Speakers at the Women in Procurement 2015 conference
Janine Anderiesz
Strategic Sourcing Director
General Electric ANZ
Janine Anderiesz is the Strategic Sourcing Director for General Electric Australia & New Zealand, a renowned technology company which specializes in aviation, capital, health care, home improvement, mining, oil and gas, power and water, and transportation services.
Janine joined GE in October 2006 and has had various leadership roles across Strategic Sourcing & Properties functions from a local and Asia Pacific perspective. Janine has played a key part in effectively building and leading a team of talented individuals to deliver sustainable commercial and operational outcomes to GE’s operations in Australia & New Zealand.
Prior to joining GE she worked with leading Australian telecommunications company Telstra for over 7 years to formulate & implement sourcing strategies to deliver tangible benefit across Asia Pacific. Janine has also worked with Australia’s major banks NAB and ANZ in Corporate & Business banking teams. Janine has a Bachelor of Business Accounting from Monash University, is CPA and MCIPS qualified and has postgraduate management qualifications from University of Melbourne - Melbourne Business School.
Coretta Bessi
Chief Procurement Officer
NBN Co.
Coretta is starting in her new role as Chief Procurement Officer at NBN Co starting in April. An initial focus for Coretta will be to review the frameworks, governance, probity and policy to transform the Procurement function to ensure alignment and enablement of the business to deliver outcomes.
Coretta Bessi is an experienced and recognised business services functional executive. She was until recently Head of Procurement and Shared Services at BlueScope. Her primary role was to manage a centralised core team and co-ordinate an extended network of 200 procurement and shared services professionals across the Australian and New Zealand businesses to ensure strategic alignment and define accountabilities to drive maximum value.
Coretta commenced her career as a cadet at BHP 23 years ago, since gaining experience across mining, manufacturing, and distribution covering all aspects of Procurement from purchasing to global category management. Coretta has worked in Human Resources where she gained a keen interest in developing others and a passion in ensuring Procurement was taken seriously as a profession through development of competency based training. More recent roles have included Shared Services which covered insourced, outsourced and offshored business processes of Information Technology, Property Services, Human Resources, Payroll, Financial Services and Accounting Services in addition to Procurement.
Coretta has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Business Administration. She has furthered both her own academic study and her interest in developing others by lecturing in Procurement at the University of Wollongong and the Sydney Business School for post graduate masters students for the past eight years.
Leeora Black
Managing Director
Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility
Leeora D. Black, Ph.D, is founder and managing director of the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility. Leeora is a globally recognised CSR and sustainability expert and has more than 30 years experience in helping organisations adapt to their changing environments.
A driving force in the field of corporate social responsibility in Australia, Leeora is known for her pioneering work on stakeholder engagement, as much as her ability to analyse and solve complex CSR and management issues.
Leeora is responsible for all aspects of ACCSR’s direction, strategy and services. With a background in journalism, corporate communications and advisory, Leeora undertook her doctorate in corporate social responsibility through the Department of Management at Monash University before establishing ACCSR in 2003. Her doctoral research pioneered new methods of CSR measurement, and established her reputation for application of rigorous social sciences research methods to the traditionally ‘soft’ areas of organisation-stakeholder relationship management.
Her experience spans the mining, oil and gas industries, banking, insurance and superannuation, FMCG, agribusiness, retail and consumer brands, utilities, telecommunications, renewable energy, property, automotive, transport, and government sectors.
Leeora is a Board Member of the Karma Currency Foundation, a member of the Advisory Council on Corporate Responsibility at National Australia Bank, and a member of the External Advisory Board of La Trobe Business School. Her vision is for corporate social responsibility to become integrated into business as normal operating procedure.
Hannah Bodilly
Head of Procurement
Tatts Group
Hannah is an experienced International Head of Procurement with tenure at Blue-chip companies such as Ford, Reckitt Benckiser and Macquarie Bank with a background of delivering significant savings and setting-up procurement functions. As well as having cross-industry experience ranging from FMCG to Automotive she has covered all indirect and direct commodities from marketing to raw materials. After dabbling in her own management consultancy she is currently at Tatts Group as Head of Procurement, undertaking a huge transformation project to move to a strategic, aligned and value-adding function.
