Victoria/Tasmania

Vic/Tas Division Vice President Catrina Galanti celebrating Sunny Sharma winning the YCPA at the 2018 National Conference.

President’s Report The last couple of months has shifted the way we interact with one another and living the COVID-19 way has made all of us re-assess how we live in the current moment. Some of us have been fortunate to work for organisations that have not been impacted as much as our retail, travel and accommodation sectors.

This is the time we all realise that our membership with the AICM is vital to our day to day business operations. Having the online tools to adapt to the current climate is giving our teams the credibility and respect in the credit world. Check out our AICM Webinar Series to upskill your knowledge and don’t forget to include your teams.

As credit professionals we have been all recognised within our organisation as a valuable asset and our business is leaning on us as expert matters in credit and collection. If you haven’t already done so make sure you know which industry your customers are linked to and ascertained risk profiles accordingly. Be on the front foot and lead by example, as credit professionals this is what we have been practicing for years and now is the time to shine.

If you are under 30 years of age before June 30 or know of credit professionals who are, we are still celebrating The Young Credit Professional of the Year (YCPA) program and applications close 31 May 20. If you need help in applying you can reach out to our division YCPA councillor Amaran Navaratnam or myself. We can provide you with tips on how to have a chance to become the Victorian YCPA at Nationals and stand by you all the way.

In 2018 Sunny Sharma (Vic) took out the YCPA at Nationals and is proud to say; “Partaking in the YCPA program has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. The journey has been nothing short. If you are a

Toolbox attendees: Sarah Soyjaudah (VMCH), Ritu Kapoor (VMCH), Donna Smith (Reliance Recoveries, Moderator), Jessica Kang (VMCH) and Rodney Lamb (Orora Group).

young credit professional wanting to improve your soft skill set, form key links within the industry, take your career to the next level and strive to win the highest accolade in credit at a national level (and get your name up in lights), I would strongly encourage you to apply for YCPA 2020. Give it a shot because you will get so much out of it!”

One thing I have taken from COVID-19 is that the universe is telling all of us to be kind to our climate and one another; if you haven’t already, reach out to one of your contacts daily or weekly via your phone/linkedin. We all can make a difference to that one person who may need to hear our positive voice or kind words. – Sherif Hussein MICM CCE

Vic/Tas State President

TOOLBOX Collect with Confidence 11 March 2020, held at the offices of Turks Legal We managed to complete the VIC Toolbox 2 before COVID-19 happened. The Toolbox was hosted by Donna Smith from Reliance Recoveries, and three lucky ladies, all from VMCH were able to learn from her wealth of experience. (VMCH is Melbourne’s leading provider of high quality disability, specialist education, aged care and retirement living services).

The topics of the day included; z Making the call z Documentation z Securities z When, why and how to make a call z Best practice for all call types

I think we can all agree on how important this training is especially during unprecedented time.

A huge THANKS to Turks Legal for providing a fantastic learning space, and to Donna Smith for being the moderator. Keep an eye out for the next Toolbox.

Member in Spotlight Janice Thomason Janice has been in the credit and finance industry for a whopping 41 years, starting her Australian career at Pacific Brands and spending the last 5 years as Head of Credit and Risk at Cummins. In addition to being very successful at her role, Janice’s strength and passion has seen her be a natural born leader taking a great interest in mentoring, coaching and training young credit professionals; right now Janice manages a team of 16.

Janice’s life has taken her all over the globe – born in the United Kingdom, living for a period in South Africa and grandchildren finally bringing her to Australia, where she now calls home. At work, Janice has seen huge changes over her 41-year career, and she loves technology and automation – her career motto is “do more with less, without losing the human element”.

Outside of work, Janice loves sewing, quilting, embroidery, gardening, cross-fit, entertaining and travelling around Australia. Janice’s biggest goal in 2020 was, that instead of travelling overseas, she would travel to as many of Australia’s bushfire affected regions as possible with her husband Ian and two furbaby Dachshunds Hector and Bella.

Janice’s advice for young professionals entering the credit industry is to be inquisitive, listen as much as possible, make mistakes and understand the fundamentals of credit in as much detail as they can. Janice Thomason – Head of Credit and Risk at Cummins South Pacific, 15 years of AICM membership.

