Official Event Advisory Panel
Quest Events would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the official event advisory panel who contributed their valuable time and expertise to ensure the agenda for this event is timely and relevant for all stakeholders working in procurement and supply chain.
Coretta Bessi
Former Chief Procurement Officer
nbn Australia
Coretta Bessi is Former Chief Procurement Officer at nbn – the government business enterprise set up to design, build and operate the national broadband network across Australia. nbn was founded in 2009 so is six years young with a current annual expenditure of approximately $5 billion. Procurement has an enormous ability to impact the quality, speed and cost of the broadband rollout across Australia. Coretta has recently completed a transformation of the function with an internal business partner focus supported by strategic category management and supplier relationship management.
Prior to this role, Coretta held roles of CPO, Head of Shared Services, Procurement Manager & HR Consultant at BlueScope and BHP Billiton across mining, manufacturing and building products distribution businesses. Responsible for up to medium to large teams across multiple locations, Coretta has primarily been employed or promoted into roles requiring change and transformation.
With a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in management and law and a Masters of Business Administration majoring in Strategic Supply Chain Management, Coretta has gained a real passion for the education sector and has been lecturing for the last eleven years in Procurement Management for Masters students.
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.
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
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.
Deanne Hawkswood
Chief Procurement Officer
Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads