Everything we do at Oskar's Wooden Ark starts with a shared love of unique, quality products and a passion for play and learning. We pride ourselves in providing the very best customer experience, made possible by our enthusiastic team.
Founder/Director
Simon founded Oskar’s Wooden Ark in 2018 upon moving to Australia from Germany with Thuy and their young family. Simon's parents, who loved all things traditional, instilled in him a deep love for handcrafted wooden toys, and it is from this passion that Oskar’s Wooden Ark was born. For the first couple of years, Simon was a master juggler, carrying out every role required to build Oskar's Wooden Ark. He now spends his time sourcing new brands, maintaining relationships with manufacturers, organising stock logistics, overseeing numbers, managing online marketing campaigns and any other tasks that come with running a magical toy store. Simon is the captain of our ship who, with a brilliant team behind him, has created an amazing community who share a common love for handmade wooden toys.
Fun fact: Simon used to be an ambulance driver for some time.
Favourite OWA toy: Bikeho Wooden Toys
Co-Founder
Thuy is the secret mastermind behind Oskar's Wooden Ark. She gives sound advice when needed and often comes up with creative ideas to take the business to the next level. She was the first person to support Simon with the idea of moving to Australia to open up a toy store back in 2017 and currently helps behind the scenes with all the tasks that Simon is unable to do during his waking hours.
Fun fact: Thuy met Simon in Germany after quitting her corporate job and flying to Europe on a whim.
Favourite OWA toy: Regenbogenland Stairway to Heaven
Operations Manager
Annette joined the Oskar's Wooden Ark family in 2022 as part of our newly established management team. She is an asset to our company with her many hats, managing operations across Oskar’s Wooden Ark, Wooden Playroom and Mercurius. Annette oversees our customer service delivery, information technology, client relationships and more. She is very knowledgeable about our products and brands and is passionate about sharing her wonderful insight with our customers and clients. During her downtime, Annette enjoys growing her own fruit and vegetables, connecting with nature, good coffee and sunshine.
Fun fact: Annette was once was once a deep tissue massage therapist and specialist in body realignment.
Favorite OWA toy: Gluckskafer Garden Tools
Warehouse Operations
David was our very first Oskar's Wooden Ark employee and devotedly helped us through our first Christmas season back in 2018. Today, he is part of our efficient warehouse operation and our walking 'Oskar's Wooden Ark Product Encyclopedia' who impresses us every day with with his extensive knowledge of our products and brands. His work ethic, loyalty and friendly smile are just some of the many reasons why David is such a valued member of our team. He has walked a long road with us, sharing in every step of growth in our beloved family business, and building up a wealth of experience and knowledge in all areas of the business along the way.
Fun fact: David has been known to host the biggest and best house parties back in the day.
Favorite OWA toy: Treasures from Jennifer Hundred Frame
Warehouse Manager: Outbound
Back in 2020 Anthony used to pick up orders on a weekly basis from the OWA warehouse for his wife and two little boys. He was also one of the only active dads in our Facebook group - The Wooden Ark Family. In one of our many chats at the warehouse, Anthony enquired about a new role becoming available and the rest, as they say, is history. Anthony is our Warehouse Manager Outbound, that means he is responsible for everything that leaves the warehouse across all business entities including retail, wholesale and school orders. He works closely with the warehouse team to ensure every every package leaves our warehouse within 24 hours.
Fun fact: Anthony is an identical twin. He loves collecting retro Nintendo consoles, games and vintage stereo equipment.
Favourite OWA toy: Grunspecht Musical Marble Trees
Warehouse Manager: Inbound
Tony is actually David’s cousin and joined Oskar's Wooden Ark in 2021 during the COVID19 Pandemic. He is one of the youngest and brightest members of our team and has quickly developed lots of valuable warehousing experience. He is now responsible for managing all incoming shipments (there are a lot) and keeping our shelves organised. He makes sure all products have barcodes and are correctly labeled, helping make the picking and packing process more efficient in the warehouse. Tony is easy-going, hardworking and a perfect fit for our team. He enjoys spending his free time on hobbies such as Fish-keeping and Aquascaping and he participates in various sporting activities.
Fun fact: Tony used to play competitive badminton during his younger years.
