Personnel Profiles

Suzee graduated with a Certificate in Hospitality Management from Ryde TAFE in 1982 and embarked on a fast and ambitious career path within International Hotels. Suzee’s abilities were recognised quickly when at just 20 she was appointed Food and Beverage Manager of one of the busiest Corporate Hotels in Australia.

 

Shortly after, Suzee was lured to the world of retail and commercial catering joining Peter Rowland’s Commercial Catering team. During 5 years with Peter, Suzee grew to be senior consultant within the organisation responsible for 10 Corporate Bistro’s and leading special projects such as the development of the National Roadhouse chain “Tucker’s Diners” for Shell.

 

Wanting to hone her General Management skills, Suzee spent the following 5 years pursuing management experience in other areas of retail food management including Training Manager with the Restaurant & Catering Association and Business Development Manager for a major International Foodservice Management Company. It was during this time that Suzee realised that there was a gap in the marketplace in the highly specialised area of retail food consulting.

 

Suzee launched Brain & Poulter in 1988 and since then has worked with over 60 Shopping Centres in the areas of retail food masterplanning, concept development, feasibility studies, operational reviews and retailer training and development.

 

Suzee is a member of the Property Council of Australia, The International Stores Planners Association, The Food Media Club and a regular guest speaker at industry events. In April 2002 Suzee was featured in an 8 week story on successful food retailing on the Channel Nine Small Business Show.

 

Kate graduated with a Certificate in Commercial Cookery from Ryde TAFE, whilst owning and operating restaurants from 1974 to 1989.  She moved into retail in 1989 managing the David Jones food hall at Market Street, and was appointed Food Controller for the David Jones food group nationally.

Kate then moved back across into restaurant management in a 700 seater restaurant at the Rocks in Sydney.  Her next step was with Coles as Merchandise Manager of prepared foods and delicatessen, moving back to David Jones in 2000 to assist David Jones in the master planning and fresh food buying for Food Chain, David Jones’ gourmet stand alone food concept.

In 2001 she also saw the gap in food retail consulting, and set up Food Changes. From 2001 to 2008 she has worked within the development & strategy space with Westfield, QIC, Lend Lease, major retailer space David Jones, Mc Donald’s, Gelatissimo, New Zealand Natural, Sumo Salads, Bay Swiss wholesalers Kallis Bros and CDS and consultancies with Future Food, Wilmot Partnerships & Retail Works.

 

Jane graduated from the prestigious Emily Mack Hospitality College in Melbourne and for the past 18 years has actively pursued a successful career in Venue Catering Operations in both Australia and Asia.

Jane is best known for her time as General manager of food and beverage operations at Melbourne International Airport. During this time, Melbourne International Airport was voted as the best food and beverage offer of any International Airport in the world by AFTA for two consecutive years.

Jane achievements at Melbourne Airport saw her promoted to set-up and operate the entire food and beverage operations at the new International Airport in Kuala Lumpur. This included the planning and preparation associated with Malaysia’s hosting of the Commonwealth games.

On returning to Australia, Jane set-up the back lot catering and function operations for Fox Studios including the complete design, fit out and concept development. Once up and running, Jane was lured to Australia’s Wonderland as Food and Beverage Manager.

 

Jane joined Brain & Poulter in 2000 as General Manager and oversees a team of consultants specifically working with Shopping Centre Managers to increase the yields in Food Court operations throughout Australasia through strategic planning, creative design review, merchandising and retailer development. In 2007 Jane took up the position of State Manager Victoria.

 

Louise holds a Diploma in Hospitality Management and has had a long and successful management career in retail food management.

She has worked for Brain & Poulter for 7 years where her “hands on” ability to assist retailers on practical matters of merchandising their stores, improving their food quality and customer service standards has increased the turnovers at many Food Court outlets around Sydney.

Charles is a passionate foodie with a particular strength in start up strategy and in store marketing of food catering and fresh food tenancies. 

Charles started his “food” career as a Sales Manager at McDonalds in Wyong before joining David Jones as Fresh Food Manager in Market St, Sydney.  In this fast paced, high volume customer service environment, he was responsible for maintaining the high standards of service and merchandise expected at David Jones.

After a break to be Opening Manger at a ready-to-go meals concept store, Charles re-joined David Jones as Foodhall Manager at Bondi Junction.  Charles progressed to Foodhall Controller.  Now responsible for twice the number of staff, Charles ensured that all of this premium retailer’s expectations were met – if not exceeded.  He was seconded to the David Jones Olympic Committee, responsible for the planning and execution of the service strategy to coincide with the Olympic Games in 2000.

Charles moved on to National Fresh Food Buyer and Food Concession Manager and then National Gourmet Food Buyer for David Jones.  During this time, he played a significant role in the refurbishment and opening of 4 Gourmet Foodhalls over a 2 year period - Hay St (Perth), Bondi Junctions (Sydney), Market St (Sydney) and Bourke St (Melbourne).  This included many responsibilities such as layout, design, product selection and advising on store related operational considerations.

While Fresh Food Buyer, Charles was involved in the implementation of Food Standards Code 2002, ensuring that products sold by David Jones and its suppliers were compliant with the legislation.

During this time, Charles also completed an MBA (Major in Marketing) from the University of New England.

Charles later joined Westfield as a Food Development Executive (National).  He was responsible for the creation of specialty food markets within Westfield shopping centres.  This included concept development, design and execution, product and client selection, site selection and rollout plan.  Charles was seconded to Project Advance Food 2006, which involved the development and evolution of the overall food retail offer and product mix across the national shopping centre portfolio.

Charles has been working as a leading food consultant in Sydney and Melbourne since 2005 - the last 3 years with Brain & Poulter.