MAV Board
Meet the people that guide MAV in the areas of compliance, long-term direction, and strategy.
Linda Catalano
CHAIR
Linda is an Independent Producer with Australian and international experience as a programmer and manager that spans both live performance, film and television.
She is currently Creative Director/Executive Producer and founder of Quiet Riot Creative; an independent production house, booking agency & consultancy built on the values of innovation, representation, community & social justice. Community connection and professional development are a key part of her practice.
Linda has produced, programmed and invested in numerous local and international tours throughout the UK, Europe, Nth America and Australia where she has presented work in a range of venues including Southbank Centre London, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, SOHO Theatre, Roundhouse London, The Famous Spiegeltent and many more. Her experience also spans major festivals including Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Sydney International Festival, Brisbane International Festival, Women of the World and Glastonbury Festival to name a few. Linda has worked collaboratively with a range of artists to achieve their ambitions notably Global First Nations superstars Hot Brown Honey and champions of equity in music sector Women of Soul.
Linda’s work in the sector was acknowledged with a Green Room Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cabaret in 2019.
Term: 2022 – 2025
Neda Rahmani
DEPUTY CHAIROver a 20 year history, Neda has established herself as a cultural leader whose practice embodies inclusion, equity and justice. Whether it is through her directorial experiences bringing to life critical performances and events, her investment in capacity building with diverse young people to build the next generation of culture makers or her skilled facilitation of intercultural dialogue, Neda’s work is the nexus of transformation.
Neda’s work is the site of resistance, artfully presented to engage audiences in a profound conversation about what it means to live in a multicultural society. By virtue of commanding the stage in concert with artists of colour from across our diverse community Neda challenges preconceptions of who is an artist and what is art, demanding from audiences a deep appreciation of our pluralism. Through courageous artistic risk-taking Neda enables participation that transcends barriers and builds new forms of engagement.
An entrepreneur, one half of Goodworthy, a social impact media company putting people and planet first. She is an artist, composer, director, storyteller, facilitator, mentor, media commentator and all round raconteur.
Drumming culture, collaboration and costuming are integral to her expressions as an artist. With a passion for body art, body extension, audience interaction, fashion and costume design, Neda draws on her university studies of performance to deliver some of the most decadent concerts and roving musical entrances. Her practice is a melding of contemporary and hereditary cultural practices that are 1000s of years old.
Term: 2024 - 2027
Ursula Dyer Lepporoli
DEPUTY VICE CHAIR
Ursula Lepporoli is a partner at KPMG. She has 17 years of extensive experience as a strategic global mobility tax expert providing a full suite of tax services to companies, expatriates and high net worth individuals. She was awarded Global Mobility Champion of the Year award due to her commitment to the movement of talent across borders through tax.
She is passionate about creating communities where people thrive. She co-chairs the Cultural Diversity pillar within one of KPMG’s Inclusion and Diversity committees where she is working to create increased organisational impact on those experiencing intersectionality. She is the partner sponsor for the employee led resource group Money Matters where she aims to reduce the gap in accumulated retirement funds and increase wealth for women. She also volunteers as a mastermind for the Australian Professionals of Colour community.
Ursula is a keen amateur photographer.
Term Dates: 2022 – 2025
Sandeep Agrawal
TREASURER 
Sandeep Agrawal is passionate about making regulatory compliance a key strength and differentiator for his clients by helping them design ‘fit for purpose’ and ‘meaningful’ compliance arrangements.
As a regulatory compliance expert and auditor with 20+ years of experience, he helps clients and adds value by providing actionable insights, benchmarking and industry best-practice ideas.
With his deep knowledge of the regulatory requirements for financial services, he often works with the regulator and the industry to shape new regulations. More recently, he has worked on RG132 Funds Management: Compliance and Oversight that has a wide impact on the funds management industry.
