2014 Australian CFO Forum
 
Featured speaker - Dr David Drake, Center for Narrative Coaching & Leadership
Speakers
Ramy Aziz
Chief Financial Officer
Australian Securities Exchange

Ramy was appointed Chief Financial Officer in July 2010. He was previously the Group Financial Controller since the time of the ASX/SFE merger, and at SFE Corporation Limited since April 2000. He is responsible for Finance, Investor Relations and Facilities for the ASX Group. Prior roles include Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Austrapay Limited, a company providing electronic and paper based payment services; and senior finance positions within The Chase Manhattan Bank, now JP Morgan.

 
Anthony Stewart
Chief Financial Officer Asia Pacific/South America
Beam Global

Tony Stewart joined Beam as Chief Financial Officer – Asia Pacific South America in 2010. Over this time the company has experienced a period of tremendous change including an IPO in late 2011 and most recently the announced takeover by Suntory. Tony has almost 30 years of global finance experience in both operational and corporate contexts. He started his career as an external auditor with Arthur Andersen which included 3 years in the US. He then joined the global drinks group Pernod Ricard where he spent 6 years working in a number of senior finance roles in Australia, Asia and Europe before returning home to Australia where he was Chief Financial Officer & Company Secretary for a large privately held packaging business. Tony holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Adelaide University, is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
 
Dr David Drake
Founder
Center for Narrative Coaching & Leadership

David has 20 years’ experience helping over sixty organisations design and run innovative change projects using peer coaching to engage people in addressing strategic and cultural issues. Based in San Francisco, he’s taught narrative coaching and leadership skills to leaders, managers and professionals in Australasia, North America and Europe, with clients including BHP Billiton, Nike, Insurance Australia Group and Westpac. David is Associate Editor of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice; author of 40 publications; editor of The Philosophy and Practice of Coaching (2008); and is presently working on a new book, Coaching and Organizational Culture: A Narrative Perspective.

 
Christina Selby
Chief Financial Officer
GE Capital Australia & New Zealand

Christina joined GE Capital in 1997 with the Financial Management Program. She then spent five and a half years on the Corporate Audit Staff focused on the financial services businesses, and was an Executive Audit Manager. After CAS, Christina was promoted to the Financial Planning & Analysis Manger for Vendor Finance, and then held CFO roles in Commercial Finance Mexico & Latin America, based in Mexico City, and GE Fleet Services based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Christina was the Chief Audit Executive for GE Capital before being appointed to her current role in March 2013 as the Chief Financial Officer for GE Capital Australia & New Zealand. Christina holds Bachelor's Degree in Finance and International Business from Pennsylvania State University.

 
Grant Logan
Chief Commercial Officer and Group Chief Financial Officer
Hills

Grant Logan joined Hills as Chief Financial Officer in 2012. He brings to the company a 30-year track record in financial strategy, administration and management spanning a wide range of industries including electronics, consumer goods, retail, pharmaceutical, agribusiness, manufacturing and construction. As CFO, Grant Logan works in partnership with the Chief Executive Officer, board and executive team to develop and implement the company strategy. Over the past 30 years, Grant Logan has held direct accountability for the audit, treasury, financial, legal, secretariat, corporate communications and IT functions, all of which have fulfilled a vital role in improving the financial and operational performance of various organisations.

 
Ted Pretty
Group Managing Director and Chief Executive
Hills

Ted Pretty is Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ASX listed Hills Limited, bringing to the company significant experience, particularly in telecommunications and information technology innovation and product development. He is the Chairman of NEXTDC Limited and Australian and New Zealand Advisory Chairman of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam, part of the Indian-headquartered $14bn diversified Mahindra Group. He spent two years in the Middle East during his tenure at Gulf Finance House as its Group CEO. Prior to his time at Gulf Finance, Ted was Chairman of Fujitsu Australia Limited, Chairman of then-ASX-listed RP Data Limited, an Executive Director at Macquarie Capital Advisers and a member of the Visy Industries Advisory Board. Prior to those roles, he was a senior executive at Telstra, in a number of Group Managing Director positions, including Technology Innovation and Product. Ted holds a Bachelors Degree in Arts (Economics) and First Class Honours Degree in Law.

