Our team
We share a passion for great science education
Stile was founded by Alan Finkel, Byron Scaf, and Danny Pikler, who together own and operate the company.
Every aspect of Stile is crafted in-house by our passionate team of teachers, scientists, artists and engineers — a multidisciplinary group of the best and brightest. You’ll find Stilists scattered all around Australia, New Zealand and the United States with our global Headquarters based in Melbourne, Australia and US Headquarters in Portland, Oregon.
Meet the Stile team
We asked the team how they would describe a Stile person. Here is what they had to say.
Team USA
Hailey Vogel Carvajal
Teaching and Learning Specialist
Hailey is a former special education science teacher who began her career in Brooklyn, NY, before transitioning to a research coordinator role with NYC's Education Department. At Stile, she provides teachers with training and on-the ground support.
Julianna Jimenez
Director of School and District Partnerships
Julianna failed her HS science classes which led her to believe she was terrible at science. That changed during her 3rd year of community college where a science teacher inspired her new path of becoming a HS science teacher. She is passionate about making health and science education fun, relevant, and accessible to all.
Kat Gentry
Head of Stile USA
Kat was a science teacher before researching pest management in aquaculture across Norway, Australia, and New Zealand. Striving to cultivate student curiosity, enhance teacher job satisfaction, and bring more science classrooms to life, Kat leads Stile’s US team.
Lilka Jones
Administrative Assistant
Lily is a former elementary and preschool teacher. Her most valued memories with children have all taken place in nature or in the art studio. Lily is a creative problem solver and loves employing this skill in Team USA.
Mark Picardo
North Carolina Science Education Leader
Matt Hanlon
Marketing Champion
Mel Horton
Oregon Science Education Leader
Mel, an experienced teacher with over 11 years in the classroom, is driven by the goal of eliminating the question "Why do we have to learn this?" from her students. As an Oregon native, she empathizes with the challenges faced by teachers in engaging students. Her passion lies in providing every student with a top-notch science education, enabling them to comprehend the world and their role in it. Mel is thrilled to take on her new position as the Oregon Science Education lead with Stile, where she will support teachers in revitalizing the joy of teaching.
Global Leadership
Alan Finkel
Chair & Co-founder
Alan Finkel is a neuroscientist, engineer and entrepreneur. He was Australia’s chief scientist from 2016 to 2020, during which time he led the National Electricity Market Review, the development of the National Hydrogen Strategy, and the panel that advised the Australian Government on the 2020 Low Emissions Technology Roadmap. Amongst Alan’s other roles within the government, Alan has returned as our Chair.
Daniel Pikler
CEO & Co-founder
After working as a musician, then as a geneticist at the CSIRO in Canberra, Danny studied secondary teaching in Melbourne and saw first-hand the need for better science teaching resources. Danny joined Byron and Alan to found Stile in 2012.
Byron Scaf
CEO & Co-founder
Byron got a few months into a PhD in Neuroscience at Melbourne University before building Australia’s first electric vehicle charging network with Better Place. Finally understanding what STEM meant in the real world, he co-founded Stile in 2012 and set about working with schools.
Clare Feeney
Chief Schools Officer
Clare started as a medical scientist before she was introduced to the joy of teaching when tutoring refugee families. As a science and maths teacher, she became aware of the positive impact of technology. In 2015, she joined Education Perfect and built their Science, Mathematics, Geography, History and Numeracy resources. In 2019, she joined Stile and is responsible for developing all teaching and learning resources.
Daniel Rodgers-Pryor
Chief Technology & Security Officer
Daniel’s academic background in Condensed Matter Physics and Computer Science gave him a passion for promoting scientific literacy and the skills to manage complex computing systems. Daniel joined Stile in 2014 and stepped into the role of CTO in 2017.
Jaclyn Rooney
Head of Teacher Engagement and Professional Learning
Jaclyn is a dedicated educator, bringing a wealth of experience in teaching, curriculum design, and teacher professional learning in both science and physical education. She joined Stile in 2016 and is responsible for Professional Learning. She is passionate about supporting, celebrating and enhancing the amazing work that science teachers do to help make science learning not only impactful, but relevant and engaging for students.
Jayde Taylor
Chief Financial Officer
Jayde was traveling in South America when she started to think differently about purpose. She had been working in New York and London for award-winning creative agencies, integrating new digital ventures for a rapidly changing market. In Stile she saw a unique opportunity to unlock the potential of young people with innovative content and technology.
The dream team
Alex Finkel
Head of Platform Engineering
Alexandra Russell
Head of Curriculum and Pedagogy
Ally Macdonald
API and Integrations Engineer
Anastasia Reid
Teacher Happiness Team Member
Andy Smith
Science Team Leader
Bee Spencer
Science Content Coordinator
Ben Taylor
Software Engineer Team Lead
Caitlyn Jones
Executive Assistant
Campbell Edgar
Science Curriculum Editor
Chamathi Gamage
Business Systems Engineer
Charlotte Newall
Executive Assistant
Chelsea Page-Saxton
Product Administrative Assistant
Chloe Marie
Professional Learning Leader
Chris Hoang
Community Manager
Daniela White
Employee Experience Coordinator
Dave Canavan
Head of Schools, QLD
Dimity Hately
Special Projects Coordinator
Elise Kovacs
Head of Schools, NSW
Emily Cheng
Finance Manager
Emma Ngo
Designer
Gina DiBenedetto
People & Culture Advisor
Gisela Beer
Illustrator
Hamish McCoy
Science Curriculum Editor
Ikram Saedi
Software Engineer
Isere Meaney
Office Administrator
Jeff Parsons
Senior Tooling Engineer
Joshua Ravek
Head of Schools NSW
Jules Ius
Senior Teacher Happiness Officer
Katrina Don Paul
Customer Operations Officer
Kelly Fernandez
Sales Operations Analyst
Lavinia Monteiro
Software Engineer
Leah Jabornik
Teacher Happiness Team Lead
Mackenzie Brown
IT Specialist
Makeila Reyes
Head of People and Culture
Marcus Finlay
Science Curriculum Writer
Mark Mannion
Science Content Coordinator
Matthew Needham
Head of Business Systems
Max Lewis
Product Engineering Team Lead
Meghan Fennessy
Operations Coordinator
Mia Holton
Videographer
Nick Spain
Senior Platform Engineer
Nicole Li
Commercial Finance Partner
Paul Giardina
Senior Teacher Happiness Officer
Penelope Creagh
Science Curriculum Writer
Pooja Prabhakaran
Designer
Quynh-Chi Nguyen
Staff Software Engineer
Rhys Walsh-Tindall
Support Engineer
Sean Hurley
Head of Design
Shannon Cole
Senior Software Engineer
Shawna Jensen
Head of Curriculum and Pedagogy
Sofia Linardou
Software Engineering Intern
Stacey Carter
Senior Software Engineer
Steve Dornan
Head of Schools, WA
Stiele Hagens
Operations Manager
Tim Brade
Studio Manager
Toni Cox
Head of Special Projects
Who we are
Join the team
We share a passion for great science education
Join a vibrant community of passionate science educators
Thousands of teachers use Stile every week. It’s already the #1 science curriculum in Australia, and it’s fast becoming the curriculum of choice for teachers in the US.