Our people are the core of our business. The Faculty Team are all Masters-trained with unique specialisations. Hand-picked from a strategic cross-section of industries, we believe that they are the very best minds available to analyse, assess and assist you in making informed, intelligent decisions.
Tania Seary - Founding Chairman
Tania has a great depth and breadth of experience in procurement, marketing and eBusiness, working with leading global companies in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia. She founded The Faculty ten years ago.
Immediately prior to establishing The Faculty, Tania worked for Alcoa Inc. in the USA. Within the centralised procurement group, she worked to develop:
- A global cost reduction reporting system
- The implementation of an on-line electronic catalogue system
The management of a US$100M pipeline for electronic auctions - Leveraged buying processes and templates
Prior to moving to the USA, Tania was the Market Development Manager for the Alcoa Inc. & Kobe Steel joint venture, Kaal Australia. In this role, she was responsible for successfully increasing the rigid can sheet manufacturer's share of the Australian market.
Tania has an MBA and a Bachelor of Business.
Betsy Harrington - Chief Executive Officer
Betsy joined The Faculty as CEO in April 2011.
Betsy is a globally recognised procurement executive who has also served in senior leadership positions in operations, mergers & acquisitions, sales & marketing, materials management, manufacturing systems and human resources with BHP Billiton, Alcoa, and Honeywell. Her experience prior to joining The Faculty includes:
- Assignments in industry groups including resources, electronics, automotive, and telecommunications
- Government experience as Head of Operations for the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction & Recovery Authority
- Executive responsibility for BHP Billiton Global Supply, with purchases exceeding $15 billion
- Design and deployment of:
- Strategic sourcing, category management, supplier management, & market intelligence programs
- Optimised procurement processes for Alcoa to support a systems roll-out to 210 locations in one year
- Global e-procurement processes & systems
- Responsibility for global compliance for procurement activities with both Alcoa & BHP Billiton, receiving consistently high audit ratings.
Betsy has work experience in the US, Mexico and Australia. Her education includes a Bachelor of Science degree and the Executive Development Program at The Wharton School.
Robert Pease - Principal Consultant
Robert is a highly experienced procurement practitioner with extensive global experience having recently returned from several years based in Europe where he led the strategy, capability development and compliance function across the global procurement organisation of FMCG company, Cadbury Schweppes, influencing a spend of multiple billions.
Robert's experience includes:
- The management of a wide range of spend categories in direct materials (packaging and ingredient commodities), strategic marketing spend, and indirect spend including, MRO, CapEx, and facilities management
- Program management of a multi-wave strategic sourcing program delivering benefits of multiple tens of millions of dollars
- The development and deployment of a 'world class' Supplier Relationship Management program across Cadbury's global supply base
- Leadership of a multi wave pan-Asian eSourcing program
- Supply chain risk management including the development and implementation of quality management and ethical/environmental management programs
- Leadership of a global review of eSourcing technology providers including the negotiation and implementation of a partner agreement with a major ERP provider, and
- The development and delivery of a global people capability assessment program including the delivery of web based and experiential training interventions.
Robert has lived and worked in both Asia and Europe, has a Bachelor of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from The University of Tasmania and a Masters Degree from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Georgette Chadraoui - Accounts and Office Manager
Georgette has extensive experience in business management specialising in financial control. Georgette has worked across a range of industries including automotive and FMCG and brings considerable knowledge to The Faculty in the areas of financial analysis, process re-engineering and facilities management. Georgette is currently completing a Diploma in Accounting.
Sandy Carveth
Sandy is both a qualified human resources professional and an accomplished financial controller, which allows her to take a truly holistic perspective to procurement.
During her time at The Faculty, Sandy has managed all the company's open-learning programs. Other projects have included:
- Development and delivery of tailored training programs including Category Management, Negotiations and Change Management to some of Australia's leading companies
- Development and delivery of customised training programs for government organisations
- Authored the case studies report "Procurement - Developing Commercial Leadership", and co-authored the Supplier Relationship Management and Commercial Process Fitness Research on behalf of the Procurement Roundtable
Prior to joining The Faculty, Sandy was Operations Manager in charge of Finance and Human Resources for a Financial Services organisation.
Sandy has a Bachelor of Arts (specialising in Psychology) from Monash University, is a Certified MBTI Practitioner, has a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and is currently completing her Master of Education (specialising in Work and Learning Studies).
