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Chris Bailey
Sprout AgribusinessChris joined Sprout Ag 5 years ago after a significant career in financial services spanning over a decade with ASX top 15 companies. He has gained great experience in dealing with family businesses of all sizes from small start-up operations to some of Australia’s largest family businesses. Chris has a passion for working with growing family agribusinesses. He gains satisfaction from helping these businesses corporatise their financial management and relationship with lenders. After many years in financial services Chris has strong relationships with key players within the sector and enjoys leveraging these relationships to create great long term outcomes for both the client and the bank.
Bill Bartlett
Consultant at Kelly Partners Wollongong
Peter Bobbin
Principal at Coleman Greig LawyersLLB, Bcom, MTax, CTA, TEP
Peter Bobbin’s first professional experience was as an auditor in Australia and the UK after which he became a taxation accountant. That is when he learned of a love for taxation law and went on to become a part-time masters lecturer at Western Sydney University.
A lawyer since 1988, Peter is a frequent commentator on the law and today is a Principal at Coleman Greig, Lawyers in Sydney.
Peter is a Notary Public and a member of the FPA, AFA, TIA and STEP where he is currently the Chair of STEP Australia.
Chris Boswell
CEO of Strategic GroupChris spent 17 years as a Project Manager at BHP before founding Strategic Group in 1989. He has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and a Masters of Computer Engineering from the University of Newcastle.
Chris enjoys meeting small business owners and discussing how they can leverage IT to improve and grow their businesses.
Outside of work Chris’s passions include; his family, cars, wine and Rotary.
Chris is the past Assistant Governor and President of the Newcastle Rotary Club and has been awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship.
Fraser Brown
Partner at C&W Financial ServicesFraser started with C & W in the Moree office in 2013. Prior to that Fraser spent 15 years living in Brisbane before deciding on a ‘tree change’ and moving to Moree.
Fraser completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Queensland before starting a Graduate Accounting program at Grant Thornton in Brisbane and worked for UBS in Wealth Management and as a Commercial Analyst in Mining and Gas.
Fraser is a Chartered Accountant, holds a Graduate Certificate in Mining Engineering, and has completed Level 1 of the CFS (Chartered Financial Analyst) program. Fraser works predominately with farming clients and agribusinesses. Fraser has significant experience in helping clients analyse and improve their business, budgeting and performance reviews, working with banks to refinance and restructure, and working with the RAA and RIC regarding drought loans and subsidies.
Nathalie Cael
Partnerships Manager at TOA Global
David Charge
Managing Partner – Central NSW at Sprout AgribusinessDavid’s extensive leadership experience across the financial services industry has seen him involved in a wide cross section of Australian farming operations including some of Australia’s largest farming family’s and Corporate Agribusiness clients. David’s experience spans a broad range of agribusiness industries across Australia, representing all parts of the supply chain. He is an agribusiness operator in his own right and is dedicated to assisting the industry prosper and evolve.
Troy Constance
CEO of Sprout AgribusinessTroy Constance (B.Man, MBA) was appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer in March 2016 to oversee the Australian operations of Sprout Agribusiness. Troy has extensive experience in large top 15 ASX financial services companies, where he has held senior leadership positions, interacting at the board and CEO level. He has led teams of over 500 people, been responsible for net profit contributions of $100 million and has experience in complicated transformational change programs. Troy also has extensive experience in corporate agribusiness investment. He has overseen the distribution network for over 15,000 family owned SME and agribusiness clients with more than $12 billion in assets.
Craig Croker
Head of Relationship Management at Rabobank Australia Limited
Rebecca De Unamuno
Actor, Improvisor, Radio Host, Comedian, MC & PresenterRebecca De Unamuno is an internationally recognised and multi-awarded improviser, a hilarious stand-up comedian, successful radio host, actor, and in demand voice-over artist.
