Headquarters:
163 O’Riordan St, Mascot, NSW 2020
Year founded:
1969
Number of employees:
1,000
Phone:
13 26 44
Email:
marketing@winc.com.au
Website:
winc.com.au
LinkedIn:
linkedin.com/company/winc-australia
Katie Mystakidis
Head of Education
Kirsten Hayward
Senior Category Manager – Education
Pauline Kellett
Senior Marketing Manager – Education
Leadership
Katie Mystakidis has led Winc’s education division for the past six years. During this time, she has built strong relationships with schools across the country and developed a deep understanding of the differences between government and non-government schools, as well as state-based nuances. Mystakidis leads Winc’s education strategy, focusing on ways to help schools streamline their procurement needs and improve efficiencies in their purchasing processes. She regularly represents Winc Education at conferences and industry events and has developed strong insights into a range of thought leadership topics.
Head of Education
Katie Mystakidis
With 13 years of experience in the education industry, Kirsten Hayward brings extensive product knowledge and a strong focus on sourcing high-quality, impactful educational resources. She is passionate about ensuring that sourced materials are inclusive, accessible and supportive of the diverse needs of today’s classrooms. A key priority for Hayward is incorporating First Nations perspectives into everyday learning to help educators foster cultural awareness and respect. With her strong understanding of the education sector, she sources and delivers resources that align with curriculum goals and enhance teaching outcomes.
Senior Category Manager – Education
Kirsten Hayward
Pauline Kellett has been with Winc for 12 years, predominantly focusing on education and developing deep insights into the industry. During this time, she has led research projects to ensure the customer voice informs Winc’s decision-making. Kellett has a strong understanding of schools, including government and state-based variations and the unique ways schools make decisions, which are often multi-layered and involve multiple influencers across the school.
Senior Marketing Manager – Education
Pauline Kellett
Kate McKenzie
Customer Experience Manager
Simon Cowell is a 1995 The Knox School alumnus. He has completed a degree in community development at Deakin University, leading him to work in the international community development sector. He was a board member of an educational charity in Cambodia, and this position directed him to education.
Cowell completed a degree in both primary and secondary education. He has taught in various roles across both primary and secondary schools in the UK and Australia. Hehas a strong focus on the inquiry process through a concept-driven curriculum and the Design Thinking Model.
In his own time, he enjoys travelling, especially to Cambodia, where he still maintains strong connections to the educational community.
Customer Experience Manager
Kate McKenzie
Renee Smith
Accounts Payable/Receivable Manager
Tracey Costello is an accomplished strategic leader with a breadth and depth of finance, governance and strategic executive experience, including 10 years with a Big 4 accounting consultancy, working in Australia, USA and Canada, and 10 years as a senior executive in both government and commercial organisations.
Accounts Payable/Receivable Manager
Renee Smith
Isaac Rule
Head of Digital Strategy
Fiona Kapkidis
Head of People and Culture (Human Resources)
Margaret Leau-Sulusi
Business Development Manager
Pam Chhabra
Manager – Residential Strata
Isaac Rule is a digital strategy and operations leader with experience across New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. With a background in primary education and a Master of Educational Leadership, he brings his experience in the classroom to system-level execution.
He leads digital projects to improve systems and is committed to building staff capability, strengthening digital literacy and aligning innovation with strategic priorities. His portfolio includes oversight of the school’s Learning Management System and stakeholder engagement.
Rule is passionate about supporting students to develop their critical thinking skills and independence. His work as timetabler supports delivery of the school’s academic program, aligning staffing, subject offerings and resource allocation to maximise the benefit to students.
Head of Digital Strategy
Isaac Rule
With more than 20 years in people and culture, Fiona Kapkidis combines her HR experience with a strong background in business and music education. A graduate of the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, she later completed postgraduate qualifications in business management at Monash University, shaping her holistic approach to people development. Her career includes over five years in Asia with a major communications company, where she led professional development, team engagement and training programs across culturally diverse organisational environments.
