Andrew Potter, Group Managing Director
Andrew’s mission is to do work that matters. For the past 30 years, he’s been inspiring his team and building client relationships by fostering growth and innovation that’s grounded by solid strategies and sales results. Having worked both in agency and client side, Andrew’s sales and retail experience has helped some of the worlds’ biggest brands get the cut-through they need to activate their brands where it matters most. As CPM’s Group Managing Director, he oversees all operations, leading the culture and encouraging innovative thinking that advances on every front.
Specialties: Growing people, brands, and outsourced sales strategies for retail, telecommunications, energy, education, FMCG, and consumer electronics sectors. Direct sales, contact centre, field marketing, retail activation, and merchandising and assisted selling.
Paul Crummy, Direct Sales Managing Director
Paul’s speciality is linking consumer engagement to sales outcomes. He leads integrated project teams from vision setting to delivery, developing solutions that create impact for our clients and their customers. His career has touched on all aspects of sales management and channel distribution strategies involving direct sales, B2C, B2B, contact centre and retail activation. Paul’s long standing partnerships with some of the country’s biggest organisations are evidence of his team’s success and the delivery of continuous successful sales initiatives.
Specialties: Covers B2B and B2C industries including telecommunications, gas and electricity across multiple channels such as outsourced sales, field marketing, contact centre, field sales, and retail. SME specialist.
Nabih Awad, Retail Safari Managing Director
A natural collaborator, Nabs jointly finds solutions that transform retail landscapes. Leading initiatives of strategy, sales and merchandising operations, he’s a key driver in helping clients strengthen their brands and generate sales. Nabs works in partnership with our clients to develop insights, strategies and ideas that ensure success of their marketing and sales efforts. He’s assisted many large organisations drive sales with a healthy return on investment. With his significant retail expertise across in-field management, merchandising operations, Nabs makes it easy for clients to connect directly with their customers.
Specialties: Retail merchandising, mystery shopping, field marketing, and field sales across consumer electronics, technology, financial services, FMCG, and telecommunications.
Cath Upham, Director Commercial, Capability & Talent
Cath achieves success on every program she touches. She excels at creating relationships and developing solutions that makes a difference. Cath develops and oversees training programs, works on new business pursuits, develops and oversees training programs, manages our HR & recruitment teams, and contributes to internal development initiatives. An industrial relations advocate by training, Cath is committed to organisational transformation through growing people. To ensure CPM is best equipped at working together to solve clients’ needs, she plays an integral role in building our teams’ skills and culture.
Specialties: Covering outsourced learning and development needs for industries including telecommunications, gas & electricity, and FMCG across multiple channels such as sales training, retail training, and contact centre training. SME specialist working in both corporate and private sectors.
Stephen Shipperlee, Chief Financial Officer
With an active role in the continued growth of CPM, Stephen digs deep into all facets of our business. He’s responsible for leading and overseeing the entire commercial finance function within the firm. As our in-house strategic financial expert, he influences continuous improvement by driving commercial, cost leadership, and financial strategies. CA qualified, Stephen has over 15 years’ experience in the finance retail sector and is responsible for the overall management of group compliance, financial integrity, financial risk management, and international reporting for the Australia finance team as well as overseeing financial management for CPM South Asia. As a key member of the senior executive team, he works closely with senior management and our global stakeholders to ensure profitability and long term success for the business.
Specialties: Group compliance, financial integrity, financial risk management, international reporting management within the retail, construction, and financial services sectors.
Sarah Strachan, Group Account Director
Gained from over a decade of experience, Sarah is a tireless advocate for making programs come to life. With an intimate knowledge of the contact centre industry and her high level of analytical understanding, her ability to manage client programs is second to none. Sarah ensures that each and every client benefits from our powerful talent pool, established training programs, and cutting edge reporting. She’s a big believer that all knowledge is power and works hard to ensure that our category experts are having quality conversations with consumers at the point-of-purchase influencing their buying decisions.
Specialties: Contact centre, customer service, field marketing and outsourced sales covering B2B and B2C industries including telecommunications, utilities, business services and FMCG.
Scott James, General Manager Sales
A natural collaborator, Scott thrives on connecting the dots between sales objectives and results. His sales philosophy is straightforward. He believes that selling is about delivering the right information to the right person at the right time. For the past 10 years, his clear-cut approach has been helping brands define their optimum points of influence. Scott’s been making it easy for clients to define and articulate their business strategies by generating sales and building lasting connections with their consumers.
Specialties: SME specialist, leading B2B & B2C outsourced sales program, direct sales, field sales programs for energy, telecommunications, insurance and financial services industries.
Cara Berthot-Craig, Group Account Director
Cara is a tireless advocate for making sales and marketing campaigns come to life. Her ability to manage large national teams are second to none. Cara ensures that each and every client benefits from our powerful talent pool, established retailer relationships and cutting-edge reporting. She’s a big believer that all knowledge is power and works hard to ensure that our category experts optimise their daily retail interactions to ensure brands/products are visible at the point-of-purchase with the ultimate view of influencing Australians’ buying decisions. Backed by over 15 years of experience, Cara builds relevant strategies that drive sales in Australia’s retail universe.
Specialties: Retail marketing & sales, merchandising, field marketing, across consumer electronics, financial services, technology, FMCG, and telecommunications.
