Meet The Team
Ambitious, talented and passionate about providing clients with fresh, innovative marketing techniques and web design solutions.
James Richardson
Sales Director
James Richardson started his online career by running online Sports Fan sites (luckily none are still online today), with the pinnacle of the site being a write up in the Sunday Herald Sun 'Wired' column.
His professional career began at a ASX listed company, Melbourne IT, where he held various senior roles across the Sales and Marketing teams, before deciding to venture out on his own.
Running several successful online websites and businesses himself, he is well placed at understanding your business needs.
Daniel Zuccon
Operations Director
Daniel Zuccon made his first website in 1998 for a friend in exchange for a skateboard. (Don't worry, his programming skills are far better than his short-lived skating career!).
Since then, he has run several online businesses including boutique eCommerce stores and large online communities, so he understands the issues Australian businesses face every day.
Nathan Davies
Business Development Manager
Nathan brings a wealth of experience to the Optimising team with a list of credentials too long to list here! He has a strong SEO and PPC background, both in-house and agency, and believes that online marketing contributes to a business’ bottom line in a meaningful way.
In his spare time, Nathan enjoys overseas adventures (who doesn’t?), chucking stuff away from his dog, playing/watching/yelling at soccer matches, and writing about himself in the third person.
Nathan is our ‘go to’ guy for business marketing and business development, so if you’ve got a question about anything we do here at Optimising, give him a call.
Trishan Naidoo
Head of Paid Media
Trishan graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing) and a Bachelor of Laws. Specialising in paid media channels, Trishan joined Optimising in 2013. He has worked on campaigns for clients across a range of verticals including Reece Bathrooms, Allied Pickfords, Catch of the Day and the Richmond and Western Bulldogs football clubs. He is both Google AdWords and Analytics qualified.
Outside of work, Trishan is an AFL enthusiast, supporting the mighty Essendon Bombers. He has a penchant for the American reality show “Survivor”, regularly boring his colleagues with details of the latest tribal council blindside.
Simon Lawrenson
Senior Web Developer
After graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University, Simon held a number of developer positions in the north of England. With a passion for development but a keen eye for design, it's the perfect combination for delivering beautifully crafted, pixel-perfect websites with the functionality to match.
Dreaming of blue skies and golden beaches he traded England for Australia, only to arrive in Melbourne during the cold winter months. Luckily the cold didn't deter him and he loves to experience everything that Melbourne has to offer.
Paul Abbott
Digital Campaign Manager
Having worked in marketing and commercial roles around the world, Paul brings extensive experience in fostering long-term, commercial relationships to the Optimising team.
A professional armchair sportsman, Paul spends half of his year preparing for his 'Mighty Tiges' to win the flag. In the off-season you'll see him reading an inordinate number of books and speaking French.
Despite popular belief, Paul does not enjoy writing autobiographical pieces but does thrive on the fast pace of digital.
Brodie Clark
Digital Campaign Manager
After working both in-house and agency-side for over 2 years, Brodie made the break from Brisbane to Melbourne in early 2017. The people, office space, and opportunity to talk with others about skateboarding at work forced him to beg James and Daniel for a job (thankfully they took him on).
Brodie manages a portfolio of SEO clients here at Optimising and loves the daily challenge of staying on top of industry developments. Aside from his interest in SEO, Brodie enjoys performing nitty gritty tweaks and conversion tests to make an already-optimised page perform better and better.
When he's not working on your website, you can find Brodie attending live music gigs or travelling.
Tatum Murison
Digital Campaign Manager
Tatum brings a new type of experience to the Optimising team. Her background as a Senior Marketing Manager for several multi-national companies brings some big-picture perspective to her campaigns and pairs marketing advice with SEO efforts to (hopefully) result in higher CTR and a more engaging user experience.
Aside from her marketing background, Tatum has also dabbled in Interior Design, but she is yet to implement any of this knowledge into the office’s feng shui and we’re still stuck with fluro bean bags from before her arrival.
Outside of work, you’ll find Tatum working on her side business building an online dog accessories label with her two fur-children and enjoying the apparent foodie scene that she claims is ‘booming’ in the Outer Eastern suburbs.
Roscoe Thorne
Digital Campaign Manager
South African-born, Roscoe, moved across the ditch from New Zealand in 2013, and has since got a taste of Melbourne agency life in both small and big corporate.
With the dream of being a professional basketball player being laid to rest, Roscoe decided to throw in the towel as a Fitness Club Manager, and after completing a Diploma in Business and a Front-End Development Diploma, he pursued his keen interest in Digital Marketing.
Apart from being an avid New York Knicks basketball fan(he realises how painful this has been over the last 15 years), he used to run an NBA podcast you probably never heard about, and has a keen interest in most things music or dog-related. Mostly dog-related.
Roberta Hernandez
Accounts Executive
Along with studying a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, Roberta keeps everything running smoothly at Optimising.