Being passionate about procurement, she gives back to the community in her roles on committees in CIPS UK, and CIPSA NSW and QLD, in setting up the NZ Marketing Procurement Forum, as well as having been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney for the Masters of Logistics Management.
In her personal life she is a keen amateur dramatist, having trod the musical boards up to semi-professional level and likes to partake in charity triathlons.
Antoinette Brandi
Former Group Manager - Procurement & Supply Chain
Leighton Contractors
Antoinette’s career in procurement began nearly twenty years ago and has provided her with some exciting and challenging opportunities. She has worked in government, defence services and shipbuilding, mining, construction, renewable energy and rail. Her roles have involved extensive travel to major cities and remote locations in Australia and around the world. She is equally comfortable working in a suit or PPE. Antoinette was the first women in Australia to gain Fellow status in CIPSA and one of the inaugural graduates of Griffith University’s Masters in Procurement Degree.
After holding senior leadership roles in procurement, she is proud to see so many young women who have chosen a career in the Procurement rising to the top of their profession.
Georgia Brandi
Category Lead
Newcrest Mining
Georgia is a tertiary qualified procurement professional with over seven years’ experience in supply and logistics in varied roles such as strategic sourcing, process optimisation, DC operations and purchasing/expediting. Industry experience includes mining, defence, rail and FMCG.
At Newcrest Mining Georgia has responsible for the strategic sourcing strategy and SRM for categories in Assets & Projects and previously Services.
Georgia continues to expand her supply chain operational knowledge as an Army Reservist in the Ordnance Corps, where she was awarded Student of Merit in 2011 for Operator Supply training.
Georgia is also studying a Masters of Law (Juris Doctor) part-time, is a 2013 Monash Law School Ambassador and aims to specialise in commercial law. Planned completion is in 2015.
Karen Carmichael
Chief Financial Officer
Versent
Karen has established a diverse career over the past 28 years, representing a wealth of experience across many industries, including retail, manufacturing, engineering, and telecommunications. A certified practising accountant, Karens extensive expertise in strategic and commercial management led to her being named Worldwide Who’s Who Professional of the Year in Financial Management for 2012, in recognition of her achievements.
From 2005 -2010, Karen was responsible for leading the commercial and finance team for the IT division of SingTel Optus, a $300m operating budget business. During this time, she successfully managed continual improvement programs, reducing operating costs by more than 30% over a four year period. Her responsibilities included IT business planning and strategy, vendor management and the PMO, including responsibility for the financial management, reporting and governance of both service delivery and management. Included in her remit was the commercial management of the multisourcing strategy for the IT division, which involved the perpetual balance between permanent and temporary workforce, outsourcing and off-shoring
Tanya Chiko
Manager - Contracts and Procurement - GLNG Development
Santos
Tanya has more than 10 years’ experience as a contracts manager and/or advisor in the oil and gas construction industry in Australia. She is currently employed by GLNG as the Contracts and Procurement Manager for the Santos GLNG Project having held this position since 2013. From 2012 to 2013, she was the Joint Venture Relations Manager on this project. Prior to this Tanya was employed by QGC as Contracts Manager, Pipelines on the QCLNG Project. Prior to these roles, she was employed in various positions with Santos including: Senior Commercial Advisor (Pipeline) for Santos / Petronas on the GLNG Project (2008 – 2009); Contracts Advisor for Santos on the Patricia Baleen Gas Plant Upgrade Project in Victoria (2007 – 2008); and Contracts Analyst for Santos in its Procurement & Logistics Department (2005 – 2007).
Sarah Collins
Chief Procurement Officer
Roads and Maritime Services
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science in Manufacturing Management and has also obtained her international professional procurement qualifications (MCIPS). She has over 18 years supply chain experience, with the last 15 of those in procurement.
Sarah is currently the Chief Procurement Officer at Roads and Maritime Services, part of the Transport for NSW cluster, where she is leading the development and implementation of leading practise strategies, policies, systems and processes to develop procurement professionals and increase the maturity of procurement within the agency.
