Board of Directors Victoria

Paul Wheelton OAM - Chairman

Paul Wheelton OAM (B.Comm, CPA, FAIM, MCDA, FCEO) was appointed to the Life Education Victorian Board in April 2001. He is currently Chairman of Life Education Victoria’s Board of Directors, Deputy Chairman of Life Education Australia and a member of LEV’s Strategic Planning Task Force. Paul has been pivotal in the success of LEV’s fundraising events, profile raising activities and strategic direction.

Holding a Bachelor of Commerce, University of Melbourne 1978, Paul has been a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants for fifteen years. He was the Group Manager for Administration and Finance for the Budget Rent A Car Corporation, and for the last twenty-five years has been Managing Director and owner of the largest Budget Rent A Car franchise group in Australia. He is currently Chairman of the Budget Licensee Council. He was awarded the OAM for his service to the community.

Paul’s interest and involvement in the community is extensive. He has been the Treasurer of his local church for 16 years, currently on the organising Board for the Strathcona Baptist Girls’ Grammar Brownlow Breakfast, and was a Board Member and Deputy Chairman of Variety, the Children’s Charity of Victoria. He is a founding Board member of the Bali Children’s Foundation and, together with his wife Heather and his children via The Wheelton Foundation, they have rebuilt three orphanages. He is also a Board Member of the Marsh Foundation, which distributes used medical equipment to Third World countries.

Mandy Banic

Mandy Banic currently holds the position of Head of Finance and Operations at Straumann Australia and New Zealand, a global leader in implant and restorative dentistry and oral tissue regeneration, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Mandy holds very strong family values and a love for children.

Mandy was appointed to the Board in March 2012.

Lindsay Beer

Lindsay Beer joined the Board of LEV in 2008 and is founder and owner of Chatsworth Constructions, Roof Distributors and Majon Kitchens, all very successful Building Service Providers covering all aspects of residential and commercial building. The success of Chatsworth Constructions is due primarily to the skill and extensive industry acumen of Lindsay, being both a Master Builder and Master Plumber.

Lindsay has a special passion for water skiing and, through his love of water sports, his passion and instinctive leadership qualities have led him to an increased involvement in the water sports arena where he was voted to President of the Victorian Water Ski Association (VWSA). He is also the current Director and Life Member of the Victorian Water Ski Association.

As a Director of Moomba Masters, Lindsay has dedicated over thirty years of his time to children's waterskiing education and training and he also founded the Lake Cooper Training School of Waterskiing.

Lindsay's has raised over $500,000 single handedly with Variety, the Children’s Charity, over the past seven years through fundraising with his Bash car, a car rally touring throughout outback Australia to raise money for underprivileged children. Lindsay is also Director of Bali Children Foundation, sponsoring over two hundred children in orphanages throughout Bali.

Lindsay's vision is to proactively change the lives of underprivileged children and their families.
In his words Children are our FUTURE.

Andrew Bennetto - Deputy Chairman

Andrew has a degree in Applied Science majoring in information technology and post graduate qualifications in management from the institute of Chartered Secretaries. He has held various Managing Directorships with the Thompson Corporation over a successful 17year career- his latest post was Managing Director of Centre for Professional Development covering compliance, accounting and legal information resources. His role has been one of transforming legacy publishing companies to the digital age.

Andrew is currently the Managing Director of Edsoft, a company that is instrumental in pioneering e-learning software and tools to over 15,000 schools across Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew was also President of Pied Pipers of 2 years, a charitable group helping the Children's Hospital and has contributed to the Lighthouse Foundation as well in various capacities. Andrew is passionate about personal development, enabling change and helping young people achieve their potential.

Caroline Evans

Educated in London, England with a joint Honours Degree in Marketing and Human Resources, Caroline Evans is a professional business leader with over 10 years senior management experience, primarily managing field marketing services to a variety of blue chip clients across many channels.

After relocating to Australia in 2009 to become the CEO of DemoPlus, the leading Face to Face Promotions Agency providing services to many household names, Caroline embarked on a successful program of operational change and improvement to afford the highest possible client service. Within this role, Caroline instigated support for a nation charity with retail product, fund raising and labour donations.

Caroline is an accomplished musician who has written, recorded and produced contemporary material. Caroline joined the Board of Life Education Victoria in April 2011. 

Paul Dellios

Paul Dellios L.L.B., FTIA, AI.Arb.A. was appointed to the board in September 2000 and is the immediate past Chairman of the board. Paul was a member of the Life Education Doncaster / Templestowe committee for more than eight years.

Paul holds professional standings in Bachelor of Law, University of Melbourne 1974, barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court (Vic) and Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Australia. He has also been on the school board of Ivanhoe Girl’s Grammar and President of the Cooerwull Foundation. 

