Meet the Team
Michele Ardon
Michele has a Bachelor of Arts Degree (with honours) in psychology. She has had a varied career including working as a psychologist, training staff and educators, managing NSW division of the Securities Institute of Australia, owning a café and running her own interior design business.
As a trainer, Michele believes in working around each individuals’ needs and pace, taking things step by step.
Nerida Ashcroft
Nerida has 20+ years IT experience in the wealth management sector. Her skills have been developed through working as a Business Analyst and Project Manager on a range of mainframe as well as Microsoft and Apple desktop applications.
Nerida is a firm believer in keeping our brains active, particularly as we age. Learning new skills on our phones, tablets and laptops is great brain stimulus and helps us stay connected with friends, communities and our families and demonstrates to our young people (who all seem to have computer skills in their DNA), that, although we might not be young, we are still switched on.
Todd Bamford
Todd was trained in Occupational Therapy and worked supporting others in public health services for twenty years, in various clinical and leadership roles. Combined with experience using Android, Windows and Apple technologies, Todd understands the benefits technology can offer, supporting people to be independent and connected.
Todd learned about the value of customer service as a teenager in his first job working in a supermarket and continues this client-focussed approach in his work with IT 4 Retirees: focussing on what is important to you.
Nick Baron
Nick has worked in various agencies the SA Public Sector for over 35 years providing human resource consultancy and management services. Nick brings a wealth of experience in using Android and Apple devices, Windows and the Microsoft suite of applications such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Teams.
He is passionate about making a difference for his clients and helping them to use technology to improve their lives and connect with family and friends.
Helen Brown
Helen’s background is in the Supply Chain Management field, she was expatriated overseas for the last 10 years with an international manufacturing business, where she honed her skills and expertise in people development, training, systems, processes & implementations.
Sue Byrne
Sue has worked for over 40 years in IT related roles, with a focus on software systems. She started out as a programmer and later moved into course development, training delivery and project management. Sue is now semi-retired but she still enjoys helping people get the most out of their technology. Sue has a Graduate Diploma in Training and Development.
Sue has a fantastic knowledge with Apple products and demonstrates this through group training classes.
Ian Cuthbertson
Ian Cuthbertson was a psychiatric nurse for 20 years before he became a technology journalist at The Australian. He builds his own Windows computers but is equally adept on Macs. Now a freelance journalist writing tech, travel, arts and entertainment for a wide range of publications, Ian spends his free time writing songs and instrumental music and recording these in his custom built home studio, walking his much loved Staffordshire terrier Luna, cooking and doing crosswords. He is a big fan of streaming TV services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and has been known to write a book or two when he can get off the couch.
Jon Foote
Jon has worked in IT since 2000, where he began as a data manager and provided research department support including database and data capture development.
He has progressed to work in public, private and academic sectors at management level and enjoys working with people and helping with their IT needs.
Joan Gordon
Joan has been teaching secondary students English and various I.T. subjects since 1997. Prior to that she was involved in hospitality and child raising. She retired in December 2018 and considers assisting retirees in improving their I.T. skills to be a natural life progression. For the past 12 years she has also been a Marriage & Funeral Celebrant - an experience that is more of a joy than a job.
Sally Harrold
Sally has worked in Training and Care Management in the Aged Care industry for over 3 years. Prior to this, she managed a Not for Profit program for 20 plus years. Throughout her career, she has honed her IT skills across the Microsoft suite, social media and communication platforms such as Email, Skype and FaceTime to connect with her colleagues and family.
Lionel Kemp
Building great relationships with clients and helping them to use their devices with confidence is the goal.
Lionel has been involved with accounting systems and IT since 1986 and is passionate about clients and the teams that serve them and look forward to helping them reach their goals and aspirations.
Rob Mason
Rob has worked in the IT industry for 12 years providing technical and software advice for remote users as part of a global travel agency, covering hardware support, software guidance, home networks, mobile phones and more.
Rob places a lot of value in building relationships and providing help in a way that best suits each individual’s level of confidence.
Julie McGrath
Julie has spent 24 years working in the Airline Industry in Sales and Customer Service using many varied systems. After leaving Air New Zealand, Julie embarked on a small business of her own representing numerous wholesalers in the Gift industry and travelling throughout Queensland & northern NSW.
Looking after people and helping with their needs has been a big part of Julie’s working life and coming on board with IT 4 Retirees, seems a natural progression as she looks forward to helping Queenslanders get the most out of their devices.
Glenys Metters
Glenys has been working in the banking and corporate world for 30 years in various roles and has amassed strong skills in Microsoft Office and other technical databases. She has also held positions in customer service involving teaching and mentoring team members in IT systems and being part of committees that designed new systems.
Glenys completed a Bachelor of Management in 2016 online while living as an expatriate and completed Cert IV Training & Assessment in 2004. Glenys enjoys travelling overseas, has a daughter and grandchild who live in the UK as well as two sons and four grandchildren in Australia.
Vanessa Payne
Vanessa's background is in Hotel Management and back of house operations. The last 10 years have been dedicated to her family, raising her son and daughter.
Vanessa loves being engaged in her community and contributes as a volunteer several times a week. She is delighted to join the IT 4 Retirees team in a supportive and administrative capacity.
Jennifer Pedler
Jennifer has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering and has held both technical and marketing roles in Melbourne, Darwin and Adelaide. She has taught Trouble Shooting and Decision Making, trained people with the use of project management software and coached junior netball over many years.
With a family now spread across different states and countries, Jennifer appreciates the value of communication software and social media to keep connected. She is keen to help people feel comfortable and confident with technology to assist them keeping in touch with family, friends and with what’s new.
Phil Ryder
After graduating with Bachelors in Electrical Engineering & Science, Phil spent over 30 years working for large multinational IT corporations, specialising in the support of networks and telephony systems, and training users on collaboration applications. He has seen first-hand how even tech-savvy individuals can sometimes struggle to learn new technologies without the right guidance.
Having now left the corporate world behind, Phil is passionate about building trusting relationships to guide users of all levels to navigate the increasingly connected world we live in. It's all about developing the confidence to get started, finding the right technology for you, and then having fun with it.
Julie Short
Jules has a nursing background having nursed in Toowoomba for a number of years followed by a long stint working for various doctors in different specialties. Jules has also diversified to other fields over the years including accounting, software installation and training for Rolls Royce Aerospace whilst living in the United Kingdom.
Jules looks forward to helping people stay connected and improve their understanding of the technology that is available to them today.
Mel Van Zyl
Mel has had years of experience in both Finance and IT. She enjoys helping users and is open to researching and learning new skills. She considers assisting Retirees to improve their knowledge of IT, and helping them to make the most out of available technology to keep connected to family and friends, a wonderful way to use her skills and share her knowledge.
Mel has a Datametrics Diploma as well as MCSE(Microsoft Systems Engineer). She also has the commercial qualification (ACIS) and recently completed a Diploma of Counselling.