President
Anita Kilkenny started her virtual career started back in 1994 when she registered THB Secretarial Solutions but didn’t become a full time VA until 2000 when AKA Virtual PA was born to help business owners, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs with their administration and secretarial needs and, more recently, with social media, email marketing and online events.
Having a long time interest in yoga, meditation and alternative health modalities. Anita saw a gap in this niche market and on 16 July 2014, The Holistic Virtual Assistant was born.
Anita’s passion is to help make the lives of business owners less stressful by assisting them to integrate email marketing and social media into their marketing plan, as well as day-to-day operations. She has a talent for cutting through all the noise and just do the things that matter and for people who don’t have the time or interest to do it for themselves.
Anita lives in Victoria and can be contacted at
Vice President
Monika Newman, Principal of Absolutely Virtual, has more than 20 years experience in Secretarial, Personal Assistant and administrative positions. She has worked with a variety of companies, ranging from small to large multinational enterprises; they include import/export, travel, government, major oil companies and independent consultants.
Treasurer
Kylie Short. Based in Port Macquarie (in a little seaside village called Bonny Hills, 25mins south of Port Macquarie), Kylie Short and her team at Tilda Virtual provides first-class Bookkeeping, BAS Agent services, Virtual Assistance services and training to small business owners both locally and around Australia.
As a self-confessed high achiever and award winner, Kylie and her team place a strong emphasis on providing the highest quality of service possible to their clients. Kylie’s attention to detail and belief in open communication has been a great asset in assisting her to successfully develop a devoted team of professionals and has now been in business for over 7 years and a bookkeeper for more than 16.
Kylie has served on the board of Directors for International Virtual Assistant Association and is one of the trainers with Virtually Yours VA Network for the Certificate I Virtual Business and Jump Start programs. In 2008, Kylie was awarded the Janet Jordan Achievement award (IVAD) and has various accreditations within the Virtual Assistant and Bookkeeping industries.
Kylie lives in New South Wales and be contacted at
Secretariat
Sandra O’Connor. PAvirtual began in 2012 when Sandra O’Connor decided to take the plunge into self-employment after she wrapped up her 17 years of being an administration worker. PAvirtual assists businesses with administration needs, freeing up valuable time and leaving business operators to concentrate on the areas they have expertise in.
Sandra offers services such as preparing reports, agendas, recording minutes and actions, budget monitoring and any work with detailed or extensive documents. Her work involves research, online invoicing, word processing, customer service, presentations, appointment management and personal tasks.
She has a passion for organising, helping others and always enjoys the feeling of achievement and looks forward to being part of such a dynamic team that supports an industry that she loves.
Sandra lives in Victoria and can be contacted at
Committee Members and State Representatives
Membership Officer
New South Wales – Ingrid Bayer
Ingrid Bayer is the founder of V-biz Virtual Business Management Services. With a background of over 25 years in small business administration and high level EA support, Ingrid has a wealth of knowledge and expertise in providing superior services in a constantly changing business landscape.
Ingrid made the move from conventional ‘bricks and mortar’ employment situations, and established her VA business in 2009, working out of her large home office located in Taree, a regional centre on the mid-north coast of NSW, and has continued to provide long term high level business and Executive Assistant support to clients in a variety of industries including Australian and International Professional Speakers/Authors/Coaches, IT industry, Chambers of Commerce, Registered Training Organisations, and Human Resources.
Ingrid is passionate about the growing Virtual Industry in Australia, and to the education of businesses and individuals alike in the benefits of working with or being a VA. In particular, Ingrid is particularly motivated to educate regional women (and men) about the many opportunities that working as a VA presents.
Ingrid was honoured to achieve the peer awarded SASI Award (Selfless Acts Supporting the Industry) in 2010. Ingrid is the co-founder of the Australian Association for Virtual Industry Professionals (AAVIP), serving as its first Executive Officer in 2011/12. In 2013, Ingrid’s business, V-biz, was successful in attaining the Certified Australian Virtual Business qualification.
Queensland – Lyndal Harris
Lyndal is the owner of Direct VA which started in 2011 after 19 years of various administrative/project management roles both here in Australia and overseas. At the beginning of her journey, Lyndal wrote resumes and job applications and offered general admin support to small businesses. In 2012, Lyndal realised the world of virtual assistance was exactly what she’d been looking for and left her part-time position as a Computer Trainer to build Direct VA.
Since then, Lyndal decided to undertake training and certifications in the areas of content and social media marketing. She now offers a variety of services with all things content marketing … namely helping clients implement theirs with email and social media marketing, blogging etc.
Lyndal lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Queensland and is committed to making life easier for small business owners.
Victoria – Hanna Finlay
Hanna is the tradie’s VA, passionate about new technology, improving workflow and processes, knitting, wine and country living in North West Victoria. Over the past 3 years, Hanna has changed her business from focussing on high-demand corporates to down to earth, fun-loving tradies, rebranding to Off-Site Tradie Admin Solutions in 2015.
Hanna’s tradie services include reception, appointment booking, job management, employee scheduling, system overhauls, customer service and invoicing. Her aim is to automate tradie businesses, reducing their stress and freeing their wives from being slaves to tradie admin.
Hanna’s love of service improvement has seen her create a first-class reception process, perfect for assisting her tradie clients. And VAs who are looking at adding reception to their services can now organise this through Hanna.
Western Australia – Position Vacant
Sponsorship Officer – Position Vacant
Australian Capital Territory – Position Vacant
South Australia – Position Vacant
Tasmania – Position Vacant