Paul Dove
Director of Inside Sales, ANZ at TOA Global
Michael Graham
Partner at Paisley Robertson
Meg Granger
Director of Dynamic Taxation and Training ServicesMeg joined Dynamic Taxation in 2009 as a trainee accountant and progressed to becoming partner of the firm in 2019, completing a university degree, CPA program and CPA Public Practice program along the way. Meg is also a Registered Tax Agent and Current Director of the Central Coast Academy of Sport, and the president of a Country Practice Accountant’s group.
Lisa Hennessey
Business Manager at Teach it ForwardLisa has been the Business Manager for Teach it Forward and Trent’s right hand since 2010. With over 20 years experience in various administration areas including office and team management, customer service, event management, personal assistance and business systemisation.
Her key focus is to ensure that all logistical and administrative support is provided to the Teach it Forward team, whilst ensuring our clients receive the same high standard and consistent experience each and every time we interact with them. This is all possible due to the vast number of systems she has written and rolled out within the business over the last 6 years.
As well as her Business Manager role, Lisa has been helping business owners systemise so they can step out of the daily operations of the business and work on growing the business which allows their team do what they do best.
Lisa is also a certified SYSTEMologist™️ which means her sole focus now is about helping business owners systemise in an easy and simple way through the 12 week ‘Done For You’ Program, which simply means, Lisa does all the hard work of documenting your firms systems, with just a little bit of help from the business owner and of course their amazing team!
Robyn Jacobson
Senior Advocate at The Tax InstituteCTA FCA FCPA Registered Tax Agent
Robyn is the Senior Advocate at The Tax Institute. She has nearly three decades in the profession, including a public practice background that preceded her various training roles over 23 years. Robyn continues to be a regular conference and webinar presenter and is an avid advocate, social media commentator, columnist, blogger and podcaster. She is also regularly quoted in the media.
Robyn is a Chartered Tax Adviser of The Tax Institute, a Fellow of both CA ANZ and CPA Australia, and a Registered Tax Agent. She regularly consults with the Treasury, ATO and professional bodies including as a member of the ATO’s Tax Practitioner Stewardship Group and various other working groups.
Robyn has been recognised as a Thought Leader for the third consecutive year as Winner of this category at the Women In Finance Awards in 2019 and 2021, and at the Australian Accounting Awards in 2020. Robyn was the Winner of the Accountants Daily Excellence Award in 2020 and was named in the global Top 50 Women in Accounting 2019.
Cheryl Kalisch Gordon
Senior Commodities Analyst, RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness at Rabobank Australia LimitedAs part of the Rabobank Global Grains & Oilseeds Strategy team, Cheryl is responsible for forecasting key grains and oilseeds pricing and the Australian crop and trade outlook and analysing global market trends. Cheryl also engages with rural and corporate clients on strategic issues, and is the lead author of Rabobank reports on the Australian Feed grain Squeeze, the Black Sea Region Grains Outlook, Opportunities from De-bulking, the impact of Trade Wars on the grains sector and Getting Granular with Plant-Based Meat Alternatives.
Prior to joining RaboResearch in early 2017, Cheryl spent four years as the Trade and Economics Manager at the grain farmer representative organisation, GrainGrowers. In this role Cheryl was responsible for the economic evaluation of policy and negotiation of grains outcomes in the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Indonesia-Australian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and at the WTO, on behalf of Australian grain farmers.
Cheryl has extensive experience in the grain industry and the broader Australian agriculture sector, including working as a trading assistant, consultant and lecturer at the University of Sydney. Cheryl has a PhD in Economics and grew up on a cropping farm in New South Wales
Kath Koschel
Founder of Kindness FactoryKath Koschel knows how to take on a challenge and win, having learnt to walk again several times, physically and mentally. She also knows how to deliver acts of kindness. As the founder of the Kindness Factory, the acts of kindness she contributes to the world each day are dramatically changing the way we engage in schools, business, the community and within ourselves.
