran
Partner: NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
Ram is a software consultant and full-stack developer with a wealth of experience in web development and scientific computing. He helps organisations to embrace web technologies to improve the efficiency of their workflows.
Ram uses his widely varied experiences from software development, strategic consulting and academia to create simple and elegant solutions to complex problems. He believes in the enormous potential for digital technologies to improve the quality of service-provision by government and business, and is excited to partake in the transformation.
In his spare time, Ram loves woodworking and electronics projects. To wind down he enjoys rock climbing, hiking and slacklining.
Fellowship Alumni
Since day one we’ve had amazing people involved in our Fellowship program. To view the full list of legendary folks who have been involved head here.
Facilitators
Our network of facilitators are trusted and respected friends from across industry, who are on call to help us deliver programs around Australia.
Rick Giner
Tech Facilitator
Rick organises conferences and meetups, and loves to speak at events about many topics including delivery management, software engineering, digital accessibility and inclusive design.
When not at work you’ll often find him doing something noisy – running around the playground with his daughter, chopping wood, or listening to heavy metal music!
Renee Noble
Tech Facilitator
Renee has a passion for tech, education and creating communities, and seeks out every opportunity she can to better learn how people relate to tech.
Renee has spent the last 6 years working in the tech industry in organisations from CSIRO to the edtech start-up scene. She’s also spent the last 6 years as the National Director of the Girls’ Programming Network a by-women-for-girls group that teaches girls to code for free. She grew this program from a single-site operation to a national program which now operates in 5 states that teaches 1500 girls to code a year.
She recently founded her own tech education business, ConnectEd Code, aiming to spread her project-learning based methodologies to teachers and students around the country.
Stay Up to Date
We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging across Australia.
As an organisation we benefit from the rich history of contributions that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have made to the world.
