James Brayshaw - Chairman
James is one of Australia's key sporting media personalities with an impressive career in television, radio and journalism. He is currently the co-host of The Footy Show, Triple M’s weekday drive-time show The Rush Hour, and is host of the Sunday Footy Show. James leads the AFL commentary team for Triple M Melbourne and is a member of the Nine Network's cricket commentary team. James is also Chairman of the North Melbourne Football Club and maintains strong involvement in a range of corporate and charity activities as host or MC.
James is a former Sheffield Shield Cricketer, playing 75 matches for Western Australia and South Australia.
Jamie McPhee
Jamie has a 20-year career in banking and finance and is currently the CEO of ME Bank. Jamie joined ME Bank from the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. Jamie was Managing Director of Adelaide Bank when it merged with Bendigo Bank in November 2007. He was appointed Executive Director of the merged company and held the position of Chief Executive, Partner Advised Banking.
Jamie has completed a Civil Engineering degree with honours and an MBA from the University of Adelaide. He is a Senior Fellow of Finsia and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Jamie is a former 2nd XI cricketer for South Australia and played 30 games for Sturt in the SANFL. In 1983 Jamie captained the Australian Under 19s cricket team that included Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor and Craig McDermott.
Jamie is a former Board Member of the South Australian Cricket Association.
Chris Nikou
Chris is a lawyer of 22 years standing. He is a Senior Partner of national legal firm Middletons and National Department Head for the Corporate & Commercial Department.
Chris provides commercial advice predominantly in relation to mergers and acquisitions, franchising and intellectual property issues, and has been involved in expanding a number of Australia’s best-known brand names both locally and overseas. He currently has board positions at Middletons Lawyers, Melbourne Victory (Company Secretary), Melbourne High School Foundation Ltd and Hellenic Chamber of Commerce (HACCI).
He is a former Football Federation of Victoria (FFV) director and appeals board member.
Suzana Ristevski
With a career in marketing spanning 18 years, Suzana Ristevski is currently Chief Marketing Officer for GE Capital Australia and New Zealand. Suzana’s vast experience includes working for Optus Telecommunications, Medical Benefits Private Health Insurance Fund and 20th Century Fox in London. In each of these roles, Suzana successfully launched new products, completed both rebranding and branch redesign, led segmentation studies, developed strategy, and produced a number of marketing campaigns.
Katea Downie
With extensive human resources experience gained over 20 years in a variety of industries including FMCG, retail and property, Katea has worked at executive levels over the past 10 years.
Prior to establishing the Maverick Rose Group Katea was most recently Chief HR Officer for Fosters Group, previously holding the most senior HR roles at Colonial First State Property Management (Gandel Retail Management) and Country Road. Working in the Australian, UK & US markets, Katea has also undertaken senior HR roles with L'Oreal, Revlon and Amcal Chemists after starting her career in the hospitality industry.
Liam Pickering
Pickering began his career in media/management as Sports Marketing Manager for Fila Sports in 1999. He made the successful transition after completing an illustrious career in the AFL with both the North Melbourne and Geelong football clubs.
He played in two AFL grand finals in 1994/1995 with Geelong and notched 124 AFL games before retiring in 2000.
Pickering's high-level sporting career also included more than 170 games of Premier Cricket in the 1st XI for North Melbourne. He was club captain at North for seven years, and he also played in the Victorian squad and captained the state’s 2nd XI side.
Pickering is currently a special comments expert for Fox Footy and is a panel member on the channel’s magazine show League Teams. He also can be heard on SEN’s Off the Bench program each Saturday morning.
Paul Jackson
A Westpac Bank Executive, Paul was appointed to the Cricket Victoria board in 2007. He is currently Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee, and a member of the Finance and Investment Committees and Marketing Committees.
Paul represented both Victorian Bushrangers and Queensland Bulls over a 14-year playing career, and has acted as a specialist cricket commentator with ABC Radio.
Stuart Coventry (CEO)
Stuart has an impressive sport and commercial management background which includes Director of Commercial at Crusty Demons Entertainment and General Manager of Marketing and Communications at Harness Racing Victoria, among other senior roles in the relationship and brand-management arena. Stuart is also a Chartered Accountant.
Stuart's sporting pedigree also extends into Australian Rules football (AFL) in the form of his Brownlow Medal-winning grandfather Syd Coventry - who was one of Collingwood’s greatest players - and his great uncle, the legendary AFL goalkicker Gordon Coventry.
The Coventry name coincidentally sits at one end of Etihad Stadium - the home ground of the Melbourne Renegades!