Member in Spotlight Joe Losinno

Credit Manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions

Joe has been a member of the AICM for over 16 years, and in the credit and finance industry for many more. Joe originally obtained an environmental science degree due to his love of the outdoors, which took him to London to work for 6 years, where worked at ELF Gas & Power. In 2000, London’s notorious cold drove Joe back to Australia, where he landed in the midst of Victoria’s gas and electricity privatisation boom. Joe Losinno – Credit Manager at Nutrien Ag Solutions, member of the AICM for over 16 years.

Joe’s career since then has taken him to Exide Batteries, Visy, Metcash and the last 5 years at RuralCo – which is now called Nutrien Ag Solutions. During his time at Nutrien Ag Solutions, Joe has worked with farmers in the agricultural finance field, which Joe loves as he gets to visit these farmers and work closely with generations of Australian farming families. Joe prides himself on working collaboratively and flexibly to support these farmers and getting them through difficult economic times, including recent fires and droughts.

Joe loves the networking opportunities and the collaboration of knowledge that the AICM provides, and Joe’s favourite AICM event is the Victorian golf day. Since he has been a member, Joe has not missed a golf day, except where he had his shoulder reconstruction surgery.

Working from home in Geelong at the moment due to COVID-19, Joe is as busy as ever working from his desk in the bedroom home office, but he misses the opportunity to get outdoors and chat to his customers. Joe’s next big challenge will be learning to home school his four children.

THANK YOU! Frank Gambera

Director of McMahon Fearnley Lawyers

Frank has been an integral member of the Vic/Tas AICM Council since 1998 (22 years), 2 years after Frank joined the AICM. After last year’s high watermark winning of the Council of the Year Award, Frank has decided that it is time to step down from his role on the AICM Council. We are going to miss him.

For the length of his time on the council Frank has provided invaluable legal insight, calmness, a great home to have the council meetings and great friendship for all members. It must be noted that Frank also won the Pinnacle award for the Legal Representative two years in a row, 2015 and 2016!

However, Frank has decided it is time to share the invaluable experience, knowledge and friendship that he has obtained from the AICM Council with the next generation of younger lawyers.

Frank has offered to provide assistance to the AICM Council for the next little while. Frank, I have no doubt that we will take you up that offer! We look forward to seeing you at your offices and tapping into your vast amount of knowledge and continuing our great friendships.

From all of us on council goodbye and thank you! Frank Gambera

Helpful tips and comments from our council team Working from home and keeping your team positive: Catrina Galanti – NCI, Michelle Carruthers – CreditorWatch and Mary Petreski – Asahi.

Right now, like we are sure that most of you are doing, all of the AICM Council are working from home during this COVID-19 pandemic. We know that working from home can bring a lot of challenges, so we thought we would use this opportunity to provide you with some tips and tricks that we each have:

Mary Petreski

Asahi

I have been working from home for 4 weeks now. I work from different areas of the house. Today, in the lounge room. A perfect view of the city skyline. On other days, the makeshift office upstairs, that I share with my husband. My girls aged 13 & 10 have taken the study as they both started remote learning as of the 15th of April.

Working from home has its good days and its bad days. Socially, my team and I catch up daily. This is to ensure my team are OK, and are not too overwhelmed. Seeing my family at any given time of the day is a great benefit for me. Previous to the WFH arrangements, I would be in the office 12+ hours. This is a good change. On a bad day, the long hours and little to no movement due to increased workload or poor internet.

Looking forward to being able to freely move about Melbourne, have dinner and drinks and to socialise.

Catrina Galanti

NCI

I am currently working from my kitchen table. I live alone so I think I’m one of the lucky ones although I do tend to do laps around my apartment when I’m on a call to keep mobile.

I have located all of the friendly neighbourhood animals and make sure I stop off for a pat when I have been walking before work most days when normally I’d be sitting in peak hour traffic.

As it looks like this is going to continue for a few more weeks, I am going to set up a desk instead next week and boot my table to the side. We are on week 4 of WFH.

To stay sane, our team has “coffee” together every morning at 8.30am on Skype and we talk about what we did the night before, what we’re all cooking for lunch and also a bit of work talk too.

Friday’s we all stop working at 4 or 4.30pm and have virtual drinks with the whole office, this includes our management team, sales, service and admin. It gets a bit crazy with everyone’s kids and pets getting in on the action.