An elite sports person, survivor, founder, and powerful keynote speaker, Kath draws on her experiences to inspire audiences to challenge the way they see the world. By taking them on an emotional roller coaster, she leaves them in awe of her incredible courage and determination. And she encourages them to do the same for themselves and others – through small acts of Kindness.
Mark Macguire
Partner at Leadership & PerformancePartnersMark’s background working in high risk environments where effective leadership was essential to deliver operational outcomes makes him more than qualified to help others evolve into great leaders.
Mark’s first exposure to leadership was in the NSW Police, leading surveillance teams working in the complex area of covert police operations. As a Sergeant, he moved on to run larger uniformed teams at Local Area Commands for several years, and gained sought-after experience as a member of senior management teams. He has a successful history running small to large scale operations, liaising with corporate partners, managing people performance and developing training programs.
After leaving the NSW Police, Mark further embedded his leadership expertise as a Project Manager in the construction industry for UEA Pty Ltd leading small teams and contractors. Amongst the projects he managed and completed was the contracted Telstra relocations works on the Karuah to Buladelah by-pass.
These experiences led Mark to pursue training and helping others to grow and succeed. Mark established his own business, initially providing consultancy services in risk management, and was involved in conducting broad brush risk assessments for organisations such as Coolmore Stud and the Mater Hospital, Waratah. As demand for leadership support grew, the business developed and moved into the area of providing training and consultancy services. This has provided him with the opportunity to work with organisations such as Centennial Coal, Tomago Aluminium, Yancoal, Mastermyne, and Sika Australia.
Aron Robertson
Director - Business Development of Strategic Group- Client Engagement; Technological Revolution! Now the Evolution?
- Breakout Session 2: Choose a topic of interest
Aron has over 19 years’ experience taking complex technical products & services to market. The primary purpose of his role at Strategic Group is to identify his client’s business objectives, assess the capabilities of their current IT environment, then align the delivery of IT solutions and services to maximize the value they derive from those investments.
Rod Spicer
Associate Director - Claims and Underwriting of Accountancy InsuranceRod is a qualified Chartered Accountant with more than 30 years’ experience in the accounting profession. He has held various roles within Australia and abroad including senior management and Associate Director positions at an international accounting network.
Rod has worked at Accountancy Insurance since 2013, and is the Associate Director of Claims and Underwriting. In this role Rod is responsible for the operations of the Claims Department, policy wording development and the management of large and complex claims.
Rod can be contacted on rod@accountancyinsurance.com.au or by calling 1300 797 231.
Trent Taylor
CEO & Founder of Teach it ForwardTrent Taylor – CEO & Founder is a global award winning business growth and leadership trainer/coach whose 2 simple rules are; 1) Be curious, and 2) be congruent (practice what you preach).
He is a believer that the accounting industry has a REAL place and CRITICAL role to support business owners in the community grow themselves and their business.
Trent strongly believes it is not how big your top line or bottom line is in your firm, it is whether or not the business is providing for you and your family in the way you want it, that matters. What is the point of making huge dollars yet have no time with the people you love the most?
This is why the CONSISTENT approach he takes to working with clients is;
- Simplify the business structure and make it transparent (you cannot fix what you cannot see)
- Make the business sustainable, scalable and sellable (in that order) by upskilling your team into using the systems and processes needed to keep the standard of service you deliver clients at the highest level (so you don’t have to do everything
- Having the business owners learn to communicate and lead in a way that has your clients WANT TO WORK WITH YOU in more ways that just the tax side of your skill set
While different to a lot of coaches, the continual feedback Trent receives from his clients is 1) It makes sense 2) It actually works and 3) Why did I not do this earlier in my career. You will hear Trent say and think about this – “It is impossible to grow a business, you can only grow the leaders of a business to generate fiscal and cultural changes that make a difference!”
At Teach it Forward we teach and empower Accounting Business Owners in a very personal and individualised way, so you feel heard AND learn what YOU need, to make the changes to the business, so your family gets what it needs!"