Jodi Geddes

co-founder
ABOUT JODI

Jodi’s career began in 1999, where she worked in PR and Sponsorship for global brands including Visa International, Foster’s Group and NAB. During this time she ran the global Rugby World Cup Visa sponsorship and also managed major partnerships with AFL, NRL and Tennis Australia. After 11 years at NAB in various roles and the birth of 2 (gorgeous but cheeky) daughters, Jodi realised her passion was in supporting and empowering parents and companies to look at parental leave differently.

In 2017, she launched Circle In with Kate Pollard. As Co-founder, Jodi is responsible for the business offering and is passionate about working with leading companies to better support their working parents. Jodi hopes that Circle In will improve the lives of working parents, because she knows first hand that having a career and being a parent are not mutually exclusive.

When not working on the business, Jodi loves spending time at home relaxing, enjoying a glass of bubbles and catching up with friends over a long lunch. She prefers coffee over tea, cheese over dessert and pilates over swimming.

Kate pollard

co-founder
ABOUT KATE

Kate’s career began in 2000 (a year later than Jodi due to her honours degree!) where she joined Accenture on their graduate program. As a marketing expert, Kate’s career has spanned across global brands including CBA, NAB and realestate.com.au. She has led large marketing teams and has a passion for connecting with consumers.

Kate is driven by a strong purpose and proud that every day she contributes to making a real difference to the lives of working parents. She is particularly passionate about giving dads the same opportunity and working with companies to create the right environment to support all parents. Kate leads our consumer offering and future strategy projects (big words for exciting things to come!).

Kate’s everyday heroes are working mothers. Outside of work, she is surrounded by boys - her husband, 2 gorgeous kids and a miniature schnauzer. Kate is fluent in French, loves red wine and is addicted to chocolate (no seriously addicted). While she doesn’t drink coffee, she has serious fire in her belly, prefers pants over skirts and has a dream of living in the south of France one day.

Phil Heys

Director of Sales
ABOUT PHIL

Phil is the Director of Sales for Circle In. Phil began his career in the UK in 2002, before deciding to move to Australia in 2008. He has over fifteen years of sales experience spanning across recruitment, financial services, HR Tech and SaaS industries. Phil’s most recent roles have been focussed within the HR Tech space helping both domestic and global brands navigate the many challenges faced in attracting and engaging with the world's top talent. He's passionate about helping organisations create working environments that enable their employees to be the best version of themselves they can be.

When he's not talking to our partners around supporting the modern working parent, he is busy being a parent himself to his little boy and Boston Terrier fur child. He's a self-confessed coffee & bomboloni addict and is always on the hunt for Melbourne's next hidden gem. He likes to keep fit (a bi-product of all the bomboloni's) and maintain a healthy mind. “I'm always on the lookout for the next way to challenge myself mentally and physically, anything that helps me to keep up with the juggle of being a working parent.”

MEET OUR INCREDIBLE TEAM

Renee Young

Head of Customer Success
ABOUT RENEE

With a senior background in large corporate organisations including Telstra and ANZ bank, Renee has worked across a range of disciplines from e-commerce and digital optimisation, to people and customer behaviour change.

“I feel all the different things I’ve done have brought me here to my dream role, which at its core is a love of people and customers and bringing about a better experience for everyone who interacts with working parents: their children, their managers, colleagues, and support network,” says Renee. “As Circle In’s partner network grows globally, our team of passionate and purpose-led individuals is growing rapidly with it,” says Kate Pollard, Circle In’s co-founder. “Renee and her team sit at the frontline of supporting our partners to deliver the best possible experience for working parents. It’s a high impact role, and a hugely rewarding one.” As a mother of two, Renee understands that impact too well. “Imagine how wonderful it would be to tell my kids what I did at work and how that will make a positive change now— and hopefully set the pace of change for my girls in the future,” she says.

Isabelle Wawrzon

Marketing Coordinator
ABOUT ISABELLE

Isabelle is our Marketing Coordinator here at Circle In. A recent University of Melbourne graduate, this is her first full-time job...and she’s loving it! Isabelle considers herself very lucky to have found a role in such a great team that offers so many exciting opportunities to explore all parts of the business – from the creative right through to web analytics. From a family of six, she understands just how important it is to support working parents and is proud to work with the Circle In team to spread their vision globally.

When Isabelle is not at Circle In HQ, she can be found tinkling away at the piano, frequenting Melbourne’s theatres and bingeing the latest shows on Netflix. She loves travelling and dreams of one day living in New York, loves a snuggle with a puppy and will never say no to a sweet treat or two.

