Leadership Team
Ananya Anant
Ananya is a new graduate senior secondary student, who loves exploring new things, and is a keen learner. While working she always looks forward to improving her skills, making new mistakes, learning from them, and always aims to be creative and innovative with every idea she presents.
She is a true role model when it comes to balancing her academics, work and personal life which has yielded a routine that is much easier, smoother, and motivating. She yearns to work to make a change in industries focusing on STEM and not only. While working towards holding a career in STEM she is also engaged in a variety of extracurricular activities such as dance, debate, sing, the guitar and painting. Recently, she has been engaged in understanding the integrities of feminism by working for an India-based NGO called Pink legal.
Ananya will be bringing to the OHUB team her passion for youth empowerment as well as her passion to strive for positive change in the community. Coupled to this she will be assisting the OHUB communication and research team in the fields of social media as well as app development. She is a go getter and is already hard at work with research on our mental health resilience and leadership courses, competitive advantage and price point and cost price analyses.
Daniel Medd
Daniel is a very committed team player who is forward-thinking operator who is happy to examine ideas and has keen operational ideas and capability to support, build and engage with the team. He is an asset to our educational & leadership team, but also a team player and contributor to ideas and visual effective change. Daniel has a deep commitment to mental health education and youth and in the ever-changing world we live in, whether its sporting or corporate, Daniel understands the need to evolve with it, and adhere to the necessary facts surrounding both mental and physical aspects of coaching. This is where Daniel’s experience in managing operations crosses paths with his ability to coach. Daniels most recent achievement has seen him become a major contributor to the starting up and running of both a Baseball and Softball Academy Training Program based in NSW where he works with players of all ages and abilities.
Elsabe Wiese De Wet
Elsabe’s expertise is in all things online. Her love for learning through and with technology has created an environment that allows for skill development across industries. Her go-getting attitude and passion for making change stems from beginning a career in the hospitality industry. From working at the foundations of hotel operations, she transitioned into hospitality training, wanting to use industry experiences as a learning opportunity for those starting out in the industry. Whilst involved with contact learning, she learnt that technology had the ability to bring skills and training to an audience beyond brick-and-mortar institutions.
She has been involved with the roll-out of an online learning strategy, building out an online platform and facilitating online learning. Her ability to rebuild and rethink learning content and learning operations has helped her academic operation teams grow. Elsabe combines her great technological knowledge with a love for all things sport and a deep compassion for ensuring that people have access to the great tool of education in order to create environments that support mental health.
Florette Blackwood
Florette is an accomplished and results oriented professional with extensive work experience in national and international programmes within public and non- profit sectors. Her dedication to community expands across several projects such as sustainable community development; sport policy design and development; youth and gender affairs, social policy framework design; micro-enterprise development and peace building and relationship management. As a consultant, Florette has provided technical advice, policy advocacy and expert support to the Government of Jamaica through the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport helping to shape the youth of Jamaica and through this work, developed ties with the Optimisation Hub. Florette’s extensive skill set drives results as an adult educator, conference facilitator and grant writer in Government practices. She currently sits as Jamaica’s Representative on the Commonwealth Advisory Body on Sport (CABOS) Independent body, providing advice on sport policy. Highly involved in sport and leadership, Florette appreciates the work at the Optimisation Hub and wants to join us to make a difference.
Graziella Thake
Graziella is the Optimisation Hub’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and a warm force of passion and dedication to sport. Graziella is highly trusted and celebrated in sport, corporate and education. Her commitment to sport is profound and her passion for long term player care and educational development has been guided by 30 years of committed experience in human performance, risk, psychology, and leadership. Holding a Master’s in Psychology, with specialist qualifications in forensics, business and sports psychology, her current work is dedicated to small nations development and leading a world first mental health sports curriculum. Graziella is both a leader and trusted advisor of Rugby Legends, Hoop for Dreams Africa, and leads the eHMIC round table on e-mental health for sport with 13 nations. Graziella has been a global mentor for Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) for the past 2 years and United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) Global Dialogue Foundation. Her experience consists of mentoring significant leadership teams and contributing to change and economic growth around social responsibility and community development, charity and giving back which is in her DNA. She spends 30% of her time volunteering and is a keynote speaker in 12 countries sharing her expertise and moderating panels in sport and corporate such as MEI, Sport Accord, MOC, KNOC, Commonwealth Games, and sports federations. As CEO of the Optimisation Hub, she has funded a sports mental health curriculum that fills the gaps in sports at the athlete, coach, and event development levels.
Hayley Vernon
Hayley is a remarkable and standout leader having taken on the challenge of leading in financial services whilst also being a professional athlete she managed her career standouts as she also learnt to master her own positive mental health strategies and self-development. Hayley is a health and education technology investor and media solutions creative analyst with a keen eye for Gen-Z’s current needs and pressures.
Hayley’s professional career has predominantly been across two industries, finance as well as media to which she has trained, developed, and managed award winning teams at a national level. Hayley got the most out of her roles from passing on her knowledge and development to those around her and is a strong part our leadership team.
Hayley a strong and dedicated leader having overcome challenges she is determined to see gen-z and our youth, leaders, athletes and career professionals be well supported and forms a strong part of the Media and Education team. Leading across industries she worked long hours and a natural progression and became a passion a nd leant her own story to being a standout leader of diversity inclusion and a natural voice to back the many, whilst being.
Joanna Moe
Originally an educator from Aotearoa, New Zealand, one of Pacific’s greatest sporting nations, Joanna is driven by curiosity, passion and values around social justice, inclusion and education. She is a very committed leader and a huge asset to the Optimisation Hub Educational & Leadership team, especially in her passion for indigenous and women’s education and youth. She is a team player, thrives in complex environments that engage in meaningful endeavours and specializes in trans-cultural professional learning designs for educators and adults in global settings. A practitioner at heart, with a track record in being a strategic, agile, innovative and solution-focused educational leader. Joanna brings thought leadership, infectious optimism and a collaborative approach to large scale educational projects and facilitates their implementation in her role as an Associate Director of Professional Learning and Research at the Education Development Institute in Qatar, in schools and universities. Her research interests in her Doctorate study are examining the opportunities and challenges for learning leaders in transcultural landscapes.
Kelechi Ogoke
Kelechi Ogoke is a mid-Level Business Development Executive with experience in concept generation and formulation, content creation and marketing, brand development and management, and implementation. His work methodology is excellent; it entails fine-tuning ideas and positioning them in the market to generate enough cash flow.
He also believes in giving existing processes new life, ensuring that they remain competitive even in highly dynamic environments. His passion stems from the growth and development of African businesses for the benefit of Africans.
Dr. Kirill Micaleff Stafrace
Dr Kirill is an established Sports and Exercise Medicine expert holding various positions in the Republic of Malta, namely, SEM Consultant Mater Dei Hospital, Medical Director Malta Football Association, Director Maltese Olympic Committee, Chairman of the Medical Commission of the Maltese Olympic Committee and is a senior lecturer in Sports Science at the University of Malta. Until recently, he was Vice President of the European Federation of Sports Medicine Association and Head of the Sports Medicine Section within The Presidential Guard of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Armed Forces. Over the decades, Kirill has organized, managed, accompanied, and enjoyed major heartbreaks and joyous moments with Team Malta during the Olympic, Commonwealth and Mediterranean Games.
