ATA’s Rising Star Award, this year proudly sponsored by Hasbro Pacific, is the Toy Industry’s opportunity to celebrate up and coming talent. With the challenges that the last two years have provided us, passion, team support and the ability to adapt has been a standout quality in the majority of the nominations put forward.
The Winner of the Rising Star is announced at the Industry Awards Event alongside the prestigious Hall of Fame, Product of the Year, Licensing, Judges Choice and Kids Choice Awards. This years’ event will be held on the 5th March which will be the night of nights not to be missed.
The Judging Committee for the Rising Star are an independent group of experienced industry professionals and they were impressed with every candidate that was nominated, so congratulations to all of the 15 stars that were put forward.
The ATA are pleased to announce that the four finalists for the 2023 Rising Star award are…
Chris Czech
Chris embodies everything it is to be a “Moosie”. What does this mean? He gives his all, is collaborative, uses his initiative and delivers over and above what is expected of him. I.T is often behind the scenes, however in Chris’s role, he ensures the ongoing smooth running of the entire Moose business. He spearheaded the introduction of security awareness training to all Moose Globally to ensure the business is protected, and over the past two years, has been available around the clock to assist team members as they adjusted in and out of work from home arrangements. He also assists with many of our Moose Charity programs. This includes building furniture and helping to decorate a playroom for Kids at a new Asylum Seeker Resource Centre hub in Dandenong. He helped design a mural for a kids’ classroom at Wellsprings for Women refuge centre, and made hundreds of sandwiches for kids who might otherwise go hungry at our Eat Up Australia lunch making day. Chris is a confident and charismatic leader. He is always on hand to assist team members and will always take the time to provide the required guidance needed to get through a task and help further their knowledge.
Anthea Madill
Anthea is the Co-founder of Sustained Fun, a toy company established to use play to help children engage positively with climate change and the environment and reduce their climate anxiety. Anthea has been integral in the formation of a company culture that is inclusive, ethical and sustainable. She is generous with her time and knowledge, creating open source policies to help other small toy companies reduce their environmental impact.
After only two years in the toy industry Anthea is already making a splash: Sustained Fun’s first toy, EcoSplat Reusable Water Balloons, is multi-award winning and a favourite with children and parents alike. Anthea is the co-creator of World Sustainable Toy Day, a successful global campaign to highlight sustainability in the toy industry. Anthea is an asset to Sustained Fun and the toy industry as a whole. She has a strong drive to create toys that children love which also have a positive effect on the environment.
Pippa Skinner
Pippa Skinner started at Headstart after attaining a Batchelor degree in Marketing/Communications at Bond University. She began her career at Headstart in the marketing team managing a small brand portfolio and has worked very hard on growing many Headstart owned and distributed brands. Pippa or Pip, as her colleagues call her, helped bring to market the first 100% recycled plush brand introduced in the toy industry, “Resoftables”. This brand is now sold widely throughout the world including Walmart in the USA. She was also heavily involved in marketing Ooshies in the US and Australia. Ooshies is now a household name! She is truly passionate about this business and the Toy Industry and her strong desire to achieve success along with hard work, flexibilty and dedication have put her in a position where she is now managing the marketing team. Her progress through the journey has been a natural progression as she developed her leadership qualities.
Tahnee Smith
Tahnee Smith was shortlisted out of 200 applicants for the Marketing Executive / PR role at Warner Bros. Consumer Products and was successful in landing the role in February 2021. Tahnee was quick to shine with her high attention to detail, her ‘can do’ attitude, strong work ethic and outstanding communication and people skills. Tahnee quickly picked up brand and franchise guidelines and became a strong brand custodian for global Warner Bros. franchises including Wizarding World and DC. She has been in the licensing / toy industry for under 2 years but has already made a huge impact to the business and industry as evident through the strong Book Week, Coles and Smiggle programs she worked on. Tahnee thrives on new challenges has a strong work ethic, a passion for building brands, managing relationships and ultimately, driving merchandise sales.