 
Sara Watts
Chief Financial Officer
IBM Australia & New Zealand

Sara Watts is the Chief Financial Officer for IBM Australia &New Zealand, a role she has held since April 2008. Sara’s corporate experience includes business process improvement, finance process transformation, and internal audit. In addition, she is Executive Sponsor for Corporate Responsibility for IBM in Australia and New Zealand, a role which complements the governance and ethics components of her CFO responsibilities. Sara is a board member of Vision Australia, the Chair of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and Chairs the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office audit committee. Sara holds a Bachelor of Science and MBA, and is both an FCPA and GAICD.

 
Emmi Theodoris
Graduate Accountant
Janssen

Emmi Theodoridis is a 21 years old finance graduate who has recently completed her Bachelor degree in Accounting and Human Resources, graduating from the Bachelor of Accounting Co-Op Scholarship program at UTS. While on the program Emmi undertook two 6-month internships, with Ernst & Young and Coca Cola Amatil, where she was employed part-time until the completion of her degree. Currently Emmi is a finance graduate at pharmaceutical company Janssem. Emmi is an avid entrepreneur establishing 5 small businesses since the age of 15, currently she runs an online cake decorating business The Red Ribbon.

 
Tjeerd Pieter Anema
Finance Director, Downstream
Shell Australia

Tjeerd Pieter Anema joined Shell Australia in July 2011 as the Finance Director, Downstream. Prior to his appointment in Australia, Tjeerd Pieter was the Finance Manager of Shell's global LPG business. Since joining Shell in 1993, Tjeerd Pieter has held a wide variety of both corporate and commercial finance management roles in The Netherlands, Singapore, the UK and South Africa. In these roles, he had regional or global accountability for finance in a number of Shell's Downstream businesses.

 
Patrick Chovanec
Chief Strategist
Silvercrest Asset Management, former Associate Professor of Economics, Tsinghua University

Patrick Chovanec is Managing Director and Chief Strategist at New York-based Silvercrest Asset Management, which oversees $14 billion in investments on behalf of wealth families and selected institutions. Prior to joining Silvercrest in 2013, he was Associate Professor at Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management in Beijing. His insights into the global economy have been widely featured by both Chinese and international media including. Patrick has worked for several private equity funds focused on China, and advised numerous investment funds, Fortune 500 corporations, and governments. Previously, he served as director of Institutional Investor’s Asia Pacific Institute, based in Hong Kong, and its Global Fixed Income Institute, based in London. Prior to that he worked in Washington DC, as an aide to political strategist William Kristol and to House Speaker John Boehner. Patrick holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. Patrick is Adjunct Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where he teaches a course in US-China negotiations. Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Chovanec Twitter: https://twitter.com/prchovanec 

 
David Hughson
Chief Financial Officer
TNT Express

David is the CFO of TNT Express Australia and has held several senior positions in the supply chain and logistics industry over the last decade. He started his career with Ernst & Young and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Johannesburg. After completing his articles he chose to stay on with the firm, moving into the Corporate Finance division. He gained experience across a broad range of industries in this time, but specialised in assisting multi-national firms re-entering post-apartheid South Africa. David then went on to work in structured finance for a short time and then moved on to broaden his experience in the IT industry.

 
Lucy Cavallaro
Third year accounting student
University of Technology, Sydney

Lucy Cavallaro is a third year student undertaking the Bachelor of Accounting Co-op Scholarship program at UTS. Her academic achievements have been recognised through the UTS Dean’s Merit List in 2013, in acknowledgement of the top 2% of UTS Business School students. As part of the BAcc program, Lucy undertook her first internship at Pricewaterhouse Coopers in 2012 and a second internship at Coca-Cola Amatil, which has exposed her to the diverse facets of the accounting and business world.

 
Simon Megalos
Second year accounting student
University of Technology, Sydney

Simon was born and raised in Newcastle and is currently studying the Bachelor of Accounting Cooperative scholarship program at UTS. He comes from a family of engineers, and is the first to move away from engineering in favour of accounting and finance. Simon recently completed a six-month internship with beverage company Lion.

 
Philippe Coullomb
Founder
wheretofromhere?

Philippe Coullomb has spent 14 years in consulting, the first five of which were focused on strategic alignment between the business and IT, in Europe, Middle East and Asia. Since 2003, He focused on integrating design thinking and systemic approaches into traditional consulting models. He led the Paris practice until 2010 when I took responsibility for the venture in Australia and New Zealand before co-founding wheretofromhere? in 2013. Over the years, he worked for dozens of global clients, with C-level face offs, on some of their most complex issues.