Network with over 200 businesses from across Melbourne’s north and be motivated by successful local businesses. Yarra nominees for the Northern Business Achievement Awards are:
2010 Business
David Markus, Founder and Managing Director of Combo
Combo is located in Nicholson Street, Fitzroy North. They have received many acknowledgements including: the BRW Fast 100 list in 2007, 2008 and 2009, Australian Achiever Awards for Excellence in Customer Service in 2006,2007 and 2008 and Champion of Information Technology at the inaugural Victoria Small Business Champion Awards 2007.
Kane McErvale, Managing Director of Verve Portraits
Verve Portraits head office is located in Marine Parade, Abbotsford. They also have a suite in Swan Street, Richmond. They were recently acknowledged by BRW as the fastest growing family portrait company in Australia with the business growing 70% in 2009.
2010 Young Business Achiever
In late 2009 Lorcan was awarded the Les Toques Blanches Award for Excellence 2009 Gold Medal at the conclusion of an esteemed cooking competition for Australian Apprentice chefs.
Host Councils : City of Whittlesea & City of Yarra.
Guest Speaker: Dr Michael Schaper MAICD, Deputy Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
Michael Schaper was appointed as a Deputy Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in July 2008 for a period of five years.
Dr Schaper brings extensive experience in the area of small business through his previous roles as ACT Small Business Commissioner, Dean of Murdoch University Business School in Western Australia and head of the School of Business at Bond University in Queensland.
A previous president of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand, he has been a member of the board of directors of the International Council for Small Business and has held the foundation professorial chair in Entrepreneurship and Small Business at the University of Newcastle. Prior to this, he was employed as a senior lecturer at Curtin University, responsible for the university’s entrepreneurship degree programs.
Between 2001 and 2003 Dr Schaper held several posts as visiting Professor at the Ecole de Management Lyon, France, and the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. In Australia he has served as an Adjunct Professor at both Curtin University and the University of Canberra.
In addition to his extensive academic career, Dr Schaper has worked as a professional small business advisor and as the owner of a number of new business start-ups.
The author or co-author of eight business management books, he has been a regular columnist in a number of national magazines, newspapers and journals on business issues. He has also worked as a policy advisor to government at both the state and federal level.
Dr Schaper is a member of the ACCC’s enforcement and adjudication committees.
He holds a PhD and a Master of Commerce degree from Curtin University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia.
