hipages

Jodette Cleary

Chief People and Culture Officer

Roby Sharon-Zipser

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Jaco Jonker

Chief Finance and Operations Officer

Leadership

Jodette Cleary is the chief people and culture officer at hipages, joining the business in 2015 after founding and leading the boutique HR consultancy We Know HR for eight years. In her consulting career, she partnered with high-growth organisations, including Red Balloon, Atlassian, BigCommerce and Campaign Monitor, helping them scale their people strategies. Previously, Cleary served as Asia-Pacific HR director at Honeywell Building Solutions, where she oversaw more than 2,000 employees across 11 countries. Her experience spans IT&T, recruitment and mining. Cleary holds a Bachelor of Arts in Industrial Relations and Psychology, a Masters in Labour Law, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Chief People and Culture Officer

Jodette Cleary

Roby Sharon-Zipser is the CEO, co-founder and executive director of hipages Group. A serial entrepreneur, he builds and invests in businesses that challenge the status quo and redefine how industries operate. Driven by a passion for developing technologies that free people to focus on higher-value work, Sharon-Zipser leads hipages Group’s mission to transform the trade industry. He founded the company in 2004 after experiencing firsthand the frustrations of renovating his own home. Today, Sharon-Zipser helms a data-driven powerhouse for tradies and homeowners, shaping the hipages Group tradie ecosystem and a unique industry map of opportunities. His strong grounding in numbers underpins a culture of innovation, accountability and continuous professional growth.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder

Roby Sharon-Zipser

Jaco Jonker joined hipages in November 2022 as chief financial and operations officer, bringing more than 20 years of senior finance and executive leadership experience across Australia, South Africa, the USA and the UK. Prior to hipages, he was CFO and COO at Open Colleges Australia, where he played a key role in repositioning the business and leading its successful sale. Jonker also spent a decade at South African e-commerce marketplace bidorbuy, serving as both CEO and CFO and driving 250% revenue growth. He began his career in audit with Deloitte, gaining a strong technical foundation. Jonker holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) in Accounting, is a CFA charterholder, and a Chartered Accountant CA (SA).

Chief Finance and Operations Officer

Jaco Jonker

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Marianne Passafaro

Vice President, People and Culture

Marianne Passafaro is the vice president, people and culture at hipages, having joined the company in 2016. She brings extensive P&C experience across the technology, internet and online travel sectors and has worked across 10 APAC countries, giving her a strong global and regional perspective. Passafaro specialises in people strategy, talent acquisition, employer branding, performance and development, playing a pivotal role in attracting top talent, strengthening retention and driving engagement programs. She is passionate about crafting meaningful employee experiences and building high-performance, inclusive cultures that empower individuals to do their best work. Passafaro holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (HR and marketing) from Macquarie University.

Vice President, People and Culture

Marianne Passafaro

Amanda Davies

General Manager – Quality and Assurance

Amanda Davies joined Carers Queensland in March 2025, bringing a strong record of executive leadership across government and the not-for-profit health sectors. A registered nurse and among Queensland’s first nurse practitioners, she combines clinical credibility with deep expertise in strategy, policy, governance, risk and assurance. Davies has successfully led transformational change across complex systems and organisations, strengthening performance, accountability and service quality. She is driven by a clear purpose: to uphold the rights of all people to access safe, high-quality services and to ensure organisations deliver meaningful, lasting impact.

General Manager – Quality and Assurance

Amanda Davies

hipages is Australia and New Zealand’s largest online tradie marketplace, connecting tradies with homeowners and simplifying property improvement and maintenance. It enables tradies to grow their businesses by providing high-quality job leads and a SaaS platform that streamlines and optimises their operations. For homeowners, hipages offers a smarter, easier way to find and connect with qualified, vetted tradies, making the process of hiring help for the home more efficient and trustworthy. The company is inspired and driven by its purpose of transforming the trade industry and building better lives for everyone. Its vision is to be a trusted partner to tradie customers while delivering exceptional service and experiences to homeowners. Over four million Australians have changed the way they hire trusted tradies through hipages, ultimately generating more work for more than 33,000 trade businesses. With a team of 350 people across four countries, hipages is a proudly diverse, creative and collaborative organisation that thrives on working as one team to grow the business and continue delivering strong value to its customers. The impact of hipages is significant. Since its inception, more than 12 million jobs have been posted on the platform, with an average of one job posted every 25 seconds. The company has been consistently recognised as a great place to work and has received numerous awards for innovation, diversity and talent development, underscoring its commitment to both its people and the wider community it serves.

“Monarch E&S has the products, talent, expertise, and reputation to get deals done with our strategic partners and clients, which is essentially table stakes”

Yiana Stavrakis, Monarch E&S Insurance Services

Nikki Robson-Deshong

Manager of First Nations Strategies

Jonathan Lockyer

General Counsel and Company Secretary

Christopher Welty

Chief Human Resources Officer

Simon Williams

Chief Strategy & Distribution Officer, Arch Insurance International and Active Underwriter, Syndicate 1955

Nikki Robson-Deshong joined Carers Queensland in 2018 and is a proud Kuku Yalangi woman from Townsville, North Queensland. She began her public service career in Canberra in the early 1990s, working in the chief minister’s department in Indigenous affairs. Now based in Toowoomba, she serves as manager of First Nations Strategies. With extensive experience across government and the NGO sector, Robson-Deshong is dedicated to advancing self-determination and strengthening First Nations leadership. She is passionate about amplifying First Nations voices and influencing programs and services that directly affect their communities. Outside work, she enjoys family time, camping, fishing, music and supporting the Cowboys.

