Meet the Crew.
HEATH DONALD
Founder, Director
Heath is a dynamic and innovative business strategist with the talent, experience and drive to recognise good ideas across a range of industries and rapidly transform these into market-busting offerings. Combined with a deep understanding of what it takes for a digital-age business to thrive, and a rare ability to energise the teams propelling those businesses into the future, Heath’s passion for creating and developing new ventures unlocks potential and yields high returns. In his spare time, pftt, who are we kidding, Heath never has any spare time BUT if he did, he would probably be into the great outdoors, adventure sports, snow sports and sailing.
Favourite Australian Artist
Hill Top Hoods / Briggs / Skunkhour / Paul Kelly
Peter (Walker) Thomas
Artistic and Project Director
Peter is a living dynamo. He came out of the commercial radio and TV industries to create Planet Radio, the world’s first “Environmental and Conscious Radio Network” in 1995 in Brisbane, Northern NSW and SE Queensland which became the first 100% Australian Music Radio service in the world. He was partner in Lizard of Oz Media and Director of “TattuTV” a highly rated weekly Brisbane Music TV show in the early 2000’s. He dropped everything in 2012 to become Peter Walker and walk 9 countries over 7 years. He managed Festival Campgrounds for Bluesfest and Beyond the Valley festivals. These days he’s leading the Aussie Sounds team as we make this awesome project come to life. He’s also creating community with “The Village” and www.villagematrix.org which he founded back in 2014. He’s writing a series of epic novels aligned with The Village community, recording audio and video books, launching projects on various properties and hosting and facilitating life changing workshop retreats. Whew!
Favourite Australian Artist
No Frills Twins / Midnight Oil / John Butler Trio / Dutch Tilders / Hilltop Hoods / Skunk Hour / INXS / Gotye / Nick Cave / Cat Empire / Dead Can Dance
DANIELLE MONTAGNER
Marketing Manager
Danielle is a vibrant, enthusiastic marketing guru with a gift for growing a brand’s online presence. Her key role on the ASL team is to coordinate different marketing activities to ensure events reach as many people as possible! Outside of this, she manages a marketing agency and leads a team to assist numerous brands achieve awesome results with their digital marketing strategy. In her free time, you’ll generally find her doing something active outdoors, at yoga, on the beach or having a laugh with friends.
Favourite Australian Artist
Flight Facilities / Will Sparks / Kid Laroi / Missy Higgins / Hilltop Hoods / Flume / Fisher / Chet Faker / Vance Joy / Ziggy Alberts
BETTINA DODSON
Creative Manager
Bettina sees her creativity as both a passion and a career, which has allowed her to pursue and enjoy a diverse range of creative paths from design to teaching. Bettina finds all colours beautiful, particularly gradients found in nature and thinks it is simply impossible to have a favourite colour. When not creating for ASL and her nose isn’t buried in a book, Bettina enjoys roller skating, dancing, red wine and good food – often all at once.
Favourite Australian Artist
Amyl and the Sniffers / The Jungle Giants / Hockey Dad / Blue Juice / Methyl Ethel / Mallrat / SYCCO / Mickey Kojak / Spiderbait / Radio Birdman
AHMED SAEED
DevOps
Ahmed, our token Kiwi from across the pond likes to solve problems and has a desire to make a difference. Ahmed looks after all website needs at ASL. He is a jack of all trades, from website development to design and supporting the team to improve the user experience and processes. Besides this, he works as a freelancer and helps multiple businesses with their digital needs. Outside of work, Ahmed will be hiking, running, and doing BBQ. He is a tennis encyclopaedia and a huge Rafael Nadal fan. He loves to spend time with his family.
Favourite Australian Artist
Chet Faker / Temple step / Vance Joy / Dean Lewis / John Farnham / Courtney Barnett / Flight Facilities / Kalya Scintilla / Fisher / Delta Goodrem
Emmy O'Reilly
Production Assistant
Emmy is an eclectic mix of all things sparkly, expressive & creative. When she’s not researching, organizing & coordinating on the ASL team, she wears many hats as a creative, nomadic Solopreneur. She is an artist of bedazzled sunglasses, a Branding & Self Expression Coach for impact-driven Personal Brands & a music festival afficionado. As a talented connector between humans and ideas, she is a passionate force to be reckoned with. You can catch her in the surf lineup cheering people on, on the dance floor cutting shapes or cruising around Byron Bay in her fancy van, blasting tunes, dressed in gold chains & leopard print, & flashing a huge smile.
Favourite Australian Artist
Dope lemon / Kalya Scintilla / Babe Rainbow / Flight Facilities / Bliss n Eso / Spoonbill / Fisher / Hermitude / Chet Faker / Temple step
KARLIE BRAZEL-WOCKNER
Production Assistant
Karlie comes highly recommended by 4 out of 5 people who recommended things to people. She has spent the last few years growing her love and experience in the Events and Music industry whilst undertaking studies to improve her creative and technical abilities in Screen and Media Production. Lover of all things nature, Aussie Hip Hop, and awkward, mostly appropriate humor. You’ll either find her shoeless out in the forest or in the office working on social and operational fields with the ASL team.
Favourite Australian Artist
Hilltop Hoods / Pendulum / Seth Sentry / Hermitude / 360 / The Herd / Illy / Ziggy Alberts / Sticky Fingers / Bliss n Eso / The Living End / Draft / Tash Sultana
ALEXANDER SHARKEY
Head of Video and Audio
Alexander Sharkey is a Philly boy born and bread. He first visited Australia in 2008 on an exchange program while studying Film and Photography at LaTrobe University in Melbourne. From there on, Australia was love at first sight. So much so that he and his wife travelled together down under in 2015 on a whim. What was meant to be a year of backpacking turned into a new life together based in Lennox Head, NSW where they became Australian citizens in 2021. In his free time, Sharkey, enjoys surfing and jamming on the keys, while operating his video production company, Value Imagery.
Favourite Australian Artist
Ben Folds (not Aussie, but favourite keys player/musician, who frequents down under) / Jesse Morris Band / JK-47 / Angus and Julia Stone / The Babe Rainbow / Xavier Rudd / Blue King Brown / INXS / Fat Freddy’s Drop (again not Aussie, but pretty close!) / The Bee Gees (Back from the dead)
REMY VESELIS
Content Coordinator
Remy is a creative copywriter who juggles his professional life with his role as guitarist in the Los Angeles-based rock band Death Bells. Born and raised in the Northern Rivers where he attended all ages gigs at the Byron Youth Activities Center, Remy moved overseas for further touring opportunities in 2018. He is extremely passionate about making music accessible to everyone and his understanding of the industry from a performers perspective is a great asset to the Aussie Sounds team.
Favourite Australian Artist
Hugo Costin / Rowland S Howard / Low Life / Royal Headache / SPEED / INXS / Arrows / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds / The Go Betweens / Icehouse