Samantha Ahearn

General Manager

Whatever there is to know about child care and child care services, you can be confident Samantha knows it!  She brings more than 24 years of experience to the industry and understands what it takes to create a centre that simply excels in all aspects from care and nutrition to play and education.

She is adept at developing a centre environment that invigorates staff, educators, parents, carers and the community. She also clearly understands that the difference between a good childcare service and an excellent one is having dedicated, professional people communicating with all parties in an open and transparent manner.

Samantha’s formal qualifications include:

• Advanced Diploma and Diploma in Children’s Services
• Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment
• Diploma in Management.

Mathew Ahearn

Finance Manager

As part of the BSELC team, Matthew brings substantial business experience both inside and outside the childcare industry. He has had extensive accounting, administration, bookkeeping and overall business management experience in childcare and understands the importance of providing comprehensive services that perfectly align parent accounts and government systems and payments.

Mathew’s formal qualifications include:

• Certificate IV in Bookkeeping

Deb Callahan

Development Manager

After an extensive external career in Human Resources across Australia, the UK and United States, Deb moved into the early childhood education field 5 years ago. Since this time she has risen through the ranks gaining experience as an Educator, Lead Educator, Educational Leader, Assistant Director and Centre Director. She’s managed Centres up to 150 places and supported curriculum approaches including; mixed aged/family grouping, Reggio inspired and the more traditional ‘room based’ models. She has also guided teams to achieve an ‘Exceeding’ rating through the Assessment and Rating process – so has a demonstrated ability to implement the National Quality Framework and all that it entails.

Deb’s formal qualifications include:

• Diploma of Children’s Services & Certificate IV in workplace training and assessment

Shelley Brannigan-harmer

Administration Assistant

Shelley began her career in the early childhood field in 2001 as an assistant. She then studied and progressed her career working in all aspects of the child care services field from Assistant to Operations Manager. Shelley has worked with both larger and small child care providers and is passionate about early education and thrives on the administrative challenges and opportunities that come as part of the industry.

Shelley’s formal qualifications include:

• Advance Diploma of Children’s Services

Brendan Dunphy

Business Writer

Brendan brings more than 22 years’ experience in marketing and marketing communication. He is able to engage, advise and write content about a range of industries and topics. His written work includes corporate publications, annual reports, electronic newsletters, website copy, digital copy, brochures and advertising material. He has a professional corporate background and has written for a range of sectors including finance, banking, IT, health, design, architecture, property, fashion, disability services, the arts, travel and the not-for-profit sector.