Sarah is highly active in the Australian procurement community, having been a member of the NSW CIPS Committee since 2008 where she held the role of Chair from 2011-2014. She is also passionate about developing future procurement professionals and lectures on procurement at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at The University of Sydney. She is also one of the founders of the global CIPS Women in Procurement mentoring program.
Susie Duncan
Head of Procurement & Shared Services
GPT
Like you, procurement leader Susie Duncan has seen an enormous amount of change in the procurement landscape over the years. What is procurement? Where does it fit within an organisation? What is the value proposition that comes from it?
Having worked across manufacturing, service and property sectors Susie combines her deep understanding of the challenges facing today’s busy procurement professional with a desire to provide outstanding results that looks beyond the basic functionality of the role, Susie is adept at adding value and driving cultural change through procurement programs and initiatives.
Susie is currently the Head of Procurement and Shared Services for a top 25 ASX listed company where no two days are the same. Whilst growing and mentoring a small team of dedicated professionals, she is still happiest when in the midst of a process, doing the work she loves.
Jonathan Dutton
Director
JD Consultancy
Jonathon Dutton was the founding Managing Director of CIPS Australasia for over eight years up until February 2013. He was responsible for all aspects of CIPS activities as the global peak body for professional procurement & supply management in the region. He represented the profession and its standards to the highest levels of business and government. As a former qualified procurement manager himself, as well as sales manager turned marketing director, Jonathan can easily draw on experiences from both sides of the negotiating table. Jonathan has worked in senior positions for British Airways, QANTAS, Regus & CHUBB, and is a fellow of four institutes covering procurement, marketing, management and the royal society of arts. He is also a graduate diploma member of the institute of company directors, and has a degree in economics with accountancy and business law.
Jonathan is married with two young children and lives in Melbourne, and can be reached easily through Linked In or his website.
Jane Falconer
Executive General Manager Procurement
Fulton Hogan
As an experienced procurement leader, Jane has spent ten years developing and implementing change programs in the automotive and energy sectors to reduce operating costs and create sustainable value.
Jane’s recent roles have centred on creating procurement functions and developing and executing procurement strategies that deliver benefits and align with company strategy. To do this Jane focuses on creating efficiencies, compliance, customer service and effective stakeholder engagement by building relationships with internal company stakeholders and suppliers alike. She takes a “maximum gain” negotiation approach to consistently deliver positive and practical contract outcomes and support effective supply chain resilience.
In March 2014, Jane joined Fulton Hogan, a civil infrastructure, construction and road maintenance business, in the newly established role as Executive General Manager Procurement. At Fulton Hogan Jane is responsible for leading and establishing a central procurement function to support the organisation’s third party purchasing activity across Australasia.
Key areas of expertise include; development of procurement strategies to drive efficiencies, management of complex outsourcing agreements and the implementation of automated purchasing systems and process controls.
Jane is a passionate and motivated results-focused leader. In 2011, she was featured in the publication Bravo! which recognised Australia’s leading women in the procurement sector.
Georgina Gaussen
Chief Procurement Officer
News Limited
Georgina is currently the Chief Procurement Officer for News Limited in Australia and has previously held the position of Transformation Executive. Prior to joining News Limited, Georgina spent 12 years at Qantas Airways in the following roles:
- CEO Qantas Foundation
- Head of HR Operating Model
- Head of Strategy
- General Manager People Shared Services
- Senior Manager Supply Chain
- Finance Manager
Georgina is a Fellow Chartered Accountant (4 years with KPMG prior to Qantas) who has extensive business improvement, operating model redesign, strategy and change management experience, as well as leadership skills through managing sizeable teams.
Jane Holcombe
Interim Procurement Manager Business Services
VicTrack
Jane Holcombe completed a Bachelor of Business from R.M.I.T. University in 1998. She became the Victorian vice Chair for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPSA) in 2007 and was appointed a Director on the board of the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in 2013.
She has acquired over 16 years of procurement and supply chain experience across multiple industries including: Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing, Agriculture, FMCG and Government.
Jane is a passionate and commercially astute leader with a proven track record of delivering sustainable business value and is acknowledged for harnessing organisational wide capability to deliver step change in bottom line business outcomes and developing world-class teams.
