Pauline's career began in Yorkshire England obtaining a Management Degree while working in the catering industry. After working three years in the French Channel Islands, Pauline moved to London to manage restaurants and hotels in the Central Business District.
After emigrating to Australia, Pauline resumed her career in marketing and promotions with the Westfield organisation, before moving to Otford, NSW to take over the Otford Pantry (formerly The Apple Pie Shop) which now not only has a strong local following, has also become world renown with bushwalkers and tourists alike.
In recent years Pauline has been appointed a Director of the Helensburgh Lions Club and Convenor of Wollongong Council's Local Area Meeting, and so brings to the position of President of the Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce, first hand local knowledge of this unique area, its resident community and business sector.
Vice President
Ian Pepper (Property Penguin, Stanwell Park)
Ph: 1300 736 484
Ian is a Chartered Accountant with a Master of Business Administration from Macquarie Graduate School of Management. Ian's career began at one of the large accounting firms and stretched from Sydney to London for almost a decade. Since leaving the accounting profession in 1999, Ian has held numerous executive positions overseas and in Sydney.
Ian is now founder and CEO of Property Penguin, a one stop property and finance service offering around the clock advice and home loans. The NSW Government recognised Property Penguin as an innovative service providing a financial grant to the company in 2006. Ian has also assisted his wife Tanya Pepper recently establish Stanwell Park Physiotherapy.
Ian is also an active participate at Stanwell Park Public School where he regularly attends P&C meetings and assists with fund raising.
After growing up in Wollongong, Andrew has spent 18 years working and studying in Sydney. Since completing a Bachelor of Science and a Masters of Sports Science at University of Sydney, Andrew has had a 15 year sales and marketing career in the pharmaceutical and health industries.
Andrew now lives in Thirroul and is a Real Estate Agent with leading local agency Bevans Thirroul. In the last two years, Andrew has rapidly gained a reputation for achieving outstanding results for his clients through honesty and integrity and an innovative approach to marketing campaigns.
Andrew is passionate about the Northern Beaches of Wollongong and fuels this interest through his active involvement in the Bulli Rotary Club and Northern Illawarra Chamber of Commerce.
Treasurer
Andrew Sheath (Jim's Bookkeeping, Thirroul)
Ph: 131 546
Arriving in the Northern Illawarra in 2005, as part of a 2 year “temporary move” from Sydney’s Western Suburbs, Andrew and his wife decided, less than 6 months later, that this is where they wanted to stay and raise their family.
Andrew has worked in the finance industry for the last 10 years and went in to business for himself in 2007 when he started Jim’s Bookkeeping (Thirroul). “I enjoy being my own boss and knowing that in the end ‘the buck stops here’. My business allows me to interact with other small businesses in the area and conversations invariably lead to local issues and events.”
The NICC has been a pleasant surprise for Andrew. “When it was first suggested to me that I join my local chamber of commerce I thought ‘not another networking event’ but I soon found it was much more than that. The NICC is a professionally run organisation with a membership of friendly people who are very interested in their local area. It really is the voice of businesses in the Northern Illawarra.”
Andrew is also involved with Coledale Surf Life Saving Club and is regularly a contributor towards Coledale Public Schools mathematics programme.
Membership Officer
Greg Watts (Helensburgh Post Office, Helensburgh)
Ph: 4294 1008
Greg was born and raised in the Northern Illawarra and is a graduate in metallurgy at the University of Wollongong. He commenced his career at the steelworks in Port Kembla before moving to an engineering testing and consulting company in Sydney, working in Business Development and Marketing.
In 1993 he joined a US-base multinational chemical company in an Australasian Sales and Marketing role, followed by transfers internationally to head office in the US and regional office in Shanghai, China. Greg held roles in and gained expertise in product, supply chain and pricing management and marketing both globally and regionally within Asia Pacific.
In 2004, Greg became the licensee of Helensburgh Post Office, quickly learning the skills of small business ownership, and customer service. He brings significant skills in Marketing and process management, and small business operations to the Chamber’s Executive Committee.
Lynda comes from an extensive 22 year Travel Industry background, having owned and operated two travel agencies on the NSW South Coast; managed corporate and leisure travel centres for Qantas, and as Australian Retail Sales Coordinator was responsible for the national operations, training, customer service, policy and procedures of 20 Qantas Travel Centres and their 700 staff.
In 2004 Lynda established Stark Event Management in Thirroul, freelancing in that Industry throughout Sydney and the Illawarra region on a broad variety of corporate and community events.
In 2009, under the new business name of Stark Marketing & Events, Lynda now also provides marketing consulting services to small business operators and non-profit organisations, specialising in strategic marketing, branding and communications, advertising and promotions, media and public relations.
Lynda has served on the Batemans Bay Chamber of Commerce and has chaired or participated on many corporate Joint Management Committees. Lynda brings to the Executive team strengths in management, operations and marketing and the strong desire to seek continuous improvement in all she is involved.
Sally-Anne is a newcomer to the Illawarra region having relocated to Helensburgh at the beginning of 2009. She escaped from the UK with her husband in 2004 and loves everything Australia has to offer her family. Sal joins the exec committee in the role of meetings coordinator.
With a corporate background in financial planning, executive recruitment, training and coaching Sal brings a breadth of experience to the chamber. As well as being a busy mum Sal also runs a career development website myambition.com as well as expanding her own business nourish coaching in the Illawarra region. She says "if you had told me that i would be living in the bush after 5 years of landing in Australia I would have laughed but living in the region gives me the best of both worlds, the gorgeous Illawarra coastline as well as the beautiful National Park on my doorstep!"
