12 Influential Leaders in the Sydney Fencing Scene

Last updated: August 2026

Sydney's fencing community is small, close-knit and led largely by volunteers, club founders and coaches who also compete, teach and run the sport's governance behind the scenes. As of August 2026, the sport is coached and organised out of a handful of clubs stretching from Alexandria and Artarmon to the Inner West, Western Sydney and the Hills District, all affiliated with NSW Fencing, the state's governing body.

This list brings together 12 people currently leading that community, drawn from club coaching benches, university fencing clubs and the NSW Fencing board. The names are presented alphabetically by surname so the list is easy to navigate.

The list spans club founders, national representative coaches, a state governing body chair and an Order of Australia recipient. Several people on it also compete or have competed for Australia, and most combine coaching with a volunteer administrative role that keeps the sport running week to week.

Fencing in Sydney is genuinely a small world. The same handful of clubs produce most of the state's representative athletes, and many of the people below know each other from shared committees, tournaments or the New South Wales representative program. That density is part of what makes the community work, and it is also why a small number of committed people can have an outsized effect on whether a young fencer in Sydney gets a fair start.

Whether you are a parent looking for a club, a school considering a fencing program, or simply curious about who keeps the sport running in Sydney, this list is a practical place to start.

Why fencing leadership in Sydney matters

Fencing is not a sport with paid administrators sitting behind every club. In Sydney, the same small group of coaches who run beginner classes on a Tuesday night also sit on state committees, manage school programs and travel with national teams. Their decisions about safety, coaching standards and pathways shape whether a nine-year-old picking up a foil for the first time has a genuinely good experience.

NSW Fencing, the state governing body, is run by a volunteer board that oversees tournaments, youth pathways, finance and member protection for every affiliated club in the state. Its choices about governance and funding affect every fencer in Sydney, whether they train at a university club, a suburban academy or a school program.

At club level, leadership is just as concentrated. A handful of head coaches, many of them former national representatives themselves, are responsible for most of the structured coaching available to Sydney fencers outside school programs. Their own competitive and international coaching backgrounds are often the main reason a local club can offer a genuine pathway toward state or national selection.

Recognising these people matters because fencing depends on continuity. A club that loses its founding coach or its volunteer administrator can struggle to replace decades of accumulated relationships, safety knowledge and coaching expertise. Knowing who is currently doing this work is useful for anyone considering the sport, hiring a coach or simply trying to understand how a niche Olympic sport survives and grows in a major Australian city.

1. Adriano Albano

Head Coach, Sydney Fencing Club

Adriano Albano leads Sydney Fencing Club, one of Greater Sydney's newer clubs, running sessions across sites including Hunters Hill and the Sutherland Shire area. He holds an Italian Level 2 Fencing Coach Diploma and is accredited by the Australian Fencing Federation, and he currently teaches fencing programs at four schools in the Sydney area.

Beyond his own club, Albano serves as NSW School and Competition Manager for the NSW Fencing Association, connecting school fencing programs across the state with the sport's competition pathway. For parents and teachers exploring school fencing in Sydney, that dual role makes him a useful person to know.

2. Alex Andre'

Sabre Head Coach, Sydney Academy of Fencing

Alex Andre' leads the sabre program at Sydney Academy of Fencing in Alexandria after competing for the Australian Sabre Team at senior Asian and World Championships, and moved into coaching after the 2012 London Olympics. She is also the Australian coach of Veronika Vasileva, who has topped the FIE junior world standings in her weapon.

Andre's students have collected a run of Australian titles across age categories, and her athletes won six gold medals and one silver in a single event at the 2022 Commonwealth Fencing Championships in London, a result the Academy describes as the most successful in that event's history for one coach.

3. Jess Brooks

Head Coach, Marrickville Marauders Fencing Club

Jess Brooks has run the Inner West's Marrickville Marauders Fencing Club for years, nationally accredited in both foil and sabre after more than 20 years in the sport. Alongside her club role she is a NSW Sabre coach and an assistant national Sabre coach, working with fencers well beyond her own club's membership.

Her coaching record includes taking Australian athletes to international events, most recently the 2019 Under 23 Asian Championships in Bangkok, and she has helped raise seven athletes into national representative teams. For Inner West families new to fencing, her club is a well-established entry point.

4. Sara Elliott

Director, NSW Fencing

Sara Elliott sits on the NSW Fencing board as a director, having taken up fencing in her mid-twenties and stayed close to the sport ever since as both competitor and administrator. She was the Australian and Oceania Women's Epee Champion in 2019 and has won multiple individual and team national medals for New South Wales.

Before joining the board, Elliott served for many years as President of Sydney University Fencing Club, one of the city's most established university programs. That combination of elite competitive experience and grassroots club leadership is part of what she now brings to state governance.

