How to position yourself for a board role

Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 27 November 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St Sydney

For our last event of 2018, we are delighted to welcome Ruth Medd to present ‘How to position yourself for a board role.’

Ruth will be sharing with us:

1)     Intro to Women on Boards (WOB) and how we assist our members

a)     Pathways, networks, access top board vacancies

2)     WOB is an advocate for diversity

a)     Advocacy through quality research

b)     Which includes out Boardroom Diversity Index and an interest in emerging sectors that need quality female directors

3)     Case study: NCIS sector overview from WOBs perspective

a)     Undergoing rapid change

b)     Needs quality directors

c)     Proxy for the challenges is the experience of the Affordable Housing sector and the Medicare Local / Primary healthcare Network sector

4)     What is affecting NCIS organisations

a)     Recruitment practices for directors

b)     Need for qualified people

5)     Q&A

Ruth Medd is the Chair WOB Pty Ltd (Women on Boards) and the Australian Chocolate Company (Charley’s Chocolates) and a director of the National Foundation for Australian Women and WOB UK Limited. She is the former chair of Australian Ethical Superannuation Ltd and a former director of The Infants Home Ashfield and the NSW Casino Control Authority. She is an enthusiastic shareholder in a number of early stage companies; most recently Charley's Chocolate Factory at Mission Beach.  She is a member of angel investing group Scale Investors.

Her NED experiences have enabled her to contribute her finance and business management expertise as well as her in depth understanding of the public policy, regulatory and business interface.

Prior executive roles include the Executive Director of the Australian Association of National Advertisers and senior positions with Telstra, the Australian Broadcasting Tribunal and the Federal government.

As per Women in Business discussion group tradition, for our last event, we will be providing canapes and lucky door prizes.

Don’t miss out, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 23 November 2018.

Memberships for 2018 are now due, please forward your payment as per details below:

$30 for CPAs or $50 for Non-CPA Australia members in 2018 (no pro-rata, non-refundable)

Payment in advance via EFT

Bank: NAB

Account Name: Women in Business Discussion Group

BSB: 082088

Account Number: 186893555

Reference: your full name and CPA membership number.

Please email Felicity for a receipt at cpawibfb@gmail.com

Please update your own CPD Diary if you attend this meeting as CPA Australia no longer do this.

For more details about CPD hours see our blogpost http://cpawomen.blogspot.com/p/cpd.html.

Kind regards,

Ellie Smith

Convenor

Blockchain and distributed crypto- based economy: implications for financial professionals

Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 30 October 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St Sydney

Do you want to know more about the Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies? If so, then this month’s discussion group is for you.

We are excited to welcome Joseph Pham to present the blockchain and distributed crypto- based economy: implications for financial professionals

Joseph Pham is a blockchain technologist with over a decade in both private & public sector experience with enterprise IT systems and project teams across Finance, Utilities and Government sectors.   He is the founder of Crypto Asset Technologies, a blockchain consulting business, and has spent the last couple of years doing deep dive research on blockchain system capabilities and limitations. He is often sought after by investors and project teams to provide technical due diligence on Blockchain projects at the forefront of the industry.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 26 October 2018.

Memberships for 2018 are now due, please forward your payment as per details below:

$30 for CPAs or $50 for Non-CPA Australia members in 2018 (no pro-rata, non-refundable)

Payment in advance via EFT

Bank: NAB

Account Name: Women in Business Discussion Group

BSB: 082088

Account Number: 186893555

Reference: your full name and CPA membership number.

Please email Felicity for a receipt at cpawibfb@gmail.com

Please update your own CPD Diary if you attend this meeting as CPA Australia no longer do this.

For more details about CPD hours see our blogpost http://cpawomen.blogspot.com/p/cpd.html.

Kind regards,

Ellie Smith

Convenor

Single Touch Payroll (STP) - Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 25 September 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St

For our September session we are delighted to welcome Fadi Beydoun and Michele Percival from ADP Australia to present Single Touch Payroll (STP).

Single Touch Payroll (STP) will lead to transparency in payroll reporting and level the playing field to ensure that all employers are meeting their employer taxation obligations more efficiently.

Unfortunately, many businesses out there are still not prepared for STP and will risk facing penalties if not compliant by the 2019 deadlines.

The STP presentation will explain what Single Touch Payroll is, cover some of the digital transformation agenda, and most importantly what businesses need to do to ensure they are STP compliant.

Fadi has a Graduate Degree in Marketing with a Sub-Major in Law.  He started his professional working career as Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator for a large Telecommunications company.  Has held several sales & marketing roles since, working in various industries including IT&T, Print & Energy.  Fadi commenced a role with ADP as District Manager in 2017. His role focuses on assisting small to medium businesses with their Payroll, HRIS & Time and Attendance requirements.  Fadi enjoys spending time with his family and is a lover of all sports. 