Gladys Liu
Former Special Advisor on China Affairs to Premier of Victoria
Gladys Liu has recently joined Canaan Lawyers as the Head of Business Development.
She stood as a Candidate in the 2014 Victorian State Election.
Gladys immigrated to Australia in 1985 to study Speech Pathology on a full scholarship. After graduation, Gladys went on to work in the not-for-profit and education sectors before establishing her own speech pathology clinic.
In 2007, Gladys brought her skills of helping person-to-person communication to a new level of facilitating government-to-public engagement. She was appointed by the Hon Ted Baillieu as the Special Adviser on Chinese affairs. Gladys was instrumental in pioneering community engagement through traditional and social media.
In 2011 her work stretched out to engaging Chinese businesses both in Victoria and China. She accompanied Victorian Premier Baillieu in 2012 Super Trade Mission to China and accompanied Victorian Premier Napthine in 2014 as part of the Australian Prime Minister Abbott’s Trade Mission to China.
In addition to her busy work commitment, Gladys can still find time to be the AFL Multicultural Community Ambassador and Honorary Adviser for many organisations.
Megan Main
Chief Executive Officer
Health Purchasing Victoria
Megan joined HPV as Chief Executive in February 2008. Previously Megan was Director Supply Chain at Alfred Health. Prior to joining the public health sector Megan held various consulting and line management roles across a range of industries, focusing on supply chain, process improvement and strategy. Megan holds Degrees in Engineering and Science and an MBA from The Melbourne Business School. She has also Diplomas in the Company Directors’ Course at the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Leading Change & Organisational Renewal from Harvard Business School.
Kate Nicholl
Director of Consulting
The Faculty
As the head of The Faculty’s consulting practice, Kate brings a broad range of experience and skills, including procurement transformation, procurement strategy development and execution, category management and organisational change management.
Kate is a career procurement professional with experience working directly for large blue chip organisations and in consulting. Her first exposure to the procurement and supply chain was as a buyer in the automotive industry with Ford Motor Company, before moving on to the Global Supply function at Rio Tinto where she was responsible for raw material sourcing for the Aluminium Group. During this time Kate was also an integral member of the Alcan post-merger integration program, identifying considerable cost reduction and contract alignment initiatives between the two organisations. As a consultant with both Accenture and KPMG, Kate worked on a diverse range of procurement related projects with Anglo American, Queensland Government, Vale, Peabody Energy, AGL and the Department of Defence. Across these clients engagements Kate has been responsible for managing cross-functional engagement teams on global programs and successfully building client relationships at all levels of the organisation.
Anna Palairet
Head of Procurement
Air New Zealand
Anna has held senior management roles in Procurement for Air New Zealand since early 2012 most recently as Head of the division with responsibility for optimizing the company’s interactions with 4500 suppliers. She has been with the Airline since 2006 and held roles in Strategic Procurement and as Contracts Manager in the Technical Operations division.
Anna comes from a supply background and has enjoyed a predominantly NZ centric career across some of New Zealand’s largest corporate companies. Initially at Fonterra’s then Wellington based NZ Dairy Board and at Australian packaging company Amcor. She moved into specialist procurement at Carter Holt Harvey in 2002 and has held procurement consultant roles in 2 New Zealand infrastructure companies.
Anna graduated from Massey University with a BSC in Genetics and Microbiology in 1996 and did post graduate study in the business school at Massey University the following year.
Div Pillay
Chair, Women in Business Victoria
Australia India Business Council
Director
MindTribes
Div Pillay is highly regarded for her leadership and career management expertise within the Australia-India business corridor. For over 16 years, Div has worked corporately, as a senior leadership consultant in organisations that linked to Asia, either through acquisition or through BPO arrangements. In this context she has consulted with procurement leaders and units to build better partnerships with Asia. Currently in her own practice, she works with Australian clients to transform how they do business with India and Manila by building cross cultural competence. In the last two years she has also career coached procurement leaders, many of them women, from the manufacturing, automotive, IT, mining and banking sectors to make a transition post redundancy. Passionate about women’s development in business, Div is also the Chair of the Women in Business (Victoria) Chapter of the Australia India Business Council. Div is a Certified Executive Coaching (ICF) and holds a Master of HRM from Monash University where she guest lectures in International Human Resource Management.