I think the key thing to WFH is to maintain your usual routine. Take coffee breaks when you would normally, give your colleagues a friendly call and start your day off with a to do list.

Also, to take advantage of being home and make yourself a hot lunch and eat it AWAY from your workspace. Try to get dressed in what you would normally wear to work to keep you in that frame of mind.

Michelle Carruthers

CreditorWatch

As you can see, my workspace is on our dining table together with my puzzle. While it’s not’s the ideal workspace, I think that natural light is very important, and my tip is that you find a workspace with as much natural light as you possibly can. To set boundaries for work I make sure at 5.30pm my computer is off and my husband and I go for a walk before we cook dinner. Also, on my grocery list there are always fresh flowers. To stay connected, CreditorWatch have two exercise sessions per week, this is run by a different staff member each time.

We have had a yoga session, a high intensity session and even exercises from the 80’s session. I’m not sure how much exercise gets done but it sure works my belly due to the laughter of each session. We also have Thirsty Thursday via zoom and lately we have had Joe’s Kitchen whereby Joe our passionate Italian CTO teaches us to cook and Matt Jackson our GM, along with our account manager, Natasha Raymond taught us how to make their favorite cocktails.

Q&A with Mary and Amaran on COVID-19

Mary Petreski

Credit Manager at Asahi

How is your team finding the changed working conditions We have daily huddles with the team. The huddles are social and are more on wellbeing than work. My team is important to me and so is their mental wellbeing. Last week we all presented a photo of our childhood. The photo had conditions. You must be from age 1-10, have a great background, and a story to go with the photo. My team members had great stories, and fantastic photos. One of

my team members called in to her family back in the UK to have some photos sent. We also have daily afternoon task updates. We all have specific tasks outside of BAU. We work together to brain storm better ways of working and utilise the teams core knowledge on fast tracking the tasks. Like myself, the team miss the physical interaction.

Do you think the pandemic will have a short or long term effect on your business Mid to Long term. Working in the drinks industry, we have seen the effects COVID-19 has brought to small business. We are working very closely with these businesses to help them through this time.

Will you need more resources to complete your function in coming months No, not at this time. This is the time we work together with sales to KYC, understand what steps need to be taken next and work with the business and our customers for a positive outcome.

Have the new limits and timeframes on enforcement impacted the credit terms or payment arrangements you enter with customers Yes. Majority of cafés and restaurants have been impacted. We are working with these businesses to help and provide a successful result for both.

Do you feel you will be exposed to a greater risk of preference claims due to the exemption to insolvent trading for directors We are not sure what the results are as yet. Until we have clear picture, we will keep working with customers.

Amaran Navaratnam

Credit Manager at MECWACARE

How is your team finding the changed working conditions As I work within the Healthcare sector we are classified as a ‘essential service’. At this moment in time, for my credit team, we are respecting social distancing where my team is spread across the wider finance department.

Do you think the pandemic will have a short or long term effect on your business Short-term, as our business is non-for profit we do receive government funding and subsidy for aged care residents living within facilities to home care nursing. Our wider organisation takes extra precautions as they are front-line staff requiring them to continue reducing any risks for our wider customer base.

Will you need more resources to complete your function in coming months At this moment, don’t foresee hiring additional team members.

Have the new limits and timeframes on enforcement impacted the credit terms or payment arrangements you enter with customers No, our customer base receive pensions from the government so we get guaranteed income upon service rendered. Our hardship is heavily relied upon Centrelink assessments e.g means testing fees, daily care fees. If our customers have a significant debt e.g. $80k, and Centrelink complete a re-assessment they effectively pay for the customers delinquency for them.

Do you feel you will be exposed to a greater risk of preference claims due to the exemption to insolvent trading for directors No as we don’t have to deal with preference claims within our industry.

Reassess your Career Wonderful upsides can come from the current enforced work/home time … one is to apply some focus on our precious and often ignored career. Now there’s time to review what we have “out there” that tells the professional world who we are & where we’re at. Here’s 3 R’s to make a start …

Rewrite your LinkedIn profile introduction (or develop one) – How well does it explain who you are now? Research some more relevant engaging descriptions of who you have become. Have others review & edit. Decide on 3 descriptors you’d have other use for you and ask are they evident in your LinkedIn profile.

