A Message From Our Chairperson: Welcome to Our New Board Members and Staff

New Push Board of Management and Staff (left to right) Paige X. Cho, Aarti Desai, Claire Mooney, Chrissie Vincent, Jake Lowe and Vicki Lahey.

As some people may know, The Push has been through some big changes over the past 12 months (both on an operational and governance level) and it looks like that isn’t going to stop anytime soon with the current unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in with COVID-19.

It’s a hugely challenging time for everyone in music right now, but I am so glad that The Push is the kind of organisation that can evolve in new and creative ways to continue to deliver its programs to young people, particularly those who may find themselves more isolated than usual.

With that in mind I’m very pleased to welcome the following new members to The Push Board.

Chrissie Vincent who is Program Leader for the Bachelor Degree Entertainment Management at Collarts brings to the Board a wealth of experience across the music industry with special expertise in publicity and promotions, having operated her own PR business, ‘Chrissie Vincent Publicity’ for over 20 years.

Our new Treasurer, Jake Lowe is Financial Controller and a member of the leadership team at Maple Event Group, who operate a number of event venues across Melbourne. Jake not only brings his financial expertise, having previously worked at 123 Music Entertainment Group and White Sky, but he also brings also his experience as an artist manager and musician.

Paige X. Cho is a Senior Music Strategist at Bolster Group and brings some very specialist (and very useful skills) to The Push, combining a background in psychology, digital and content strategy with over a decade of music industry knowledge. 

Claire Mooney is a Music Producer at triple j Unearthed and was previously a member of The Push’s Youth Advisory Council (YAC). Claire brings her expertise of youth music culture and new Australian music, not only through her role at triple j Unearthed, but as a young person living in Regional Victoria.

Vicki Lahey is a highly experienced leadership and human resource expert who specialises in transformational change. Having held various Executive Director and Director roles for the State Government in human resources, Vicki now runs her own consulting business, ‘Vicki Lahey Consulting’. With her significant corporate and strategic experience Vicki is helping to ensure The Push is working towards best practice, particularly in the human resources and governance areas.

I’m so excited to be working with a Board of such a high level and diversity of skills and experience and I’m confident that, even in these difficult times, we can achieve great things together.

In addition to our new Board Members, I would like to also welcome our new Training and Development Manager Aarti Desai.

Aarti comes to The Push from Creative Victoria, where she was Senior Arts Officer, overseeing the delivery of the Music Works grants program. In addition to this, Aarti brings industry networks and knowledge from her many years of festival work at Meredith Music Festival, Golden Plains Music Festival, Paradise Music Festival, Moomba, as well as her own direct experience as a Push participant when she was starting her pathway into the industry.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to our outgoing Board Members who have contributed so much to The Push overs the years, Quincy McLean, Meredith Fannin and Luc Bohn, we really appreciate your time, energy and guidance.

And finally a very special thank you to our incredibly hardworking team CEO Kate Duncan, Operations Manager Josh Kane, Training and Development Manager Aarti Desai and Workshop Facilitators Molly Jessop and Nathan Gunn.

Stay safe & listen to some new music!

Moira McKenzie
Chairperson, The Push Inc