Our people
Maddie
Founder
- Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Advertising/Marketing), University of Canberra
- 25 years as an advertising, marketing and editorial professional
- Professional Member – Canberra Society of Editors
- Finalist (Creative Industries) – Australian Export Awards 2022
- Finalist (Emerging Leader) – Altitude Awards 2022
- Finalist (Created in Australia) – Altitude Awards 2022
- Winner (Creative Industries) – ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards 2022
- Highly Commended (Professional Services) – ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards 2021
Catch the Sun Communications (CTS) is owned and run by Maddie. Before launching CTS in 2017, Maddie was a freelance copywriter, editor and proofreader for seven years in the UK, where she helped hundreds of clients and companies improve their advertising and marketing offerings.
Before this, Maddie spent 15 years leading advertising agency account service teams in London, Brighton, Sydney and Canberra, running accounts for clients including Sky TV, Three Mobile, BUPA International, Best Western Hotels, Makita, Parker Pens, Virgin Holidays, Apple, Adobe and Qatar Airways.
Every day of her ad agency career, Maddie proofed marketing materials, edited advertising copy, and approved online and offline work for print and publication. Wherever she worked, she gained an office-wide reputation for her strong work ethic, creative communication skills, microscopic attention to detail, articulate word flow, and incredibly high standards of copy and design consistency.
Maddie has vast experience at writing, editing and proofreading in British English, American English and Australian English. She’s an enthusiastic advocate of ‘plain English’, active language and user-centric/audience-first copy. She’s also highly experienced at following writing style guides, brand guidelines and writing tone of voice documents.
Coming from an advertising background, Maddie understands the nature of deadlines and the importance of meeting them at all costs. She has been personally responsible for getting thousands of marketing pieces ‘out the door’, so knows first-hand the production processes involved. She’s friendly and fun to work with, and is highly skilled at leading teams to work calmly and effectively in high-pressure situations.
Whether it’s her copywriting, editing, proofreading or marketing expertise she’s sharing, Maddie always leaves a trail of satisfied clients behind her who, inevitably, return to Catch the Sun Communications time and again.
Claire
Operations and Workflow Manager
- 25 years as an advertising and editorial professional
- Proofreading accreditation, Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), UK
As well as being one of Catch the Sun’s amazing proofreaders, Claire helps us with project management and business development as we grow Catch the Sun into the global communications agency we envisage. She lives in the New South Wales Blue Mountains with her husband and two children.
As an advertising veteran of 25 years, Claire’s background is in magazine advertising production and project management for large advertising agencies including George Patterson Bates, M&C Saatchi, Naked Communications, Precinct and Hotwire. Claire and our Founder, Maddie, worked together in the late 2000s at London ad agency Targetbase Claydon Heeley.
Claire gained her proofreading qualifications in the UK in 2012 and has been working with CTS on and off since then. Across her career, she’s proofed for big brands including Mercedes-Benz, Bentley Motors, Optus, Three Mobile, Goodyear Dunlop Europe, ING Direct, Subway and more.
Claire has proofed every piece of marketing material she’s ever worked on, from print and outdoor ads, brochures, POS and DM to web copy, banners and TV and radio scripts. As a project manager, deadline-driven work is part of her DNA, along with laser-focused attention to detail and a deep sense of responsibility for the final product.
Claire loves playing Scrabble, feeding people, and finding creative new ways to reduce, reuse and minimise her environmental impact. Her hypothetical Mastermind specialist subject would be ‘rock/blues/alternative music from the 2000s’.
Ingrid
Senior Copywriter
- Graduate Certificate in Advertising and Design – The Commercial Art Training Centre, Brisbane
- Street Remley’s Australian Radio Writer’s Workshop, Adelaide
- Unilever ‘Best Activation Campaign in Australia’ Award
- Global Unilever Activation Award – Silver
- Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Award – Bronze
- John Caples Award – Bronze
- New York Festival – two-time Finalist
- Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) – Finalist ‘Best in Class’ copy
Senior copywriter Ingrid has spent the last 20 years freelancing for advertising agencies in London, Dublin, Sydney and Brisbane, including Ogilvy Interactive, RAPP, Chemistry, SixandCo, WDMP, Lowe Hunt, Wunderman, Leo Burnett Connaghan & May, Tonic, Rufus Leonard, Frontroom and Because. She now lives in Perth with her husband and two children.
Ingrid and our founder Maddie worked together at Sydney customer experience agency MercerBell in the early 2000s and lived around the corner from one another in Darlinghurst. (Ingrid had the coolest duck-egg blue VW Beetle).
She’s written copy for many Catch the Sun clients, including ICMP, The Ideas House and Geoscience Australia.
Ingrid loves spotting fashion trends early and predicting the endings of most films. Her hypothetical Mastermind specialist subject would be ‘spotting car models from a distance’.
Liz
Copywriter and Editor
- Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing) majoring in editing and non-fiction writing, Deakin University
- Master of Business (Marketing), Swinburne University of Technology
- Graduate Certificate of University Management, Educational Leadership and Administration, University of Melbourne
One of our go-to editorial experts, Liz is a copywriter and editor working remotely from Bendigo, Victoria, where she lives with her husband and young family.
Liz has over 20 years of marketing, communications and advertising experience, particularly in the field of higher education, where she’s worked with La Trobe University, Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Melbourne, and the Centre for Adult Education (CAE).
Liz is a student recruitment expert, having managed high-performing faculty marketing teams to exceptional outcomes. She’s written and edited copy for many of Catch the Sun’s higher education clients, including the University of Canberra, ICMP and BIMM, as well as for Geoscience Australia and Ashtons Hospital Pharmacy Services.
Liz loves to cook beautiful food, exercise that green thumb of hers, and get involved in her local community. Her hypothetical Mastermind specialist subject would be ‘all things Harry Potter and Hogwarts’ (Liz reckons the Sorting Hat would definitely plonk her in Ravenclaw!).
Laura
Copywriter, Editor and Proofreader
- Bachelor of Communication in Journalism, University of Canberra
- Master of Arts in Creative Writing, University of Canberra
Laura is an editorial all-rounder, regularly working with Catch the Sun on copywriting, editing and proofreading projects across a range of clients and brands including Suzuki; Imperial College London; ICMP; Simpson Travel; City, University of London; BIMM and more. She’s been a freelancer for more than a decade and has worked with Catch the Sun since 2018.
Laura began her career in publishing with HarperCollins and has worked in Australia with Pan Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Doubleday Australia, CSIRO, Accor and Radford College, as well as Arup in London.
Laura lives in Canberra and is mum to two small children. She loves running and going to the gym, volunteering for Greyhound Rescue and drinking coffee. Her hypothetical Mastermind specialist subject would be ‘1990s music’.