About Us

General Manager

Alex Smith joined Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in March 2011. Alex brings 22 years of experience in the magazine & newspaper industry (UK and Australia), his last role being the Group Circulation Manager for ACP Magazines, now Bauer Media (Men’s Interest & Specialist).

Alex joined Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in March 2011 as Client Services Manager and was promoted to Head Of Client And Retailer Services in April 2013.

Alex has a BA (Hons) degree in Business Administration.

Read More

Commercial Manager

Avril Holden is Commercial Manager for the Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd. She is responsible for the financial operations across Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd

Avril joined the business in January 2011 as Financial Controller for the Scribo Group before moving to the role of Financial Controller for Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in August 2011. She was appointed as Commercial Manager in June 2013.

Prior to joining Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd, she held various positions with the fashion group M. Webster Holdings Pty Ltd. Avril holds a bachelor's degree in Economics (Accounting) and is a Member of the Certified Practicing Accountants of Australia.

Read More

Head of IT and Business Systems

Since joining Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in 1997, Poppy has worked across a number of departments, including but not limited to Allocations, Client Services, and Project Management, giving her extensive knowledge and experience in many areas of the business.

Currently Poppy and her team are responsible for both IT systems and the provision of a process improvement advisory and implementation service to deliver improved efficiency, simplicity and transparency across Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd business processes.

Poppy has a university degree in Mathematics, with a double major in Statistics and Operations Research.

Read More

Client Services Manager

Chris joined Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in 2012 heading up the management of the International Import and Partworks business.

Prior to this Chris worked for a major UK Distributor managing key magazine publishing clients. Since joining Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd Chris has been instrumental in the renewal of major contracts as well as ongoing enhancements of GGA’s brand new allocation and reporting system. Chris’ role encompasses a wide variety of deliverables for the business through a team of Managers and Assistants.

Chris has a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies & Marketing.

Read More

Client Services Manager

Gabriel is highly respected within the magazine industry, with 30 years magazine and media industry experience in Australia and internationally.

Gabriel has held various senior management roles in this time responsible for driving key strategies to grow circulation revenues, working alongside publishers, distributors, editors, circulation and marketing.

Currently, Gabriel heads up the Client Services team through a large team of Managers and Assistants and is an instrumental part of the Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd business development team.

Read More

Operations Manager

Leigh Verity was appointed Operations Manager of Ovato Retail Distribution Pty Ltd in October 2017.

Leigh started his career in the Magazine Industry at Southdown Press in Melbourne in 1990. He has since worked across various roles within Publishing, Distribution and Retail. Leigh returned to Gordon and Gotch in March 2016 to manage the retail department and our key relationships with the newsagents and key accounts.

Over the 29 years in the industry, Leigh has taken two breaks to further his skills in project Management at OneSteel, and more recently with Telstra where he managed two Retail Stores in NSW.

Read More