Hannah Chipkin
Director
🥨😻💁🏼‍♀️
Hannah co-founded Merchgirls in 2015. Before Merchgirls, Hannah was the mastermind behind Melbourne apparel & accessory label Chip Chop!, renowned for its printed graphics and unforgettable slogans. It was actually from the success of one of the tote bags she created for The Australian Ballet back in the day, that the opportunity arose to create merch on scale and so, Merchgirls was born.

Hannah is responsible for all things Brand & Creative - from the copy you are reading on this website, marketing content, photoshoots, the Merchgirls brand identity, the look and feel of our Merch Menu to the seasonal Merch Kit designs we produce for our clients...nothing gets past Hannah’s magnifying glass for detail (sorry team).

Hannah takes great pride in working on the internal culture of the company and absolutely adores the team. She is responsible for organising birthday presents, Xmas parties and any excuse for a team building exercise; a self-appointed hype girl.

When she is not at home, she is obsessing over her cat, Violet, spending time with her family & friends and is getting really good at gardening. Hannah loves shoes and spaghetti and looks forward to opening a branch of Merchgirls in the Greek Islands in 2031.

hannah@merchgirls.com.au
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Pippa Joseph
Director
👍🏼🙏🏼🤔
Pippa co-founded Merchgirls in 2015. Before Merchgirls, Pippa had over 20 years experience in garment production and quality control for large and also boutique Australian labels (this is how Hannah & Pippa first met).

Pippa is responsible for the Operations of Merchgirls - from overseeing production, nurturing supplier & client relationships, costing new products and driving sales and strategy. In short, Pippa is the engine of Merchgirls and her can-do attitude prevails above all else.

Pippa is very goal-driven and her passion for making things happen is infectious. She has taught us all that with hard work, you can pull almost anything off - and with this has instilled a culture of risk taking and go-getting.

Her favourite saying is “a successful person is someone who tried that one extra time” and you can often find her planning the next big move on a piece of scrap paper. With Pippa in our corner, we have a secret weapon in making things happen.

When Pippa is not at work, she’s buying ski gear and planning trips to the snow (her happy place) with her lovely family or working on the renovation to her recently acquired Tassie shack (her other happy place).

pippa@merchgirls.com.au
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Cathy Twigg
Production Manager
😟🤷🏻‍♀️🥂
Cathy joined our team in early 2020 following a 20 year stellar career as Production Manager for a range of sporting apparel and high fashion labels and before that, working in Product Development.

Cathy is a highly experienced production extraordinaire who makes all our merch get made to- spec, on-time. She is at home amongst a tape measure, tech packs, fabric books, QC and dealing with our suppliers on a daily basis. Cathy always has 50 things on the go at the same time and juggles these with the ease of a circus ringmaster.

One of Cathy’s greatest loves in this role is orchestrating the shipping logistics for our overseas freight. So much so, in her free time, she jumps onto Vessel Finder to check that shipping is running on time - always thinking of a backup solution in case needed! Cute.

Cath has a can-do attitude, makes things happen and always has a crunchy apple on her table (and good chocolate in the drawer). Her outside work passions include sport (particularly AFL and basketball), hanging with her 2 grown boys, husband and her wider family, trying out new recipes and socialising with her squillions of friends.

We are so lucky to have a gun like Cathy on our team and can attribute our pretty seamless production and delivery reputation to her fine form.

Mel Gill
Senior Account Manager
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Mel brings to the table over 20 years of experience in the promotional merchandise industry, having owned her own business for a long stint, she is now happy to take a back seat and let others take the reins. Her extensive experience has seen her managing clients such as headspace, Australian Red Cross, ANZ, ME bank, RACV, Toyota and Coles to name a few.

Mel has extensive experience in client and business development and relationship management in a B2B setting. Her motivation to put the client at the centre of everything she does, has seen her develop some very strong relationships with key clients which have continued since her departure from her previous roles.

Mel is passionate about the industry, she loves the uniqueness that every day and every client brings and thrives on challenges - big or small. She strives to exceed her clients expectations and is understanding of the importance of attention to detail and making deadlines. Her ability to provide end to end solutions for high profile corporates has seen her create a loyal base of clients who return time and time again.

When Mel isn't at work, she is kept busy with family life at home in Brighton East, but it is her Golden Retriever, Buddy who is the centre of her world.

melissa@merchgirls.com.au
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Steph Sheen
Account Manager
🙄🤦🏼‍♀️🥺

Stephanie joins Merchgirls bringing with her 8 years experience within the Marketing industry working with blue chip clients as an Account Director for Australia’s biggest Marketing & Communications company, Clemenger Group.

Steph has an extensive and diverse background in managing end to end Customer Experience & Insights programs as well as designing and executing award winning below the line marketing campaigns for major brands and retailers such as Coles Group, Asahi Lifestyle Beverages, JB Hi-Fi, Baby Bunting, Grill’d and more.

