The Board - Directors of NSTE

Susan Kadar – President

Susan Kadar is the President. She has served on the Board for six years and she has worked on numerous initiatives since she became a member 17 years ago. She is a member of the Spiritual Directions Committee and, among other projects, has worked on the introduction of the new siddur, Mishkan T'filah. She is especially interested in the sustainability of NSTE for the benefit of members and the broader community on the North Shore.

A daughter of Holocaust survivors, Susan is a proud and passionate Jew who believes in Jewish continuity and the importance of every individual's unique Jewish journey.

With a background in journalism and media management, Susan has been an Executive Director of a management consultancy for the past 12 years.

Susan loves to spend time with her family and takes every opportunity to show photos of her two gorgeous grandsons and grandaughter. She enjoys cooking, entertaining, reading and going to concerts.

Michele Shadler – Vice President

Michele has been a member of NSTE for 18 years and has previously served on the Board.  She has also been a member and Vice President of the Board of the Martin and Emma Hannes Preschool and a Committee member of the NSTE Hebrew and Religion School.  She has been a member of the NSTE choir for 9 years and is a member of the Jewish Arts Committee.

Michele is a lawyer with a multinational insurance group engaged in general corporate, compliance and governance/company secretarial work.  She has a particular interest in ethics and has been an ethics lecturer at the College of Law and a member of the Ethics Committee of the Law Society of NSW.

Michele is proud of her Jewish identity and finds much fulfillment in her engagement in the life of NSTE.  She believes strongly in fostering a sense of connectedness and community among NSTE members.

She is married to Alan Friedlander and they have two children – Monique and Marcus, both with longstanding connections to NSTE and Netzer.  Michele celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at NSTE in 2009.  She loves the arts, reading, all kinds of learning and being with people.

Mark Ginsburg – Vice President

Mark Ginsburg is both a professional musician and management consultant. He recently completed a Master in Music degree at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music where he researched the linkages between hazzanut and jazz improvisation. 

Mark is actively involved in a number of community based activities including being an active member of the NSTE Jubilee Building Committee, as well as being Financial Director for the inaugural 2010 Sydney Jewish Music Festival, "Shir Madness". He also sits on an Advisory Board of an Australian Information Technology Consultancy. 

Prior undertaking music studies, Mark worked as a consultant to Adobe Systems, assisting them with the establishment of their world-wide consulting practice.  He also spent 15 years as an executive with IBM in Asia Pacific, responsible for a division of their Software Services organisation as well as managing their Business Partner programs. 

Mark was born in Cape Town South Africa and immigrated to Australia with his wife, Judy Campbell, in 1982.  Their son Dean has been very active in the Jewish Youth Movement and has become a budding film maker.

Peter McKeown - Treasurer

A Bachelor of Science graduate, Peter has been involved in software development for small business for over 15 years, helping them improve their business efficiencies.  In recent years he has been an IT Manager at a major Australian Bank.  The skills required at the Bank are shared with that of the role of Treasurer of NSTE.

Peter arrived from South Africa in 1999.  He is married to Naomi and they have 2 children – Jessie (a founding member of the Friday playgroup) and Zoe.  When not attending to his NSTE or family responsibilities, you may well find him on his surfboard at Manly beach.

Ron Sinclair – Board Member

Ron has been a member of NSTE for thirty seven years and Board member for some twenty years in many portfolios, including three years as vice President and three years as President.

 Ron has been and still is involved in many community activities both Jewish and non Jewish, including fund raising for them. In recent years he has been the driving force and sponsor of the Roz Sinclair 'Walk for Israel' which involves Jews from the North Shore of Sydney in raising funds for Israel. It is named after his late wife Roz who was an avid walker.

Perry Cohn – Board Member

Perry has served as a member of the NSTE Board from 2008. He is also the Board representative on the Jubilee Building Committee, and a past member of the Board of the NSTE preschool.

Perry is a Civil Engineer, having majored in construction management. From early 2010, he took on the role of Director of Project Operations, Asia Pacific for a global engineering and project management contractor. His role involves providing oversight and controls for all projects in Asia Pacific. When he isn't travelling, Perry enjoys being a part of the NSTE choir.

