Experience

Adtopia

• Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

• Owner/Principal

  • Apr 2013 - Present

  Adtopia (www.adtopia.com.au) is a specialist consulting business providing operational advice for advertising, design and marketing services businesses. The aim is to create ”Advertising Utopia” by providing a company with the best operational workflow within which to produce and deliver the desired communication piece. Adtopia aims for utopia within a business environment by reviewing and providing recommendations on five key operational areas of the business:- * People * Process * Technology/tools * Financial Management * Reporting I'm an entrepreneurial, profitability focussed business consultant armed with 35+ years advertising, design and print experience to draw upon. Adtopia's objective is to bring together specialist consultants (HR, Ops, Legal, Finance, Digital etc) to ensure we can offer you the best of breed in all things commercial and operational. We know that your focus is creativity and Adtopia aims to ensure that your engine room can produce - efficiently, accurately and profitably. Show less



Software Downunder

• Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

• Owner/Principal

  • Dec 2015 - Present

  www.softwaredownunder.com.au - Sales, training and support the for the #1 project and workflow management software for the creative services and marketing industries - www.workamajig.com. Plus multiple project based operational improvement projects for ad agencies, design companies and internal marketing departments through my consultancy www.adtopia.com.au www.softwaredownunder.com.au - Sales, training and support the for the #1 project and workflow management software for the creative services and marketing industries - www.workamajig.com. Plus multiple project based operational improvement projects for ad agencies, design companies and internal marketing departments through my consultancy www.adtopia.com.au



Uniting

• Australia
• Non-profit Organizations
• 700 & Above Employee

• Marketing (6 month contract extended 3 times) - Retirement and Independent Living

  • Aug 2021 - Present

  Marketing Uniting’s Retirement Living apartments (new developments and existing villages) via all mediums (press, outdoor, direct mail, sales promotions, social media, events, local area marketing, search and display and various online listing sites aimed at the retirement sector).

• Acting Production and Traffic Manager Uniting (contracting / consulting).

  • Aug 2015 - Jan 2022

  Over the past 6+ years I have been helping out Uniting's Marketing and Design Studio Teams as they are one of my Workamajig users. On a day-to-day basis (approx 1 hour a day) I trafficked all the work through their design studio to keep them organised and across the many projects they produce daily.



Precinct

• Sydney & Melbourne

• Chief Operating Officer

  • Aug 2002 - Jul 2012

  – Worked (as a consultant) with the two founders to get the company started (in early 2001) – Made the decision to join the company full time and become a major contributor in its growth and development – Quickly reached the #1 position and fought hard to maintain it – Worked with a talented team of over 70 design professionals and winning a swag of awards along the way – Moved to Melbourne (temporarily) to set up and run the satellite office and then the more permanent move (2011) to run the merged Australian Business Theatre (ABT)/Precinct operation as General Manager. – Assisted with the successful sale into the ASX listed Photon Group (now Enero) – Personal growth and development via my various role changes as the company grew – Consultant > Production Director > Head of Client Service > General Manager > Chief Operating Officer – Daily responsibilities - HR, IT, operations and office management for the Precinct Group – Still got my hands dirty on all major (high-profile) projects, including senior client development and supplier auditing, selection/paneling and monitoring – Was a member of the Senior Leadership Team – Reviewed, selected, negotiated and implemented our new management information system, Workamajig (an end-to-end cloud-based system for tracking costs, resources, digital assets, contacts and correspondence), from initial cold call all the way through to full back-end accounting, profit and loss and general ledger, and then trained the entire Precinct team on it – Had the overall responsibility to develop, implement and maintain company-wide efficiencies to increase project and departmental profitability while maintaining design/ production standards and team enjoyment/satisfaction – Worked closely with the Photon Group’s (now Enero) CFO to develop and maintain Precinct’s yearly budgets and any M&A documentation for The Photon Group acquisitions. – Managed a number of special projects for the former Chairman of the Photon Group (Tim Hughes) Show less



Symbiotique Pty Ltd

• Sydney

• Freelance Production Management

  • Sep 2001 - Aug 2002

  Working with a select group of great companies in conducting specialised system audits and system development to increase efficiencies, profit and quality (and morale), then training their team members to achieve optimal results Working with a select group of great companies in conducting specialised system audits and system development to increase efficiencies, profit and quality (and morale), then training their team members to achieve optimal results



303 MullenLowe

• Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

• Head of Production

  • Sep 1999 - Sep 2001

  – Enjoyed being part of a big agency (Lintas (as it was called back then) was Sydney’s third-largest) – Totally rebuilding the production department (staff, equipment and systems) within the first three months – Overseeing and managing some great campaigns for Commonwealth Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, One.Tel, Unilever and Burger King – Streamlining processes (internal and external) – Developing extra (unexplored) revenue streams and increasing gross profit extraction – Enjoyed being part of a big agency (Lintas (as it was called back then) was Sydney’s third-largest) – Totally rebuilding the production department (staff, equipment and systems) within the first three months – Overseeing and managing some great campaigns for Commonwealth Bank, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, One.Tel, Unilever and Burger King – Streamlining processes (internal and external) – Developing extra (unexplored) revenue streams and increasing gross profit extraction



Horniak & Canny Design

• Sydney

• Head of Production

  • Apr 1997 - Dec 1998

  – Moved from Adelaide to work for (at that time) Australia’s largest design consultancy – Learnt everything I could about the management and production of annual reports, IPO and M&A documents (we averaged seven major documents a month) – This role really set me up to be a major part of the Precinct Team and a significant part (and path) of my career – Developing and maintaining strong relationships with the country’s best suppliers (pre-press, printers and mail houses) – Working with some of Australia’s premier companies including AMP, NRMA, Telstra, Coca-Cola, Foster’s, David Jones and Qantas – Managing the largest-ever single print order in Australia’s history, the AMP demutualisation document (4.2 million copies) – Controlling an annual pre-press/ print spend in excess of $12 million (excluding the AMP order, which was over $7 million) Show less



Bottomline Advertising

• Adelaide

• Production Director

  • Jul 1991 - Apr 1997

  – This role was my first taste of working on the other side (Bottomline was a client of mine) and I enjoyed the enormous learning curve of radio/TV and mixed media (I was no longer just 'the printer’) – Wrote, implemented and obtained QA Certification (AS 9001) – the first agency in Australia to do so (we had a major government client that I knew would expect us to be certified come contract negotiation time) – Won lots of awards (Bottomline was boutique, but exceptional in its day) – This role was my first taste of working on the other side (Bottomline was a client of mine) and I enjoyed the enormous learning curve of radio/TV and mixed media (I was no longer just 'the printer’) – Wrote, implemented and obtained QA Certification (AS 9001) – the first agency in Australia to do so (we had a major government client that I knew would expect us to be certified come contract negotiation time) – Won lots of awards (Bottomline was boutique, but exceptional in its day)



Rice & Sons (Printing) Pty Ltd

• Adelaide

• Company Director / Production and Office Manager

  • Jan 1983 - Jul 1991

  - My brother and I took full control of the company in 1989 (with a staff of 11 and turnover of under $1 million) and built it to a staff of 33 and turnover of over $4 million (dramatically increasing EBITDA), and then successfully selling it. – I oversaw all the company’s finance functions (estimating, cost tracking, invoicing, purchasing, budgets, debt collection and P&L) – Worked with architects to designed, plan and construct (and implemented the relocation to) our new purpose-built premises Show less