Our Team
Base Team
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.
Alvaro Maz
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Alvaro is an entrepreneur with a passion for public issues, technology and social change. In 2013 he launched his first venture, Creative Suburbs, an online platform to help more people make a difference in their cities. He then co-founded Code for Australia in late 2014 which led to launching Code for Aotearoa.
Alvaro’s background is in international development, philosophy and urban planning, none of which he has really practised. On his spare time he works on fun projects (like this) and is also cooking plans to go sailing around the world.
Grace O'Hara
Head of Marketing
Grace is a connector of dots and people, and a fiend for things that make the world a little bit better. She likes blending tech and storytelling and taking little steps towards good things.
After growing up in farms, art school and start-up land, Grace spent a year travelling the world, seeing the power of technology in all shapes, sizes, and efficiencies.
Now, she loves telling meaningful stories and connecting people in authentic ways at Code for Australia and Code for All. In her spare time you might find her attempting to make edible things or writing children’s books.
Facilitators
Lina Patel
Go-To Facilitator
Lina is a facilitator, collaboration designer and former Chief of Getting Things done at Code for Australia, where she made all our programs (Fellowship, Academy, Tech for Non-Tech) hum beautifully.
She spends most of her time with people and teams who know where they are headed; who aren’t sure how to get there; and are open to iteration.
People frikkin love her workshops and meetings.
Ben Ralph
Tech for Non Tech Lead
With over a decade of experience founding tech companies and teaching web development, Ben is happiest when he’s helping people understand all things human-centred, agile, tech and leadership.
Ben’s approach is to identify significant and real user problems and work collaboratively to find MVP solutions that can be tested in the market – starting with the assumption that the best user experience is one that balances user needs, business goals and technology opportunities.
Sara Rickards
Sandpit Lead
Sara AKA The Sustainability Ninja and F**kgiver, is trained as both a Biomedical Scientist & Environmental Engineer. She is an ignitor of big ideas such as Re:Purpose for Good.Sara is a passionate connector, putting purpose and positive impact at the core of everything she does. She is on a mission to unlock human potential and specialises in creating connected and conscious communities.
In a previous life she was the Education For Sustainability Manager at Macquarie University, Co-host for the Un-school of Disruptive Design and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.
Alec Sloman
Tech for Non Tech Lead
Alec Sloman is an educator, facilitator, and software developer with over 15 years of experience in IT.In the not too distant past, he worked as a Lead Instructor at General Assembly and as a Technical Recruiter at Lookahead Search where he gave career advice to hundreds of candidates and worked with many of the most prominent tech companies in Melbourne. He now spends most of his days running a code school in the heart of North Melbourne.
Alec is passionate about driving reform and improving lives with technology. Oh, and he loves hip hop.
Cam Elliott
Sandpit Lead
Cameron has a passion for supporting authentic leadership, innovation, collaboration, strategic thinking and wellbeing in organisations through effective facilitation, training and coaching.As a facilitator of the Sandpit Program, Cameron supports innovators from the public and private sector to collaborate on solving some of the toughest issues the public sector faces.
Board of Advisors
Kate Bennett Eriksson
Head of Innovation, PwC Australia
Kate’s experience and network spans across some of the most iconic digital businesses in the world such as Google, Facebook, Skype and Twitter. Kate has advised corporate boards of various businesses about how they can drive innovation across multiple industries of government, financial services, telecommunications and media.
Jithma Beneragama
Director - Digital Engagement, Dept. of Premier and Cabinet Victoria
A digital executive with international experience driving businesses to succeed, Jithma spent several years in the private sector. He now heads the digital engagement team at the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Dan Groch
Co-Founder and Entrepreneur
Jacob Lindsay
Co-founder & Digital Service Designer
Samantha Wijesinha
Ex-Fellow and Full Stack Developer
After many years managing and supporting technology projects within utilities, superannuation and not-for-profit industries, Sam took the leap and learned to code. In 2017, Sam graduated from the Full Stack Web Development Immersive Course at General Assembly, before combining her project management and web development skills as a Code for Australia Fellow.
Sam is passionate about digital technology and creating useful applications for humans. When not coding, Sam is geeking out on comics, reading and watching science fiction, and spending way too much money on holidays.
Current Fellows
Yalda Khoshvaghti
Government Partner: Cenitex
Yalda is an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Engineer, focused on developing predictive models and systems that automatically improve. She has a background in software development, growth hacking and data-driven marketing.
Dipping her toes into the waters of data science, Yalda has always been excited to learn new and better ways of doing things. From extracting important trends and understanding “what the data says”, to figuring out how to teach computers to recognise patterns in the same way that our brains do, she loves the thrill of solving problems and overcoming challenges.