5. Ted Elliott

Coach, Sydney University Fencing Club

Ted Elliott has coached at Sydney University Fencing Club since 2014 and founded the club's long-running Juniors program, working with fencers from complete beginners through to elite level in both epee and foil. The program he built remains one of the club's core offerings for younger fencers.

He is also a current Australian National Assistant Coach for epee, a role in which he has coached Australian epee teams at the 2024 Asian Junior and Cadet Championships and the 2024 Hong Kong Junior World Cup. That national coaching work sits alongside his ongoing weekly teaching at the university club.

6. Dimi Giovanni

Head Coach, Marconi Fencing Academy

Dimi Giovanni has led Marconi Fencing Academy in Western Sydney's Bossley Park as head coach since joining the club from Greece in 2013, where she was formerly a member of the Greek National Fencing Team and an Olympic candidate. She coaches across foil, epee and sabre at the academy.

Under her coaching, Marconi fencers have reached state, national and international competition, including Robert Ciccarelli, who represented Australia at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. Her academy is one of the main fencing pathways available to families in Sydney's western suburbs.

7. Michael Howard

Founder and Head Coach, Hills Sabre Academy

Michael Howard founded Hills Sabre Academy in Western Sydney's Baulkham Hills area in 2018, after joining the NSW Squad program in 2009 and becoming an assistant national coach for the national high performance program. He has led Australian Sabre Team squads at international events including the World University Games in China.

Howard has also coached Australian teams at the Cadet Junior World Championships in Moscow and the Senior World Championships in Budapest, and students from his academy won two gold medals at the 2024 Commonwealth Fencing Championships. His academy gives Western Sydney families a dedicated sabre coaching option.

8. Mostafa Nehad

Senior Coach, Sydney Beyond Fencing Club

Mostafa Nehad is a senior coach at Sydney Beyond Fencing Club in Artarmon, having previously served as a national coach for both Egypt and Saudi Arabia across more than 20 years of coaching from club to elite level. At Sydney Beyond he coaches foil and epee across the club's competitive programs.

In December 2025, his student Joseph Glasson became Australia's first FIE Junior World Cup champion in foil and reached world number eight in the FIE junior men's foil standings, the highest position any Australian fencer has reached in that category. That result put a Sydney-coached fencer on the sport's international junior stage.

9. Seamus Robinson OLY

Senior Coach, Sydney Beyond Fencing Club

Seamus Robinson is a senior coach at Sydney Beyond Fencing Club and a 2004 Athens Olympian who now serves as an Australian National Assistant Coach alongside his club coaching. He coaches epee and foil at the North Shore club, drawing on more than two decades of international coaching experience across Asia and Europe.

As a competitor, Robinson became the first Australian fencer to win a Fencing World Championship title, taking the World Cadet Championship in 1991. That milestone, combined with his Olympic and national coaching background, makes him one of the most credentialled coaches currently working in Sydney.

10. Antonio Signorello

Head Coach, Sydney Academy of Fencing

Antonio Signorello has coached at Sydney Academy of Fencing in Alexandria since the club's founding, after 24 years working with Olympic national teams, including Italy from 2000 to 2008 and Australia as foil and sabre head coach from 2009 to 2024. He continues to lead the academy's foil program today.

Under his coaching, the Australian men's foil team reached the top 12 in the world at two consecutive world championships, in 2017 and 2018, and his Australian students had won 16 senior national individual gold medals as of 2024. Few coaches in Sydney carry a comparable Olympic coaching record.

11. George Yako

Chair, NSW Fencing

George Yako chairs the NSW Fencing board, bringing a legal, governance and compliance background to a sport he has been personally involved in for a decade as an athlete, coach and volunteer. He previously served as the association's interim Vice Chair before taking on the chair role.

Under his leadership, NSW Fencing has focused on a governance uplift intended to modernise the association's reporting and administrative structures for its member clubs. For anyone dealing with NSW Fencing at a policy or club affiliation level, Yako is currently the association's senior point of contact.

12. Melissa Yeung OAM

President, UTS Fencing Club

Melissa Yeung is president of UTS Fencing Club, a Surry Hills based university program she has served for more than two decades as both an athlete and administrator. Her club describes her competitive record as one of the strongest in its history alongside her long-running leadership role.

In 2025, Yeung was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to fencing, recognising more than 20 years of contribution to her club and the wider fencing community. She is one of the few fencing administrators in Sydney to hold a national honour for the sport specifically.

What these leaders show us about fencing in Sydney

Looking across these 12 profiles, one pattern stands out clearly: almost nobody here does only one job. Coaches sit on state committees, board directors are also former national champions, and club founders still teach beginner classes decades after starting their programs. Fencing in Sydney runs on people who wear several hats at once, often unpaid, because the sport is too small to support the layers of specialisation found in bigger codes.