Michelle Farley

Design Manager
ABOUT MICHELLE

Michelle is responsible for creative development here at Circle In. She is literally obsessed when it comes to all things colour, design, and style.

Michelle is a big believer in progressive work practices, innovative collaboration and being part of a team that doesn’t always need to reside together to create amazing work (and amazing workplace culture!); and just cannot believe she gets to contribute to the incredible outcomes Circle In achieves for working parents (#dreamwork - her words!)

She’s known for her true love of coffee, summertime, and killer outfits. She’s also mum to the most gorgeous little human (who may or may not love sleep, hence provoking said love of coffee above!)

Nancy Manders

Customer Data and Insights Manager
ABOUT NANCY

We think Nancy has the best job. Who wouldn’t love spending every day helping our incredible business partners run their customised stay-in-touch program. In her spare hours, Nancy manages our blog and real story content. Fair to say that Nancy’s role is having a huge impact on all working parents.

Nance is mum to two primary school-aged boys and wife to a gorgeous guy. She’s passionate about flexible working practices and senior job-share/part-time roles in workplaces with supportive, trusting and fun cultures… in an effort to reduce the struggle of the work-life juggle. Becoming a mum doesn’t affect one’s career seniority or experience. Companies can catch some incredible ‘mum’ talent, if job-sharing, part-time or flexible working practices were part of their offering.

Nance couples her analytical wit with creative skills that would leave Picasso in a slump! She’s known for her beautiful photography, artwork, digital designs and creative talent. Check out a small portfolio on insta @nancylouise.creative

Vanessa Geerling

Content editor
ABOUT VANESSA

Our Content Editor, Vanessa, is living the working parent dream: 100% remote and flexible working, while simultaneously juggling three littles, the youngest still in nappies. A far cry from her former career in corporate communications, marketing and events management, but just as hectic and more rewarding.

A creative copywriter and editor with a passion for digital and print publishing, Vanessa loves adding finesse to the stories we bring you. She is forever amazed by the power of these shared stories in improving relations, building community and driving audience engagement.

Vanessa is in her element working in a role designed to connect and support working parents. She gets it—the crazy juggle, the want for a fairer world, the struggle for me time, that gap in your resume—because she’s living it.

When she does manage to steal five minutes to herself, you’ll find her hunting down a top-notch flat white, jumping on the meditation bandwagon or daydreaming about her next European adventure.

Jackson

Resident Pup
ABOUT JACKSON

Jackson is Kate's pup. He's cute. He's great company in the office. He loves attention and on the whole, he's very well behaved. You might even hear him having a great bark in the background when we're chatting with you.

Jackie Cryan

Bookkeeper and resident grandma
ABOUT JACKIE

Jackie is our bookkeeper and ensures our growing team is paid on time! We also like to call her our resident ‘grandma’ and you will often find her telling us all that we work far too hard. We loved welcoming Jackie into our team and building her confidence again after over 10 years out of the workforce.

Jackie is mum to our co-founder, Jodi and adores her grandchildren. She plays an active role in supporting the kids so that Jodi can continue to juggle her career and family.

When Jackie is not at Circle In HQ, she can be found in her sewing room making children’s clothes and gifts. She is a golfer, lover of wine and food and adores her family. In fact, the Circle In community all adore Jackie.

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Phil Heys

Director of Sales
ABOUT PHIL

Phil is the Director of Sales for Circle In. Phil began his career in the UK in 2002, before deciding to move to Australia in 2008. He has over fifteen years of sales experience spanning across recruitment, financial services, HR Tech and SaaS industries. Phil’s most recent roles have been focussed within the HR Tech space helping both domestic and global brands navigate the many challenges faced in attracting and engaging with the world's top talent. He's passionate about helping organisations create working environments that enable their employees to be the best version of themselves they can be.

When he's not talking to our partners around supporting the modern working parent, he is busy being a parent himself to his little boy and Boston Terrier fur child. He's a self-confessed coffee & bomboloni addict and is always on the hunt for Melbourne's next hidden gem. He likes to keep fit (a bi-product of all the bomboloni's) and maintain a healthy mind. “I'm always on the lookout for the next way to challenge myself mentally and physically, anything that helps me to keep up with the juggle of being a working parent.”

Renee Young

Head of Customer Success
ABOUT RENEE

With a senior background in large corporate organisations including Telstra and ANZ bank, Renee has worked across a range of disciplines from e-commerce and digital optimisation, to people and customer behaviour change.

