Jackie Aggett
Head of Procurement
Laing O’Rourke
A competent commercial person with 25 years of experience in the mining, rail, construction and oil and gas industry. This experience covers roles in commercial, contractual and financial management from project start-up through to close-out including all facets of tender preparation, negotiation, contract award and subsequent on-site contract administration, claims, project controls, forecasting, financial reporting and risk management as the client asset owner and/or contractor.
Margaret Alston
Professor
Monash University and Director, GLASS (Gender, Leadership and Social Sustainability) Research Unit
Professor Margaret Alston, B.Soc. Stud (Syd), Dip. Comp. Applic. (RMIHE), M. Litt (UNE), PhD (UNSW) assumed duties as Head of Department in July 2008. Prior to commencing at Monash she was Professor of Social Work and Human Services and Director of the Centre for Rural Social Research (a subprogram of the Institute of Land, Water and Society) at Charles Sturt University. She is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. She has served on a number of Boards including the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women, Family Services Council. Family and Community Services Department in Canberra and the National Women's Advisory Group overseeing the Rural Women's Policy Unit in the Department of Primary Industries and Energy. In 2008 she was appointed to the Australian delegation attending the Commission for the Status of Women meeting in New York. In 2009, 2007 and 2003 she has spent time as a visiting expert in the Gender Division of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation in Rome. She has also acted as a gender expert for UN-Habitat in Kenya in 2009. She has published widely in the field of rural gender and rural social issues. She has been a keynote speaker at a number of national and international conferences over the last several years and is sought out for media commentary on the rural social condition, and on climate change and gender issues.
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.
Keith Bird
Principal Consultant
The Faculty
Keith is a highly respected professional with diverse experience in public and private sectors across Australasia, Europe and the USA. His wealth of experience, from ground up to executive level spans over thirty years. He has held various senior leadership roles at a global level and across complex, cultural and strategic commercial portfolios including transportation sectors, shared services, wholesale, retail, distribution and supply chain management.
Keith was named 2013 Asia Pacific CPO of the year and has recently led his team to achieving two CIPSA awards.
Keith joined Queensland Rail in 2011 at a time of significant restructuring and has led numerous reform, efficiency and transformational initiatives. He has a reputation as an innovative leader who enjoys being involved in industry mentoring and working with cross functional teams to deliver sustainable bottom line results.
Georgia Brandi
Category Lead
Newcrest Mining
CIPS Australasia Young Procurement and Supply Chain Management Professional of the Year 2015
Georgia is a tertiary qualified procurement professional with over eight years’ experience in supply and logistics in varied roles such as strategic sourcing, process optimisation and distribution operations. Her industry experience spans across 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 and has continued her professional development having recently completed studying a Masters of Laws (Juris Doctor). Georgia’s continuing focus is specialising in commercial law and dispute resolution to deliver benefits in procurement.
Gabi Bywater
Director, Contingent Workforce, NSW Procurement
Department of Finance, Services and Innovation
Gabi Bywater works for NSW Procurement and is the Director, Contingent Workforce. She is the architect of the NSW Government contingent workforce strategy which is transforming the way NSW Government recruits and manages its contingent workforce. She is responsible for delivering the strategy across the sector which involves client engagement, stakeholder management and sourcing activities.
Gabi is an HR professional with procurement expertise. Her tertiary qualifications include 2 master degrees, she is a member of CIPSA, is an accredited professional RCSA member and is a chartered member of AHRI. In 2001 Gabi implemented Australia’s first national vendor neutral outsourced recruitment solution at a national bank. She went on to manage other major corporate clients’ labour and professional services in the private sector before joining the NSW public sector in 2009.
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
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 19 years supply chain experience, with the last 16 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.
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 LinkedIn or his website.
www.jdconsultancy.com.au | @JDTheBuyer
Ian Griffith
Head of Procurement
DuluxGroup
Sharon Hoysted
Procurement Manager
Boeing Aerostructures Australia
Sharon has an established procurement career, with 15 years of supply chain experience within manufacturing; both automotive and aerospace. Sharon holds a Bachelor of Science (Aviation) and Diploma of Management and has spent the last 4 years leading the Indirect Procurement and Contracts team at Boeing.
As a member of the Boeing Diversity Council, Sharon is working on flexible working practices for productivity improvement. Sharon is passionate about people and relationships – and has a keen interest in capability development, innovation, and engagement. In her current role, Sharon is a leading a number of cross functional teams focusing on lean, and utilizing technology to remove waste from the procurement process to improve functional excellence.
Kelly Irwin
Head of Procurement Australia and New Zealand
Holcim
Kelly has recently been awarded the CIPS Procurement and Supply Chain Management Professional of the Year.
Kelly Irwin is a Procurement Professional with extensive experience across a range of industries. She has strong capabilities in building effective working relationships and teams, development of Procurement strategy, management of supplier and key stakeholder expectations, highly developed negotiating skills, contract management, risk management and compliance expertise and operational experience through the implementation of change initiatives and process improvements.
