Our experienced leadership team is driven by their passion to see all children and young people thrive.
Sparkways is led by our CEO Jo Moloney and a five-person Executive team who are responsible for over 350 employees. Their strong governance, continued focus on child safety, and commitment to Victorian children and young people ensure the delivery of high-quality services throughout all our programmes.
Jo Moloney
CEO
Jo is a highly experienced executive with a demonstrated track record of successfully leading business improvement, integration, change and transformation initiatives. She is a financial management specialist with advanced analytical skills and strong commercial acumen. Jo is adept in building and maintaining internal and external stakeholder relationships and is highly proficient in providing customer service.
Jo has a strategic mindset and is an effective planner and implementation leader, along with being a leader of business cultural change and productivity improvement initiatives. She has worked across many different corporate, not-for-profit, government and regulated environments over a wide range of industry sectors and business functions. Jo is highly skilled in communication and interpersonal relationships and is passionate about people engagement, empowerment and building positive team cultures.
Jo has a strategic mindset and is an effective planner and implementation leader, along with being a leader of business cultural change and productivity improvement initiatives. She has worked across many different corporate, not-for-profit, government and regulated environments over a wide range of industry sectors and business functions. Jo is highly skilled in communication and interpersonal relationships and is passionate about people engagement, empowerment and building positive team cultures.
Amy Carr
Executive Director of Operations – Early Learning
Amy is proud to be working with a not-for-profit organisation that has a long-standing history of helping our most vulnerable people. Amy has been in the Early Years sector for 20 years and has 15 years of multi-site leadership experience. She has worked for more than 18 years at Kids Company Childcare and held the title of CEO for 6 of those years.
Most recently, she worked with Guardian Childcare & Education as a Portfolio Mentor overseeing twelve centres. She has strong business and financial acumen and demonstrated Early Years knowledge. Amy has a true passion for early childhood education and strongly believes in the importance of laying the foundations that set children up with a thirst for lifetime learning.
Kath Mackay
Executive Director – Quality, Practice & Youth
Kath has worked in the Community Sector for over 25 years, including in the Disability; Child Youth and Family; and Early Learning areas. Kath has held a range of strategic leadership and senior management roles, including within Quality & Compliance; Service Operations; Sector Partnerships & Alliances; National Contract Management; and Project Management. Kath has tertiary qualifications in both Disability and Management. Outside of work Kath is kept busy by her three children, whose sporting involvement have led to her also holding the Secretary, Child Safe Officer and Covid Officer roles at a community sports club.
Joanne Watson
Executive Director Brand & Infrastructure
Jo has more than 25 years’ experience working in senior leadership and executive roles in industries as diverse as transport and logistics, veteran family support, local government and recruitment. Jo’s has extensive experience in a range of disciplines including finance; marketing; fundraising; business development; project management; continuous business improvement; IT systems development and support; and customer and client engagement. With a passion for helping people and working to grow and expand the businesses she is a part, Jo is committed to ensuring high quality and best practice outcomes in all that she does.
