Our People

Vice President of the DIA and Director for the Australian Capital Territory

Mark is a fourth generation drycleaner from the Ryan family who have a long history of owning and operating drycleaning stores in Canberra. The Ryan family own R & R Drycleaners and Launderers and it was started by his great-grandfather Herb. Herb's son Alan worked in the business along with Mark's father Peter and Uncles Brendan and Lynton. R & R Drycleaners have two plants and six agencies in Canberra.

The Ryan family has been dedicated to the drycleaning industry and have been members of the association since 1985.

Mark is a family man at heart and spending quality time with his wife Angela and three boys aged 11 - 16 is important.

Rugby Union as well as drycleaning is in the family blood - they are all avid Brumbies fans and Mark's dad Peter played rep footy and for the Wallabys in the 1960s. Mark's son Lucas is carrying on the family tradition and is a rep player for the ACT.

Treasurer of DIA and Director for Victoria

Nick is the fourth generation of the Bancroft family to be in dry cleaning. Nick runs the family business in one location - Bancrofts Dry Cleaning - in Melbourne’s stylish South Yarra.

He worked in the family business during school holidays and weekends from an early age.  Having made the decision that the family business and the dry cleaning industry was his main interest, he attended the dry cleaning school at RMIT and attained the qualifications needed back in the mid 1990s.

In 1999 Nick won the industry peak award - The DIA Dry Cleaner of The Year and travelled to Europe on a study tour, reporting his findings to an international convention in Yokohama, Japan and subsequently the Twin Clean conference is Melbourne in 2000.

Working closely with his father - Roger Bancroft - Nick learned the importance of a strong industry benefiting us all and gained the desire to serve the industry. Following in his father’s footsteps, Nick has been on the DIA (Vic) committee since 2007 and currently serves at President of DIA (Victoria). Nick is currently a board member of DIA National.

Nick is married to Elana and has two sons - Justin & Adam who may one day be the 5th generation of the Bancroft family to be in this great industry.

Director for Queensland

Cameron grew up in the 70’s and 80’s in Cairns and has nothing but wonderful memories of being part of a drycleaning and laundry family, where all the family were involved in getting things done.

Cameron moved to Brisbane in the late 80’s, after not learning too much at Uni, and then worked in numerous sales, marketing and event management roles before re-establishing in 2000 his family drycleaning and laundry business.

He commenced with the purchase of a Brisbane based nappy service and re-branded the business as Gateway Laundry and Plus Drycleaners. The business has since grown into one that processes 50-ton of laundry and 5000 pieces of drycleaning per week, employing 70 staff.

Cameron is the president of the DIA Queensland and a past President of DIA Australia. He commented that “belonging to the DIA is a no brainer for anyone in the industry who genuinely committed to growing and improving their business”

Mitchell is the first external to the industry Director of the DIA.

Mitchell brings over 10 years’ expertise as a respected business executive, leader, communications and public relations professional with significant experience in complex policy development and stakeholder management.As Co-Founder and Managing Director of MK The Agency, Mitchell has established a boutique strategy and communications firm specialising in international companies entering and operating in the Australian market.Mitchell has held senior executive roles with US technology companies including publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Co-opted Board Member

Kerryn has a wide ranging background in Operational Management and Training in the Textile Care Industry, operational, design and more recently training roles with nearly 40 years experience in the Valet, Dry Cleaning and Laundry sector.

Since 1999 Kerryn’s experience has been directed towards industry training with RMIT University and as Director of Training for LDCT with the purpose built laundry and dry cleaning training school.  Working as a Senior Partner with The LDC Group Asia Pacific and Project Manager and Associate at LDC Laundry Design and Consultancy and now including owner of LDC Luxury Dry Cleaning a specialised wedding gown and high end dry cleaning and laundry operation.

Qualifications include Certificate III Laundry, Certificate III dry cleaning, Certificate IV Leadership and Management, Certificate IV TAE, Graduate Diploma Industrial Education and Training.  Cert IV Business Management, Cert IV Project Management

Kerryn has extensive involvement in the industry and on numerous boards including;

• IRC Industry Reference Committee for TCF Textile Clothing and Footwear-Deputy Chair
• HWE Hunter Wedding Expos Board of Directors
• HTAN Hunter Trainers and Assessors Network-Minute Secretary
• TCF Textile Clothing and Footwear Training Advisory Committee

Catherine comes from a corporate administration back ground having worked in property valuation and top tier accounting firms in Melbourne and most recently as an Executive Assistant at Crown Casino in Melbourne.  She has a strong knowledge of administration systems and the importance of customer service plus a marketing focus.  

The DIA are pleased to introduce Mr. Howard Duffy as our new Technical Officer and advisor.

Howard is highly qualified and has had a long and varied history with the dry cleaning industry.  In 1970 Howard joined R&R Drycleaners in the ACT and was at the forefront of package plant development. This new concept was in its infancy and required operators to receive training in the new Donini Perc machines and Forse Forenta presses. The carpet section was struggling for staff so Howard became an instant expert on carpet cleaning, on site quoting and collection of rugs. This then led onto curtain pick-up, cleaning and re-hangs. Howard was definitely a busy man!!!

After working in the UK Howard accepted a share in Bells Drycleaners, ACT. The next 20 years saw the business grow to 12 package plants and factory that at its peak was cleaning over 100 suede and leather garments per week.

Howard won the Horscroft Award at state level twice and then the National award was presented to him at an IDC/Australian Convention.

This provided him with many international opportunities and training which he was able to share with his colleagues.

Howard has always had the greater good of the industry as his motivation.

He was on the Government committee to formalise care labelling and just recently to maintain these standards when pressure was instigated to water down the labelling legislation. Howard has had input into the designing of TAFE courses and was on the board of the Industry Training Advisory Board for 10 years of which six years was as chairman of the Wholesale, Retail Services and Personal Services. He was then asked by the government to sit on an amalgamation of all these boards and did so for 4 years.

For 10 years Howard worked with consumer affairs who needed help in trying to explain and assign responsibility for garment issues from the public and drycleaners. Howard says “it is amazing that over the course of time the problems remain the same and the adage that blame is about 1/3 dry cleaner,1/3 customer,1/3 manufacturer still holds true".

How fortunate we are to have access to the expertise and knowledge of Howard Duffy.

Kimberley McGrath became a member of the DIA staff in 2017 and has proven to be a valuable member of our team. With over 16 years’ experience in the Financial Industry as well as other administration roles Kimberley has been able to use these skills effectively in her role within the DIA office.

With growing enthusiasm for how the Financial side of the DIA operates she is taking on more responsibility with the learning of the Financial reporting while also studying to obtain a Certificate 4 in Accounting and Bookkeeping.