Sandeep leads the Financial Services Regulatory Assurance Team ('FS Reg CoE'), which provides compliance assurance services for AFS licenses, compliance plans of registered schemes, APRA requirements etc. Passionate about transformation, Sandeep has also led firm-wide initiatives to improve the quality and effectiveness of the audits making them future ready.
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Term: 2024 - 2027
Alaa Karrar
BOARD DIRECTOR
Alaa is an emerging corporate leader with over a decade of experience in financial services and banking, covering treasury, payments, product, digital, and project delivery.
Currently serving as a Senior Consultant and Product Owner at NAB, she oversees the management of unsecured lending digital experiences, dedicated to delivering best in market customer solutions and creating immersive and meaningful experience to customers. Alaa played a pivotal role in the launch and management of the New Payments Platform (NPP), PayID and OSKO across NAB's digital platforms.
As a woman of colour, Alaa is deeply committed to intersectional inclusion and equity and is currently leading the executive leadership and engagement stream within NAB's employee-led cultural Inclusion committee, her mission is to foster diverse representation in senior leadership roles.
Beyond her corporate endeavours, Alaa has served on Eastweb, a philanthropic board with a focus on bridging the gap between philanthropy and community sectors. She actively supported grassroots projects in Victoria, collaborating with Indigenous, Asylum Seeker, and Refugee communities in healthcare, employment, education, and cultural heritage. Her dedication to social equality led her to join the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights board in 2023, where she contributes her expertise in sponsorship, project management, and inclusive leadership.
With a background of East African descent, Alaa's lived experience spans three countries, and she is fluent in three languages. As a co-host and founder of the Trajectory Podcast, she is reshaping the narrative of success for young women of colour in the diaspora by providing a platform for sharing lived experiences, fostering authentic connections within the community and facilitating the exchange of ideas, passions, resources, and support.
Justice, Integrity and sense of mission are the core values that underpin her ethics and leadership approach.
Daizy Maan
BOARD DIRECTOR
Daizy Maan is a curator, speaker and advocate. She is the founder of the Australian South Asian Centre - a non profit dedicated to empowering Indian & South Asian women creatives and founders.
She produced, marketed and performed in Brown Women Comedy at Melbourne Int Comedy Festival.
She has served on multiple boards, including a publicly listed company board (CSX: NSX) and led Deakin University's flagship startup program and later University of Melbourne's for six years and Melbourne Accelerator Program at University of Melbourne.
Recognised by as one of the most influential South Asian Women from around the world by AWF Power List, her impactful work has been featured on SBS World News and ABC. More locally she was named Boroondara Young Citizen of the Year. She is proudly Punjabi-Australian and lives in Melbourne. Most recently her essay is being published in Growing Up Indian in Australia by Black Inc in June 2024.
Term: 2024 - 2027
Effie Nkrumah
BOARD DIRECTOR
Effie Nkrumah is an energetic and charming multi-hyphenate cultural creative of Ghanaian descent and founder of inclusive, made in Ghana, slow fashion brand Keziah Jemima.
A contributor in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Growing up African in Australia anthology, Effie holds an MA in Arts Politics from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she developed her practice as an interdisciplinary artist, relying on memory and the archive to bring various art forms together. Driven by the concept of challenging the single story of Africa through stories of continental Africans in diaspora, Effie creates content that is entertaining, aesthetically pleasing and discussion prompting. Her installation series See What I See has been performed in Sydney, New York, and Accra.
From her clothing design methods to her creative conquests, Effie’s mission is to ensure that people living at the pinpoint of complex intersection can find a sense of grounding, of pride in who they are and a renewed curiosity about who they can be.
She is the voice of Astra, a Ghanaian agent in Riot Game’s Valorant, played by over 2 million people worldwide. After 10 years choreographing and stage managing Ghana’s leading theatre company, Effie continues to work in and for community.
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Terms: 2024 - 2027
Emiliano Zucchi
BOARD DIRECTOR
Emiliano is currently the CEO of VITS Language Loop, a Victorian Government Enterprise which provides interpreting and translation services to Government and corporate clients. Prior to working at LanguageLoop, Emiliano was the CEO of the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV).
