Speaker Details

Dr Roderick Deane

Roderick Deane has had an extensive career in business as Chairman and as a Director of a number of major New Zealand and Australian companies and earlier in the public sector and central banking. He has also had a considerable involvement with charitable and cultural organizations. He is currently Chairman of Fletcher Building Limited and the New Zealand Seed Fund. Dr Deane is a Director of the Australian company Woolworths Limited.

He is also Patron and a Life Member of NZ's largest voluntary welfare charitable organization, IHC Inc., having previously been President and a Member of the Board of Governance and is currently Chairman of the IHC Foundation.

Until June 2006, when he retired from each of these positions, Dr Deane was Chairman of Telecom Corporation of NZ Limited, ANZ National Bank Limited, Te Papa Tongarewa (the Museum of New Zealand), and the City Gallery Wellington Foundation. He was also a Director of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited for 12 years until June 2006 and until March 2007 a Member of the Board of Trustees of MOTU (Economic and Public Policy Research).

In the past Dr Deane has been involved in the executive branch of Government, as Chairman of the State Services Commission, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (and previously Chief Economist of the Bank), and an Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. He was Chief Executive of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand Limited from 1987 to October 1992 and then until 1999, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Telecom Corporation of NZ Limited.

He has also been Professor of Economics and Management at Victoria University of Wellington, a Director of TransAlta Corporation Limited in Canada, Chairman of the Mayoral Business Advisory Group in Wellington, and a member of the Prime Minister's Enterprise Council.

Dr Deane has received various awards including an Honorary Doctorate by Victoria University of Wellington; is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, the NZ Society of Accountants and the NZ Institute of Management; an inaugural Distinguished Fellow of the NZ Association of Economists and a Distinguished Fellow of the Australian Centre for Independent Studies; has been Executive of the Year, Executive of the Decade, and Chairman of the Year in the NZ Management Top 200 Awards; and was the inaugural Economist of the Year in the NZIER Awards.

Alan Gourdie, Chief Executive, Telecom Retail

Alan returned home to New Zealand to join Telecom in August 2008, he will be responsible for driving the Retail Division's commitment to improving the experience of Telecom consumer and business customers.

Alan has a passion for brands. After starting his career as a research and development chemist at Reckitt and Colman, Alan moved into brand management. He took on a senior marketing role at DB Group, eventually becoming the General Manager Marketing for the Brewing business.

Since then he has worked as Global Marketing Manager for Heineken in Amsterdam and for Asia Pacific Breweries leading the operations in Singapore. Immediately prior to joining Telecom Alan was in London as Managing Director of APB's UK and European operations.

Alan completed a Bachelor's degree in Science in 1986 and a Master's Degree with First Class Honours in Chemistry from the University of Auckland, New Zealand

Australian Centre for Retail Studies - Monash University, Melbourne

The morning sessions of the conference will be anchored by the ACRS team.

The Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) provides research driven education and knowledge leadership to those involved in the retail sector, or wishing to learn more about retail, through broad based research and information generation and reporting, leadership and management education program development and delivery, Membership and the promotion of retailing as a career.

As a commercial Centre within the Department of Marketing at Monash University's Faculty of Business and Economics, the ACRS bridges the academic and the commercial retail worlds, enabling clients to access resources and knowledge that may not otherwise be available to them.

The Centre engages in activity throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia delivering customised solutions to clients in retail and related industries through:

• Management Development Programs
• In-company Presentations, Conferences and Seminars 
• Retail Research, Reports and Publications
• Membership

For more information visit their website here.

Andrew Cavanagh, Ross McDonald, Roy Tavenor and Steve Ogden-Barnes

Speakers Include

Steve Ogden-Barnes, Program Director, ACRS

Steve joined ACRS in 2002 from the UK, where he lectured in retail, business, management and corporate strategy in the higher education sector. Steve's commercial experience spans 10 years and includes store development, retail management, staff training and management education and HR project work in the UK furniture market. He has particular interests in performance management and measurement, developing employee participation, entrepreneurship and innovation in the retail sector. In his role of Program Director / Facilitator at ACRS, Steve has specific responsibility for the development and delivery of the ACRS Executive Certificate, public retail management programs and the Global Retail Insights seminar series.

Andrew Cavanagh, Program Director, ACRS

Andrew came to the ACRS after 20 years working for Coles Myer Ltd. After an initial period as a trainee in stores Andrew moved into the Buying Office for Furniture as a National Buyer for Outdoor and Occasional Furniture. He then moved to Miss Shop as a Merchandiser. This was followed by time spent liasing between Buying and IT on the development of systems to support the buying function. After 5 years he moved back to MGB as a merchandiser in Womenswear and then into the Organisational Development area. Andrew's responsibilities at the ACRS include coordinating, designing and facilitating the Retail Buying and Finance Programs for both the in-company and public streams.

Roy Tavenor, Managing Principal, RED DESIGN GROUP

Roy began his marketing career at Unilever in FMCG sales and brand management. He joined the Edgars Stores group in 1979 inspired by the idea that marketing principles are universal and hence they would apply to retailing equally well. After moving through the Edgars’ ranks in promotions and direct marketing, Roy was appointed as Marketing Director of one theGroup’s retail chains, Sales House.

In 1994 when he his family moved to Melbourne, Roy joined Myer Grace Bros as the Group General Manager - Marketing. After a spell at The Retail Partnership, a strategic retail consultancy, and a move into retail design, Roy became one of fourfounding partners in 2002, of the RED Design Group, now one of Australia’s leading retail design agencies.

Roy‘s role is Managing Principal of RED and he works at strategic level with all their clients to bring a marketing and branding focus to retail store design. He has worked with a wide range of RED’s Australian clients including Myer, Harris Scarfe, Coles, Macro Wholefoods, Terry White Chemists, Rogerseller, Oroton, Mimco, Centrelink, ALH Hotels, KFC, Toyota, TAB, Harvey World Travel and Travelscene –as well as Sundan in China and Matahari in Indonesia.

Ross McDonald, Industry Marketing Manager, Google Australia

Ross McDonald is the Industry Marketing Manager for Retail and Consumer Goods for Google Australia & New Zealand. Ross McDonald has a deep understanding of shopper behaviour and retailer business models.

In the past 15 years Ross has worked for Mountain Designs, Guinness, Goodman Fielder and Nestle in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan and throughout South East Asia. A specialist in retail strategy, channel and category development, Ross has a B.Commerce (UWA) and an MBA (AGSM & Kellogg).

Ross also loves travel and fine food, and if he's not in Sydney he may be on Chapel St in Melbourne, Orchard Rd in Singapore, Regent Street in London or Fifth Avenue in New York.