David Bass - Board Member

Originally from London, David runs his own independent strategic public relations consultancy specialising in information technology and corporate communications management.  He has more than 20 years’ experience in media and marketing communications having worked for multi-national companies including Intel and Edelman Public Relations, both in Sydney and Boston.

David has a particular interest in history having studied for a Bachelor of Arts in History during which he researched the history of the Jews in the Spanish city of Salamanca during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.  

He is the son of an Austrian Kindertransport child from Vienna, and has a keen interest in travel, music and the environment. He is married to Ingrid and they have two children, Sophie and Noah, who both currently attend NSTE’s religious education program.  

Highlight of his year so far: Seeing his wife and children perform in The Children of Eden production and being part of the high energy marketing team in support of the show!

Louise Rohloff - Board Member

This is Louise’s first year serving on the Board of Directors. With a background in nursing, she has a keen interest in helping the community especially those wanting to reconnect with their spirituality. She also has an interest in activities aimed towards young adults.

Louise began her career as a registered nurse over 18 years ago working primarily in the field of Mental Health. During this time Louise has also worked in clinical research from which she is a published author in the international arena. This work saw Louise recruited to the commercial sector as a clinical business manager, specializing in a new treatment for heroin addiction. In this role Louise spent 5 years working in the United States where she also completed a Masters in Public Health.

Louise now runs her own consultancy service offering clinical support and project management for both the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. She is currently working in the field of orthopedic bio-surgery.

At Whale Beach, last year, Louise married her bashert, Ethan under the chuppa. They share their house with a well-traveled cat and a miniature dachshund puppy. She is very excited at the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors and looks forward to helping our members and community feel connected to and supported by their Shule.

Nigel Lazarus - Board Member

Nigel has been a member of NSTE for nearly 10 years. His two sons ( Joshua and Reuben) celebrated their barmitzvahs at NSTE and both are consistently  involved with Shul and Netzer activities. Nigel considers himself to be a "back room" person and he prefers to assist  with any job or role, taking pleasure in results more than recognition. He was actively in involved with the organisation of the Shabbatton held in December 2009 as well as the recent Children of Eden Musical.

He and his family live in St.Ives and is a very keen football player and still plays O35 as well as cricket with Joshua. He has been working 25 years for an Computer software company , originally in the UK and now in Australia.

Sarah Fife - Board Member

Sarah has been a member of NSTE since 2005 when she and her husband, Tim, moved to Sydney from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA).  While originally intending to stay for 1 year, both Tim and Sarah fell in love with Sydney and their desire to stay here longer has since become a decision to make Sydney their home indefinitely. 

Sarah holds a Masters degree in Public Policy and Management with a focus on Regional Economic Development and a Bachelors degree in Social History through which she completed a Senior Honors Thesis entitled “The Holocaust: Did it Really End with Liberation?” 

Sarah served as the Administrator of the NSTE Hebrew & Religion School in 2008, was involved with the Mishloach Manot project in 2007 and continues to be involved as a member of Shore Thing.  Additionally, in Pittsburgh she has served as a volunteer in a variety of capacities for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh as well as serving on the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival Committee, the Yom HaShoah steering committee and the boards of B’Nai Zion and The Jewish Chronicle.

Following her studies, Sarah worked a Special Assistant to the Chief Executive of Allegheny County and then as Director of Operations for the Richard Florida Creativity Group.  Here in Sydney, she has worked for Reed Exhibitions Australia and for 2nd Road Pty Ltd

Max Theeboom - Board Member

Max worked in the family restaurant business until he was twenty-seven years old when bought his first taxi, with another one following within two years.

In 2005 he moved into the corporate hire car business whilst still running his taxis. He continued working in this field until November 2010 when he sold his hire car business and retired.

He met his wife Dorothy at NSTE. He has two daughters from a previous marriage.

Since his retirement he has attended Shabbat services regularly. He wanted to get involved in the Shule again as he had previously been on the Board for seven years when he worked towards trying to bring more financial stability to the Shule and creating a happy community.