Belinda Toohey
Belinda Toohey has more than 15 years' experience working closely with high level executives, entrepreneurs and other business people to increase their productivity and efficiency. Prior to joining The Faculty, Belinda worked alongside the business owners of leading private Australian businesses such as Mecca Cosmetica and Saba.
Her marketing and events experience was gained at Melbourne & Olympic Parks where she was responsible for high level corporate event coordination and at Ansett Airlines where she was part of the public relations team.
Alex Goffey
Alex is a procurement specialist with significant experience as a procurement manager in the FMCG Food and Beverage industry sector where she had accountability for the management of strategic direct materials categories across both packaging and ingredients.
Alex has a Master of Business/Applied Finance, a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology. Alex has completed the CIPS Corporate Award Program and has achieved an MCIPS qualification.
Jade Campbell
Jade is a procurement expert with extensive experience in contract management, systems, operations and training in multiple industries including retail and financial services. Prior to joining The Faculty, Jade worked with Bloomberg in New York in their corporate procurement team. During this time Jade assisted in the implementation of system rollouts and provided training and guidance to numerous internal stakeholders. Before this, Jade worked for a number of Coles Myer brands in procurement analytical and operational roles.
At The Faculty Jade has been primarily working in procurement systems implementation and process discipline and has provided system training and support on a major SAP rollout to over fifty users across multiple assets of a global resource company.
Kiky Tay
In her role as Marketing Assistant, Kiky is responsible for driving the marketing campaigns and digital strategies for both The Source and The Faculty. A marketing communications specialist with experience from both private and public sectors, her key strengths and passion lies in event management, online social media and creative writing.
Kiky started her career as an Account Coordinator at Porter Novelli, an international public relations agency, and worked with clients such as Coles, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Parmalat and The Just Group. Prior to joining The Source, Kiky held contract roles with VicRoads as a Communications Officer, and Marketing Communications Specialist with Transurban (CityLink) Limited.
Kiky has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Media and Communications with the University of Melbourne.
Matthew Perfect
Matthew Perfect is a Principal Consultant with The Faculty, a specialist procurement consultancy based in Melbourne Australia.
Matthew is an experienced practitioner having held senior procurement roles at Toll Group and National Australia Bank where he was responsible for delivering cross-functional sourcing and category management projects across a number of direct and indirect spend categories. He was also previously a consultant with Ariba, a global leader in spend management solutions, where he led strategic sourcing projects for Australian and multi-national clients in FMCG, manufacturing and resources.
As a consultant with The Faculty, Matthew has worked on a variety of engagements including category strategy reviews, Supplier Relationship Management programs, procurement training and major change management and technology implementation projects. He was also responsible for the development of Category Councils, a unique, category based knowledge network and the launch of The Source, a specialist procurement recruitment provider. He has also authored and co-authored procurement research for both The Faculty and CIPSA.
Matthew has an Honours degree in Economics from Cardiff University in the UK and has also completed a Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance and Investment at the Securities Institute of Australia.
Susannah Thelander
Susannah is a strategic sourcing and category management specialist with experience in both private and public sectors. She has a background in planning, strategic procurement, negotiation and contract management, and has a thorough understanding of public service probity requirements, legal issues and risk mitigation options linked to outsourcing goods and services.
Prior to joining the faculty, key achievements of Susannah's include the development and implementation a 5 Year Strategic Procurement Planning process for Victoria Police and the introduction of strategic procurement and category management to the Asia Pacific region at Vestas Wind Technologies.
Susannah has a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Science and is a fully qualified trainer with a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. Susannah is currently completing her Juris Doctor - Masters of Law and Masters of Business Administration.
Andrew Hooke
Andrew is an experienced senior executive who has proven performance in consulting, operations, strategy and business planning, product development, marketing, communications and e-business. Andrew has been directly responsible for developing and growing businesses in Australia, Europe and Asia.
As Commercial Director, Andrew is responsible for driving The Faculty’s growth agenda, marketing efforts and for supporting the delivery of high quality solutions to our clients.
Andrew brings to The Faculty broad industry experience having served in senior roles in FMCG (National Foods), Human Capital (Drake International) and Capital Projects (Mitsui & Co). Andrew has also served as Managing Director for one of the leading communications and marketing agencies in Amsterdam and as CEO Asia for one of Australia’s largest paper packaging groups based in Singapore.
Andrew is a graduate of the Australian National University.