Favorite OWA toy: Billes & Co Marbles
Social Media Manager and Content Writer
Erin is our whizz with words, responsible for writing engaging copy for our blog, newsletters and social media platforms. Erin manages our Oskar's Wooden Ark Instagram, Facebook and TikTok accounts, creating inspiring video and photo content, managing our busy content calendar and sharing information, ideas and a joke or two with our community. Erin is a valued member of our Content team - proactive, enthusiastic and always motivated to learn. Erin dreams of becoming a published Author one day and enjoys writing poetry, book reviews and lifestyle articles in her spare time.
Fun fact: Erin has a fur baby named Alfie who loves to sit in front of the camera during our team Zoom meetings.
Favourite OWA toy: Grimm’s Pastel Rainbow
Videographer and Product Photographer
John, who is originally from France, moved to Australia in 2017 and joined team OWA in March 2020 when Simon and Thuy saw the need to focus on more video content across all online platforms. Since John joined our team, he has created and edited more than 500 videos for our website and social media platforms and also taken a number of product photographs. He is not only a very talented and efficient digital creator but also a person with brilliant ideas and input, with a personal mission to constantly improve his own processes within the video editing space. He is a much valued member of the Oskar's Wooden Ark family - hard working, reliable and always willing to go the extra mile to help out wherever possible, including picking and packing orders in the warehouse.
Fun fact: John used to be a Techno DJ for warehouse raves in France.
Favorite OWA toy: KAPLA
Brand, Website & Communication Design Manager
Ruth is our Brand Champion - responsible for the design of our websites, digital content, email flows and print media. She is passionate about creating a positive and enjoyable online experience for our customers, ensuring that our websites are easy to navigate and that inspiration and information is close at hand. Whether she’s writing engaging copy, dreaming up new landing pages, designing templates and banners, coming up with a new packaging design or looking after our broader brand identity, Ruth’s creativity and attention to detail shines through. With her background in Education and Psychology, Ruth is passionate about promoting the importance of play and creativity in childhood.
Fun fact: Ruth spent her childhood in South Africa and now lives in the UK with her husband and three young children. She loves travelling and exploring new places.
Favorite OWA toy: Mader Spinning Tops
Accounts
Gabey manages the financial ins and outs of our Wooden Playroom wholesale and Mercurius school accounts. Despite being a highly organised person, responsible for some pretty serious number crunching behind the scenes, this girl knows how to let her hair down! In fact, Gabey is just as comfortable on a stage as she is sitting behind a computer! When she isn't working with us, Gabey is a professional singer, percussionist and composer and spends time touring and recording. She also enjoys skiing, being in the mountains and gardening.
Fun fact: Gabey has a passion for hip hop and street dance and dances multiple times a week for a happy life.
Favourite OWA toy: Gluckskafer Home Range
Customer Service
Ngoc (nOK) is one of the most efficient yet cheerful people you will meet if you visit our warehouse! She is the friendly voice on the other end of our emails, phone calls and front desk and is responsible for local order pick ups, returns and general customer service enquiries. Ngoc loves spending time with her niece and and nephew, completing challenging jigsaw puzzles and touring wineries.
Fun fact: In primary school, Ngoc was the school champion in 'Tetrics' and earned the nickname “Turbo Fingers."
Favorite OWA toy: Senger Naturwelt Goose
Purchasing and Product Administrative Assistant
Andrea prepares and organises our website to make sure we are ready for all our incoming stock. This includes organising purchase orders, listing new products and ensuring all the details relating to new and incoming stock is shown accurately on our website. A mammoth job - especially for our big orders which can get up to thousands of units per invoice. When not preparing for incoming orders, Andrea provides administrative support to our purchasing, product and warehouse teams. Andrea spends her free time cooking delicious meals or reading novels while hanging out with her fur babies.
Fun fact: Andrea co-owns a small, local cake shop with her sister-in-law and eldest nephew, where taste testing is an important responsibility!
Customer Service and Product Administrative Assistant
Kristelle is one of our resident product listers; organising and sourcing product details, editing and resizing photos, adding beautiful content from our content creators, and managing many of the daily tasks that live behind an up-to-date website! When not listing products, Kristelle is our administrative assistant supporting the customer service team. Kristelle thinks the Gluckskafer Wooden-All-In-One Doll House is Super Cool! And loves to go the beach with her dogs and friends!
Fun fact: Much of Kristelle’s spare time is taken up with the 8 fur-babies she lives with!
