Our Board

An experienced commercial leader in the digital advertising industry. Vanya has been with the Carsales business since 2009 and is dedicated to providing her clients with market leading ideas and service. Vanya was elected Chair of IAB Australia in 2024. 

Andrew Brain is the Director, Data & Growth, at Seven West Media and responsible for shaping the data-driven audience and revenue growth strategies of 7plus. Andrew has 20 years of industry experience in leadership roles in digital media across publishing, out of home, radio and television.

Sarah is a seasoned marketing professional with 20+ years’ experience building and expanding well-known Australian brands. She has a particular focus on brand and product storytelling and is passionate about leading high performing teams.  Sarah joined REA Group in 2019, after holding senior marketing positions, including Group Director of Marketing, at Domain. Sarah has spent much of her career in digital media and led B2C and B2B marketing strategies across Fairfax Media.

At REA Group, Sarah leads a team of marketing specialists across brand and performance, lifecycle marketing, audience and personalisation, and analytics. She was recognised in CMO50 list in 2022.

Paul is senior digital media executive with 20+ years of industry experience leading digital strategy, product, and developing specialist commercial teams and has been with News Corp for ten years. Paul is a proven leader that has led organizational change and digital transformation in an evolving media landscape to deliver results through innovation.

Rebecca Costello is the managing director of Guardian Australia overseeing the strategic direction and overall growth of the Guardian Australia business. Rebecca previously spent  17 years as CEO of Schwartz Media. Earlier in her career, she held senior commercial roles in a number of other established and start-up Australian media businesses.

Suzie Cardwell is the Chief Data Officer across the Nine group, positively impacting consumer and commercial experiences, as well as identifying future opportunities.

An seasoned media executive of more than 20 years, Cardwell brings a wealth of consumer and commercial experience and expertise in media, digital and data to the role. With a proven track record in leading successful data-driven change programs, she has held prominent leadership roles in other large media organisations, including News Corp and Foxtel, prior to joining Nine.

With 20+ years experience across media and tech, Caroline currently leads the go-to-market, strategy and sales specialist teams for YouTube and DV360 in AUNZ. Prior to this she led Google Australia’s FMCG ads business with her role focused on helping clients continue to build strong brands and engage their customers as consumer behaviour evolved. Caroline started her career in the UK in a start-up before moving to News UK where she led the Insight & Strategic Planning function.

John is an experienced digital advertising expert who has spent the last 15 years immersed in the world of advertising data and technology. In his current role he looks after the technology underpinning Yahoo’s suite of products across APAC, working to bring innovative and impactful solutions to life for blue-chip clients in the region. John has been on various Councils with the IAB over the past 9 years.

Carolyn is the Head of Media at Facebook Australia where she is responsible for partnering with agencies to grow their businesses, achieve results for clients and help scale education across the Facebook family of apps. Carolyn was featured on the 2015, & 2020 B&T Women in Media Power List and won the B&T Women in Technology award in 2020.

Carolyn has had 15+ years in the digital space on three continents and multiple cities (Boston, San Francisco, Sydney, London and New York.) She is an active member of the Australian digital community, and as one of the founding members of the IAB Australia AdTech Council, she helps define policies and standards that benefit the greater industry as a whole. Bollaci works closely with leading brands and agencies in the region and has been involved with some of the most innovative digital advertising campaigns across Asia.

Bec is responsible for leading the marketing function at Domain, this includes consumer and trade marketing, creative, digital, content, publishing, communications and PR. She was previously responsible for digital transformation strategy at CommSec and prior to that she has held senior marketing roles at Westpac, St George, Ikea and Vodafone. 

Adele has over 12+ years digital experience and 8+ years in programmatic, and has secured a reputation as one of the top authorities on programmatic media trading in Australia and the broader APAC region. Adele got her first taste of the power of technology in the digital ecosystem straight out of university, optimising the performance campaigns for advertisers at two market leading publishers in Australia. For Adele, technology has allowed her to develop a childhood love of solving puzzles into a career focused on tackling complex issues for digital media owners and buyers. Making the transition into the technology space in early 2012, Adele furthered her expertise in programmatic by working with exchange technology and began consulting for CoLab Media Consulting in 2016 before her appointment as Country Manager at Index Exchange in 2017. As one of the first employees in APAC, she was tasked with growing Index’s footprint by building a team and educating publishers and buyers on the promise of programmatic media. In 2019, Adele was appointed as Regional Managing Director and is responsible for overseeing the company’s operations, strategic direction and future growth opportunities for the APAC region.