Laura delivers a variety of research outputs for IGD’s RA service; using reporting, briefings and customized work which helps retailers and suppliers adapt and grow. Her primary focus is Australia and Asia. Prior to IGD she worked at Tesco.

Craig James is the Chief Economist, CommSec, interpreting ‘big picture’ economic and financial trends for customers, clients and staff. CommSec is known for innovative, ‘user friendly’ reports including State of the States, the CommSec iPhone Index and CommSec Home Size report. As well as providing presentations to staff and clients and commentaries on financial and economic trends, Craig appears regularly in the electronic and print media. Craig has worked in banking, finance and journalism for around 40 years and holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in Commerce (Economics).

Megan Treston has worked over two decades of working in FMCG research predominantly with NielsenIQ. Having worked alongside both suppliers and retailer to understand the market, opportunities for growth and development across the industry. Skilled in Consumer Behavior, Client Services, Customer Insight, Nielsen, and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). As a member of the APAC leadership team she brings a knowledge of both local and international trends when working with the industry.

Ben leads Jarden’s Australian research team and consumer sector coverage, developing independent and thought provoking insights to inform investor strategy.

Ben joined Jarden from UBS, where he was head of the consumer research team, and deputy head of research for Australia and New Zealand, leading the development and promotion of UBS’ alternative data offering across Australasia.

With more than 15 years’ experience in financial markets, Ben has a passion for using data, industry partnerships and his own research to develop game changing insights on companies and industries.

Since 2015 he has consistently ranked as Australia’s number one consumer analyst in multiple surveys across the retail and food & beverage sectors.

Prior to Pwc Linda was the Chie Logistics officer at Metcash in October 2013 to manage the national consolidation of DC operations across Liquor, Convenience and Grocery She was promoted to Chief Logistics Officer in February 2015, driving the strategies to align our supply chain ‘end to end’, to support our purpose of successful independents. For the 7 years prior to joining Metcash Linda worked in Logistics for Woolworths.

Linda has a background in manufacturing, ERP systems deployment and 3rd party logistics.

For the 7 years prior to joining Metcash Linda worked in Logistics for Woolworths.

David Gowans is a Kearney Operations Partner based in Melbourne and leads the firm’s Manufacturing Centre of Excellence within Asia Pacific.

David has spent 20 years both working in and advising the Food and Beverage industry within Australia and Asia. He is primarily focussed on driving operations excellence, from shop-floor process improvement to capital management, merger integration and supply chain strategy.

David has an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from the University of Melbourne

Kate has been with Kearney for 9 years and has worked with leading Australian consumer products and retail companies on wide ranging topics from supply chain strategy, network design, operating model and cost transformation. Prior to joining Kearney Kate worked with ExxonMobil and BHP in a number of commercial and operational roles.

Associate Professor Gary Sacks is Director of the Global Obesity Centre at Deakin University. Gary’s research focuses on policies for improving population nutrition. He has published more than 150 academic articles, and he has authored several international reports on preventive health, including the Lancet Commission on Obesity and a number reports for the World Health Organization on obesity prevention. He leads ongoing initiatives to benchmark the nutrition policies of Australian governments and food companies.

Anne is a partner at Baker McKenzie in Sydney. She is currently APAC Chair of the International Commercial and Trade Group and co-lead of the Firm's global supply chain offering.  In the past few years, Anne has been working with businesses in Australia and Asia reacting to and planning for increased supply chain regulation and compliance requirements, supply chain disruptions and implementing measures for their future supply chain needs and risk management. 

Robert is a highly experienced CEO with significant health industry management experience with the National Heart Foundation, Australian Medical Association and most recently as National CEO of St John Ambulance Australia. Robert is a qualified Certified Practising Accountant (CPA), born and bred in Canberra. Robert’s strong focus throughout his career has been to advance professional conduct and he is a passionate advocate for support and encouragement of professional life. As a long time member of his professional body CPA Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Robert is keen to protect and enhance the professional standing and recognition of dietitians in Australia.

Tom is a leading consumer analyst who joined Barrenjoey Capital Partners in July 2021 and has covered consumer stocks since 2008. He has deep relationships with investors, company management, suppliers and other industry participants.

Barry has extensive experience from both the grocery industry and the resource recovery industry, which is valuable given the high and increased priority on packaging and waste issues.

During his 25 years in the grocery industry Barry has worked for multinational corporations including Johnson and Johnson Pacific, Sanofi and Reckitt and Colman, in Customer Development and Trade Marketing management roles.  Barry’s experience also extends to the SME sector as the CEO of Madura Tea and as an AFGC Board Director representing the SME sector and Chair of the SME Forum.

More recently Barry moved to the resource recovery and recycling industry acting as the Contracts and Corporate Affairs Manager for Solo Resource Recovery and is presently a member of the Department of Environment and Energy Food Waste Steering Committee and the National Waste Policy Industry Reference Group.

Tanya Barden is the CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the leading national organisation representing Australia’s food and grocery manufacturing sector, and is an Independent Director of Foodbank Australia. Throughout her career Tanya has worked in government and the private sector on policy, economic, regulatory and sustainability issues that impact industry. Tanya also previously ran her own online organic grocery business.

Tanya holds Bachelor of Economics/ Bachelor of Arts degrees and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Cedric has over 15 years of experience working in multinational organisations in supply chain and operational roles. In his current role, he is responsible for overseeing all end to end Supply Chain activities and ensuring the best balance of cost, service and inventory and board member of JnJ Consumer Australia & New Zealand, a $ 400+ MM business.