Julian Nunez
Government Partner: Cenitex
Julian is a Systems and Computing Engineer with more than 8 years of experience in Software Development. He has participated in different IT projects mostly in the Financial sector in Colombia.
He considers himself as a quick learner and finds in the software programming a way to create new digital solutions that help people in different fields, as he is doing it now from the public sector.
He loves travelling, taking amateur photos and listening music.
Stacey Murphy
Government Partner: Cenitex
Stacey “Murph” Murphy is a service and UX designer, helping purpose driven organisations better understand their users and co-create services that are beautiful and impactful. Murph is driven by the power of collaboration to solve social issues holistically and is happiest when she’s surrounded by passionate people.
In her spare time, you can find her finishing her Masters in Design Anthropology or, as with most extroverts, you’ll find Stacey hanging out with people. Wether that’s through her faith community, brunching, sharing a good bottle of wine, watching movies or her favourite pastime – talking. When she’s not with people you’ll probably find her reading or trying to write a short bio.
Kynan Hughes
Government Partner: Service NSW
Michelle Cabanela
Government Partner: Service NSW
Michelle is a human-centred designer and strategist fuelled by her curiosity in human behaviour. Bringing a background in cross channel brand strategy, she uses systems thinking to help empower individuals and support organisations gain a holistic view of their vision by understanding where human insights and experience opportunities align.
Michelle also loves 35mm film photography, hiking, foodie adventures and getting lost in foreign cities.
Adrian Rodriguez
Government Partner: Service NSW
Adrian is a systems engineer from the Industrial University of Santander (Colombia). For the past eight years, he has worked as a software developer and participated in building digital solutions for the transportation and education sectors.
He sees coding as an exciting tool to create not only a product, but a pleasing experience and a way to unleash creativity.
He also is a cycling enthusiast, photographer for fun and is always ready for a cup a coffee.
Kate McKay
Government Partner: Digital NSW
Damian Dzieduch
Government Partner: Digital NSW
Damian is a full stack developer, day-to-day idealist and enthusiast of products with the Apple sign on it.
He started his adventure with NGO’s in 2010 and has since helped numerous startups and cooperatives grow up in the digital world.
After work, Damian is a husband and father and a fan of fast and broken music.
Associates
Ezekiel Kigbo
Government Partner: Neighbourhood Justice Centre
Fellowship Alumni
Jing Jing Wang
2019 Fellow
Scout Quinn
2019 Fellow
Alex Reid
2019 Fellow
Wilson Mok
2019 Fellow
Michael Lai
2019 Fellow
Kate Currie
2019 Fellow
Victor Nava
2018 Fellow
Kyreena Hay
2018 Fellow
Lara Stephenson
2018 Fellow
Jonathan Castillo Bello
2018 Fellow
Georgina Lewis
2018 Fellow
Claramae Gonsalves
2018 Fellow and Associate
Elise Chant
2018 Fellow
Merrin MacLeod
2018 Fellow
Krishna Ali
2018 Fellow
Devy Sihaloho
2017 Fellow
Michael Batley
2017 Fellow
Teresa Villanueva
2017 Fellow
Rachelle Salvadora
2017 Fellow
Samantha Wijesinha
2017 Fellow
Kerrie Batrouney
2017 Fellow
Louise Krstic
2017 Fellow
Samara Dionne
2017 Fellow
Kristen Hardy
2017 Fellow
Georgia Hansford
2017 Fellow
Tatiana Lenz
2017 Fellow
Christian Arevalo
2017 Fellow and Associate
Rikke Winther-Sørensen
2017 Fellow
Michael Calle
2017 Fellow
Ben Minerds
2016 Fellow
Ken Mok
2016 Fellow
Johan Codinha
2016 Fellow
Arnham Markac
2016 Fellow
Irina Anastasiu
2016 Fellow
Becca Blazak
2016 Fellow
Diana Ramirez
2016 Fellow
Veronica Farias
2016 Fellow
Elmer Ibayan
2016 Fellow
Kasra Majbouri
2016 Fellow
Jesse Morabito
2015 Fellow
Giselle Sperber
2015 Fellow
Rosetta Mills
2015 Fellow
Ruth Pearson
2015 Fellow
Alisha Ryans-Taylor
2015 Fellow
Peter Welte
2015 Fellow
Steve Bennett
2015 Fellow
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© 2019 Code for Aus Pty Ltd
Dan Groch is a technology entrepreneur who founded Hero Boyfriend and co-founded Code for Australia and Fig & Bloom. Dan helps corporations and governments achieve more with less by leveraging open data, human capability and behavioural economics. In his spare time, he likes baking scones.