CEO
Ahsan Zafar
Ahsan is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of managerial experience with multifarious exposure of education, retail, telecommunication and consulting industries.
He is highly organized, pro-active, and exceptionally quick learner with established analytical skills. Ahsan possesses a natural ability of paying attention to details, problem solving and leadership.
Director Operations
Ayesha Ahsan
Ayesha Ahsan is the Co-Founder & Director of Operations at i9 Education and is a mum of three beautiful kids. Ayesha has 17 years of hands on experience in Early Childhood Sector. Following her Diploma in Early Childhood Education, Ayesha completed her MBA majoring in Marketing and Finance. Ayesha’s qualifications and experiences enabled her to ensure effective running of their childcare and training Organisation operations.
As a professional Early Childhood Education (ECE) leader, Ayesha has strong skills in promoting positive outcomes by creating an environment and culture built on mutual respect and trust. Ayesha believes in Leading and inspiring others to challenge themselves and understands growth is key to business success and a positive staff morale will ensure that. She personally thrives on learning, challenges and personal growth opportunities. She is motivated to develop and support centres to achieve outstanding outcomes within inspiring environments whilst exceeding the quality expectations. All aspects of Early childhood regulation and Frameworks are thoroughly understood by her. Ayesha endeavours to offer educational success through to business success.
Ayesha believes as a company, they are committed to advocate for child protection, safety and wellbeing. The safety and well-being of children will always be i9 Educations our priority and we believe that all of our team members embrace this shared commitment.
Operations Manager
Rebecca Harding
Rebecca started her journey in Early Education in August 2004 as an untrained assistant. Rebecca then completed her Certificate 3 in Children’s Services in 2005, her Diploma in Children’s Services in 2005 and her Advanced Diploma in 2006 while working in various roles with children aged 6 weeks until 6 years.
In 2007 Rebecca commenced her role as Centre Director until 2014 when Rebecca was appointed as an Area Manager. Rebecca completed her Advanced Diploma in Community Sector Management and her Advanced Diploma of Leadership and Management in 2016. Rebecca joined i9 Education in June 2017 as the Area Manager before moving up as the Operations Manager role in July 2019.
Rebecca is married with 2 children (Jacob 18 and Aimee 16) and is passionate about providing quality Early Education and Care for all children and looks forward to helping guide and support our Educators through professional development opportunities, understanding of the National Quality Standards and guiding our curriculum into the future.
Area Manger
Nicole Parsons
Nicole commenced her early childhood education career by completing the Diploma of Community Services (Child Care) 1997-1999. Nicole started her career by working as a room leader at various childcare centres around Melbourne before moving overseas and spending 18 months in hospitality manager roles. On returning to Australia in 2003 Nicole commenced working as a Room Leader in Brisbane, Queensland and then moving into a Director role at the Centre.
In 2008 Nicole and her family returned to Melbourne to take up a Director position in a newly built centre, where she remained until commencing maternity leave at the end of 2009. Nicole’s journey started in 2011 with i9 Education as a Director at Dickory Dock Kids Childcare Centre in Melton and remained in this position before being promoted to an Area Manager in 2013.
Nicole returned to Melton to act as the centre Director in 2017 to aid its progression and improve the performance and its occupancy, before returning to i9 Education’s head office as an Administration Coordinator in 2018. 2019 saw Nicole resuming her responsibilities as an Area Manager to facilitate the company’s operations.
Nicole is married with 2 children, Cooper 15 and Charli 9. Nicole has a passion for the early childhood sector, in which she has seen many changes during the last 20 years and looks forward to being part of the industry as it continues to move forward and provide children and families with opportunities for quality early childhood care.
Assistant Area Manager
Jem Aldemir: Area Coordinator
Jem first started her journey at i9 education as a Centre Director in one of the Centres located in Hillside holding an Advance Diploma in Early Childhood Care. After many years of dedication and running and growing Hillside into the success Centre it is today Jem was promoted to the Area Educational Leader. After helping assist the Centres and their Directors in development of the educational programs in the Centres throughout the businesses Jem was promoted to the Area Coordinator.
Over the past few years, Jem has helped the business develop internally and systematically by continuously improving the quality of education and play spaces provided for the children to develop, learn, and grow as individuals and as a group. Jem wishes to continue providing children with enriching opportunities which begin early in their educational journey.
Marketing Manager
Jessica Ferro
Jessica comes from an extensive background of Real Estate, her father owning his own agency from a young age has exposed Jessica to being surrounded by the industry since she can remember. Jessica has been exposed to many varied positions from Administration to Property Management to Marketing, making her an asset in any role and giving her a through insight into business and the many facets that make a success company work.
Jessica completed a Diploma in Multimedia, then obtained a position as Receptionist at one of the leading Estate Agencies in the Eastern suburbs. Soon after she was promoted to Administration & Marketing and knew Marketing was the direction she wanted to follow. Having left to pursue her studies Jessica completed a Diploma in Business (Marketing) & Advanced Diploma in Business (Marketing). Jessica received an early offer to continue her education at La Trobe University completing a Bachelor in Business majoring in Marketing. Jessica has since completed numerous design and digital courses.
In 2015 Jessica entered into the corporate marketing field where she was a major key in introducing SPS Corporation's 5th brand onto the market on an international scale. While there she has expanded on her graphic and technological skills by taking over the Digital Marketer position. One of her favourite projects was working on a major project for MYERS for famous world known brands like Little Miss, Peanuts and Mr Men brands.
Jessica continued her career by being positioned the Marketing Manager for one of Australia’s leaders in the Lifting and Rigging & Logistical Transport industry. While under the Nelco umbrella Jessica managed the Marketing Department of 4 businesses and had 2 Marketing Assistants to aid her direction. In her time there Jessica managed the redesign and implementation of all the brands new eCommerce websites, redesigned marketing material, managed the SEO plan across all companies, implemented a re-brand for the HES brand to Elevate Lifting and segmented and critiqued the database across all businesses.
Jessica has moved into the Education field as she feels the importance of proper education from early age is a fundamental building block for great success. Jessica firmly believes i9 Educations morals, philosophy and corporate culture is closely aligned with hers which is reflected in her hard work ethic.
Account Manager
Dani (Yordanka) Zlateva
Dani has thirty-three years of experience in the Financial Services sector and has a Masters Degree in Accounting and Finance along with a Master’s Degree in Finance Education. Dani’s two bachelor’s Degrees are in Economics and Finance.
Dani has been in Australia for the past 7 years, originating from Bulgaria. The highlight of her career was her time as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of one of the largest banks in Bulgaria and was a member of the Board of Directors. Under her leadership, the bank was able to sign a contract with the World Bank out of 22 other banks in Bulgaria. She worked extensively with the World Bank and had exposure to worldwide talent.
Following her time in the bank, Dani led an Insurance Company. Dani managed to improve the branch performance significantly as visible through its ranking, taking it from 41st place (out of total of 42 branches) to 3rd within 5 years.
In Australia, Dani started working in a Tax Office and for the past 5 years worked for i9 Education dealing with all matters related to Accounting. In addition to the standard responsibilities that come with Dani’s role, she always strives to be pro-active and provides the necessary information and analysis for an informed decision making process. Dani stays on top of all deadlines and to ensure i9 Education has a proper working relationship with the financial institutions such as the ATO, SRO etc.
Dani strongly believes in the firm’s leadership team and sees a very bright future for i9 Education. Dani anticipates that in 5 years we i9 Education will grow to have 3 times more childcare centres across Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra employing more than thousand educators.
Dani is deeply committed to i9 Education and is looking forward to continuing to contribute to its success.