Stephanie’s goal is to bring her customer centric approach, broad learnings across key and major industry segments and passion for creative sales strategy to her role at Merchgirls to help accelerate the offer and solidify strong partnerships with key clients strongly aligning to the Merchgirls core values.

When she isn’t at work, Steph has her nose in a WWII History book or is spending time with her beloved best friend and Dachshund ‘Miles’ at home in St Kilda.

stephanie@merchgirls.com.au
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Julia Avancini
Production Assistant
🤣😍❤️

Julia joined our team in early 2021 as Production Assistant following 3 years working as 3IC and later as Assistant Manager at Ralph Lauren in Sydney and Melbourne. Before that Julia was living in Brazil (her hometown) and working as a product designer for a Brazilian fast fashion company.

Julia brings her love of product, flair for style and million dollar smile to our team everyday and is responsible for overseeing all our local production orders are made to-spec, on-time. Julia is also found hourly booking all our national freight. She is a super organised chica and her neat little notebooks and nifty post-it notes are the envy of the whole team.

Julia also assists Cathy with QC’ing and product development for our off-shore orders and is at home in the warehouse hauling cartons on and off the daily courier trucks.

When Julia is not at work, she’s hanging out in all the south side locals with her partner and friends, kayaking down at the beach, riding her bike, scanning Net A Porter and skyping with her família overseas. Julia loves Celine and Isabel Marant and rocks bright colours.

Julia has created the Rio towel collection and our new Billie Beach Totes. Must be the Brazilian in her, right?

Alisha Watford
Lead Designer
🙈👍🏼😍

Alisha joined our team in 2019 as Lead Designer following 5 years as a Senior Graphic Designer in her previous role at a promotional merchandise company.

Alisha brings with her an extensive industry experience in promotional products, coupled with her keen design-eye and finesse.

She has an extraordinary talent for nailing every brief she embarks on – possessing a sensitivity and understanding of each client’s unique end-goal and consistently delivers creative, on point designs that are twice as nice.

Alisha has an unparalleled way of staying cool under pressure (how!?). She is constantly pushing herself to broaden her design skill sets and loves a challenge.

When Alisha isn’t working, she is honing her fine art skills, playing bass in her band and hanging with family and friends.

Tiarne Pollock
Graphic Designer
🥴👍🏼🥺

Tiarne joined our team in early 2021 following a 4 year career as a graphic designer for swimwear brand, Funky Trunk & Funkita. Tiarne comes from sunny Northern NSW and she must have brought some of that sunshine with her because dedication to the team shines through daily.

Tiarne brings her experience of working in a small team in a fast-paced retail to consumer environment. Coming from a product-based background (swimwear & accessories) she has a proven track record in applying illustrations & graphics to physical merchandise - a perfect fit for Merchgirls. Tiarne is also at home designing for both digital and print.

Tiarne is always looking to improve her knowledge and grow her experience and welcomes feedback. She remains calm under pressure and manages her workload with finesse and patience.

When Tiarne is not at work, she is living an idyllic artistic lifestyle on the Northside. She loves a giggle and hasn’t watched anything on Netflix for a long time. Tiarne is a big Julia Jacklin fan.

Sonia Pfeiffer
Operations Administrator
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Sonia joined our team in late 2021 as Operations Administrator; a role created through the growing needs of the company.

Sonia is our youngest team member, but she certainly punches above her weight when it comes to her administration and organisational skills! She is responsible for managing our Pick & Pack process for all of our client gifting, maintaining our 3PL client portals, warehouse organisation and general admin duties - and she does it all with a big smile on her face the. whole. time.

A lover of all things organised, Sonia has found her dream home at Merchgirls helping smooth over Operations. Whether it be Marie Kondo-ing the office, organising the overflowing sample libraries or making friends with the towers of boxes in the warehouse, Sonia is extremely excited to be getting amongst it.

When she's not at work she can be found trying her best to live out her Nigella Lawson dreams in the kitchen (she bakes a great cake).

Amie Pitt
Account Manager
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Amie has loved design since… always. She dabbled in graphic and fashion design when she was younger before starting out in print media. However, after getting thrown into the marketing and promo industry in 2018, she never looked back!

Being such a creative person, Amie is super passionate about bringing custom concepts to life for her clients (it’s no wonder that she fitted right into the Merchgirls team!)

Vanessa
Account Manager
😍👍🏼💜

Vanessa was born and bred in Adelaide and studied Fashion & Tech in her hometown. Vanessa followed her interest in fashion and moved to Melbourne 10 years ago. Here, she did her time in various fashion agencies, working her way up to become a well respected National Sales Agent in the industry. After 8 years of working in fashion wholesale, Vanessa was ready for a new challenge and new scope of customer. As fate would have it, she stumbled across Merchgirls on her job hunt, and we just knew she was the one the moment we met.