Kelly’s current role is the Head of Procurement for Holcim Australia and NZ. This role is responsible for a spend of over $900m. She has implemented a centralised structure and process aligned with the global business. Kelly has developed a highly effective Procurement team who have been awarded the Internal Customer Excellence award for Holcim Australia for 3 years in a row.
Megan Jefferson
Assistant Director of Policy and Education at the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer
Department of Health WA
Megan joined the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer in WA Health shortly after the team was created in early 2014 to drive a comprehensive procurement reform program across the health system. The reform program has resulted in a significant cultural shift within WA Health and was recognised with a 2015 Premier’s Award for Improving Government. In her role as Assistant Director of Policy and Education, Megan develops and implements strategies to continuously improve transparency, compliance and better value for money in procurement practice.
Prior to joining WA Health, Megan worked in the WA Department of Finance managing and developing whole-of-government contracts.
Nelli Kim
Senior Supplier Management Specialist
Telstra International Group (Hong Kong)
Nelli is a Senior Supplier Management Specialist based in Hong Kong focused primarily on managing Telstra’s Retail Supply Chain Category. Since joining Telstra’s Procurement team in 2011, Nelli has managed strategic partner relationships in the mobility and emerging technology categories (accessories, wearables and M2M) as well as key projects to source innovative technologies for Telstra and its customers Australia-wide.
Nelli was a recent CIPS Young Procurement Professional of the Year finalist (Australasia, 2015).
Kathryn Londrigan
Principal
A.T. Kearney
Kathryn Londrigan is a Principal with A.T. Kearney, focused on organisation and transformation topics. Kathryn has more than 15 years of industry and management consulting experience, specialising in large-scale transformation and change management, including culture change, managing numerous client engagements across all industries: Kathryn is based in A.T. Kearney’s Melbourne office.
Kathryn has worked with a diverse range of clients across many industries, predominantly financial services (insurance and wealth management) and EPI (utilities, oil, and gas), and is passionate about making A.T. Kearney a great place to work for everyone. She currently leads the A.T. Kearney ANZ Women’s Consulting Network, as well as several diversity initiatives.
Kathryn has an MBA from Melbourne Business School, and an undergraduate degree in physiotherapy from La Trobe University.
Kirsten McFall
General Manager - Procurement
Myer
Honey Meares
Procurement Manager - Supply Strategy
Genesis Energy
Honey Meares is the Procurement Manager for Supply Strategy at Genesis Energy, a New Zealand-based publically listed electricity generation and energy retailing company.
With 14 years of supply chain and strategic procurement experience across a range of industries, including manufacturing, FMCG, healthcare, retail and energy, Honey is an experienced procurement professional with strong commercial acumen whose passion and dedication is immediately evident.
Honey’s diverse career experience is underpinned by a range of academic qualifications, including an undergraduate degree in Political Science, a Masters of Public Health and a postgraduate certificate in Supply Chain Management. She will complete a Masters of Business Administration through the University of Southern Queensland in the coming year.
In her current role, Honey is responsible for shaping and executing strategy, driving procurement excellence and leading continuous improvement projects to elevate the procurement function. Her ability to optimise process, build effective working relationships and to cultivate high performing teams ensures the delivery of genuine strategic value for the organisation.
Genesis Energy’s Procurement Team was named overall Winners at the CIPS Annual Awards in 2015 for their demonstration of outstanding cross-function teamwork.
Michelle Ockers
National Technical Capability Manager, Supply Chain
Coca-Cola Amatil
Michelle Ockers leads the Coca-Cola Amatil Supply Chain Technical Academy, which develops technical knowledge and skills across Supply Chain. This role brings together her early experience in Logistics and training in the Royal Australian Air Force with subsequent learning focused roles in manufacturing, financial services, energy and telecommunication. Michelle is increasingly focused on social and informal learning to improve organisational performance, with a particular interest in Communities of Practice and Working Out Loud. She is an advocate of Working Out Loud Circles, and has initiated seven Circles in Australia. Michelle shares her work through her blog (www.michelleockers.com)
Lynn Penny
Group General Manager Procurement
Mirvac
Although Lynn’s key area of expertise is in Procurement she also has a strong general management background having run the Westpac Property Portfolio and been the Head of Risk at Laing O’Rourke.
Lynn is currently the Group General Manager of Procurement at Mirvac. In the GGM role Lynn is accountable for Procurement and Premises strategy across the group and has three key focus areas this year:
- Building a Supplier Relationship Management strategy
- Implementation of an IT Procurement Capability Platform for contract management, etendering and eProcurement.
- Implementation of “Transforming the Way we Work” in regard to accommodation strategy
Prior to Lynn’s role at Mirvac she spent time working with Microsoft in an APAC role responsible for $3b in spend.
Lynn is passionate about coaching and mentoring people and is currently a Mentor on the Women in Property Program being run by the Property Council of Australia.