Laura McGrath, Group Account Director
As someone who leaves nothing to chance, Laura is known for her strategic thinking, advanced preparation, and agility to deal with all kinds of scenarios, opportunities and challenges. Laura has been managing field marketing and local area marketing programs across Europe and Australia for over 10 years. She believes in equipping our field teams with the right skills and knowledge they need to be successful in driving sales, brand awareness, and excellence in execution, all while providing a healthy return on investment and growth.
Specialties: Covering B2B and B2C industries including healthcare, FMCG, consumer electronics and telecommunications across multiple channels such as field marketing, local area marketing, merchandising, mystery shopping and event planning.
James Aguilar, Group Account Director
Focused on developing and implementing strategies that deliver results, James’ passion lies in developing and leading effective teams in providing a compelling customer experience within the consumer retail space. Recognised for possessing a solid understanding of business and an interest in working with both strategic and unexpected responses needed for changing trends in the marketplace, he has a strong background in Strategic Management, Sales, and Marketing Development. Identifying opportunities and building on results based on solid relationship/stakeholder engagement with sound commercial awareness.
Specialties: Retail marketing & sales, merchandising, field marketing and eCommerce across consumer electronics, technology, and health.
Mariluz Restrepo, Insights & Marketing Director
With an insatiable curiosity to understand latest consumer trends, Mariluz seeks out insights to help clients form strategies to strengthen brands and generate sales. Originally from Colombia, she has 20 years’ experience on both the client and agency side. At CPM, Mariluz is the leading in-house expert on digital marketing, customer experience, omni-channel retail, consumer behaviour and trends affecting the shopping space. As our noted retail authority, Mariluz leads CPM’s marketing strategy and research as well as a key collaborator involving thought leadership initiatives. Her research covers retail-oriented topics such as retail forecasting, trends and consumer shopping habits, as well as customer experience best practices.
Specialties: Leading strategy, research, customer experience, marketing and communications for retail, consumer electronics, telecommunications, and consumer goods.
Jobin Philip, Group IT & Analytics Director
A seasoned technology leader with more than 16 years’ experience leading highly productive IT teams across supply chain, retail and logistics. Over the years, Jobin has successfully transformed technology divisions, implemented technology roadmaps, improved productivity levels, and delivered innovative solutions to business problems. He has delivered outstanding results within complex environments and achieved very challenging goals. To ensure the success of our clients’ programs, Jobin makes sure that the best technology enablement is available throughout the business. He also helps clients to drive sales results and efficiencies through insights and data driven decision making.
Specialties: Application development, security, cloud transformations, solution delivery, IT strategy & operations, insights & analytics, project management.
Jessica Ferlazzo, Head of Partnerships
Bringing over a decade of diverse expertise, seamlessly blending strategic vision with client-centric execution. With a keen focus on nurturing partnerships, she ensures clients benefit from our top-tier talent and solutions. Adept at empowering teams, Jessica fosters collaboration internally and externally, driving growth and success together.
Specialties: Strategic partnerships, client management, bid proposals, commercial discussions, business services, contact centre & FMCG industries.
Emir Montazer, Head of HR
As a generalist HR Manager, Emir establishes a talent framework and pipeline to support strategy and growth at CPM. With a Master in HR & Law, Emir aligns people strategies with the goals of CPM to achieve best outcomes through efficient people management, fulfilling work cultures and implementing best business practices. Emir is passionate about analysing complex problems, determining facts, creating solutions, and implementing strategic plans. Understanding the areas of risk arising under laws that govern Australian workplaces, Emir works closely with senior management at CPM by keeping them up to date on legislative and regulatory changes that will influence CPM’s risks, rights, and responsibilities.
Specialties: Human Resources Management, Talent Acquisition, Employment Law, Employee Relations, Performance Management, Dispute Resolution, Culture Development, Employee Engagement, Work Health & Safety, and Workers Compensation.
Biljana Smith, Head of Capability and Compliance
With an extensive track record spanning over two decades in sales, merchandising, and contact centre fields, Biljana is a seasoned and hands-on Learning and Development Manager responsible for managing a dynamic team of facilitators and designers across retail and contact centre environments. Over the last decade, Biljana’s unwavering commitment to continuous improvement and the delivery of quality customer experiences has been instrumental in establishing and upholding Quality Assurance standards and processes for our clients. Her profound expertise extends to certification as an ISO 9001 auditor, showcasing her dedication to ensuring the highest standards of quality in every aspect of our operations. A distinctive aspect of Biljana’s professional journey is her fervent passion for coaching and nurturing future leaders. This commitment has led her to oversee Learning and Development projects not only in Australia but also across the Asia Pacific region.
Specialties: Retail sales and merchandising, contact centre, telecommunications, technology, utilities, FMCG, auditing and quality assurance.
Ravi Jani, Financial Controller
As a qualified CPA with over 10 years of experience, Ravi possess a robust understanding of financial principles and regulatory guidelines. Proficient in accounting software and advanced Excel, he is detail-oriented with strong problem-solving skills. His key role serves as a bridge between the finance department and the broader business, empowering client service teams with accurate financial insights. He believes in facilitating sound decisions that create win-win situations for clients and our organisation, making a meaningful contribution to overall success.
Specialities: Financial modelling and analysis, financial reporting, budgeting and forecasting, working capital management, cross functional collaboration, product and service costing, variance analysis.
