How can your business benefit from Asia’s growing demand for goods, services and investment?
Join us to find out on 11 April!
Within a few years Asia will be the world’s largest producer and consumer of goods and services.
An increasingly wealthy and mobile middle class is emerging in the Asia region, creating new opportunities. Demand will increase for a diverse range of goods and services, from health and aged care to education, household goods, tourism, banking and financial services, as well as high quality food products.
Why You Should Attend:
- Understand the nature of ‘middle class’ demand for goods and services from the Asia region
- Determine the capacity for Sunshine Coast businesses to pursue potential trade and investment opportunities
- Recognise the challenges of doing business in the Asia region
- Understand the nature of investment markets and the challenges in attracting international investment and trade into regions such as the Sunshine Coast
- Gain an unbiased view of the opportunities and challenges of increasing trade and investment with Asia
Hear from International & National Business Leaders along with original research presentations including:
- The Hon, Jarrod Bleijie, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Queensland
- Mr Ted Pretty, Group Managing Director, Hills Holdings Limited
- Mr Andrew Foo, Vice President of Singapore Australia Business Council
- Ms Nussara Smith, Director Overseas Market Development: Asia, Trade and Investment Queensland
- Mr Gwyn Jarrott, Sunshine Coast Business Council
Click here to read the event flyer.
Guest Speaker Bios
Jarrod Bleijie, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Queensland
Jarrod Bleijie was appointed Queensland’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice after the March 2012 State election. Jarrod was initially elected to State Parliament to represent Kawana on the Sunshine Coast in 2009 and re-elected in 2012. He formerly held the roles of Shadow Attorney-General and Shadow Minister for Corrective Services.
Before his life in politics, Jarrod practised law at the Sunshine Coast in the areas of business, corporate, body corporate and property law. He has been a member of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs, Police, Corrective Services and Emergency Services Committee and was previously also a member of the Law, Justice and Safety Committee, and the Legal, Constitutional and Administrative Review Committee.
Jarrod is actively involved in Rotary, Lions, is a former Board Director of Mercy Ships Australia. He is Patron of Sunshine Coast Youth Partnership Inc, Kawana Soccer Club, Kawana Waters Surf Lifesaving Club, Amputee Support Association Sunshine Coast Inc and The Caloundra Chorale.
Jarrod lives in the Kawana Electorate with his wife and three children.
Ted Pretty, Group Managing Director Hills Holdings Ltd.
Ted is the Group Managing Director of Hills Holdings Ltd and is responsible for Group operations including business strategy and acquisitions. Ted is a highly credentialed Australian business executive and Director, with extensive international experience. He has a vast depth of understanding across a broad range of business sectors, with particular global expertise in telecommunications and information technology, innovation and product development.
Ted is Australian and New Zealand Advisory Chairman of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam – part of the Indian headquartered $14bn diversified Mahindra Group.
He spent two years in the Middle East during his tenure at Gulf Finance House as its Group Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his time at Gulf Finance, Mr Pretty was Chairman of Fujitsu Australia Limited, Chairman of then ASX-listed RP Data Limited, an Executive Director at Macquarie Capital Advisers and a member of the Visy Industries Advisory Board.
Ted Pretty is a former senior executive at Telstra Corporation Limited, where he held a number of Group Managing Director positions, including Technology Innovation and Product. Prior to joining Telstra, he also served as an adviser to and director of Optus Communications and Optus Vision and as a Partner at Media and Telecommunications Law Firm, Gilbert & Tobin.
Andrew Foo, Vice President of Singapore Australia Business Council
Andrew is the Vice President of Singapore Australia Business Council and Singapore Representative of the Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Round Table.
Andrew is an international marketer and business developer who currently transacts with Singapore.
Born and bred in Singapore, Andrew has called Australia home for the last 21 years during which he co-founded the Singapore Business Association of
Queensland which in 2007 became the Singapore Business Council of Australia Inc.
Nussara Smith, Director Overseas Market Development Asia, Trade & Investment Qld
Nussara was appointed Director Overseas Market Development Asia within Trade and Investment Queensland in 2008. In 2010/11 she was seconded as Director for the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Emerging Markets to oversee the establishment of the Queensland government’s trade and investment network in Latin America including the establishment of a new office in Chile. In these senior executive roles she has been responsible for directing Queensland Government trade strategies for these overseas markets and managing the Queensland Government’s international offices.
Nussara has over 20 years of experience in international business, government and management. Since joining the Queensland Government in 1992 she has worked in trade and investment roles with a particular focus on East and South East Asia. She was posted as the Queensland Government’s trade representative for the Kansai region based in Osaka, Japan between 1999 and 2002. Nussara holds a Masters degree from the University of Queensland and was a Research Fellow in International Relations at Kyoto University, Japan.
Gwyn Jarrott, Sunshine Coast Business Council
Gwyn has worked in the property and finance sectors, as a CEO and on several Boards.
Gwyn started out in engineering and planning with Brisbane City Council before moving to consulting in engineering, urban planning and management.
For the past decade as Managing Director, Property Works International Pty. Ltd Gwyn has led the acquisition, development, financing, project management and marketing of commercial developments in South East Queensland. Gwyn is a Member of the Singapore Business Council of Australia (Qld) and a Director of Sunshine Coast Business Council, responsible for business and economic policy. He also mentors more than 30 professional businesspeople.