New industry experts for Beachheads programme

22 January: Six new high calibre business and industry experts have been recruited to support companies entering New Zealand Trade and Enterprise(NZTE)'s Beachheads programme.

Greg Erman and John Reid have been appointed to the Americas Beachheads Advisory Board. Mr V M Crishna, Philip Michell, Sandeep Tandon and Mr R Ramanan join Chair Pradip Madhavji on an expanded India Beachheads Advisory Board.

The Beachheads programme provides a customised services package that includes input and expertise from experienced industry luminaries in New Zealand and offshore. The advisory boards comprise highly successful local business leaders who have developed a wealth of knowledge and are committed to assisting New Zealand companies to be prepared to go global and to succeed in their target markets. Beachheads advisory board members around the world now include some of the world's leading sector specialists and more are being brought on board as the programme expands.

www.nzte.govt.nz/beachheads

Greg Erman

Greg Erman is an entrepreneur focusing on commercialising technology to decentralise the delivery of healthcare, with a background in electronic commerce and product management engineering. Greg has worked with several organisations in the medical device technologies field and was most recently President and CEO of Renalworld Medical Corporation. In his previous work with Partners Healthcare he drove the development of life-saving technologies including ambulatory ECG monitors and ultrasound brain cancer treatments. Earlier, Greg founded MarketSoft Corporation, an enterprise software company, raising $70m in venture capital and leading the firm to a prominent position in marketing automation. Greg serves on several boards of directors and is a mentor for the MIT Venture Mentoring Service.

John Reid

John Reid has held senior executive positions with several major US multinationals including Colgate Palmolive, Pfizer and W.R.Grace. During 2000-1 he helped launch and then served as CEO of Cityquicker, a website providing lifestyle and personal information for expatriate executives and their families. He has been a Director of the American Chambers of Commerce in Athens and in London and was Vice Chairman of the Australian Grocery Manufacturers' Association in Sydney. Mr Reid is President of the American Friends of Maungatautari and serves on a number of business and community Boards. Born in New Zealand, Dr. Reid has an undergraduate degree in agricultural economics from Massey University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. He has recently been Adjunct Professor at the Stern Business School of NYU.

Mr V M Crishna

V M Crishna is the Managing director Godrej Upstream Ltd and Lawkim India. He is also a director of Naoroji Godrej Centre for Plant Research, a member of the Godrej Family and a board member of Godrej & Boyce the holding company for the group. A graduate in economics from St. Stephen's College, University of Delhi, Mr Crishna handled several major brands, before becoming CEO of Lawkim Ltd. taken over by M/s. Godrej in 1977. In 1991, he formed a joint venture company - Statomat Special Machines, India and went on to be appointed to the Board of Directors, Godrej- GE Appliances in 1993. In 2003, having extended Lawkim's activities to light engineering and IT enabled services he bought out their American partner's call centre business in the US travel vertical.

Mr Philip Michell

Philip Michell is the Director, Country Head and Head of Commodity Trade Finance for ANZ India. He manages ANZ's Merchant Bank, ANZ Capital Private Limited, in Mumbai, India. Philip is responsible for managing the ANZ brand for Merchant Banks activities as well as commodity Trade Finance. He began his banking career with the English Scottish and Australian Bank which later merged with ANZ Bank, to become the ANZ Banking Group Limited. He has held a number of senior management positions, and since 2000 executive roles within ANZ Group. Philip is a Justice of the Peace for South Australia, and the Chairman of the Australia and New Zealand Business Association India. He has a Diploma from the Australia Institute of Bankers.

Mr Sandeep Tandon

Sandeep Tandon is the Group Advisor to Reliance Group of Industries. He has also been advising a number of Reliance Group companies and other industrial houses in India. After pursuing a career in the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax Department), Sandeep quit his government job to study for an L.L.B. from Delhi University. He has been practising in the field of Taxation, Exchange Control and other Corporate Laws since. Sandeep has a Masters in Political Science from Allahabad University (1971). In 1991, he also did a Post Graduate Diploma in International Tax Law at Robert Kennedy University, Switzerland.

Mr R Ramanan

Mr R Ramanan is the Managing Director and CEO of CMC Limited. CMC Ltd. is a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). TCS is one of the world's leading IT Companies and part of the prestigious Tata Group. Ramanan has been associated with TCS since 1981. Apart from being instrumental in turning CMC Limited from a public sector government owned company to a global company, he has led the company in contributing to the growth of nationwide infrastructure. Ramanan is the Chairman of CMC Americas Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMC in the United States. He is on the Board as Director of E2E Serwiz Solutions Limited, a prestigious Tata Enterprise BPO. He has also received national awards for his outstanding achievements and services to the nation. Ramanan has a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai.

ENDS

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