About our Speakers

Further Speaker Biographies will be added as they become available

Dave Gardiner, Managing Director - Consulting ANZ, Portland Group

Dave graduated from Cambridge University with a Masters Degree in Engineering. He started his career as an engineer with Shell Exploration & Production and thereafter enjoyed a 7-year career with Mars Europe. Dave held numerous change management roles in Supply Chain driving cross-cultural business unit initiatives (eg. supplier integration). Dave moved to Australia where he joined A.T Kearney, leading numerous ‘procurement transformation’ projects in the manufacturing, retail and services sectors. Dave joined Portland Group in 2002 and since then has led procurement improvement programmes with a number of large manufacturing and retail organisations.

Gary Fung, Procurement Engineering Manager,
Xerox Procurement Solutions, Hong Kong and China

Gary Fung has worked in the different sectors of manufacturing industry in Hong Kong and China for more than 25 years, of which 20 years in Xerox. He has a rich experience in supplier quality management and engineering support. He leads a team of people from both Hong Kong and China to achieve the goal of providing satisfactory services to clients. He also works closely with other regions of AP such Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, and India.

Emma Twomey,Procurement Manager,
New Program Sourcing Strategy, Xerox

Emma is the New Program Sourcing Strategy and Procurement Manager for Xerox Corporation based in Singapore. Emma manages a team of Supplier Managers who are responsible for providing leadership in sourcing strategy, negotiation, delivering productivity at optimal total acquisition cost, contract development and implementation and industry cost curve analysis.

In 2009 Xerox’s Global Purchasing Organization earned global certification from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) in the area of procurement excellence through processes and procedures.

Emma earned a BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies from Birmingham City University, UK as well as being a Xerox certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a member of CIPS.

Owen West MCIPS, Regional Director - Asia Pacific, Achilles Information

Owen has worked in the mining industry in roles including mining analyst, strategic planning and procurement. He was CPO of MIM Holdings Limited, one of the largest mining companies in Australia.

He subsequently entered the utilities industry, being the CPO of Powerlink, the electricity transmission company in Queensland. He was also a Non-Executive Director of ElectraNet, the transmission company in South Australia.

Owen joined Achilles in 2006 as the Regional Director, UK and Ireland. He is now the Achilles Regional Director, Asia Pacific.

While at Powerlink, Owen was instrumental in the formation of the Asia Pacific Utilities Group, and now continues his association with them, now being their main service provider.

Owen has offices in both Hong Kong and Brisbane.

Lindy Chen, Managing Director, ChinaDirect Sourcing Services

Lindy Chen is the founder and Managing Director of ChinaDirect Sourcing Services. She formed ChinaDirect in 2005 to assist Australian Companies source and import products from China to help them remain globally competitive.

As a world leading authority on doing business with China, Lindy has featured in numerous publications and has been a finalist in many prestigious awards, including:

• State Finalist - Telstra Business Awards 2009

• National Finalist - Ethnic Business Awards 2009

• Women In Business Queensland Businesswoman of the Year Awards ’09, 08 and ‘07

• Australian Institute of Management’s Management Excellence Awards 2008

• Australian Small Business Champion Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year 2009 and 2007

• My Business Awards, Fastest Growing Small Business 2007

Additionally, China Direct Sourcing made the BRW Fast Starter List in April 2010 as one of the 100 fastest growing businesses in Australia.

Lindy has more then fifteen years experience in International Trade, and is a member of the Australia China Business Council. She is also the founder of the Australian Charities Buying Group, which makes it possible for charities to source and import commonly needed products from China

cooperatively, thus saving on costs and time. Her business goal is to grow ChinaDirect into the world’s leading sourcing firm.

Lindy has strong leadership qualities that are demonstrated by her ability to motivate and inspire employees to fulfil their potential. Lindy’s contribution to the organisation's success has been in developing a unique business model, and then systemising the business. The company has

experienced exponential growth, guided by a mission of “making clients prosperous and globally competitive”.

Lindy is a dynamic, ‘bicultural’ business facilitator blending the best from the East and the West, with a natural ability to connect people from diverse backgrounds.

Roberto Bergami, Senior Lecturer, School of Economics and Finance, Victoria University, Melbourne

Roberto has over twenty years experience in the manufacturing industry, primarily within the pharmaceutical sector. He has held a number of roles in finance, sales, marketing, customer service and logistics, all with an international focus. Roberto's teaching spans over 20 years with experience in Higher Education, TAFE and private education providers. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance. Roberto's main areas of research interests in international trade focus on government regulations, delivery terms (Incoterms), international payment terms and market entry barriers. He has published a textbook on International Trade Practices and a number of articles in industry and academic journals.

Nicholas Tzoras, Procurement Manager MRO & Engineering, Foster’s Group, Melbourne, Australia

Nicholas has more than ten years experience in procurement and supply chain management in the aerospace industry, international transport and FMCG. He is currently the Procurement Manager MRO and Engineering at Fosters Group. His portolio of responsibilities include the management of supplier relationships on a global basis, vendor evaluation and selection, tenders, supply chain optimisation, supplier KPI and the development of procurement strategies. For the past five years Nicholas has been lecturoing on a part-time basis in logistics and supply chain management at Victoria University.

Chris Baxter, Principal, Baxter IP

Chris Baxter is the Principal of Baxter IP, Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys, is a Fellow of The Institute of Patent & Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA) and a Member of the Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA).

Chris has extensive experience in international intellectual property law and he regularly attends overseas conferences in order to stay abreast of developments in each country, including the:

•American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)

•International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property (AIPPI)

•Asian Patent Attorneys Association (APAA)

•International Trademark Association (INTA)

"The intricacies of patent law in each country evolve month-to-month, requiring continuous improvment of drafting techniques and strategies... patent attorneys can set the stage for successful international prosecution even at the earliest stages of preparing provisional patent applications for Australian clients."

Before starting Baxter IP, Chris was an in-house patent attorney at ResMed, one of Australia's largest medical devices manufacturers, where he regularly drafted and prosecuted patent applications in the US, Europe, China, India, Australia & New Zealand. Chris has also worked at two large Australian patent and trade mark attorney firms.

Chris has worked on patents across a spectrum of technologies and specialises in Electrical Engineering, Information Communication & Technology,Software, Mechanical & Mining Engineering, Medical Devices and Business Methods.

Chris has a Masters Degree in Industrial Property from the University of Technology, Sydney and received first class honours and the thesis prize in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Sydney.