In the past, Emiliano was the Director of the Transcultural & Language Services (TALS) department and the Narrun Wilip-giin Aboriginal Support Unit (ASU) at Northern Health where he led the organisation’s first ever Reconciliation Action Plan, as well as various iterations of the Cultural Responsiveness and Disability Action plans.
Before commencing at Northern Health, Emiliano worked 10 years as a university lecturer. Since 2014 he has held positions as Adjunct Research Fellow and Adjunct Research Associate in the School of Languages, Literature, Cultures & Linguistics at Monash University. He has published articles and book chapters, and presented over 30 conference papers nationally and internationally on language services and their impact on the health outcomes of people with limited English proficiency.
Emiliano is passionate about the arts, traveling and learning about different cultures; he is an advocate for equitable access to services and promotion of intersecting forms of diversity.
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Term: 2023 - 2026
Kylie Crane
BOARD DIRECTOR
Kylie Crane is a HR professional with over 20 years of experience in the creative industries, including The Arts Centre Melbourne, and Madman Entertainment.
Kylie is passionate about the role art can play in shaping mindsets and communities. Culture-first and collaboration is her approach when initiating strategy, and champions designing people-centric programs, frameworks, and solutions.
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Term: 2023 - 2026
Patrizia Fimiami
BOARD DIRECTOR
Patrizia Fimiani has over 25 years’ experience across the Australian and New Zealand events sector. With an extensive portfolio of delivery across major, high value, public facing events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup, White Night, RISING, ALWAYS LIVE, Moomba, New Years Eve, Melbourne Music Week. Patrizia has worked with festivals, artists, producers and organisations to create and deliver events, opportunities, business cases, strategic, stakeholder, risk management, marketing and communication plans that have delivered highly successful outcomes.
As a daughter to migrant parents, Patrizia has grown up in a linguistically and culturally diverse family and understands the impact of how art can contribute to cross-cultural understanding. She is values driven and committed to ensuring that both the artists and the art are celebrated and accessible to all. She brings an expansive business and commercial acumen and is a passionate advocate for diversity and promoting inclusivity in all aspects of community life.
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Term: 2024 - 2025
Siu Chan
BOARD DIRECTOR
With over 20 years of experience, Siu Chan has played a critical role in shaping the cultural life of Yarra and has championed the arts as an everyday experience.
Siu began her career in the arts at the North Richmond Community Health Centre, one of the early promoters of arts and culture as central to health and wellbeing. She has gone on to work for community organisations, Next Wave Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, 3MBS Classic FM and has had extensive experience in local government.
As Unit Manager of Arts Culture and Venues at the City of Yarra Siu has driven many innovative initiatives introduced to support the creative sector in a changing city. These include targeted programs such as Room to Create, dedicated to maintaining and growing the availability of creative spaces, programs to grow and celebrate arts and culture such as the Leaps and Bounds Music Festival, Lunar Festival, Johnston Street Fiesta, as well as a place making integrated public art program.
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Term: 2022 - 2025
Sneha Varma
BOARD DIRECTOR
Sneha Varma is a South Indian woman living on Wurundjeri Country and currently serves as the Senior Communications Officer at VACCHO, the peak representative for the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Victoria. From 2017 to 2023, she worked at Multicultural Arts Victoria as the Marketing Coordinator.
With an extensive background in the arts, Sneha has worked as an artist, performer, and arts worker. She holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management and has professional experience in film production, digital media marketing, and as a dancer in India.
Sneha has multifaceted experience in designing and executing marketing and communications projects across various platforms, including social media, website, and digital content management. Her strengths lie in engaging diverse audiences, cultivating digital community spaces, and building strong, authentic brands.
She is passionate about and dedicated to intersectional anti-racism, cultural equity, and inclusion in the Victorian creative, health, and wellbeing sectors.
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Term: 2024 - 2025