Ashley de Silva – CEO
Ashley de Silva is the Chief Executive Officer of CHOICE, a role he has held since 2024. With a background in digital innovation and advocacy, Ashley leads a dedicated team that fights to ensure fair, safe and just markets for all consumers in Australia.
Before joining CHOICE, he served as the CEO of youth mental health service, ReachOut Australia, where he led significant growth and innovation to improve outcomes for young people and carers, resulting in numerous awards such as the Good Design Award Gold Winner and Not-for-Profit Technology Innovator of the Year.
Ashley holds degrees in Business from Monash University, an Executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and a Masters of Science in Positive Organisational Development and Change. He serves as Board Director of mental health service Neami National.
Louise Austin – Director, Operations
Louise joined CHOICE in 2023 and manages the Operations function. Louise is responsible for the management of Finance, People and Culture, Strategy and Risk and WHS. Louise is a qualified accountant (CIMA) with over 20 years of accounting and people management experience in a range of industries in both Australia and the United Kingdom.
Prior to CHOICE, Louise was head of finance at the Black Dog Institute and has also worked as an outsourced CFO, consulting and providing support to new and rapidly growing SMEs. She has also worked in the Media sector for Newscorp, 20th Century Fox and CX Lavender during her 10 years in Australia.
Mark Blackburn – Director, Commercial & Marketing
Mark joined CHOICE in November 2024 and manages the newly merged Commercial & Marketing functions. Mark has over 20 years of cross-functional, end-to-end brand, media, digital and eCommerce leadership success (and failure) in brands/organisations as diverse as Apple, UK Government, Carnival Corporation and LEGO during start-up, high-growth and turnaround situations in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UK.
Mark brings experience and passion for supporting and driving transformational organisation-wide culture change through genuine customer centricity and delivering a unique, differentiated and bespoke customer experience. He will help to build on the momentum that CHOICE has achieved in recent years.
Mark has an MBA in Marketing from University of Technology, Sydney and a BA in Economics from the University of Manchester.
Tony Harrison – Chief Technology Officer
Tony joined CHOICE in July 2023 and heads the technology area. Tony arrived at CHOICE with over 30 years experience in IT, much of it for not for profit organisations, such as The Smith Family and NPS MedicineWise. He has implemented many technically complex projects including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and content management systems (CMS).
With a strong focus on security, integration and bringing the human touch to technology, Tony revels in ensuring technology is there to support the organisation and follows a strategic roadmap.
He has a Masters in Business Management and a passion for bringing humour to the workplace.
Mark Serrels – Editorial Director
Joining CHOICE in 2023, Mark helps develop and execute on content that engages readers in CHOICE's mission and helps increase its broader impact. He is responsible for reaching new audiences, driving the direction of CHOICE magazine and leading CHOICE's legendary investigations team.
He brings with him decades of editorial experience, bringing out the best in world class teams both in Australia and the US. Most recently he worked as a Senior Editorial Director at CNET and as a Publisher for the Australian editions of Gizmodo, Lifehacker and Kotaku. He has a Masters of Media Research from the University of Stirling.
Matthew Steen – Director, Reviews & Testing
Matthew leads the services, testing labs, content, and facilities support teams, which produce all reviews and testing for CHOICE and also the Test Research development areas.
Originally joining CHOICE in 2003 as a consumer services employee, Matthew had previously worked for 12 years in information, communications and technology around the world for various corporate sectors, including banking, accounting and computer hardware manufacturers.
Rosie Thomas – Director, Campaigns & Communications
Rosie leads CHOICE's Campaigns and Communications department, which fights to keep industry and government accountable and achieve real change for Australian consumers.
Rosie joined the CHOICE executive in August 2023. Before that, she was Deputy Director of CHOICE's partner organisation, Super Consumers Australia. Rosie also has experience as a lawyer, a regulator and a policy advocate.
Rosie has degrees in economics and law from the University of Sydney and a Masters in Law and Finance from the University of Oxford. She is a non-executive director of the Financial Rights Legal Centre.
Sarah Coombs – Head of Strategy, Business Operations and Company Secretary
Sarah has been with CHOICE since 2016 and held various positions during her tenure with the organisation. Sarah was appointed by the Board as Company Secretary in 2019, a role she holds in conjunction with her position as Head of Strategy and Business Operations within the organisation. As Company Secretary, Sarah is responsible for overseeing, managing and advising the Board on best practice governance and compliance, in addition to other administrative responsibilities.
Sarah is an Affiliate member of Governance Institute of Australia. Sarah started her career in the UK, where she qualified as a solicitor, having completed her LLB at Hull University and LPC at The College of Law. She also holds a Diploma of Sustainability and a Masters of Social Entrepreneurship from Macquarie Graduate School of Management.
We're on your side
For more than 60 years, we've been making a difference for Australian consumers. In that time, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family.
And you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
Learn more about CHOICE membership today