A second pattern is how international the coaching bench has become. Several of the coaches on this list built their expertise overseas, in Italy, Greece, Egypt and elsewhere, before settling in Sydney and passing that knowledge on to local fencers. That mix of imported elite experience and homegrown club building is a large part of why a relatively small city fencing scene keeps producing national representatives.

A third pattern is longevity. Many of the people here have led their programs or served their clubs for well over a decade, in some cases since the 1990s. In a sport without large sponsorship or broadcast income, that kind of sustained volunteer and coaching commitment is what keeps clubs open year after year.

Finally, the geographic spread matters. These leaders are based from the Inner West to the Hills District and from the North Shore to Western Sydney, which means a family almost anywhere in Greater Sydney has a genuine, coached entry point into the sport rather than having to travel across the city for their nearest club.

How to use this list

If you are a parent or adult considering fencing for the first time, start with the club nearest to you and look up the coach listed here for that club before booking a trial lesson. Most Sydney clubs, including several on this list, offer a beginner or come-and-try session before any ongoing commitment.

If you are a school leader exploring a fencing program, Adriano Albano's dual role coaching in schools and managing NSW Fencing's school competition pathway is a sensible starting point for understanding how a school program can connect into the wider competition structure.

If you already fence and are weighing up a change of club or coach, look at the specific weapon each coach leads. Several people on this list specialise in one of foil, epee or sabre, and matching your weapon to a coach's specialty will usually matter more than the club's size or location.

If you are simply trying to understand how NSW Fencing works as an organisation, George Yako and Sara Elliott's board roles are a useful starting point, since both combine current governance responsibility with a personal competitive or coaching background in the sport. Their club and committee pages are also a reasonable way to find contact details if you have a specific question about affiliation, coaching accreditation or competition entry.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many fencing clubs are there in Sydney?

Sydney has a number of NSW Fencing affiliated clubs spread across the city, including university clubs and independent academies. The clubs featured in this list are based in Alexandria, Artarmon, Western Sydney, the Inner West and near the city's university campuses.

Do these leaders coach all three fencing weapons?

No. Fencing has three separate weapons, foil, epee and sabre, and most coaches on this list specialise in one or two of them rather than all three. This list includes head coaches for each individual weapon, so it is worth checking which weapon a coach leads before booking a trial lesson with their club.

Is fencing in Sydney only for children?

No. Several clubs on this list run dedicated adult beginner programs alongside their junior and competitive pathways, and some of the leaders featured here, including club presidents and board directors, took up the sport as adults themselves rather than as children. Adult beginner classes typically run on weeknights or weekends.

Who oversees fencing across New South Wales?

NSW Fencing is the state sporting organisation recognised by the NSW Government to develop the sport across the state, and it is a member of the Australian Fencing Federation, the sport's national governing body. NSW Fencing sets coaching accreditation standards and runs the state competition calendar that every affiliated Sydney club feeds into.

Are the people on this list presented in order of importance?

No. The names are presented alphabetically by surname for easy navigation rather than in any particular order of importance. Readers are better served comparing people based on their specific weapon, club location and current responsibilities than on where a name happens to fall in the list.

Conclusion

Sydney's fencing community is smaller than many other sports, but it is led by a genuinely committed group of coaches and administrators, several of whom carry Olympic, world championship or national honour credentials into their local club and committee work. That depth of experience, concentrated in a handful of people, is a significant asset for a niche sport trying to grow.

For newcomers, the practical takeaway is simple: the sport is more accessible than its Olympic image suggests, with beginner pathways available from the Inner West to Western Sydney, and the people leading those pathways are reachable through their club's own website.

For anyone already involved in fencing administration, coaching or club governance elsewhere, the way this community sustains itself through long-serving volunteers and dual coaching and committee roles is a useful case study in how a small sport keeps its pathway open for the next generation.

If you are ready to take the next step, the most useful action is to contact the club nearest you directly and ask about its next beginner session, rather than waiting for a wider entry point that a niche sport like fencing is unlikely to advertise loudly.

Related Reading

For more on leadership and teams beyond fencing, read 50 Influential Leaders Shaping Sydney Australia, 20 Engineering Leaders in Sydney Worth Knowing Today, or the Working Genius FAQ on Consult Clarity.

Bring the same volunteer discipline to your own leadership team

Sydney's fencing clubs stay open because a small number of people combine deep expertise with steady, unpaid leadership. Most workplace teams have the expertise. What they often lack is the same clarity about who owns what and why. If your leadership team needs that kind of clarity, email jonno@consultclarity.org to talk through a keynote, workshop or facilitated session.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Brisbane-based leadership consultant, keynote speaker and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. He works with schools, corporates and nonprofits around the world. To enquire about a keynote, workshop or facilitated leadership session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.