Michele started her career in corporate travel, moving to leadership 10 years ago, most recently at American Express.  Michele Joined ADP to manage the Small Business Team 14 months ago.  Michele is a passionate Sales Manager with a history of leading high performance teams to achieve exceptional results she enjoys being hands-on and possess strong attention to detail with excellent organisation skills that ensure optimal productivity. Michele is performance driven and committed to a culture of continuous improvement she values hard work and takes personal ownership of achieving excellence in all endeavours.  In her spare time Michele enjoys riding her horse and swimming on the many beaches the Northern Beaches has to offer.     

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 21 September 2018.

Excel - An Introduction to Power Query - Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 28 August 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St Sydney

At our last session members identified Excel as one of the most desirable topic and for our August session we are very excited to welcome Neale Blackwood, Principal A4 Accounting.

An Excel expert, Neale will present an Introduction to Power Query.

Power Query allows you to automatically perform data cleansing routines on your data sources – no manual intervention required. Simply refresh and your data is ready to use. You can use csv files; txt files; databases and existing Excel tables as your data sources. Learn the basics, plus an advanced technique to automate data cleansing routines on your data sources.

This session covers

·        fixing dates so that Excel can recognise them

·        formatting columns as text – retaining leading zeroes in CSV files

·        deleting unwanted rows and columns from your data

·        removing leading and trailing spaces

·        populating blank values with zeroes

·        populating blanks with entries from above

·        correcting trailing minus signs

·        unpivot a report – how to convert a report layout into a data table layout

·        converting a MYOB report into a data table

For convenience Neale included pdf manual to Power Query in the attached file, the printed version will be distributed at the session.

You are welcome to bring your laptop to the session and follow the presentation using Power Query. For that you’ll need:

1.     For Excel 2010 and 2013 - to download and install a free Microsoft add-in https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=39379 or for Excel 2016 find ‘Get & Transform’ it in the Data ribbon tab;

2.     Save attached file on the desktop

As Neale is based in Perth, he will be presenting via video link. 

Neale Blackwood has written over 170 Excel Yourself articles for the CPA monthly magazine since 2002. He has also contributed 8 feature articles during that time. He has been freely answering Excel related questions from CPAs from all over the world for over 15 years.

His first book, Advanced Excel Reporting for Management Accountants, was published by Wiley in 2014.

His Excel articles and companion videos appear on the ITBDigital website. He has also recently appeared on the CPA Australia podcast.

Neale has been a CPA for over two decades and has accounting experience in numerous industries. He has achieved the Microsoft recognized Excel Expert Certification so this makes him doubly qualified to provide relevant Excel assistance for accounting and finance staff. 

He currently run his own business, A4 Accounting, supplying Excel training, webinars and consulting services to organisations around Australia.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 24 August 2018. 

Getting Beyond the Sales Pitch: Successfully Traversing Digital Transformation

Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 26 June 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St

For our June session we are delighted to welcome Meredith Rowan, General Manager and Senior Sales Director New Business Australia and New Zealand  - Oracle Netsuite to present Getting Beyond the Sales Pitch: Successfully Traversing Digital Transformation

Over 80 Percent of digital transformation projects fail to meet client expectations.  Find out why and how to improve those statistics and achieve a better outcome. 

Meredith has worked with many of the key software products including Oracle, NetSuite, SalesForce, and  Microsoft and has significant insight into the key success factors required to meet company objectives.  Meredith will have an interactive discussion about how to approach and take control of digital transformation projects to set yourself, your team and your company up for success.    She will share her experiences, background and journey to illustrate how to collaborate, build the right teams and get the right skills on your side. 

Meredith is a seasoned sales and management executive with more than 20 years’ experience in the IT industry.  During her career, Meredith has worked in several senior executive roles across a range of markets.  Her focus is on working with customers to achieve digital transformation of their businesses processes in the cloud and create enhanced organisational outcomes. Before joining Oracle NetSuite in July 2015, Meredith led the southern region team for Salesforce.com has held sales and leadership positions at Microsoft, Oracle and Ezitracker.

Meredith holds a Masters of Enterprise from Melbourne University and an MBA from Monash University.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 22 June 2018.

How to secure an interview for your dream job - Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 29 May 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St Sydney

For our May session we welcome Hayley Randall, Senior Consultant and Recruiting expert in Accounting and Finance at HAYS with the presentation “How to secure an interview for your dream job”.

During the session Hayley will give us tools for securing an interview with our dream employer. From the first step of looking for a new job – how and where; through to CV template for Accounting and Finance applicants; and insights of how the recruitment agencies work, Hayley will well equip the audience with the guidance of securing the job you are dreaming about.  She will also speak about the difference/benefits of contract vs permanent roles, and where to best upskill or seek out training in order to be competitive in today’s market.

