Motherless Daughters Australia

Rita Marigliani - Chair

Rita has a passion for bringing corporate and community together. Working in both the corporate and not for profit sector, her career has focused on helping organisations harness community and sustainability initiatives to meet mutual strategic, social and sustainability goals. Currently heading up Corporate Responsibility and Communications at Australia’s largest dairy processor, Saputo Dairy Australia, she is responsible for the strategy, execution and management of corporate responsibility programs and the custodian of corporate reputation.

Rita was 22 when she lost her mother Maria to breast cancer. She brings her own experience of life milestones without a mother’s support and guidance, and the opportunity to share life’s achievements and joys, to her work with Motherless Daughters Australia.

Sally Browne AM

Sally Browne has had a diverse life…
As a teenager she played the washboard with the Red Onion Jazz band. In the late 60’s she became a Fashion Designer, started her own business and won a myriad of awards for excellence in fashion design and business leadership.
Concurrent with raising four children and running her fashion business, she worked with scientists in Finland developing the first heart rate monitor to measure and identify stress. Eager for more challenges and adventures she moved from high fashion to high altitude adventures in the Everest region and went on to summit Mt Kilimanjaro. She is always planning a new adventure or business venture, more recently she has been studying 3D printing.
Sally is an Australia Day Ambassador and serves on a number of committees and boards. She is also involved with philanthropic activities through her Charitable Foundations. Sally’s mum died of Motor Neurone Disease when Sally was a young mother herself.
Over a decade ago she started a group for young women who had lost their mothers, sweetly known as ‘Girls without Mummies’. She has always had a real soft spot for young women who lose their mums and is honoured to be involved with Motherless Daughters Australia.

Brad Ward

Brad is a leading brand and strategic marketing advisor and researcher. He is a Company Director of Medical Minds Pty Ltd, a leading strategic marketing and brand development organisation for medical and health care professionals. With a national reputation for helping to deliver innovative brand strategies and advertising solutions for health care professionals and organisations, Brad uses evidence based marketing science and consumer behaviour research to design competitive advantage. As a marketing researcher and academic, Brad has expertise in consumer psychology, practice led research, service innovation, consumer anthropology, digital marketing and emerging digital technologies.
Brad is a Certified Practicing Marketer and member of The Australian Marketing Institute, American Marketing Association, Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy, European Social Marketing Association and QUT Centre for Entrepreneurship Research.

Kellie Curtain

Kellie has a passion for telling other people's stories. A former broadcast journalist, she has more than 15 years experience covering News and Current Affairs for Australia's major television networks. The mother of four recently returned from six years living in the Middle East with a futher developed skill set in online journalism and writing for corporate events. Her move to expat life came when she was 42, a year after losing her mother Pamela to breast cancer, who was 71. For the self confessed 'home body', leaving Australia and her close network of family and friends was a big step, but no bigger then the prospect of life without her mum who had been her best friend and part of her day, everyday. She didn't know it at the time, but life in the sands provided an opportunity to heal and to write the book she didn't know she had in her. 'What will I wear to your funeral?' is a memoir about final conversations before dying. It's raw, funny, heart breaking and depicts the unique bond between mother and daughter.

Kellie is currently a consultant for Breast Cancer Network Australia and an ambassador for Advanced Care Planning Australia.

Mark Woolley

Mark has a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne. He was a partner in the legal firm Gadens for more than 27 years and is a leading property industry lawyer with experience in property investment and development across Australia. He has extensive experience in providing advice on major property/planning transactions and advising on property related issues in the not for profit sector.

Over the course of his career, Mark has been part of executive leadership teams and led professional service teams for over 20 years. Mark brings to Motherless Daughters Australia expertise in developing national capabilities and competencies.

With a reputation for mentoring and developing talented people, Mark has developed many excellent relationships with colleagues and clients. He is passionate about helping people achieve their best and creating a culture of innovation and excellence.

"I am looking forward to being a member of the board of Motherless Daughters Australia. I joined the board because I am passionate about our purpose and believe that we can connect and inform women and girls without mothers to help them deal with the everyday and life's milestones. I hope to use my legal and commercial experience to help Motherless Daughters Australia achieve its vision."

Echo Beltsos-Russo

Echo loves nothing more than connecting with people and bringing people and businesses together through shared purpose to build truly meaningful relationships and brands. With extensive experience in advertising and marketing, Echo has lead entire marketing functions throughout her 20 year career to deliver outstanding results across brands such as Libra, Nestle, Pacific Brands and the University of Melbourne. With executive leadership experience and a Bachelor of Psychology, Management and Marketing from Monash University, Echo brings a deep understanding of human behaviour and psychology to Motherless Daughters Australia. Echo is empathic in her approach to everything she does, and has a refined and astute ability to see opportunities others can’t, leveraging them to optimise business outcomes. After losing her mum at 36 to cancer, Echo really wanted to contribute to an organisation that allowed her to share her story, whilst helping others through the unique and enduring labyrinth that is mother loss.

Christina Liosis

A progressive Financial Services leader and experienced non executive director with a demonstrated capacity to build and grow businesses across the industry, retail and corporate sectors. A focus on both efficiency and risk to maximise returns. Experience across Risk, Finance and Operations in Wealth and IT businesses. Her specialist skills include: Risk and Corporate Governance, Audit, Finance and Strategy. Christina is currently working as a Senior Risk Partner backfilling for the BAU, for the MLC Wealth Head of Risk role. Christina is also 2nd line Risk Partner for the MLC Wealth, Operations and is assisting with the separation of the Wealth business from NAB as a Risk-Superannuation SME. Christina has strategic Risk experience specialising in establishing and embedding Risk Management Frameworks, processes and operationalizing Risk Management in Superannuation and Wealth Management businesses. Many years experience managing stakeholders namely- regulatory relationships from a Risk perspective with the regulators APRA and ASIC.
Christina has also worked with Audit & Risk Committees, Risk Committees and Boards to develop appropriate Risk Frameworks to suit the risk profile of the organisation.

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