Prior to joining The Knox School, she worked in the property industry, leading people strategy, recruitment and stakeholder engagement. Passionate about creating positive workplaces and building authentic connections, Kapkidis believes that when people feel valued and supported, they bring their best to what they do. She remains deeply connected to the music community, teaching piano privately and having previously served as a board director for both the Victorian Music Teachers’ Association and Melbourne Youth Orchestras.
Head of People and Culture (Human Resources)
Fiona Kapkidis
Margaret Leau-Sulusi brings over 20 years of banking experience to her role as business development manager, having started with Westpac in 2005. Her background includes lending support, senior lending roles and branch management. Leau-Sulusi partners closely with mortgage advisers, providing product expertise and strategic guidance to drive strong client outcomes. Known for her collaborative style and responsiveness, she is passionate about building trusted relationships and delivering customer-focused results.
Business Development Manager
Margaret Leau-Sulusi
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
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Winc Education
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Adam Basaldella
Manager – Claims
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Product Manager
Claire Watson
Stephen McMillan first entered the financial services Industry when he joined GE Capital as a finance analyst in 2008, from which he progressed through roles working both onshore and offshore. From there, he moved into Pacific Premium Funding as a financial planning and analysis leader in 2012 and was a key resource in the evolution of the business, first with the successful sale to Macquarie Pacific Funding and then the following progression into IQumulate Premium Funding, where he is now the commercial manager.
As commercial manager, McMillan leads a team that is responsible for commercial analysis and business support, identifying and reporting improvement initiatives, and the securitization and treasury functions of the business.
Commercial Manager
Stephen McMillan
“We also maintain open lines of communication with advisers so they know what to expect and can plan accordingly”
Hayley Burgess, ANZ Bank New Zealand
“We’ve invested heavily in resourcing and process improvements to reduce friction and speed up approvals”
Hayley Burgess, ANZ Bank New Zealand
Taking the hassle out of back to school
For schools juggling enrolments, timetables and budgets, sourcing supplies for a new year can be one more administrative headache. Winc Education has spent the past few years reshaping how it handles back to school, expanding to four ordering options so schools can choose the approach that fits how they work. After more than 50 years of servicing Australian education, Winc’s strategy is built on giving schools choice rather than a single fixed process.
An order type for every school need
Winc now offers four Back to School order types: Bulk Orders, Classroom Packs, Direct-to-Parent Resource Lists and the newest addition, Easy Back to School online orders. The online option lets schools order by class or department and choose their preferred delivery date, adding a self-service route alongside the more traditional formats. With schools stretched during enrolment season, more choice makes it easier to land on the option that suits them.
The expanded options came from listening. Winc reviews the feedback it collects from schools to spot service gaps and product ideas and partners with leading education brands to turn those insights into new solutions. It also draws on suppliers and its own staff, on the view that good ideas can come from anywhere, but for any change to earn its place, it has to solve a real customer need.
Service that delivers
Winc’s ordering options rest on the service engine it is known for. Winc's locally based call centre, more than 220 delivery drivers and a dedicated account management team gives schools consistent support, backed by a national distribution network that reaches from the front gate to the back oval.
Consolidating orders and building platforms that are easy to navigate serve the same goal of cutting the administrative load of keeping a school stocked. Katie Mystakidis, who has led education sales for six years, has built relationships with schools across the country and understands the differences between states, stages and sectors.
Every element of the customer experience is measured. After each Back-to-School season, Winc asks schools to provide a score on quoting support, pricing, product range, customer service, account management and communication, then uses the results to push past its own benchmarks.
Powered for the future
As the Australian Curriculum evolves, Winc works with publishers and suppliers to keep its range aligned, from the latest textbooks and eBooks to products supporting First Nations focus areas and tailored sensory ranges for wellbeing programs. The breadth of its education supplies is something many schools draw on to meet their curriculum needs.
As curriculums shift and school needs change, Winc’s aim stays the same: taking the sourcing burden off schools so staff can spend less time ordering and more time educating the students in front of them.