Bree Pitcher
Senior Category Specialist, Mining
Stanwell Corporation
(CIPSA Young Professional of the Year 2014)
Bree Pitcher is a highly capable and dedicated young procurement professional. Since commencing her career in 2008 as a procurement graduate, Bree has rapidly developed and established herself in the profession. Her achievements and potential recognised in 2014 where she was awarded the CIPS Australasian Young Procurement and Supply Chain Management Professional of the Year.
Bree is the Senior Category Specialist – Mining for Stanwell Corporation. As the team leader, Bree is responsible for the category management of goods and services required for the efficient operation of Meandu Coal Mine. Influencing spend of greater than $200 Million each year Bree has undertaken a number of significant key procurement initiatives for Stanwell and delivered significant savings, cost avoidances and value adding benefits for the business. Passionate about customer and supplier relationship management, Bree has been responsible for the successful implementation of strategies with her key suppliers and internal stakeholders ensuring maximisation of the relationships for the benefit of both Stanwell and the suppliers.
Outside of Stanwell, Bree has been an active member of the Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA), for the past 7 years, whereby she has assisted in enhancing the status of the procurement profession, ensuring its progressive increased level of attractiveness for the younger generation.
Larissa Robertson
Managing Director
SCO Recruitment
and Trim and Proper Property Services
Larissa is the founder and managing director of SCO Recruitment and Trim and Proper Property Services and is a qualified accountant with 14 years’ experience in finance and over 10 years’ experience in recruitment and business management and an advocate for the advancement of women in business.
SCO Recruitment was BRW's 2012 2nd Fastest Growing company in Australia. SCO Recruitment specialise in providing permanent and temporary recruitment solutions to Federal, State and Local Government, Logistics, Manufacturing and Industrial sectors. Last year SCO Recruitment placed nearly 1,000 employees at 100 different sites across Australia, averaging 400-500 employees daily.
Since commencing in May 2009 the company goal has been to redefine business in Australia. By combining the resources and head office and management functions of SCO Recruitment and their Not For Profit, Trim and Proper Property Services SCO wants to show that high growth businesses such as SCO can have a high social impact through its support of Trim and Proper. Capitalism with a Conscience.
Jody Rowe is a specialist consultant in the resources sector who has a strategic view of the market, its needs and potential opportunities for growth and continuous cost improvements. In December 2013 roweSMG was founded the focus is areas of expertise, business development, supply chain including contracts and procurement, tenders, negotiations and reviews where risk is significant. She has the conceptual and analytical ability to deal with ambiguity and complexity that often accompanies such high profile companies.
Previous work experience includes executive roles at BG-QGC, Santos, Rio Tinto and Barrick Gold on mega projects GLNG and QCLNG and large scale mining projects / operations. Jody is a strong advocate for the Contracts and Procurement profession, Women’s networking and Emerging Talent, presenting at APPEA September 2013, Major Construction Conference October 2013 and Oil and Gas Procurement Leaders November 2013 and May 2014, TSBE in August 2014 and Energy Week in Houston February 2015.
In June 2014 Jody became a Director of Strike Energy an Oil and Gas Company with a substantial acreage in the Cooper Basin and in the Eagleford and Permian Basins.
Jody grew up in South Australia, graduating in Accounting with a career spanning 12 years in mining Commercial roles at Barrick Gold and Rio Tinto in both Gold and Uranium commodities... Jody is a keen golfer and traveller.
Laurence Strano
President
Australia Vietnam Business Council
Laurence Strano is President of the Australia Vietnam Business Council and has had a 20 year involvement with Vietnam. Initially the involvement started with a Presidency of the NSW Vietnam Chamber of Commerce which evolved out of the then Ethnic Exporter’s Programme of Austrade. Laurence became more involved with solving problems related to his former Corporation Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC) not insuring exports at the time. He assisted EFIC’s underwriting by providing credit trading information for the then Gateway Pharmaceuticals company which went on to become Exporter of the Year and Grand Exporter in 1994.Since then he has received and taken many delegations and witnessed and help facilitate the growth in the level of trade and bilateral investment. He has extensively lectured particularly on cross cultural communication and SME and their doing business with Vietnam.