Manager of First Nations Strategies

Nikki Robson-Deshong

Jonathan Lockyer is general counsel and company secretary at Oyster, with over 25 years of experience in corporate, legal, and investment sectors in New Zealand and the UK. His expertise in investment transactions and robust understanding of the operational, regulatory and legal environment in the New Zealand property sector supports Oyster’s operations and leadership team.

General Counsel and Company Secretary

Jonathan Lockyer

Christopher Welty is dedicated to aligning employees with Brown & Riding (B&R)’s vision and values, fostering mutual growth for all. During his tenure, B&R has more than quadrupled in size. He has helped successfully integrate the company through two mergers and has been a strong advocate for many of the company’s important benefit plan enhancements and development programs. He excels at collaboration and has been a key contributor in establishing and promoting the company’s culture and offering programs and opportunities to help employees build a rewarding career. Welty joined B&R in 2007 as an HR assistant. His dedication and talent earned swift advancement, culminating in his appointment as the firm’s chief human resources officer in 2019.

Chief Human Resources Officer

Christopher Welty

Kimi leads the Estate Planning and Wealth Protection team and is a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. She understands the complex and delicate nature of family estate planning, the technical requirements around probate and estate administration, and the importance of preserving wealth for future generations. Her advice is accurate, commercial, strategic and tailored to each situation.

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Kimi Shah

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Kimi Shah

Partner

Kimi Shah

maintaining an in-house team of more than 20 programmers to facilitate fast improvements direct bill options to streamline the payment process for the agent and the insured providing IVANS policy downloads that enable up to 30 percent labor savings to independent agencies delivering online capabilities including rating, policy documents, payments, and claims reporting

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“We will continue to strengthen our service proposition and customer experience as a key differentiator, as we build on the momentum we have achieved to date across multiple business lines and territories,” says McLean. “Our im is to continue to grow our market relevance and strengthen our partnerships with our strategic brokers as we expand our leadership position in key sectors. “We will also continue to invest in talent. We are committed to drawing from the broadest pools of talent, and to creating an environment that attracts and retains stellar employees. We recognise the importance of building teams that are diverse, collaborative, and innovative and are dedicated to cultivating a supportive and inclusive workplace culture in which all our employees can thrive.”

Monarch’s sister company, Capitol Special Risks, is now part of the Monarch umbrella to provide retail broker customers with expertise and markets in the professional, management, and cyber liability space. “I am very proud of our young and dynamic leadership team,” says Derek Borisoff, chief executive officer of Monarch E&S. “Stefanie McLeod, vice president of personal lines, and Devon Borisoff, vice president of commercial lines, are led by Yiana Stavrakis, our very capable president. All three are known standouts in our industry who lead by example in both work ethic and desire to solve problems. Our firm’s outstanding performance is a result of their positive communications with our people, superb carrier relationships, and proactive management style.” As a full-service MGA and wholesale brokerage, Monarch gives retail insurance brokers access to many different lines of business through its commercial lines, personal lines, professional lines, transportation, mining/energy, CAT property, earthquake, and flood departments. “Monarch E&S has the products, talent, expertise, and reputation to get deals done with our strategic partners and clients, which is essentially table stakes,” says Yiana Stavrakis, president at Monarch E&S. “How do we go above and beyond? We aim to work on every deal, regardless of size, as if it were our personal account and provide our retail brokers with problem-solving competencies to handle hard-to-place risks. Most competitors do not provide the same level of service for smaller brokers and risks as they do for larger ones. Monarch thrives when it comes to providing solutions for small to mid-market risks.”

relationships and teamwork embracing and driving change holding teammates accountable pursuing excellence with humility giving back to the community

Furthermore, talent acquisition and retention pose a significant challenge and are at the forefront of most business leaders’ minds during this unique time. The insurance industry has been aware for years of a looming talent shortage caused by the Baby Boomer generation’s retirement and is now experiencing a war for talent. “Monarch has been able to overcome this talent acquisition challenge by staying true to who we are, a family environment with national resources, which is something we will continue to encourage and promote,” says Stavrakis. “When working for a team like ours, you are not another cog in the wheel but have the opportunity to make your mark and grow with us as we build out Monarch 2.0.” Monarch E&S Insurance Services is licensed in every state and is continuously finding ways to enhance its team, client, and carrier partner experiences. Get ready for the royal treatment as Monarch 2.0 expands digitally.

“I am very proud of our young and dynamic leadership team. Our firm’s outstanding performance is a result of their positive communications with our people, superb carrier relationships, and proactive management style”

Derek Borisoff, Monarch E&S Insurance Services

Yiana Stavrakis, Monarch E&S Insurance Services