Our people

Luke Kerr is passionate about Innovation! Having taught for 19 years in mainstream education, Luke felt we could enhance opportunities for students by partnering with Industry. By collaborating with Industry and Tertiary sectors, Luke saw how we could provide a more innovative education model.

Whilst participating in PwC’s 21^st Century Mind Accelerator Program in 2016 he saw we needed to engage students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) from a young age. The need for mentors in this space, those with “hands on experience” was obvious. Luke also saw the need for students to engage in learning that allowed students to experience uninterrupted “flow”. Typically, students are required to move from lesson to the next without being provided with the time to connect to an idea.

A model emerged that provided students with an opportunity to learn about STEM from passionate mentors with expertise difficult to recruit in schools that gave students the opportunity to “learn by doing”. Experiential learning is at the heart of every workshop we host. Students learn more than just technical skills. They learn about collaboration, problem solving, working in teams, developing resilience and the importance of staying curious.

We want students to connect with finding their purpose. This requires asking students to be courageous, prepared to accept failure and being comfortable with being uncomfortable. It makes for an exciting journey! We stand with the change makers that want to be MAD (Make a Difference)

Laura has been working with schools for over 15 years helping them deliver better learning outcomes.

She has led multiple teams over the works and was lucky enough to work with some of the most innovative minds in education. Laura has extensive experience in digital transformation having worked with schools on implementing 1-to-1 programs and digital curriculum.

Laura has a passion for learning analytics and how data can enable better practice.

Prior to joining Maths Pathway in 2017, Laura led the sales team at Wiley and prior to this at Pearson, where she accelerated these companies transition to digital solutions.

Laura believes that education is the most powerful agent of change, changing individuals and in turn society.

Laura is a frequent speaker at large events and conferences.

Lister has been a professional educator for the past 50 years. In his early career he taught in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Canada and he has since spent 34 years heading leading schools around the world and in Australia.

He has been involved in founding international schools in Asia and Europe, and has served as executive chairman of two of these schools. He remains actively involved as an advisor and a school governor overseas, and is also on a local Victorian school council. He has consulted extensively.

Lister has a lifelong commitment to promoting, developing and providing inclusive, relevant and where possible real-time learning opportunities for young people. He has also had significant involvement in classroom and whole school initiatives to educate all for a sustainable future.

Jo Smyth is the founder of Twiga Group. Jo has been employed in the corporate sector for over 20 years, with a career spanning senior leadership roles focused on strategic organisational change, engagement and communications, human resource and employee relations management, transformation program and project management and leadership of global multi-disciplinary teams.

Jo is an experienced Board professional, with a directorship portfolio focused on education and employability outcomes, contributing to social impact change to achieve good outcomes in early childhood and research, school and vocational, and specialist science and technology education.

Having worked at the intersection of the entertainment business, NGOs and technology, Annmarie aims to provide unique multi-disciplinary perspectives that drive tangible outcomes. As Gomo Foundation’s School Ambassador Program Lead, she’s building a program that provides positive educational outcomes for girls in Zimbabwe and empowers local students to grow and develop their leadership skills.

Annmarie loves to discover, develop and celebrate strengths in people. With a love of networking, building value based relationships and connecting people, she loves to create “front row” moments and experiences and she is obsessed with podcasts and learning.

Annmarie is currently developing an initiative that enables young people to obtain 21st Century skills by working with NGO’s, charities & social enterprises. Combining the latest learning techniques, real world challenges and powerful life changing questions that help youth flourish as leaders, influencers and connectors so they can grow networks, inspire others and make meaningful impact in their communities.

Dr Tom Montague oversees the implementation of the CSIRO Digital Careers program in Victoria and Tasmania.

Tom has advised governments, universities, business and industry on technology development, marketing and natural resource management.

He is passionate about science and technology, data analysis and the benefits and opportunities these can bring.

He has a PhD from the University of Oxford.

Glyn Powell is a Product Manager with 6 years of professional business experience including Sales and Product Development.

Glyn has a degree in Science and a Masters degree in Commercialisation and brings a passion for converting ideas into practical outputs.

Meldon is the Principal solicitor at Cruz Legal with a background in advising government regulators, small to medium businesses and ASX listed clients (and their directors) on corporate, commercial, regulatory and governance issues as well as real property.

His previous roles include a top-tier commercial law firm, a big-four accounting firm and as in-house counsel at a large government department and a state regulatory agency.

Meldon’s role on RTL includes advising on commercial, governance and regulatory matters and he brings passion, energy and commercial acumen to the role to support the vision of RTL and ensure future generations can benefit from the organisation’s mission.

With a background in corporate IT, tackling social issues in his local community wasn’t always his priority. But over time Merv found himself spending more time developing his social initiative.

Eventually Senior Techies was born – A social enterprise that helps seniors overcome social isolation through a digital engagement program with local high school students.

And from this his broader social program, The Better Together Project, has evolved.

Merv is now working on a number of initiatives, under The Better Together Project to bring the two generations together.

Natalie See is the Principal at Hilltop Road Public School, where she loves being part of an amazing community.

Natalie is passionate about creativity and innovation in learning.

Natalie believes relationships and trust are essential for students, teachers, parents and the community, to learn together, to promote positive, authentic and engaging learning environments for all.

