Our Team

CEO - Ms Chloe Pearse

Chloe joined the SMMC team in August 2024 as the inaugural CEO of the competition. She has over a decade of experience in the higher education sector, including being the National Program Manager for Research and Higher Education at the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute from 2017 to 2020. She brings her extensive skills in strategy, business operations, marketing, communications and governance.
Program Coordinator - Ms Luna Liu

​Luna has been part of the Simon Marais Mathematics Competition (SMMC) since its inception in 2017, playing a key role in developing processes, ensuring smooth operations, and expanding competition's international reach.  With a background in economics and languages from the Netherlands, she worked in both the private and NGO sectors in the Netherlands and Germany before moving to Melbourne in 2016. Since then, she has been actively involved in the higher education sector. Passionate about fostering mathematical talent, she is committed to strengthening SMMC’s reputation as a premier international mathematics competition.

Our Board

Professor Anthony Henderson

Anthony Henderson represented Australia at three International Mathematical Olympiads, and obtained a PhD in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an academic at the University of Sydney from 2001 to 2022, where his research in representation theory was recognised with the Christopher Heyde Medal and the Medal of the Australian Mathematical Society. Before helping to found the SMMC, he was the organiser of the Sydney University Mathematics Society Problem Competition. He currently works for the Australian Public Service. ​
Ms Elizabeth Lee

Elizabeth is the Company Secretary of Simon Marais Mathematics Competition Limited. Outside of the Competition, she is a funds and financial services lawyer with over 15 years’ experience gained in private practice and as in-house counsel. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.
Dr Suhas Nayak

​Suhas is a co-founder and Director of the Simon Marais Mathematics Competition. He has a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the California Institute of Technology and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics from Stanford University. After that, he spent five years at McKinsey & Company before joining Allan Gray as an analyst in 2011. He has been a Portfolio Manager there since 2016.
Dr Jean Pretorius

Jean Pretorius is a co-founder and Director of the Simon Marais Mathematics Competition and the founder of Paintlife Pty Ltd, a company developing innovative software for colour and paint mixing simulation. Based in Canberra, he is currently also a member of the Advisory Board to MATRIX, Australia's residential research institute for mathematical sciences, as well as the Investment Committee of Jencay Capital. He formerly served as President of the Colour Society of Australia.

In the past decade, Jean established himself as a professional artist, with works featured in private collections across Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His artistic endeavours began with formal training at the prestigious Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney, where he earned multiple awards.
​
Prior to his artistic, entrepreneurial and non-profit ventures, Jean helped establish the
Australian presence of Orbis Investment Advisory from 2002 to 2007, following a successful career in investment banking in London. His career began with a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics from the University of Cambridge (UK), completed in 1993.
Professor Ole Warnaar

Ole Warnaar is a Dutch mathematician working at the University of Queensland, where he holds the position of Chair and Professor of Pure Mathematics. His research interests include algebraic combinatorics, number theory, representation theory and the theory of special functions. For his work, he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2008 awarded the George Szekeres Medal of the Australian Mathematical Society in 2020. 

Ole Warnaar served as President of AustMS in 2021–2022 and is the current Deputy Director of the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI). He has had a long-standing involvement with various mathematics competitions, and chaired the organizing committee of the Simon Marais Mathematics Competition from 2019 to 2022.

SMMC Mathematical Advisory Committee 

  • 2025 Chair: Prof. Catherine Greenhill (University of New South Wales)​
  • Dr Andrew Conway (Chairman and Founder, Silicon Genetics) 
  • Dr Sean Gardiner (University of New South Wales)​
  • Prof. Michael Giudici (The University of Western Australia)​
  • Ms Luna Liu (Committee Secretary)
  • Dr Peter McNamara (The University of Melbourne)
  • ​Ms Chloe Pearse (CEO)
  • Dr Nicolette Rattenbury (The University of Auckland)
  • Dr Katharine Turner (Australian National University) 
  • All Board Directors, ex officio

SMMC Mathematical Problem Committee 

  • ​2025 Chair: Dr Peter McNamara (The University of Melbourne)
  • Dr Ross Atkins (Gusty Games, New Zealand)
  • Dr Liam Baker (Stellenbosch University)
  • Dr Anand Deopurkar (Australian National University)
  • A/Prof Norman Do (Monash University)
  • Dr Sean Gardiner (University of New South Wales)
  • Dr Ivan Guo (Monash University)
  • Dr Jonathan Kariv (Isazi Consulting)
  • Dr Ka Ho Law (University of Hong Kong)
  • Dr Ramiro Lafuente (University of Queensland)
  • Dr Christopher Tuffley (Massey University)​