Widely accepted as the region’s most influential procurement conference, the 12th Annual PASA Premier Confex will take place live at the Flemington Racecourse Conference Centre in Melbourne on 16-17 October.
The two-day program features some of the country’s brightest procurement minds, covering a range of topics that are relevant to issues affecting procurement today, including navigating economic and geopolitical challenges, ESG, sustainability and GenAI.
Meet your day two speakers below!
Natalie Mooney, Procurement Manager, Copper South Australia, BHP
Natalie moved to Australia in late 2006 to join BHP as a Supply Graduate at Olympic Dam. She has worked in procurement for 18 years, working predominantly in mining & resources and energy sectors.
Natalie is currently the Manager of Procurement for BHP’s newly formed Copper South Australia Asset, which comprises its Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carrapateena mine sites.
Natalie forms part of the Copper SA Leadership Team and is focused on driving commercial value and delivery at the asset. She is passionate about elevating the influence of procurement in organisations and building strong supplier and stakeholder relationships. Having been a graduate herself, Natalie also continues to share her knowledge of the business with the next generation of BHP leaders through her position as the Commercial Graduate Discipline Champion for Australia.
Darren O’Connor, Head of Supply Chain, Metro Trains
Darren is the Head of Supply Chain of Metro Trains Melbourne’s Infrastructure Division. Tasked with managing approximately $700M in spend across 350 vendors, Darren’s career has seen him working across the healthcare, logistics and banking sectors within Australia and internationally.
In recent times, he has developed Pandemic Preparedness Plans (from the swine flu era), through to responding to PPE supply crises in the recent COVID pandemic. Central to this activity was the drive to securing supply chains and minimising risk.
Darren is an experienced supply side leader with expertise in technical and commercial operations, including the analysis of organisational resources, evaluation of operating environments and opportunity development.
He has been described as a ‘results driven professional’ with extensive planning, supply chain, stakeholder engagement and operational experience. Also an internationally experienced leader recognised for driving structured transformational change, within highly regulated environments. Darren can draw upon insights gained from a wide range of experiences from various industries to drive P&L performance through revenue growth and tight cost control. His background includes senior roles at Monash Health and Australia Post.
Tom Zielinski, Senior Director – Consulting, ANZ, GEP
Tom is currently a Senior Director for Strategy at GEP and is a management consulting and services executive with a focus on supply chain & procurement management and digital transformation.
His expertise ranges from supply chain transformation and strategy development through to structural reform and leverage of advanced technologies to enable significant cost and service improvements.
Tom, in his previous experience, has served varied industries including process and discrete manufacturing, natural resources, telecommunications, retail & distribution, consumer products, financial services and agricultural sectors.
Karen Lay-Brew, Strategic Advisor to the ATO on eInvoicing – part of Australia’s Digital Business Plan
Karen is the Strategic Advisor to the Australian Government on eInvoicing, which is part of Australia’s Digital Business Plan. She has been a board member on government boards and is currently serving on the boards of Energy Queensland and Multicap.
Prior to taking up the advisory role with eInvoicing, Karen had been involved in the initiative for a number of years representing the software industry. Her previous global experience in multinational corporations as Chief Information Officer and Chief Productivity Officer has been highly relevant to an economy-wide change effort in encouraging small and large businesses to adopt eInvoicing.
Raza Hamid, Head of Procurement, Boral – Australia & New Zealand
Raza is Head of Procurement at Boral Limited. Boral is the largest vertically integrated construction materials company in Australia. At Boral, Raza is responsible for a broad procurement agenda involving commercial capability build, technology transformation and delivery of financial and ESG objectives. Prior to Boral, Raza led global procurement functions at Fonterra, Cleanaway, Caltex and United Group in Australasia since 2003.
Raza’s experience spans multiple primary industries like construction and mining, dairy and FMCG, waste and environment management and petrochemicals across Australasia, Middle East, Southeast Asia, China and North America. This has allowed him to be actively involved at regional, national and international levels in the promotion of social and sustainable procurement practices across different industries, cultures and jurisdictions.
Jean-Michel Legrand, Head of Procurement, Aircraft Equipment & Mtce Services, Qantas
Jean-Michel (BTech, MCIPS) serves as the Head of Group Procurement for Aircraft Equipment and Maintenance Service at Qantas. With over four decades of experience across automotive, diamond manufacturing, telecommunications and aviation sectors, Jean-Michel, also known as Mike to colleagues, is recognised for his strategic leadership and team management capabilities.
Leading a team of 14 procurement professionals specialising in source-to-contract and supplier relationship management (SRM), Jean-Michel fosters a culture of trust and alignment towards common goals. Recently, he spearheaded an innovative solution to enhance cost efficiency by addressing monopolistic practices in a key category.
Jean-Michel’s contributions extend globally, including his instrumental role in establishing a local electronic manufacturing industry in South Africa for automotive electronic control units. His expertise lies in strategic influence and leveraging opportunities to deliver impactful outcomes.
Michael Odom, Strategic Advisory Services Director, Coupa
Michael is a seasoned procurement technology professional with over 15 years of experience. Throughout his career, he has honed his expertise in various aspects of digital procurement transformation, including platform deployments, post-deployment platform optimisation, product management and pre-sale activities.
Michael has a wealth of experience in managing complex procurement technology projects, working with clients across industries (both within ANZ and around the globe) to help them achieve their procurement goals. He is passionate about leveraging technology to drive efficiencies, reduce costs and improve the overall procurement experience.
When combined with his ability to articulate complex technology concepts in a simple and concise manner, this passion for procurement makes for a “can’t miss” session. Michael is committed to staying up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in procurement & finance technology and is always looking for new and innovative ways to help his clients succeed.
Plus many more!