She hopes to continue her tertiary education upon finishing her BA, with the mind of pursuing law. Roberta's other goal upon finishing her first degree is to take a trip around Europe.
Outside of school and work, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, passionately supporting the Essendon Bombers and watching re-runs of "The Office".
Cayla Demske
Accounts Executive
While currently studying her MBA at Deakin, Cayla assumes the position as Accounts Executive.
Cayla's passion for travel was ignited during a travel course in Mexico while studying at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Post graduation, with four years of corporate HR experience and multiple international trips under her belt, she decided on an extended international trip and took a late "Gap Year" to Australia. Two years later, it looks like Australia gets to keep her!
She is an avid Green Bay Packers fan, but is starting to get around the AFL - go Roos! Outside of school and work, you can find her running around Princes Park, enjoying live music and indulging in the Melbourne coffee scene.
Lachlan Wells
Digital Campaign Manager
Lachlan is an ex-sandgroper who traded the crystal blue waters of Cottesloe Beach for the dreary grey skies of Melbourne. Thankfully, his role as Digital Content Marketer at Optimising, as well as the opportunity to go out on a Monday night, is making it all worthwhile.
After completing a Marketing degree, he started his career in the print heavy world of recruitment advertising (a lot's changed since 2007). As an Account Manager, his job was to become an expert in his client's business, which ranged from global gold mining companies to small independent schools.
In the last few years, he has levelled-up his nerd credentials and creative writing skills in AFA AWARD School. He could care less about AFL, he's too busy worrying about content for his clients.
Linda Dwyer
Digital Campaign Manager
Linda is fascinated by the way a good story can grab an audience. After completing a Media Arts degree and a stint in publishing and film distribution, her curiosity about how to attract the right audience was really switched on.
The natural thing to do was a Masters of Marketing whilst also learning Spanish, trying to master hula hoop tricks and learn handstands. Amongst all of this, she discovered a passion for turning research and data analysis into creative and online PR strategies.
Now that she's one of the team at Optimising, she'll love nothing more than to find the right audience for your story (while still trying to perfect those handstands).
Dan Morrison
Digital Producer
Originally from Perth, Dan has spent the last 5 years running his own digital agency in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. After finally accepting that he would never master (or learn) the local language, fit comfortably through doorways or sit on a street side stool without putting himself and everyone around him in physical danger, he decided to return to Australia or "real-life" as he refers to it.
Having dabbled in almost every aspect of digital production over the course of his career, and currently completing a Project Management degree, Dan came ready-made to fill the first Digital Producer role at Optimising. With a passion for transparency, client engagement and innovative solutions, Dan is well prepared to manage any digital challenge.
Thomas Lutrov
DIGITAL CAMPAIGN MANAGER
Thomas built this first website at the age of 10 years old, using a now retro version of Dreamweaver. His skills have been somewhat refined since then, and he now manages digital campaigns for a variety of clients at Optimising.
When not analysing web analytics and strategising, Thomas is probably spending his time recording music or spamming his friend's inboxes with the funniest memes he can find on the internet.
Mike Nicholas
Digital Executive
Mike came to Optimising as he believes strongly that digital marketing is the future (He's onto something...) and working here gives him an opportunity to combine his skills he’s adopted from study to real-world situations, and to learn many more skills whilst working in the industry.
When Mike’s not working, you’ll find him soaring the skies as he works towards achieving his Private Pilot Licence.
Felicity Soler
Digital Executive
Fel is currently studying a dual Bachelor Degree of Business and Media & Communication, co-majoring in Marketing and Public Relations at Swinburne University.
With a background in design, she enjoys utilising those skills in the fast pace of digital marketing at Optimising. After graduating, she hopes to continue growing her skills and continue her career in the industry.
When Fel’s not at work, you’ll find her at any one of Melbourne's many dog-friendly cafe, asking strangers to pet their doggos.
Our Company
Founded in 2008 by Daniel & James, Optimising has grown from a tiny shared city office with 1 small window, to one of the leading Melbourne digital agencies.
"We noticed there was a gap in the market for a transparent, and and customer-focused agency, and felt that we could really make a difference to the clients we were working for than they were currently seeing from their agency" James said.
Starting with a big focus on SEO, Optimising have over the years worked on a wide range of projects and expanded into areas such as PPC, Social Media, Web and Application Development.
Optimising pride itself on its great people. The team who work at Optimising are dedicated to our clients, and always ensuring we are at the bleeding edge. In a very competitive and constantly changing market, it's our attention to detail and transparency that really sets us apart.
Our office, located on Punt Road, Richmond and just a good kick to the famous Richmond Football ground. It's a light filled open-space that helps us to work collaboratively, in between taking a break on the rooftop terrace, or battling it out on our original NBA Jam arcade machine.
We have big plans at Optimising, and continue to strive to do more for our clients, and our people to make this happen.