“I feel all the different things I’ve done have brought me here to my dream role, which at its core is a love of people and customers and bringing about a better experience for everyone who interacts with working parents: their children, their managers, colleagues, and support network,” says Renee. “As Circle In’s partner network grows globally, our team of passionate and purpose-led individuals is growing rapidly with it,” says Kate Pollard, Circle In’s co-founder. “Renee and her team sit at the frontline of supporting our partners to deliver the best possible experience for working parents. It’s a high impact role, and a hugely rewarding one.” As a mother of two, Renee understands that impact too well. “Imagine how wonderful it would be to tell my kids what I did at work and how that will make a positive change now— and hopefully set the pace of change for my girls in the future,” she says.

Michelle Farley

Design Manager
ABOUT MICHELLE

Michelle is responsible for creative development here at Circle In. She is literally obsessed when it comes to all things colour, design, and style.

Michelle is a big believer in progressive work practices, innovative collaboration and being part of a team that doesn’t always need to reside together to create amazing work (and amazing workplace culture!); and just cannot believe she gets to contribute to the incredible outcomes Circle In achieves for working parents (#dreamwork - her words!)

She’s known for her true love of coffee, summertime, and killer outfits. She’s also mum to the most gorgeous little human (who may or may not love sleep, hence provoking said love of coffee above!)

Nancy Manders

Customer Data and Insights Manager
ABOUT NANCY

We think Nancy has the best job. Who wouldn’t love spending every day helping our incredible business partners run their customised stay-in-touch program. In her spare hours, Nancy manages our blog and real story content. Fair to say that Nancy’s role is having a huge impact on all working parents.

Nance is mum to two primary school-aged boys and wife to a gorgeous guy. She’s passionate about flexible working practices and senior job-share/part-time roles in workplaces with supportive, trusting and fun cultures… in an effort to reduce the struggle of the work-life juggle. Becoming a mum doesn’t affect one’s career seniority or experience. Companies can catch some incredible ‘mum’ talent, if job-sharing, part-time or flexible working practices were part of their offering.

Nance couples her analytical wit with creative skills that would leave Picasso in a slump! She’s known for her beautiful photography, artwork, digital designs and creative talent. Check out a small portfolio on insta @nancylouise.creative

Isabelle Wawrzon

Marketing Coordinator
ABOUT ISABELLE

Isabelle is our Marketing Coordinator here at Circle In. A recent University of Melbourne graduate, this is her first full-time job...and she’s loving it! Isabelle considers herself very lucky to have found a role in such a great team that offers so many exciting opportunities to explore all parts of the business – from the creative right through to web analytics. From a family of six, she understands just how important it is to support working parents and is proud to work with the Circle In team to spread their vision globally.

When Isabelle is not at Circle In HQ, she can be found tinkling away at the piano, frequenting Melbourne’s theatres and bingeing the latest shows on Netflix. She loves travelling and dreams of one day living in New York, loves a snuggle with a puppy and will never say no to a sweet treat or two.

Vanessa Geerling

Content editor
ABOUT VANESSA

Our Content Editor, Vanessa, is living the working parent dream: 100% remote and flexible working, while simultaneously juggling three littles, the youngest still in nappies. A far cry from her former career in corporate communications, marketing and events management, but just as hectic and more rewarding.

A creative copywriter and editor with a passion for digital and print publishing, Vanessa loves adding finesse to the stories we bring you. She is forever amazed by the power of these shared stories in improving relations, building community and driving audience engagement.

Vanessa is in her element working in a role designed to connect and support working parents. She gets it—the crazy juggle, the want for a fairer world, the struggle for me time, that gap in your resume—because she’s living it.

When she does manage to steal five minutes to herself, you’ll find her hunting down a top-notch flat white, jumping on the meditation bandwagon or daydreaming about her next European adventure.

Jackson

Resident Pup
ABOUT JACKSON

Jackson is Kate's pup. He's cute. He's great company in the office. He loves attention and on the whole, he's very well behaved. You might even hear him having a great bark in the background when we're chatting with you.

Jackie Cryan

Bookkeeper and resident grandma
ABOUT JACKIE

Jackie is our bookkeeper and ensures our growing team is paid on time! We also like to call her our resident ‘grandma’ and you will often find her telling us all that we work far too hard. We loved welcoming Jackie into our team and building her confidence again after over 10 years out of the workforce.

Jackie is mum to our co-founder, Jodi and adores her grandchildren. She plays an active role in supporting the kids so that Jodi can continue to juggle her career and family.

When Jackie is not at Circle In HQ, she can be found in her sewing room making children’s clothes and gifts. She is a golfer, lover of wine and food and adores her family. In fact, the Circle In community all adore Jackie.