Founder & Board Chair since 2020

Shane Hryhorec is an entrepreneur and passionate advocate for people with disabilities.

He grew up in South Australia participating in many sports including football, swimming and triathlons. Growing up on the coast, he was also a patrolling member of the Surf Life Saving club. Living in Adelaide and Melbourne, Shane set up and ran several companies providing foundation for a long and fruitful career in running businesses.

In 2007, Shane broke his neck and drowned in a swimming pool accident. He spent five days in a coma and his life as he knew it changed forever. Shane discovered he was now a C5 incomplete quadriplegic. He also had a hypoxic acquired brain injury (ABI) and would be dependent on his wheelchair.

Growing up and enjoying the beach, then having that taken away, ignited a passion in Shane to find solutions to change the beach landscape. Accessible Beaches Australia was founded in 2016 with the simple mission of making beaches around Australia accessible and inclusive for all.

Board member since 2020

Cecilia is a Grant Program Manager in the Philanthropy Team at Equity Trustees, which manages over 650 charitable trusts and distributed more than $92 million across 3,157 grants in the 2021–22 financial year. Cecilia is responsible for managing grant making strategy and implementation for the Medical Research and Health Pillar in that team.

Before joining Equity Trustees in 2017, Cecilia worked at The Ian Potter Foundation.

Cecilia is also a Community Advisory Committee Member for the Royal Melbourne Hospital, sitting on a sub-committee for the Royal Melbourne Hospital Board, where she provides strategic advice and practical implementation recommendations from a consumer and community perspective.

Cecilia has a strong governance background and a deep knowledge of Trusts, Foundations, Private Ancillary Funds and Trustee companies and has completed post-graduate studies in nonprofit management.

Cecilia loves spending time at the beach with her family and is passionate about achieving equitable access to services and healthcare for everyone.

Board Member since 2020

Currently calling Melbourne home, Ian was born in Zimbabwe, grew up in South Africa and spent more than a decade living in the UK when; in 2016, Ian took a massive leap across the big pond to Australia. This was originally supposed to be a 12 month secondment and is now 6 years and counting.

Ian works for a >$1b global law firm where my role is embedded in our global legal operations team where he specialises in pricing, analytics and commercial pricing strategy. Ian’s role has a huge focus on driving internal change to identify mutually beneficial commercial outcomes between valued clients (including new clients), the market and also the firm. He is also an advocate and ally for LGBTIQ+, diversity, inclusion and equallity opportunities at the firm, for which I am very grateful the firm supports globally.

Australia, its people, its valued culture and the vast beauty of the continent made Ian decide to call this home. Ian is hugely grateful to live on land that is sacred, honoured and respected by generations past, present and emerging and acknowledges the traditional land owners and custodians of this beautiful land we all live in. As a very young lad growing up in Africa, Ian was taught from a very young age to respect, honour and acknowledge all people regardless of background, culture or circumstance. He has been involved in many initiatives in the past around the world, either political and private, and being a part of driving change for beach accesses for ALL in Australia is certainly something Ian is passionate about and will strive to enable and support change.

Ian believes his journey in life will be a small component in supporting change and improving experiences for as many people as he is able to!

Board member since 2021

Sasha is a lecturer in neurological physiotherapy and a research higher degree candidate at CQ University. She has over 13 years of clinical experience, including neurological, cardiorespiratory, paediatric, orthopaedic, musculoskeletal and sports physiotherapy. She has tertiary level teaching experience in both university and clinical settings. Sasha holds bachelor’s degrees in Physiotherapy and Exercise Science and a Graduate Certificate in Health Professional Education.

Sasha has a special interest in physical activity and accessibility, which has inspired her thesis “Universal Beach Accessibility Hub (U‐BEACH): A pathway to increase physical activity participation, health, and wellbeing in individuals with mobility limitations”.

Sasha is passionate about health and wellbeing, the great outdoors, environmental sustainability, and access and inclusion. “Be the change.”

Board member since 2021

Carrington is a business founder and director in public relations and digital marketing. Carrington was a former chair of a not-for-profit business chamber that initiated policy, delivered business solutions and community outreach to make a difference. Carrington worked closely with Lord Mayor Clover Moore and the City of Sydney to deliver the first successful business event series during the COVID recovery in late 2020.

In 2014, Carrington worked with Australian Marriage Equality and initiated national research polling that resulted in 72% of Australians legalising support for same sex marriage. This generated countless media articles and became a starting point to help effect change with the Australian government.

Prior to the above, Carrington brought the ‘It Gets Better’ project through his then employer Optus, to Australia. The awareness campaign sought to help LGBTIQ people know that they are not alone and can be anyone they want to be in society.

Board member since 2020

Nick is a marketing professional with over 15 years experience working across a variety of health industries in both Australia and the US including bio-tech, pharmacy, public health, research, not-for-profits and charitable organisations. Nick has a Bachelor of Science in Business Management, and a Graduate Certificate in Workplace Leadership from the University of Melbourne.

Since 2018, Nick has achieved over $5M in grants and philanthropic support for strategic projects, spanning across improving access to information, services development, user-experience, health literacy, and community participation.

Nick has a long history of community activism and volunteerism including the Human Rights Campaign, Dry July, Movember, Living Positive Victoria, Wheelies with Wings, and St Vincent de Paul Good Works.

Nick is passion about animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and access and inclusion. “Do your bit.”

“I started volunteering with AB midway through 2021. I had stopped working in a council that offers a beach access program and I wanted to continue being involved in some way with increasing the opportunities for all people to enjoy the beach.

From my time at that council, I had come to recognise that many access issues are the same around the country regarding beach inclusion. With this knowledge I have worked with AB board members to apply for grant funding rounds and have been working of guidelines to support new beaches to be more inclusive.

Everyone I have come across who is involved with AB has a passion and love for the beach. They want everyone to be able to enjoy in this experience that can help people feel they belong in the Australian community. If this sounds like you, come and join us!”

Bern joined the Accessible Beaches team in March 2022 as our first paid employee. Bern is the mum to Emilia 11 years, who has Prader-Willi Syndrome.

Bern has extensive experience, not only as the mother to a child with a disability but also in the Not For Profit sector where Bern was previously a Board Member and President for the Prader-Wllli Syndrome Association of Victoria.

Bern is an active member of the disability community and is passionate about inclusion for all in every aspect of life.

Bern brings this experience to AB along with that gained in Strategic Planning, Business Analysis and Project Management, to run our programs, manage our Beach Directory and Stakeholder Engagement at all levels.