Get ready.

The Top Executive Conference (TOPEX) is back.

There is an exciting line up of speakers and this week, we introduce two speakers, Michael Nacola and Craig Sims

The Fiji Commerce & Employers Federation (FCEF) organised TOPEX conference is scheduled for May 28 to 29 at the Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa on Denarau.

Mr Nacola is the Managing Director of BSP Life, a leading life and health insurer in Fiji.

Michael Nacola TOPEX topics
At the conference, Mr Nacola will speak on the Corporate health and wellbeing for 2030, living the full life.

“As we know through the last 12 to 14 months since COVID has hit Fiji.

“It’s basically caused a lot of instability within the country, within the economy, within our work places and corporate health and well being has come to the floor as one of the very important areas that we need to think about in terms of looking after our people that they are able to adjust through the challenges we are facing.”

Experience
He has over 15 years Executive experience with large corporate entities in Fiji with international reach.

He has specific experience in Distribution, Marketing, Strategy, Human Resources and Business Transformation.

He attained his Bachelor of Management Studies and Master of Management Studies from the University of Waikato in New Zealand and completed a Diploma in Airline Management with IATA in Switzerland and attended Executive Management programs at Insead in France and Singapore.

He currently serves on the Boards of BSP Life, BSP Health, BSP Finance, Suva Private Hospital Pte Limited, Future Farms Pte Limited, Oceania Hospitals Pte Limited, Richmond Pte Limited and RB Patel Group Limited. He previously served on the Boards of Tourism Fiji and the South Pacific Tourism Organisation.

He is passionate about people-centred strategies that are intrinsically tied to sustainable business success and is a strong advocate of nurturing local talent.

He is also actively engaged in rural development programs, particularly on youth empowerment and early-childhood education.

Michael advocates wellness with a special interest in rugby, golf, and swimming.

Craig Sims
Mr Sims is the Asco Motors chief executive officer.

He will give an overview of:
– 2019 how they are tracking,
– 2020 what happened with COVID,
– what the impacts were,
– what lessons they’ve learnt,
– 2021 what they are doing going forward as a business and
– importantly how they can work together and
– what they need to keep on investing and growing in Fiji.

Background
He is an Australian with Sri Lankan Heritage and has been living in Fiji since 2015.

He grew up in Brisbane and completed his Bachelor of Commerce / Economics at the University of Queensland before moving to Canberra, to work at the Auditor General’s Office.

Following this, he then moved to Perth to work as a Chartered Accountant, before moving back home to Brisbane in 2008.

Whilst in Brisbane, Craig commenced work with Toyota Tsusho South Pacific Holdings (TTSPH), the holding company for Toyota in the South Pacific. From 2008 until 2014, Craig was the Internal Audit Manager for the Group and travelled extensively to visit the operations of the seven countries under TTSPH (Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga).

Whilst in Brisbane, Craig completed his CPA, CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) and MBA at the University of Queensland.

In 2015, Craig received an opportunity to lead a newly formed Branch of TTSPH in Fiji and moved across in May 2015.

In 2016, Craig was appointed as CEO / Director of Toyota Tsusho (South Sea) Limited and maintains responsibility for the Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga operations.

Mr Sims lives in Fiji with his Wife, Elizabeth, and his two sons aged 9 and 3.

His hobbies are reading both fiction and non-fiction books, travelling, spending time with his family, travelling around Fiji and playing video games (badly).

He has travelled to a number of the associated Toyota companies in Australia, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Eastern Europe to study their best practices and seek to implement specific aspects.

He cannot wait for the borders to re-open so he can firstly see his extended family in Australia again, but also to visit all the countries around the Pacific again.

Mr Sims says his focus for Asco Motors is on the following five key areas:

1) Improving the employee satisfaction for his team and increasing communication between Management and the team.

2) Improving Customer Satisfaction – Knowing that we do and will make mistakes, but how we learn and improve from these is important.

Also noting the importance of understanding and obtaining the Customers Voice and acting.

3) Branding the business as the number one automotive company in the region, by focusing on Excellent Customer Service to match the well-known products.

4) Improving the balance of female participation at a within the business.

By its nature, the automotive industry is largely a male environment, but we are seeking to change this.

5) Innovating – The automotive industry is facing a radical change due to digitalisation and we need to keep on innovating and moving forward.

As the TTSPH Group we are looking at how we can modernize and improve.

It is a very exciting time now and for the next five years.

Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj