Meet The Team
FOUNDER, DIRECTOR AND CEO, Jane Holmes
Meet Jane.
Jane is a Mother. Widow. Survivor. Inspiration.
Jane’s mission to help disadvantaged women reclaim their sense of self-worth is deeply personal as she has walked in their shoes on many fronts. Jane is a very private but headstrong person who is determined to bring change in her calm unassuming way. Jane is the epitome of resilience. This is a skill she has fine tuned through her life’s journey. She brings an energy and passion that is formidable.
Widowed to suicide at 39, she was left to raise three children on her own. She had no support system at all being in a new country and did not qualify for social benefits. Jane reinvented herself and changed her career path to provide for her children.
In 2015 Jane was forced to give up a successful career and financial security to have her ankle reconstructed for a second time after walking on it broken for seven years. It took a huge toll and the financial impact was unthinkable. In Jane’s words, “When my husband committed suicide, I had no idea how I was going to survive. I lived with the constant fear and anxiety of my children losing the roof from over their heads. Having to give up my career to save my foot I had to go through all the same fears.” Jane had been advised that she would only need six months off work for the recovery time, but it took 11 months before she could even walk. During this time period Jane had no income, but thankfully her children were adults and able to assist and contribute to the bills and their home. Jane says if it was not for them the situation would have been dire and they could have been facing homelessness. She says it only takes one major crisis for people to suddenly find themselves in financial instability and hence looking down the barrel of homelessness. Since starting Support The Girls Australia Jane has also dealt with a third journey with cancer. But as she says, she does not give it any energy or thought and just lives her life one day at a time.
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One of the key areas that Jane is committed to is educating people on the reality of disenfranchised women. Jane says the situations she has found herself in are prime examples. She says “If people meet me, they assume I am financially secure and well educated. I had a privileged upbringing and the best education, but it is not a guarantee that you will not face financial hardship. There are a lot of women like me who are in strong financial positions who suddenly lose it all, whether divorce, domestic situations, loss of a spouse etc and most of these women are too proud to shout out for help. Society sees us as being comfortable and having it all together. This can more often or not be so far from the truth and it is important to give these women a safe environment to get help and support without judgement.”
Jane brings a strong corporate background to Support The Girls Australia as well as her years of experience as a crisis counsellor with Victim Support in New Zealand. Jane was instrumental in writing some of the policies for Victim Support and understands the need for processes and strong governance. These two strengths mean that Support The Girls Australia has a sound business structure and a person that has experienced the worst case scenarios of what people can experience and hence Jane has the understanding, resilience and empathy to be able to handle and deal with any situation. Jane says to build a strong foundation to ensure an organisation is successful requires a good sound business practice, and this is what she brings to the table. Jane says a non for profit has the exact same processes and infrastructure as a profit business. The only difference is non for profits do not have a product that they can sell to raise revenue so they have to work even harder to cover the same expenses a revenue run business would have.
In between managing Support The Girls Australia Jane facilitates face to face support for families bereft of a loved one to suicide in her capacity as a suicide counsellor. She also lectures in PTSD. Jane has always been involved in community work from a young girl. Something her father installed in her.
She has sat on numerous committees and boards. Jane is a private person and spends her rare spare time reading and investing any spare time with her grandson. She loves reading and music is her sanity.
FOUNDER, DIRECTOR AND CEO, Diane Groweg
Meet Diane.
Upon leaving school Diane’s working journey started as an apprentice hairdresser working in Adelaide. Family and a move to Canberra in 1972 saw a career change when she acquired a position in administration with N C D C and later with the Cities Commission.
A new opportunity became available with the introduction of Medibank in 1975. During her time with Medibank her duties included, performing quality control on the daily run sheets from around Australia, compiling statistics and eventually assessing and researching the applications for ancillary practioners who were applying for a provider number.
Another move a number of years later took her to Perth WA where she became a homemaker while her husband attended full time University… a challenging time but a rewarding one. Returning to Canberra in 1987 where a new/old home was purchased that required some renovation work, during this time she discovered the new meaning of “life begins at forty.” She now had a family of four, with the difference of 21 years from start to finish… one of life’s challenges but a welcome one.
It was during a holiday on the Gold Coast leaving a cold Canberra winter that a new property was purchased and six months later a permanent move took place. Two new business adventures both in the tourist trade one being a Limousine business and at the same time a business that took tourist wanting to experience guided walking tours in the beautiful Lamington National Park.
Always have a keen interest in Patchwork and Quilting she joined the Gold Coast Quilters Guild in 2009 and later in 2015/16 became Vice President and continued on in 2016/17 as President. It was during this time that Diane became aware of STGA and invited Jane Holmes to do a talk for the Guild… The following day Diane phoned Jane…
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and offered to volunteer with STGA.
To date, life has been Diane’s teacher and she feels it has rewarded her with many wonderful experiences and also taught her to be compassionate and have empathy.
DIRECTOR, Margie Reid
Meet Margie.
Margie is CEO of Thinkerbell, currently recognised as Australia’s most creative advertising agency and one of the fastest growing advertising companies in the world. Joining the company as an equity partner in early 2018 with a focus to help create a new agency model, she has led Thinkerbell from start up to grown up in four short years, tripling the size of the agency during the last two years alone despite the complexities of operating a business during Covid.
With over 22 years of industry experience, 18 of those in media, Margie has developed a reputation as one of the most trusted, and professional operators within the media and advertising landscape. Margie is renowned for her exceptional client focus underpinned by transparency and accountability.
She now manages a company with two offices and 120+ staff and still growing, as well as being the business partner across two other business in Decade of Action (DOA) and S P A C E .
DIRECTOR, Tina Randello
Meet Tina.
Tina is Chief Commercial Officer at Alpha-H, leading the brand, innovation and digital aspects of the business. She has worked across local and global brands in the Wellness, Beauty and Design industries.
Tina has been an avid mentor and champion of women throughout her 15 year professional career. She led corporate change resulting in flexible work practices for women in her teams before these were standard practices. As someone who moved from Chemist to Marketer, Tina supports women forging new paths and encourages them to get out of their comfort zones.
At Alpha-H, Tina identified that the brand name triggers a deeper and more powerful connection than the product alone. She is a believer that brands have a role and responsibility to use their platform for purpose. She found that women across generations identify as Alphas – resilient, confident, ambitious and striving to be their best selves. Alpha meaning “the first” and a leader has been a rallying cry for building the brand going forward. As a female founded brand where over 70% of the team associate with being female, Alpha-H is an advocate for women through their philanthropic partnerships and internally developed initiatives. A key example being -The Encoreship- an innovative return to work program founded by Tina and the team at Alpha-H. The program brings together like-minded brands with the common goal of supporting women who want to work, have the opportunity to do so. A small act by each organisation that has big impact for women.
Tina believes that volunteering with Support the Girls is another way of giving back to women. The grass roots approach focused on the immediate needs, as well as longer term support for women in need is what attracted Tina to the Support The Girls mission.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Science- Chemistry (Honours) (Melbourne University)
Masters in Marketing (Monash University)