Janet Rowe
Manager Contracts and Procurement Management
Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority
Janet manages all procurement activities and contracts for the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA). ESTA provides the Triple 000 calls for Victoria. ESTA also manages two Public Private Partnership contracts for the provision of radios and mobile data devices and networks for Victoria Police, the Metropolitan and Country Fire Authority and Ambulance Victoria . The Agency also provides a multi million dollar paging service for the Country Fire Authority, Ambulance Victoria and the State Emergency Service.
Janet has had significant procurement experience in the private sector, as well as at both Federal and State Government level. Her current role requires the management of complex muli-agency contract changes which have critical impacts on operational capabilities. Janet has transformed the contract and procurement activities within ESTA from transitional ‘back office’ to being used as a leverage to facilitate best practice strategic outcomes.
Anne Tesch
Executive Director Australasia
WEConnect International
Anne Tesch is Executive Director Australasia of WEConnect International, a global corporate-led, non-profit organisation that helps help women-owned businesses, outside of the USA, succeed in corporate supply chains so they may contribute to building economic growth and sustainable prosperity within their communities.
Anne is responsible for engaging locally with WEConnect corporate members that include Westpac, IBM, Accenture, Cummins, HP, Goldman Sachs, MSD and EY while also seeking membership from local corporations and companies.
This activity she combines with the certification of Australasian women-owned businesses, to a globally-recognised standard, so they may have greater opportunity to achieve in the global supply chain due to the diversity commitments of these global and local corporations.
Rosita van Vuuren
Head of Sourcing & Quality
Best & Less
Rosita van Vuuren is a business professional who has worked in the Apparel and Footwear Industry for 25 years. From running her own Apparel Manufacturing Company in the early 90’s she entered Corporate Business in 2001 in the areas of Operations, Production, Quality, Supply Chain and Sourcing. Rosita currently works for Best and Less, an Australian National Retailer, as Merchandising Operations Manager and Heads up Sourcing and Quality. Her previous role was as VP of Operations with Bloch International, which she held for 5 years.
Rosita emigrated from South Africa in 1987 and holds a Graduate Certificate in Business (Professional Management) through the University of Ballarat. She is currently completing her MBA while working full time, through the Australian Institute of Business and plans to complete it by June next year.
Rosita prides herself on continually improving business processes and creating efficiency and finding areas of the business to save money.
Rosita lives on the Northern Beaches in Sydney Australia.
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.
Jennie Vickers
Director Australia and New Zealand
IACCM
Jennie is the Director for Australia and New Zealand for the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management, a membership organisation with more than 35,000 members across the globe in 160 countries. IACCM’s goal is to help members improve the value they achieve from their trading relationships.
Jennie has a background in business, contracting and law. She is qualified as a lawyer in New Zealand, England and Wales and Australia. Her Masters of Management (BGS Hons) focused on creative ways of doing business better.
With 20+ years in corporates in the UK and New Zealand, as well as with “Big Law” firms in UK, NZ and Australia, Jennie has a wealth of experience in contract and commercial management, in both sales and procurement. Jennie’s commitment to building stable respectful long term contract relationships, delivering value to all concerned, has been a feature of the work throughout her career.
In her role in IACCM, Jennie is speaking to government and business procurement and sales professionals, both across Australasia and the world and is always keen to share the latest findings from IACCM research and ideas from IACCM’s 13,000+ member companies.
Tehara Wickham
Manager, Claims Procurement
Suncorp Group
Tehara Wickham is a procurement professional with over 12 years experience in direct and indirect spend, over the last three years she has successfully created a procurement governance model to drive engagement and improved collaboration with business stakeholders. Tehara believes that strong procurement governance is fundamental to the success of the function and helps underpin and deliver transformation for Procurement. Tehara is a passionate advocate for women in Procurement believing that supporting and mentoring the next generation of leaders is where the value lies in unlocking great potential. Tehara is most proud of being a working mother of two young children who she describes as simply amazing and she hopes they will grow up in a world where diversity and inclusion are part of the basic fibre of all organisations.
Ways to engage - speaking opportunities are 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 resources, 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.
Investments range from $7,500 to $40,000
Call Jon Treherne on +61 (0)2 8188 7536 or email jont@questevents.com.au to discuss how we can put you in front of a highly engaged and receptive audience.
You can also download the sponsorship prospectus here.
Other ways to engage
NETWORK
By having a prominent presence at the event you and your team will be able to meet with senior procurement managers during the two day conference, networking lunches, coffee breaks, networking drinks and official event dinner.
EXHIBIT
Having a stand at the event will enhance your brand. This can be used to set up meetings and guarantee that fellow attendees will know where to find your company representatives to make onsite enquiries at the event.
BRAND
Make an impact and elevate your presence at the event by being branded as one of the 2nd annual Women in Procurement event partners or session sponsors. You will receive extensive branding prior to and during the event and be remembered as a thought leader in the industry.
HOST AN IN-DEPTH LEARNING SESSION
Before the main conference there will be the option to host one of two pre-conference in-depth learning sessions. This is your chance to assign your own session leader and present content that showcases your expertise and solutions to a targeted, intimate audience.