David Francis is a member of the Qenos Leadership Team with accountability for polyethylene and traded products sales across Australia and New Zealand, management of the product technology portfolio and driving Qenos’ strategy for participating in the circular economy.

Prior to Qenos, he worked for Boral’s Building Products group in a range of General Management positions across Strategy, Manufacturing and Marketing. David Francis spent several years in the operations management practice of management consultancy Booz-Allen and Hamilton (now Strategy&) and also as CEO of his own packaging manufacturing business. David Francis has an Engineering Degree from RMIT and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School.

Graduating from De Montfort University, Krystal worked within Massive Health and Food industry in Europe for 6 years. In early 2021, Krystal joined REACH24H Consulting Group, working as Senior Food Regulatory Compliance Consultant at REACH24H and ChemLinked.com. Krystal is specialises in food and health, food nutrition, import and export trade, as well as cross-border e-commerce. Her expertise and professional advice has helped many international enterprises such as A2 milk, the Hut Group, Estee Lauder, and COMVITA remove their entry barriers to China.

Margaret is Head of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Nestlé Oceania, where she has responsibility for communications and public affairs across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and the Pacific and for managing the issues shaping Nestlé’s operating environment.

She has over 20 years specialist communication and issue management experience in the healthcare, food and agribusiness sectors, working in both consulting and in-house roles in Australia and New Zealand. Her background includes consulting to a range of companies in agriculture, food and health as well as holding senior roles in Novartis, Syngenta and Schering-Plough.

Professor Mark Howden is Director of the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at The Australian National University.

He is also an Honorary Professor at Melbourne University, a Vice Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is the Chair of the ACT Climate Change Council. He was on the US Federal Advisory Committee for the 3rd National Climate Assessment, was a member of the Australian National Climate Science Advisory Committee and contributes to several major national and international science and policy advisory bodies.

Mark has worked on climate variability, climate change, innovation and adoption issues for over 30 years in partnership with many industry, community and policy groups via both research and science-policy roles. Issues he has addressed include agriculture and food security, the natural resource base, ecosystems and biodiversity, energy, water and urban systems.

Mark has over 420 publications of different types. He helped develop both the national and international greenhouse gas inventories that are a fundamental part of the Paris Agreement and has assessed sustainable ways to reduce emissions. He has been a major contributor to the IPCC since 1991, with roles in the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and now Sixth Assessment Reports, sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with other IPCC participants and Al Gore.

Mark’s key strength lies in building collaborative relationships between suppliers and retailers, which is achieved through world-class category strategy, joint business planning, and outstanding shopper marketing and in-store activation solutions.

Mark has held numerous Category Development leadership roles as well as senior Sales roles both in Australia and the UK. Mark is very outcome orientated and is always thinking about how the work can take a client towards the goals identified.

With more than Thirty years of experience in Executive Management positions across the Retail, B2B Wholesale and FMCG Manufacturing sectors, Michael has worked extensively in Category Management, Retail operations, Supply chain and Sales management developing and executing consumer focused strategic plans. Michael currently holds the position of Retail Account Director with GS1 Australia, working with retailers and brand owners supporting them to deliver Supply chain and Master Data strategies with alignment to the evolving requirements of Automated supply chains.

An inclusive and execution focused leader with a track record of success in senior strategic, commercial and customer roles. With over 20 years’ experience in blue chip FMCG and pharmaceutical organisations, is able to leverage a broad base of functional and international experience in the UK, Asia and Australia to lead operations in achieving accelerated revenue and profit growth.

Linda Tapsell is an Emeritus Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Wollongong. She has an extensive track record in research on the effects of food consumption on health, including the implications for dietary advice, health policy and food standards regulation. 

Richard Smith FAIP is currently the Director Safety, Quality and Sustainability for Amcor Flexibles Australia and New Zealand. He has extensive knowledge in innovation and development of flexible plastic packaging and rigid plastic packaging and has authored a number of patents in both rigid and flexible packaging formats. Richard also has expansive knowledge of polymers, analytical assessment methods for polymers and packaging, regulatory requirements for packaging including product safety. In addition, he has extensive experience in development of bio-based materials, compostable flexible packaging and the associated environmental standards that pertain to packaging.  He was also part of the working group that developed the Home Compostability standards with Standards Australia (AS5810).

Richard has also worked with the AIP for many years in our AIP Education team and provides unique knowledge in flexibles, rigids, biodegradable and compostable packaging and also lifecycle assessment.  He was recognised by the industry and his peers for his extensive knowledge in 2013 with a Fellowship to the AIP.  He is also one of the Trainers in the AIP Education Team and a Lecturer in the AIP-led Master of Food & Packaging Innovation Degree at the University of Melbourne.

Shelley heads up the consultancy business in South APAC. 
She joined Mintel in 2017 after a 10-year career in the FMCG brand management & innovation roles in Australia, New Zealand and EMEA. At Mintel Shelley has worked as a consultant across multiple clients, industry sectors and markets, today she plays an active role with clients, advising on innovation strategy, opportunity mapping and data-driven insight techniques.

Suzanne Toumbourou is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR).
Suzanne is an organisation leader with deep experience in public affairs, executive management, stakeholder relations, governance strategy of not-for-profits, with a strong reputation as a sustainability subject matter expert.

Prior to ACOR, Suzanne was the longstanding Executive Director of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, where she delivered impactful policy outcomes for building sustainability, including advancing the energy performance provisions in Australia’s Building Code and informing the priorities of the COAG Energy Council’s Trajectory for Low Energy Buildings.

​Suzanne has broad experience encompassing Federal and State Governments, industry and non-profit organisations. She is passionate about leading positive change for people, industry and the environment.