Martin Pater has a strong sense of community and is a natural leader, driving others to act for a good cause . Growing up the son of a respected stained glass window artist Martin, followed a career in the glass and glazing industry, where he has remained for over 45 years and has been his own business owner and Director for the last 25 years.

Martin Joined the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills in 1987 and has since led the club twice as president as well as taking up other roles such as ‘Vocational Director’, ‘Community Service Director’ and more, whilst also serving as a member of many of the committees of the club and spending many of the last 22 years at the club as a member of the board.

Martin has received two ‘Paul Harris Fellow’ awards for his outstanding contribution to the community and voluntary work. During his children’s high school years Martin was heavily involved in the ‘Parents and Friends Society’ serving as president for several years and was instrumental in raising funds to build a new sporting and entertainment complex at the school. More recently Martin has been heavily involved in the ‘Shelter Box’ project; A project of the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills (Melbourne) since 2003, which provides humanitarian relief to disaster ravaged regions such as Thailand after the Tsunami of Christmas 2004, the floods in New Orleans and more recently to the bushfire victims in Victoria. Each ShelterBox contains up to two 10-person dome tents, thermal blankets, water purification tablets, a multi-fuel stove, tools and other essential equipment.

Martin became involved with Life Education through Rotary and was instrumental in the success of an annual bike ride to the Rotary conference (around 600km) to primarily raise funds for Life Education. Inspired by the late Roy Knudson, Martin recognised the huge contribution that Life Education makes to the Drug education of children in our schools and felt compelled to become involved in such a worthy cause.

Tully Smith

After completing his Bachelor of Arts in Management from the University of Ballarat, Tully started his career in the Education Training and Employment industry before moving onto the staffing and recruitment industry. Tully is currently an Advisor for the Office of Jaala Pulford MP, Chairman of 99.9 Voice FM (broadcasting to the Ballarat region), Director of Karden Disability Support and Committee Chairman of Life Education Victoria Ballarat and District.

Tully was appointed to the Board in September 2011.

Richard Williams

Richard Williams was appointed to the board in November 2010. A successful business builder and owner, Richard's experience spans over 30 years in the financial services industry.

Throughout most of his lifetime, Richard has been an active participant in many charitable and sportingactivities, including the RCH Pied Pipers, TheSmith Family, Life Education and World Vision sponsorship. With a strong football interest in his beloved Melbourne Football Club, Richard played a major role in raising funds and sourcing kit and accommodation to allow the Samoan team to playin Melbourne in each of the past two AFL International Cups.

Richard was a founding member and is also an Honorary Life Member of the Pied Pipers fund raising group forthe Royal Children's Hospital (RCH).Since inception in 1969, the Pied Pipers have raised almost $6 million (approximately $14 million in today's values) for the RCH and Richard has had the major roleorganising and co-ordinating nearly all of the Pied Pipers 41 annual Good Friday Appeals. Richard also initiated and, for 26 years,ran the annual Pied Pipers Sports & Comedy nights, raising almost $1 million.

Currently Vice President of the Tally Ho Fitness Group, where Richardhas been an enthusiastic member for 20 year. On a personal note, Richard has alsocompleted seven Melbourne Marathons and was honoured to be an Olympic Torch carrier for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

Russell Wittick - Treasurer

Russell Wittick was appointed to the board in September 2006. Russ has held a variety of positions within share broking, as an Air Force officer and as an accountant/business manager in the private sector.

His major areas of expertise are within the accounting, finance and personnel management areas.

Russ holds a M.B.A. from Monash University, B.Bus(acctcy) and is a Fellow of CPA Australia. He is also a graduate of the RAF Staff College London.

Angela Young

Following a long career as a Clinical and Senior Dental Therapist, gaining extensive experience in the implementation and coordination of School Dental Programs in static and mobile clinics, Angela joined Ivoclar Vivadent, a leading global dental supply company in 1998. During this time she completed a Diploma of Business - Marketing in 2001 and then continued with an MBA at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne at the Australian Graduate School of Management and Entrepreneurship, which she completed in 2005.

Angela managed the Straumann business as a distributor for Ivoclar Vivadent over a 5 year period and was appointed Managing Director of Straumann Australia / New Zealand in January 2005 when the company went direct to market and currently still holds this position.

Angela believes that education and learning is the lifelong process of acquiring vital skills and tools to build a sustainable, successful and prosperous life. As a leader, she strives to instil the passion of education and learning to give those the confidence and courage to embrace their dreams and turn them into reality. Ultimately, the cornerstone of life experience, work experience and education empower us with the capability to actively contribute to the growth and development of ourselves and others. All aspects of her past and current employment choices, professional associations and more recently, involvement in charitable organisations, have been driven by this philosophy.

It is the mission of Life Education to empower the young to make the best and educated choices for a safe and healthy life. Angela was appointed to the Board of Life Education in November 2010 and is very proud to support an organisation that values education and learning.