Thomai Veginis
Director - Procurement
Telstra
Thomai has been a Procurement professional for the past 17 years. During that time she has managed diverse procurement teams across Asia and Australia and has worked in Procurement Business Transformation Outsourcing projects.
In February 2012 Thomai joined Telstra in the Procurement team as Director Infrastructure, Equipment and Services. In this role she managed a team of 60 who look after all the supplier contracts and relationships in the Network and IT environments at Telstra.
In September 2013 Thomai took responsibility for the Sourcing and Vendor Management functions of the broader Procurement team with $10B spend under management. Together with her team, she is continuing to strengthen relationships both internally and with Telstra’s strategic suppliers and partners.
Prior to this role, Thomai was Chief Procurement Officer at National Australia Bank (2008 – 2012) where she managed the end to end procurement and accounts payable process with a team of 60 onshore (80 offshore) and a spend profile of $2.4B.
Thomai started her career IBM Australia in 1989 as a graduate hire and spent the next 19 years performing many different roles.
She moved into the IBM Global Procurement team in 1997 when IBM was appointed the IT Strategic Outsourcing (SO) partner for Telstra. In her role she worked to transition critical vendor contracts from Telstra to IBM and other Procurement related activities.
She held various procurement roles when in 2001 she moved into the role of Chief Procurement Officer for IBM Australia/NZ. She managed a team of 125 staff and spend of US$ 700M. During this period, IBM underwent significant transformation in the procurement function. The first Procurement Operations Centre for IBM Asia Pacific was implemented in Melbourne and then moved offshore to Shanghai and Bangalore.
Thomai has 2 children and lives in Melbourne. She enjoys going to the gym, reading books, going for walks and catching up with friends.
Lisa Williams
Chief Procurement Officer
Public Transport Victoria
Lisa Williams is the Chief Procurement officer at Public Transport Victoria (PTV). During the last two years, Lisa has created and grown the PTV procurement team and implemented a reform designed the strategically lift the profile of procurement and ensure proactive involvement across the large transport, focused spend portfolio.
A highly experienced strategic procurement leader, Lisa Williams has 20 years, solid procurement experience gained across both the private and public sectors. Lisa started her procurement career as a graduate in the UK rail industry, before then moving to IBM where she headed up the UK Banking and Financial services procurement team. At IBM she then moved into their consulting practice where she led a number of large procurement engagements with international financial institutions. She also managed a number of e-procurement and process re-engineering projects with a variety of UK public sector clients.
Since moving to Australia ten years ago, Lisa has held senior procurement roles at ANZ and AGL. She has also led a number of procurement related engagements across both State and Local Government.
Lisa holds an MBA in Strategic Procurement Management, a Graduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, a Masters Degree in Management Studies and a Business Studies Degree.
Camilla Woods
Director Global Procurement
Treasury Wine Estates
Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is a unique global wine company of leading international portfolio of new world wines, including: Penfolds, Stags’ Leap, Etude, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Wolf Blass, Beringer, Chateau St Jean & Matua. With 11,000 hectares of vineyards, 30 million cases of sold annually, and revenues of A$1.7 billion, TWE employs more than 3,000 winemakers, viticulturists, sales, distribution and support staff across 16 countries, with brands sold in more than 70 countries around the world.
Camilla Woods leads TWE’s global procurement function and in her 6 years with Fosters and TWE has transformed procurement capability and performance to deliver total sustainable value to TWE and its consumers. Camilla’s career spans senior procurement and merchandise roles in retail, energy, health & logistics.
Women in Procurement 2015 sponsorship opportunities are still available!
Present your company, showcase your leadership and demonstrate how you can help by speaking to this senior gathering of procurement and supply chain executives from across sectors including oil and gas, mining, energy, defence, healthcare, banking and finance, FMCG and retail, telecoms, aviation and government.
Use this unique forum to voice your opinions on the most important issues facing procurement today. Speakers will assert themselves as facilitators of the future success of procurement and supply chain professionals.
Download a sponsorship prospectus here.