Hayley is a professional and reputable consultant who has been working within the Sydney market for Hays since April 2015. Specialising in senior finance, she manages the full 360 degree recruitment process for her clients and places professionals in their roles in an efficient and timely manner. Hayley thoroughly understands the current market and the challenges and opportunities this presents. Due to this knowledge and her professional approach, Hayley has been able to develop and build her reputation and expertise making her a reliable and approachable professional. She expresses a genuine duty of care for her candidates and clients alike and always strives to achieve the best possible results.

We’ll have Q&A session at the end of the presentation, please feel free to bring your own queries so Hayley can address them.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 25 May 2018.

The Truth About Transformation - Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 1 May 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St

For our April session, we are pleased to welcome one of Australia’s leading experts on business transformation, Virginia Walker.

Virginia will be sharing from her book “The Truth About Transformation” 10 key myths every leader must know to survive their transformation project.

20 years of practical experience at the coal face in companies like Commonwealth Bank, Hewlett Packard and IBM has taught her just about everything there is to know about one of the most intimidating things any organisation can ever decide to do – radically reform the way it does business.

Virginia has experienced the highs and the lows of corporate change and combines her wisdom and knowledge to provide practical advice to those who want to achieve success for themselves and their teams.

Virginia started her mentoring and coaching consultancy after leaving the corporate world and embarking on a personal development journey. One that involved many adventures including travelling to France in search of the holy grail and meditating with horses!

Ultimately this led her to combine her business and leadership know-how with training and experience in archetypal and executive coaching. Following her passion, Virginia now works with senior leaders to help them deliver, and learn from, organisational change and major transformation programs. Her other loves are her wonderful daughter, very special partner, golf, and she’s known to be partial to great Rieslings!

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 27 April 2018.

Permission to Be You! - Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 27 March 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St

For our March session, we are delighted to welcome back Robin Powis to present Permission to Be You!

Do you hold yourself back from being the person you most want to be?  Do you express your individuality in the way you dress?

When you recognise that if you became more visible and believe in yourself, you will authentically show up.  It’s reframing your mindset so you see yourself in a whole new light.

Bring an item you love but can’t do anything with or struggle to wear.  Or wear something unique - or perhaps something you have purchased and not worn as much as they thought.  Or bring along a statement accessory you would love to wear that is left lying unworn in your wardrobe.

Come dressed on the night professionally, authentically in a style that reflects your personality and allows you to be visible.

Robin Powis  AICI CIP

Robin believes women should be in positions of power and influence and is passionate to empower women to reflect their authentic self in the way they dress.   For the last 12 years she has run Defining Style, an executive image consultancy, working with leaders who seek a strong sense of style they total own. 

Robin’s background is diverse from working on a prawn trawler, running a child care centre, working in the retail sector as well as being a single mother.  As a woman, she understands the challenges you face every day to look effortlessly stylish while living a full life.

A leader in the Image Industry, Robin is one of five Image Consultants in Australia who are a Certified Image Professional with Association of Image Consultants International and is VP Marketing of AICI Sydney Chapter.

Renown for her ‘Eye for Style’ and insightful advice, Robin transform her clients to reveal their natural beauty and style. Whether you want to master Smart Casual or add an interesting twist to your outfit she knows what to do.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 23 March 2018.

Taking your career to the next level: Panel Discussion 28 February 2018

Women in Business Discussion Group Tuesday 27 February 2018 | 5.30pm – 8pm | CPA Centre Level 3, 111 Harrington St

Our first session in 2018 is inspired by member feedback. We are excited to present a panel discussion "Taking your career to the next level: Women who’ve been successful. What they’ve done, what they are doing now, and what they plan to do next."

Our panel consists of successful women, CPA members, who will share their successes, fears, happy moments, challenges, setbacks, and wins with you:

• Debra Sellars – Financial Controller, Pizza Hut

• Melissa Ehrler – Manager, Michael Page
• Anna Bashkirova - Senior Business Consultant at TechnologyOne.

Debra will share her story of career progression in corporate environment; Melissa will add recruiter viewpoint on the necessary skills and expertise that help to advance career to the next level; Anna, our fellow discussion group member, is a CPA who has leveraged her skills into a new area of business, will explore other career paths for CPAs.  More detail on our panellists is listed below.

We are expecting stimulating discussion that can’t be missed. Our facilitator Suzie will allocate time for your questions at the end.

To attend, please RSVP to Reis at cpawibfb@gmail.com or via Facebook by 5pm Friday 23 February 2018.

Memberships for 2018 are now due, please forward your payment as per details below:

$30 for CPAs or $50 for Non-CPA Australia members in 2018 (no pro-rata, non-refundable)

Payment in advance via EFT

Bank: NAB

Account Name: Women in Business Discussion Group

BSB: 082088

Account Number: 186893555

Reference: your full name and CPA membership number.

Please email Felicity for a receipt at cpawibfb@gmail.com

Please update your own CPD Diary if you attend this meeting as CPA Australia no longer do this.

For more details about CPD hours see our blogspot http://cpawomen.blogspot.com/p/cpd.html.