Dr. Pam Serra
Being Italo-South African, Dr Pamela Serra is not only an avid sport follower but also an advocate for gender equality, inclusivity and social change within sport and society. She has spear headed and grown Sport Management academic programmes at both the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology in South Africa, where she is currently a senior lecturer and the academic section head of the Sport and Recreation Management section. Her research interest foci are within the areas of gender and media studies, the student-athlete and their dual career, organisational leadership, mega-events as well as sport management. Dr Pam is a committed leader and mentor in sustainable prevention education to build high performing mental resilient individuals, teams, and communities. Coupled to this is her vocation for sport for development, women, and youth empowerment. She is a Sport Integrity Global Alliance (SIGA) mentor and gives of her time, passion, and commitment to both national and international advisory boards within the spheres of community engagement, education, sport foundations and research. The Optimisation Hub’s first of a kind online sport curriculum and purpose driven philosophy aligned with Dr Pam’s passion and vocation for student-athlete empowerment, high performance mental agility, and holistic development.
Pandora Fruean
Pandora is a sport loving kiwi who loves playing, watching, and working in sport. She is a sports executive who has worked extensively across multiple sporting codes from grassroots to national and professional sports teams. Her experience in event delivery has seen her contribute to many major events including London Olympics, World Masters Games, FIFA, FIBA and Rugby World Cups. Pandora’s sport management qualifications combined with her on the ground knowledge has given her insight and understanding to the demands of athletes, coaches, national sporting bodies, international federations, and private owners. She is passionate about developing pathways and opportunities for women in sport having assisted in the Pacific with the Cook Islands Women’s Rugby 7s program. As Learning and Development manager, alongside her role as a master trainer with the Optimisation Hub, Pandora applies her 30+ years of knowledge to supporting her passion to build mental resilience and improved outcomes for athletes, sportswomen and within sport.
Paul Hutchinson
Paul played semi-professional rugby league for 13 years and developed a passion for trying to help people be the best they can be, particularly athletes. He has worked with the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) in a role that brought him face to face with some of the world’s best performing athletes. Paul has worked closely with the Brisbane Broncos in establishing an internal education program to assist young players in making favourable life choices.
Sprihaa Khaduri
Kelechi Ogoke is a mid-Level Business Development Executive with experience in concept generation and formulation, content creation and marketing, brand development and management, and implementation. His work methodology is excellent; it entails fine-tuning ideas and positioning them in the market to generate enough cash flow.
He also believes in giving existing processes new life, ensuring that they remain competitive even in highly dynamic environments. His passion stems from the growth and development of African businesses for the benefit of Africans.
Hayley Vernon
Hayley is a remarkable and standout leader having taken on the challenge of leading in financial services whilst also being a professional athlete she managed her career standouts as she also learnt to master her own positive mental health strategies and self-development. Hayley is a health and education technology investor and media solutions creative analyst with a keen eye for Gen-Z’s current needs and pressures.
Hayley’s professional career has predominantly been across two industries, finance as well as media to which she has trained, developed, and managed award winning teams at a national level. Hayley got the most out of her roles from passing on her knowledge and development to those around her and is a strong part our leadership team.
Hayley a strong and dedicated leader having overcome challenges she is determined to see gen-z and our youth, leaders, athletes and career professionals be well supported and forms a strong part of the Media and Education team. Leading across industries she worked long hours and a natural progression and became a passion a nd leant her own story to being a standout leader of diversity inclusion and a natural voice to back the many, whilst being.
Ananya Anant
Aanya is a neo graduate senior secondary student, who loves exploring new things, and is a keen learner. While working she always looks forward to improving her skills, making new mistakes, learning from them, and always aims to be creative and innovative with every idea she presents.
She is a true role model when it comes to balancing her academics, work and personal life which has yielded a routine that is much easier, smoother, and motivating. She yearns to work to make a change in industries focusing on STEM and not only. While working towards holding a career in STEM she is also engaged in a variety of extracurricular activities such as dance, debate, sing, the guitar and painting. Recently, she has been engaged in understanding the integrities of feminism by working for an India-based NGO called Pink legal.
Ananya will be bringing to the OHUB team her passion for youth empowerment as well as her passion to strive for positive change in the community. Coupled to this she will be assisting the OHUB communication and research team in the fields of social media as well as app development. She is a go getter and is already hard at work with research on our mental health resilience and leadership courses, competitive advantage and price point and cost price analyses.