David Vitek is the CEO, Co-Founder and executive director of hipages Group and a director of Sajo Hill Pty Limited.

David’s studies in electrical engineering led him to join IBM as a graduate in 1993. During his tenure there he held a number of positions and quickly began leading large development teams providing support to the business globally.

In 2003 David spent a year overseas with software start-up, Report Control. As Technical Director he lead the development of a CRM system to compete with Salesforce.com.

On returning to Australia, David along with Roby, recognised the value in building a simple system for connecting small businesses with consumers. Their solution was Natural Therapy Pages, a directory resource for consumers and a promotional tool for natural health practitioners. In 2004 the concept was adapted and evolved to focus also on tradespeople and home services and later, with the addition of online quoting functionality, saw the birth of hipages.com.au.

David holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) degree from the University of NSW.

Roby Sharon-Zipser is the COO, Co-Founder and executive director of hipages Group, and a director of RSZ Pty Limited.

Roby commenced his career as a Senior Accountant, working with PWC and Allco Finance Group on clients from a broad range of industries. It was during this time that Roby learned the nuts and bolts of setting up entities and managing organisations from a Financial perspective.

Roby founded his own boutique accounting firm Advanced Audit Solutions, offering audit, accounts payable and recovery services. Clients included large corporates such as JB Hi-Fi, Arnotts biscuits, Tyco and General Pants. Roby also provided a small business advisory service.

Roby is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a member of Chartered Accountants of Australia and New Zealand and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of NSW.

Jodette Cleary is the Chief People Officer at hipages joining the team in 2015 after founding and managing the successful boutique HR consultancy We Know HR for 8 years.

Jodette’s many successful consulting assignments span a host of impressive companies including Red Balloon, Atlassian, BigCommerce, AppSense, Moneytech, nearmap and Campaign Monitor.

Prior to this she was the Asia Pacific HR Director for Honeywell Building Solutions, a company that provides building automation and building security technology and solutions. Jodette was a Board Director at Honeywell, with her role spanning 11 countries in the Asia Pacific and employing 2,000+ employees. Prior to her 6 years at Honeywell, Jodette worked in IT&T, Recruitment and Mining.

Jodette holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Industrial Relations & Psychology) from the University of NSW and a Masters of Labour Law and Relations from the University of Sydney.

Karl Cope is the Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary of hipages Group, responsible for leading all aspects of the finance portfolio for the Group.

Prior to joining hipages Group in 2015, Karl was the CFO & Company Secretary for Scott Corporation Limited, an ASX Listed company in the transport and logistics sector where he oversaw a period of significant growth and performance improvement. Karl was responsible for all finance functions including ASX and internal reporting as well as leading the Commercial and Information Technology teams. Karl’s portfolio was responsible for all merger and acquisitions, commercial negotiations with customers and suppliers and business process improvement.

Previously, Karl was the CFO and Company Secretary and National Finance Manager for an ASX Listed company in the automotive industry and a senior manager with Grant Thornton a leading international accounting firm.

Karl holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Masters in Business Administration, is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Stephen Keighery is the Sales Director at hipages, responsible for ensuring all the great tradies and home service providers in Australia are on the hipages platform.

Stephen joined hipages in 2006 and has overseen the growth of our trade and services network from 2,000 tradies to now over 80,000. Prior to hipages, he was a director of a boutique marketing agency specialising in helping SME’s grow their business. He is passionate about sales and helping tradies and home service providers use the hipages platform to transform their businesses.

Stephen holds a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Marketing & Economics from Macquarie University.

Gideon Kline is the Chief Commercial Officer of hipages and leads our business development and partnership programs. His focus is on building strong relationships that create shared value with our diverse range of partners across the retail, real estate, financial services and digital sectors.  He also leads our programs with industry association groups such as the Housing Industry Association.

Gideon joined hipages in 2015 after working with leading companies like SEEK, Yahoo and Metricon.  He also ran his own strategy and consulting practice assisting his clients achieve high growth outcomes.  Gideon began his career in corporate law and then corporate finance.

Gideon holds Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Laws degrees from Monash University and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Nathan Platus is the Vice President Operations of hipages Group, responsible for the international operations of hipages Group in the Philippines as well as overseeing the Consumer and Trade Service Department.

