Executive Team

Julie Dillon

Chief Executive Officer, Animal Care

Julie is responsible for running all facets of the business, bringing more than 25 years leadership experience across general management, brand marketing, digital, strategy and innovation. Prior to this, Julie was Vice President and General Manager of the Colgate-Palmolive Division of Hill’s Pet Nutrition business for Australia, New Zealand and Greater Asia. This followed an extensive career internationally within many Colgate-Palmolive consumer product segments across the US, the UK and Europe.

Julie is a mum and pet parent to Monti, a pint-sized Jack Russell who seems to enjoy coming into the Masterpet office.

Grant Viney

Executive General Manager

Grant takes care of the strategic direction of Masterpet and has been with the organisation for several years. He loves helping people become the best pet parents they can be and making a difference to people’s lives. Grant has a background in consumer goods and has worked in roles across confectionery, alcohol, home care, pet care and biscuits in Australia, New Zealand, Eastern Europe and Asia for 25 years. 

Outside of work, Grant follows football, collects wine and is a keen golfer with a single figure handicap. He also recently bought a bloodhound puppy home and is loving the experience.

Aaron Chillingworth

Head of Marketing Australia

Responsible for building brand strategy and executing this through consumer communications, product development and activation throughout Australia, Aaron loves talking with consumers to understand what drives their behaviour and turning that into ways to connect with them. He is especially proud of the work he and his team have done over the last 5 years to build Masterpet’s brands to market leading positions.

Having spent time for major retail companies as a supervisor, duty manager, then later in roles in field sales, trade marketing and brand management, Aaron knows his field extremely well.

Growing up, Aaron had dogs, birds and fish at home and cattle on his family’s farm and now has two Labradoodles named Bear and Teddy who are regular visitors to the Masterpet offices.

Jessie Baxter

Head of Marketing New Zealand

Jessie leads the marketing team for Masterpet in New Zealand, setting strategic brand objectives and implementing activities to achieve those goals. From launching new products to executing media campaigns to ensuring in-store executional excellence, her team helps pet parents to connect with our brands.

It was while studying International Business as part of her Bachelor of Commerce degree at university, Jessie found that she was really drawn to marketing. She enjoys the direct involvement that marketers have in the overall business strategy and the role that brands play in the everyday lives of customers. Nothing feels better than reading a message from a pet owner, about how much of a difference Masterpet brands have made to their pet’s health and happiness.

Jessie comes home to Rosie, her youthful Springer Spaniel, who she calls her "dream come true".

Ruth Butler

Category and Insights Manager Australia and New Zealand

Ruth uses her skills in analytics to transform data into actionable insights, helping Masterpet to make data-driven decisions. She enjoys working with a diverse group of people from a wide range of disciplines which helps her to learn something new every day. Ruth firmly believes that an organisation can have all the data in the world, but unless it is accessible and understood by the majority, it is useless.

She considers herself a story-teller, translating data into useful actionable insights. She uses her bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Postgraduate Diploma in Economics and Master Science degree in Financial Economics from University College Cork, where she also lectured econometrics quantitative analysis and methods.

Outside work, Ruth loves exploring the country she now calls home, Australia.

Ming Wong

Commercial Manager

As key finance business partner to the Executive General Manager and broader executive team, Ming provides commercial support that informs smart decision making. He loves looking at the story behind the numbers and being able to interact with diverse stakeholders. With over 20 years of finance and commercial experience in Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Ming is uniquely qualified to provide insightful analyses that result in profitability.

In his spare time, Ming follows NBA basketball and enjoys bush walks and spending time with his family. Though he doesn’t have any pets at present, he hopes to one day have a dog.