Review your LinkedIn page – Ask a trusted learned contact to give you feedback on it. There are many LinkedIn “fixers” who tout their wares to assist in sprucing up your page. Check out some colleagues’ pages or just some of your network to see what about some people’s pages that catches your attention. Update your career history and add any volunteering you engage in.

Reconnect with your preferred Referees – For many decades now Career Research data on how people get their next job has not changed: 80% is through networking – though you may still apply for a conventional job ad on line its connection to you comes through networks. The best place to start and to launch an expansion drive on your network, is to reconnect with your Referees. How long since you’ve spoken? They may have moved? Bring yourself, your connection and your career back to top of mind with them – and ensure you make a real connection with a Zoom, Skype or WhatsApp catch-up. Ensure you ask their advice: If you are keen to grow or move your career? Who else can they introduce you to? What gaps do they see in your career offering; what trends can they share? – Lori Vanston, Executive Leadership and Career Coach/Workplace Mediator lori@vanstonconsulting.com.au, 0413123253

A fantastic turnout captured through this group shot just before tee off.

Lou Caldararo (Vic/Tas Director) with Winning team: Simon Strange (SPK Glass), Joe Losinno (Nutrien Ag Solutions), Kris Stokes and Scott Ferguson (both SPK Glass). Michelle Carruthers and Gordon Porter (both CreditorWatch).

Steve Stafford (KPR), Liam Denver (Sacre Coeur), Michael Sailland (William Adams) and David Teehan (Body Corporate Services).

Vic/Tas Annual Golf Day Friday 21st February 2020 On a fine 18 degree day on the 21st of February, 179 people made their way down to the Southern Golf Course in Keysborough for our annual Vic/Tas AICM Golf Day.

Tee off was at 1pm sharp. The overall winning team comprised of Simon Strange, Joe Losinno, Kris Stokes and Scott Ferguson. Simon, Kris and Scott came 3rd last

Runners Up: Lou Caldararo (Vic/Tas Director), Jon Malone, Jason Fraser and David McCully (all Equifax).

year so its looks as though with the help of Joe and extra practice this team moved from 3rd to 1st position for 2020. Well done guys! Thank you to the prize sponsor Equifax. The team that came 2nd was Lou’s team, comprising John Maloney, Jason Fraser, Lou Caldararo and David McCully. Thank you to the prize sponsor Trade Bureaux Australia. The IODM team came 3rd, well done Damien, Peter, Steven and Peter. Thank you to the prize sponsor Brooke Bird. Nunzio Settinelli from MM Electrical

Adrian Hunter (Brooke Bird), Sam Chopra (Viva Energy), Adrian Foo (Brooke Bird) and Raj Shan (QBE).

Joyce Gin (Viva Energy).

Robbie Fellowes and Tina Ryan (both Woolworths).

Shaun Mathews and Stephen Mitting (both Cor Cordis).

won the prize for “All the gear but no idea”. Thank you to the prize sponsor CreditorWatch.

A great time was had by everyone, with a delicious lunch and dinner served. Almost everyone on the day left with a prize from the business card drop. It was great to see some new faces and we look to forward to seeing you all again next year. A special thank you to Lou Caldararo and Jeff Hurst for making the day run smoothly.

We would also like to say a HUGE thank you to our sponsors as this event is one that everybody looks forward to every year and without their generosity and support this event would not happen.

And, in no other particular order thank you to our other event sponsors and prize donors: Brooke Bird, ARMA, Finport, Early Trade, Trade Bureaux Australia, Equifax, Robert Half, Prasidium, IODM, Kemps Peterson, QBE, Mercantile CPA, Rodwells, Collect AU, Ampac, SV Partners, Cor Codis, CreditorWatch, SPK Glass & Aluminium, Scalzo Foods, Vince and Associates, Cashflow Finance, Drake International, CJG Advisory and Atradius.

The Australian Institute of Credit Management welcomes our Partners for 2020.

National Partners

Trusted Insights. Responsible Decisions.

Divisional Partners

CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Official Division Supporting Sponsors

Our National, Divisional and Professional Partners support and work with the AICM to promote the Institute’s activities, represent the Credit Industry and develop the careers of all Credit Professionals. As these organisations support your Institute and your Industry please consider them when you require assistance.