Stu van Rij is an expert in influencing and negotiation. He helps his clients bring their best to the conversations that matter. His approach has been shaped by the late Jim Camp, who masterminded negotiations worth billions, and whose system has been drawn on by Fortune 500 companies and the FBI Hostage Crisis Negotiation Training Unit. Appointed as Jim’s coach for Asia Pacific in 2013, Stu melds this experience with the commercial acumen gained from over two decades as a specialist IT lawyer. The result? A human-centric approach that elevates performance and amplifies influence.

Stu helps his clients to influence, negotiate, pitch and partner. Stu’s clients include agencies like Australia’s Department of Defence and New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment through to commercial entities such as WSP, Dentsu and Meridian Energy. His experience spans “David and Goliath” type commercial negotiations through to lobbying officials, influencing stakeholders and dealing with the stubborn, sceptical or stuck.

Else Bright has 29 years of experience as Commercial and Contracts Management practitioner specialising in Defence and IT industries in acquisition, services and as-a-service contracting, most recently working for BAE Systems’ Aircraft Sustainment and Training line of business in Williamtown, NSW focusing on the Joint Strike Fighter Program. Else has been a member of WorldCC for many years, and a WorldCC Council Member in Australia representing Aerospace and Defence. Else commenced her role as Senior Director Member Engagement ANZ in April 2022.

Michael currently manages MBIE’s Commercial Pool, a team of experienced commercial leaders within the procurement functional lead for government, as well as being one of the WorldCC New Zealand Council representatives. Michael is a strong believer in collaborative supplier relationships and last year led a collaborative project with the New Zealand Defence Force and one of its strategic suppliers to develop a partnered contract.

Andrea leads the procurement function of Kainga Ora – Homes and Communities, the New Zealand government agency responsible for public housing and large-scale urban regeneration. Andrea has agency-wide responsibility for strategic sourcing and supplier management across all categories ranging from deconstruction to construction, remediation and property maintenance, to information technology, learning and development, and everything in between. Recently Kainga Ora won the Social and Environmental Impact Award and the Supreme Award at the 2022 New Zealand Procurement Excellence Awards, for their Construction Deconstruction Waste Minimisation work. This awards build on Kainga Ora social and sustainable procurement framework “Pa Harakeke” and the agency’s commitment to measuring social procurement impact.

Dallas is the Manager Strategic Social Procurement at Kainga Ora Homes and Communities. He leads a team that is focussed on leveraging procurement to make a wider positive impact to communities and individuals that the organization interacts with during the delivery of its business activity.

Dallas has 20 years’ experience working across a range of categories, including Financial Services, Construction, Oil and Gas, in senior procurement and commercial roles in both the private and public sector.

Dallas enjoys delivering outcomes that have a sustainable impact and putting ideas into practice. He believes that being creative in an approach and positively challenging the status quo can lead to strong outcomes.

Herani is a strong advocate for social justice and equity. She has owned and run several successful businesses, gaining insight to some of the challenges faced by small and medium Maori business owners.

Herani is committed to supporting Amotai buyer and supplier members to set contracts that deliver additional social value through diversification of their supply chain.

Tod is the head of procurement at the New Zealand Department of Corrections. He has extensive executive management experience in large, complex multi-national and customer centric organisations across both public and private sectors and has subject matter expertise in procurement, supply chains, contract and supplier relationship management, and human behaviour. Tod is the A/NZ members representative to the CIPS Global Board of Trustees, Board Directors of Transparency International New Zealand, founding member of Procurement Excellence Forum, and long-standing Regional Business Awards judge.

Sarah Blackie is an award-winning commercial relationships and procurement consultant with 16 years of global experience spanning the technology, financial, energy and transport sectors. Sarah is an advocate for improving the procurement experience and strengthening trust between procurement, internal customers and suppliers. A seasoned people-leader, facilitator, trainer and problem-solver, Sarah founded Esby & Co in 2019 to help clients with their commercial strategies and relationships.

Craig leads the Will&Able social enterprise. He has a 30-year background in senior executive and sales management positions in a range of NZ IT companies including Telecom, IBM, Gen-I and Origin IT. His primary task is to engage Corporate NZ into making Will&Able their premier social purpose initiative. His motivation for joining Will&Able is his son, Thomas, who works at the parent company, Altus Enterprises.

Hamish is born-and-bred in Porirua, Wellington and is mainly defined by twins boys (7) and daughter (6), his wife, and dog. He’s also defined as a Chartered Accountant and Business Consultant, even though he can't do mental arithmetic (we all get pigeon-holed right?). The beauty of his role is that he’s seen most things - what works for teams and businesses, what doesn't, what propels people forward and what holds them back.

He started Convex when he was 26 as a start-up with no customers (from the boot of his car). There’s now got two offices in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, with Convex spanning Accounting, Consulting and Law. Alongside his wife, he’s raising 3 kids (born within 16 months of each other), and Convex has been acknowledged as the leading Advisors in NZ. He’s made his own mistakes in business, made financial blunders., but he’s kept chugging and come out successful on the other side.

He’s obsessed with helping leaders, in teams and businesses, do better stuff, through creating opportunity with more time, control or money. Hamish says it's about knowing, doing and thinking about the fundamental business concepts to help fine tune our organisations.