Nathan has been with hipages Group since 2006 and was the Group’s 15th employee, he has been involved in a number of different departments across the organisation from Finance to Sales, Service and Operations.

He is currently undertaking a Master of Business Administration through Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales.

Paolo Ragone is the Chief Technology Officer of hipages Group, responsible for the continuation of growth and commercial success across the Australian market.

Prior to joining hipages Group in 2016, Paolo was the Chief Technology Officer of Gumtree Australia, responsible for the rapid growth of the technology team and the success in maintaining an agile ‘can do’ attitude with that growth.

Previously, Paolo worked in a number of integral roles within e-Bay, including Head of Product Innovation for the Europe division.

Born in Venezuela where he graduated with a Systems Engineering Degree from the Universidad of Metropolitana, he went on to become a Professor of Mathematics before founding his own company. Paolo moved to Australia in 2011.

Tracy Richardson is the Chief Marketing Officer of hipages Group, responsible for for marketing and brand strategy and customer growth across consumer and trade marketing.

Prior to joining hipages Group in 2016, Tracy was the Director of Marketing at Western Sydney University, leading the rebrand of the University and the launch of the renowned Unlimited Campaign.

Previously, Tracy co-founded the Australian operation of startup, Delivery Hero. Tracy was also the Chief Marketing Officer at Delivery Hero, responsible for the development of their global brand. Prior to this, Tracy was the Chief Marketing Officer of Win Corporation working across all of Win’s media divisions. Tracy has also spent seven years at News Corporation in a number of different marketing roles.

Tracy holds a BA in Psychology from the University of Newcastle and a Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Dino Talic is Vice President of Product at hipages Group and leads the product management, user experience and data science teams. Dino has a proven track record of leading cross-functional teams in building and scaling world-class products. Dino has deep expertise in building consumer web and mobile products, with a particular focus on two-sided online marketplaces.

Before joining hipages Group, Dino was a senior product manager at Freelancer.com. Prior to this, he was a software engineer at Canon Information Systems Research Australia and has also held roles at Deloitte, Macquarie Group and Cochlear.
Dino holds a Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Systems (Honours, First Class) and a Bachelor of Business, Accounting degree from the University of Technology, Sydney.

Heith is the independent non-executive Chair of hipages Group, the non-executive Chair of Literacy Planet and the non-executive Chair of the Vision Australia Foundation. He is non-executive director of the ASX listed Bailador Technology Investments and ASX listed LifeHealthcare Group. In addition, he is non-executive director of Academic Colleges Group in New Zealand.

Heith is also a member of the Adara Partners Advisory Board. In Heith’s prior executive career, he was the founding CEO of Sterling Early Education, the Global CEO of Study Group and CEO for PBL Media New Zealand. Heith also held senior executive positions with Australian Consolidated Press and worked in sales and marketing roles for PepsiCo around Australia.

Ari is a non-executive director and member of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee of hipages Group. Ari is a partner at Right Click Capital, Sydney Seed Fund and Wavemaker Partners, he is also the Chair of Mwave Australia and previously held roles as Co-Founder and CEO of iMega (acquired by an ASX listed company), OMG (acquired by Fairfax Media) and Spring.me (acquired by a NASDAQ listed company).

David joined Ellerston Capital in 2005 and has over 20 years’ experience in technology and investment markets, as a researcher, analyst and investor. Most recently, David has been the Investment Director for the Ellerston Ventures Fund.  In this role David leads the investment process, due diligence and negotiations with investees, as well as reporting to investors.

David is the Chairman of Better Caring and an Alternate Director of Hipages, LiteracyPlanet and Friendsurance Australia.

Alisa Bowen is an experienced digital product and consumer technology executive with 18 years global experience in the media and business information industries. Alisa is a former senior Dow Jones executive and General Manager at Wall Street Journal Digital Network, Group Director, Digital Product and Development at News Corp Australia and most recently became News Corp Australia’s Chief Technology Officer. Her leadership focus is on building new product and technology capabilities, teams and cultures to deliver innovation via data insights, design thinking and agile delivery processes.

Brett is a non-executive director and member of the Audit and Risk Committee of hipages Group, and a non-executive director of Sports TG, SocietyOne , Sydney Dance Company and Committee for Sydney. Brett is the Managing Director of Community Publishing for News Corp Australia having had an extensive executive career including senior roles with Fairfax Media, Macquarie Group and Ernst & Young.