What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

I have been extremely fortunate to have been involved in a number of key strategic transactions and initiatives over the past year.  This includes  amongst other special projects, the acquisition of MDK on the outskirts of Shanghai, China, to complement Amcor’s healthcare platform and expand its medical devices portfolio; the acquisition of Phoenix Flexibles in Gujarat, India, to expand and support capacity and capabilities primarily as they pertain to food, home and personal care and advanced film technologies; Amcor’s collaboration with Licella and Mondelez and investment in Licella in an effort to support the construction of one of Australia’s first advanced recycling facilities which would recycle end-of-life plastic back into a crude oil substitute suitable to produce new food-grade plastic packaging; Amcor’s investment in Greyparrot (an AI-generated waste analytics company) and Ntinite Nanotechnology (an advanced materials company which leverages smart nanocoatings), each as part of Amcor’s corporate venturing initiatives, to support the scaling of such technologies to enable improved sorting, recycling rates and accountability throughout the waste value chain, and make packaging recyclable and compostable, respectively.

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?  

Based on my experience, there are few core ingredients (which can be explained under different headings yet essentially canvass and traverse the same issues) which are critical for fostering successful collaborations with business partners.  These include:

Understanding what role each party plays and establishing clear goals and expectations around these.  This includes identifying areas and opportunities where each party can contribute beyond the traditionally understood or expected roles.  For example, where can each individual not only leverage their strengths to enable them to discharge their defined role, but also complement other business partners through the sharing of experiences and perspectives (both good and bad) so that the team may see things through different lenses and collectively develop the goals (including must win battles and challenges to be overcome, if any) and strategy from there?

Frequent open communication.  This includes regular check ins (not only work-related, but also on the personal side), providing timely feedback, sharing not only issues and challenges but, more importantly, potential solutions and recommended courses of action for the team to consider and collectively align on the game plan (aka remediation strategy).  Frequent open communication serves to ensure that the partnership remains clear of the roles, goals and expectations (as described above) and are working towards these.  It also helps to clarify potential misunderstandings (and therefore potential breakdowns in trust due to unexpected poor delivery where there was reliance on a party, as well due to changes (however nuanced they may be) in messaging), and allows the partnership to prioritise where it should (or should not) focus its attention.

Mutual trust, respect and understanding.  We’ve all seen and heard actions and words which could be considered as disrespectful.  Whether it’s tone, or content, disrespectful communication is not helpful, and is unwelcome.  Successful partnerships and collaborations, whether in business or otherwise, are built on mutual trust, respect and understanding.  Parties need to feel comfortable with exchanging perspectives, knowledge, ideas, challenges, without fear of ridicule, feeling embarrassed or being shut down.  Parties will only do this if they feel confident enough to share because mutual trust, respect and understanding has been established.  There is no such thing as a bad idea when it comes to establishing trusted business partnerships.  Sure, some ideas may be better than others for reasons which other may respectfully way in to as a result of experience or perspective.  Importantly, however, all thoughts and perspectives should be welcome, and, at the same time, relevant parties should feel comfortable to respectfully propose and stand by their decisions without fear of ridicule or inappropriate challenge.

Preparation.  It’s a saying I often recite, and which I cannot stress anymore the importance of enough: Failing to prepare, is preparing to fail.  Please, please, please come prepared for interactions with your business partners.  Whether it’s formal preparation which demonstrates delivery on expectations and commitments (or which otherwise highlights the reasons why such expectations and commitment cannot be met), or informal preparation (meaning coming with a mindset of expecting the unexpected and therefore not being wedded to a particular idea, ideal or way), preparation is the key to establishing a meaningful, productive and long-standing business partnership.  If this means preparing for the unexpected, then so be it.  Please just be prepared for that applying an open and growth mindful, and always applying the principles of solutions-focus, mutual trust, respect and understanding.

What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?  

I have been opportunistic to mention this in several forums, and will unashamedly mention this as a cause I am deeply passionate about to the Legal 500 community: It is mentoring.  Mentoring relationships whether in a business-related or other context can be extremely valuable.  But the roles need to be well understood and the relationship wanted as opposed to being forced (for example, as part of a tick the box exercise).  For the mentee, having a great mentor entails more than simply setting goals and ticking them off the “completed” list.  Rather, a great mentor will act as a trusted ally and sparring partner by providing both a source of constructive challenge and validation (for example, by helping the mentee to ask the right questions and identify or otherwise construct meaningful solutions to challenges which the mentee has identified, sometimes through trial and error after ascertaining (again, through the right sequence of questioning and sharing of parallel situations) that the challenge which they originally thought they had is not the real issue or challenge).  For the mentor, the relationship is one which should help the mentor to stretch, challenge, refine and develop critical hard and soft skills, including (amongst other critical leadership virtues) patience, the ability to lead from behind and to humbly challenge, the ability to cultivate and maintain a genuine relationship of mutual trust, respect and confidence, and the opportunity to share and exchange knowledge and experience.  This latter exchange often reminds the mentor just how much he or she knows or has experienced, which helps to positively reinforce confidence in the mentor’s own capabilities.  (And, which in turn, can have a positive effect on the mentor’s psychology).  For each of the mentee and mentor, clear communication, organisation and time management are essential ingredients and the relationship provides an incredible opportunity to refine these core skills as it is not only important for both mentee and mentor to come with a growth mindset and open mind; it is equally as important for each to be willing to be prepared and to be willing to learn from each other (which, guaranteed, they will).  If both come prepared whilst at the same time expecting the unexpected (including allowing each other to feel vulnerable through respective sharings, challenges and reassurances) the relationship will surely become both memorable and cathartic and continue to resonate well beyond the formal end (should there be one) of the relationship.