Ranil is a proud father of 2 young children and is driven by Social Purpose.
Ranil has come from humble beginnings in Singapore, and learned the ropes through the school of hard knocks. His first Advertising role was writing Birth and Death notices in the Herald Sun Classifieds but ended up managing the Entertainment Advertising department. Given a hunch that Online Advertising may take off, in 2005 he made the switch to a role servicing Advertising Agencies with their online spend. Years later, he founded a Digital Agency facilitating Ad campaigns for Government and Brands.

Ranil now consults for Digital Remedy, a company specialising in more meaningful connections between a Brands’ message and their next customer.

The higher mission is to make a positive impact in children’s lives through the power of Education.  The profit-for-good model has resulted in building Water Wells in Sri Lanka, nourishing kindergarten children and organising higher learning scholarships for orphans in Laos.

RTL’s Vision and Passion towards empowering forward-thinking children is aligned with everything Ranil believes in, and brings an expertise in Entrepreneurship, Marketing and a genuine hunger to help uncover, educate and motivate the leaders of tomorrow.

Tony specialises in understanding and delivering large, complex operational, technology and strategic change. Tony has successfully led and managed numerous Operational & Finance teams and large scale transformation programmes. Tony has built his expertise working across a range of multinational companies, in a number of sectors, with a particular expertise in Financial Services and Utilities, in Australia, the UK and the US.
Tony is a strong people leader and is very passionate about introducing new and different ways of working, based on Operational and Business Excellence principles, to drive people engagement, client outcomes and enterprise productivity & performance.

Louis is an Internationally experienced recruitment and Talent Acquisition specialist. With extensive network and deep knowledge across a range of ICT and Digital roles, spanning executive level, technical as well as program / Project management and delivery.

Louis has a passion for helping young people get into STEM and help them find out what is out there, get involved and most importantly have fun! He has connected a number of people at RTL using his network of contacts in Melbourne.

He has seen that a large number of clients are looking for digital and technical skills and experience that are proving hard to find. Louis believes RTL can make a huge difference by getting kids into STEM and offering them a pathway to get into Digital, Technical and Engineering & this will ultimately mean more talent will reach local companies in the future.

Louis says “what is exciting about RTL is that we can plant the seeds now which will become the employees of the future and wouldn’t it be cool to say we had some part to play in that!”

Hacia has had the privilege of working in the accounting profession since 2007, commencing her career as a bookkeeper servicing a range of SME clients, before progressing into financial planning and finally moving into Accountancy. She initially began as an Assistant Accountant at Atherton before advancing through several ranks into her current roles of Chief Commercial Officer, Company Secretary and Company Director. Hacia started her CPA in 2017 from a hospital bed after a tragic accident left her unable to walk and it was the structure and discipline of the qualification which she credits for providing her with the foundation with which she has rebuilt my life.

One of her great passions is education, and she believes that the best way to learn is through stimulating practical application of theory. In her role as Chief Commercial Officer at Atherton, Hacia has been honoured to mentor several young professional accountants and provide financial guidance to several NFP and charities. Her focus has primarily centred on, but not been limited to, good governance and compliance, commercialising strategy, customer satisfaction and thoughtful leadership. She has also engaged in strategy development and implementation with a strong focus on extensive change management programs and ensuring change is effectively embedded within the organisation.

Jillian has been engaged in diverse educational settings, always creating and relishing opportunities to deliver dynamic and meaningful programs.

Jillian considers herself extremely fortunate to have worked in a broad variety of educational settings over her 30 plus years as a teacher.

She has been inspired by the courage and resilience of the human spirit and has been delighted to be part of the learning process.

In all of her teaching endeavours Jillian has opened her doors to let the world in. She believes Real Time Learning is even better, because the students are learning in the real world.

Jillian started her teaching career as a primary school teacher.

After completing a Graduate Diploma in Education in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.) she was employed by Adult Multicultural Education Services for over 10 years where she taught English to adults and adolescents, who were often survivors of war, from places like Cambodia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Russia, Bosnia and Croatia.

She also delivered individualised programs in cultural diversity to a variety of Melbourne industries.

Jillian returned to study and completed a Graduate Diploma in Counselling at Latrobe University.

She also completed studies in psychology at the Cairn Miller Institute.

Jillian went on to teach adolescents, who were unable to cope in mainstream schools, in an innovative community program for 3 years.

Following this she worked at Dandenong Chisholm, where she taught Literacy and Numeracy to Aboriginal youth and helped write profiles for Aboriginal artists.

Jillian also taught Project Management and communication skills in mainstream classes.

At this time she began teaching at Mt. Martha Primary School in a part time capacity.

For over 10 years Jillian was a volunteer with the Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria and supported and organized fundraisers and was a member of several delegations to the Victorian Government Health Minister negotiating for improved services on the Mornington Peninsula.

This resulted in the mental health wards built at Frankston Hospital and the Peninsula Psychiatric Services.

She now teaches at Mt Martha Primary School, where she continues to open her doors to the world for her students.

Russell is the founder of Hands On Learning Australia, a Harm Prevention Charity working to reengage students with their school and local community.

Hands On Learning is a program that significantly increases confidence, attendance and retention of disengaged students 11 to 16 years of age.

Russell taught in a variety of secondary schools both in Australia and the UK before developing the Hands On Learning method in 1999. Russell has a passion for teaching and supporting young people struggling with mainstream education and won the 2003 Westfield Premier’s Education Scholarship. This gave him the opportunity to further explore international approaches to educating disengaged young people.

Since then, Hands On Learning has become a respected model for reengaging and maintaining disaffected students at school in indigenous, rural, and urban settings.