2022 C&I NZ Industry Symposium Speakers

Dave Hooker
Executive Director NZACS / MC

Dave is a respected leader in the New Zealand Petroleum and Convenience retail sectors. His track record in performance and leadership at a national and International level dealing with many major FMCG companies is recognised throughout the industry. Before starting Retailworx, Dave worked in Convenience retail management for Mobil Oil NZ Ltd, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific and BP New Zealand. In these positions  Dave spent a number of years on the NZACS management committee. Dave was appointed Executive Director of NZACS in 2016 and oversees all aspects of the Association.

Wednesday 19 October

Eddy Nader
Managing Director, NPG Retail

Eddy learnt the petrol convenience industry as a young boy on the forecourt of his father’s service station in Yagoona, NSW.  More than 30 years later Eddy now sits at the helm of a 48 Million Litre per year petrol convenience business that includes six retail locations and employs over 80 staff. 

With Urbanista Café & Convenience, Eddy has created a trusted and recognised brand identity for the sites that is based on an unwavering commitment to quality and a willingness to try new things in a saturated and highly sophisticated coffee and convenience market. A passionate and engaged operator, Eddy is as comfortable briefing his local member of parliament of the many pressures of running a small business as he is negotiating customised promotions or branding agreements, or even serving customers. 

Eddy’s fierce commitment to the quality of his offer and willingness to explore opportunities is more than a passion – it is the core driving force of his business: understand, explore, engage, adapt, repeat.

Julie O’Toole
Country Lead, Coca-Cola Oceania

Born and based in New Zealand, Julie is the first Kiwi Country Lead of the Auckland-based business in over a decade. She is responsible for the growth of a diverse portfolio and managing networked teams that lead and support the company’s business objectives, which includes commitments to global leadership in the areas of environmental, social and governance.

 Julie’s priority is doing business the right way, to create a more sustainable and better shared future for communities and the planet. She is passionate about implementing ambitious sustainability goals and drives collaboration to achieve them. Her ability to bringing people together and elevate performance to build programs and partnerships that enhance and add value is widely recognised; she has been praised for her leadership, strategic thinking, and marketing execution.

Prior to Coca-Cola, Julie worked for Goodman Fielder, Sealord and Cerebos Greggs. She holds a Bachelor of Food Technology with Honours from Massey University

Bruce Cotterill
Transformation Leader, Business Advisor, Author

Bruce is a “transformation leader” with extensive experience across a range of industries – notably real estate, media, financial services, professional services, technology and retail – with a variety of ownership models including private equity, partnerships and public companies. He is a passionate leader of change, and is genuinely interested in business performance improvement. As a highly-regarded business communicator assisting organisations to maximise their performance and profitability, his clients have included Telstra Media, the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, ANZ Bank, and a number of real estate, media and retail organisations.

A lifetime leader, who focuses on clear objectives, enhanced personnel engagement and improved customer orientation, he has continuously delivered vastly improved results through his involvement in organisations. In 2018 Bruce published his first full length book The Best Leaders Don’t Shout and he is a regular business columnist for the New Zealand Herald, and other NZME publications. In his “spare time” he is a husband, father, lifeguard, ageing triathlete, cyclist, ocean swimmer and frustrated golfer.

Thursday 20 October

Melinda Baillie
Head of Trents Wholesale

Since 2003, Melinda has worked for several well-known New Zealand companies including Avis, Montana Wines, Cerebos Gregg’s and now Foodstuffs South Island, where she is Head of Trents Wholesale Ltd. Throughout her convenience retailing career Melinda has acquired vast experience in sales, marketing, operations, and management, and lead award-winning sales teams, with Cerebos winning Indirect Supplier of the Year multiple times in the Oil Channel Awards.
More recently she is increasingly involved in digital transformation through eCommerce and CRM.

An experienced leader and a futuristic thinker, Melinda now leads a team of 200. She is passionate about people and strategy, mentoring aspiring leaders by shaping them for today and the future. Melinda understands the challenges smaller businesses face in nurturing leaders when they don’t have access to corporate development programmes, and believes opportunities to develop leaders arise every day.

Melinda is embarking on a governance pathway having been awarded the Emerging Directors Award for the Canterbury Branch of the NZ Institute of Directors.

Haydn Tierney
Managing Director & Founder, Bowser Bean

Haydn has a retail focus and is passionate about creating seamless and unexpectedly pleasant customer experiences, where petrol does not need to be a grudge purchase. In his daily role of ensuring consistent excellence in food, coffee and convenience across the Bowser Bean network of 17 locations throughout regional southeast Australia, Haydn’s duties also include expansion of the network through refurbishing existing locations and establishing new sites. He is looking forward to gaining insight from his New Zealand compatriots and sharing how Bowser Bean is pushing the boundaries of P&C.

 Haydn has grown the network’s food and coffee sales over 500% and established Bowser Bean as a world class Petrol and Convenience offer.

Andy Baird
General Manager Retail, Z Energy

Andy has extensive retail, marketing and sales background having held several executive roles throughout a 23-year career with BP, including Retail General Manager for BP New Zealand where he launched BP Connect and led the development of Wild Bean Café. Andy has worked for BP Australia, BP USA and BP’s Global Brand Marketing and Innovation team. While working for BP USA, Andy developed and led a global team to commercialise new product and market growth strategies, before taking up the role of Senior Vice President of Marketing with BP America. In this role Andy was responsible for the marketing efforts of the BP and Arco brands with over 2,500 stores across the US. In addition, he drove the very successful launch of the Arco convenience brand and offer to new markets.

Prior to joining Z Andy was the Managing Director of Brandxp, providing marketing consultancy and customer experience programs for leading retailers throughout Australasia. During this time one of Andy’s key projects was leading the design, development and rollout of the Z brand.