Diane Tompson CURRICULUM VITAE
Diane Catherine TOMPSON B Ed, Dip Mus, TTC, FRSA, FAICD ,
Education:
2007 Diploma of Company Directors (GAICD)
1991 Bachelor of Education, University of Tasmania (B Ed)
1976 Tasmanian Teaching Certificate (TTC)
1973 Dip Music, Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music (Dip Mus)
Industry Qualifications:
2016 Accredited mentor of the Cherie Blair Foundation
2009 Appointed a Fellow of AICD
2007 Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
2006 Evaluate Marketing Opportunities BSBMKG501A
2006 Developing a Marketing Communication Plan BSBMKG503A
2006 Facilitate and Capitalize on Change BSBMKG510A
(Partial completion of Diploma in Business (Marketing) BSB50701)
2005 Building a Competitive Edge (Department of Economic Development)
2004 Commercial Ready Program (Ausindustry)
2003 Creative Innovative Edge (a program in the art of lean manufacturing)
2003 Cert 1V Frontline Management
2000 Essential Supervision Skills-TCCI
1995 Internal Auditor Training to Auditor Quality Systems
1991 Graduate of the Tasmanian Enterprise Workshop
Awards:
2015 Outstanding Leadership Award
2014 TIAW World of Difference Award
2011 IWEC International Woman Entrepreneur
2009 Gold medal Award AICD (First woman to receive the award)
2005 Tasmanian Telstra Business Woman of the Year
1973 School Music Teacher’s Prize, Tasmania Conservatorium
1970 Advanced Commonwealth Scholarship and Tasmanian Education Studentship
Employment Status:
- Current: Self Employed: Co-owner of the Powercom Group, Wow Floors, Novaris Investments and Novaris Technologies Malaysia
Directorships:
Managing Director The Powercom Group Pty Ltd
Director Novaris Pty Ltd, Novaris Technologies (Malaysia) Sdn Bdn, Powercom Consultants Pty Ltd, Powercom Systems Pty Ltd, Wow Floors
Industry and Government and NFP Boards:
Board Member: WCEI (National) Women Chief of Enterprises International)
IWEC Foundation (International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge)
TIAW (The International Alliance for Women)
Council Member: Tasmanian Division of AICD Council
Current Positions: Past National President, WCEI
Vice President TIAW Regional Commissioner (Asia & Pacific), FCEM
Relevant Past Positions: WCEI (National) President 2008-2010
Chair of the Tasmanian Skills and Learning Authority 2006-2007
Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry 2007-2008
Past Board Member: Skills Tasmania 2007-2008
CSIRO Niche Manufacturing Flagship Advisory Committee (National) 2008-2009
Enterprise Connect Manufacturing Interim Advisory Council (National) May 2008-September 2009
Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry 2007-2008
Family Business Australia FBA 2006-2012
Achievements and Background Information:
- Whilst still a student at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, I tutored music and drama at the Tasmanian Youth Theatre, wrote syllabus, scripts, chose the musical content and performed for ABC production, “Music Around Us”. During this time, I established a student union movement at the conservatorium. I did this to support the development of student concerts as there was little opportunity for the students to present their work to the public and this I believed, provided us with the necessary platform.
- As a specialist High School Music teacher, I co-founded the Geilston Bay High School concert band and I instigated marketing the band to all the feeder schools in the area. I realized that to attract the best music students to the school, we needed to send a clear message to the parents and students of the feeder schools, demonstrating to them that we were serious about providing their children with a positive music education experience. This was extremely successful and it soon transpired that those targeted, chose our school as the preferred option for music education.
1978-1997
- I continued my entrepreneurial journey by establishing a small cottage industry enterprise, “Kit n Kaboodle, where three friends designed and manufactured appliqué kits for enterprising sewers. This achieved several objectives, we met weekly for several years providing us with:
- an opportunity of getting together and keeping sane, (each of us had three children)
- making enough pocket money to spend on our families
- knowledge and experience of running a small business
When we all wished to return to our chosen professions, we sold the company to a Canadian who specialized in taking small ventures and developing them. Sadly, we never knew what happened to ours!
- I resumed specialist music teaching and was elected Treasurer of the Australian Society Music Education, Tasmanian chapter.
1991-2005
In 1991, whilst still engaged in teaching Music, my husband Phillip and I established a partnership, Powercom Consultants. We discovered that it needed more than one person to be involved in the business and so this prompted me to attend night school to learn accountancy. I had just completed a B. Ed and was enrolled in a Masters of Arts but decided that as I had always been interested in running my own enterprise, I wanted to take an active role in any venture that we established and needed to focus on the business, I did not want to be a silent director. It was important for me to have a voice in how the partnership evolved. I relinquished my desire to do an MA and focused on learning skills for the business.
Phillip and I began manufacturing in 1992 calling ourselves Comcel and in after buying out our partners in 1993, began manufacturing as Novaris Pty Ltd. We founded Powercom Consultants Pty Ltd simultaneously with Novaris in the same year.
The first 6 years of the business passed me by in a blur of teaching music, managing a growing enterprise, learning the skills to run the company and trying to organize activities for 3 very active children. By 1995 we had begun to export and had founded a third company Novaris Technologies Pty Ltd.
In 1998, we survived an extreme downtown in the Asian market, (Phillip and I were both proud of our efforts, we managed not to lose any employees in the crisis) and were by now considering how we wanted to expand the capabilities of the company in the future. We had decided that part of our niche was in high quality of products or service and in delivering whole solutions to problems. Despite our Chinese competitors offering product at a much reduced cost to Novaris, we were holding our own in the Australasian market.
It was therefore time to apply for some Industry awards as a way of marketing ourselves which I felt would be at a limited cost to ourselves. I believed that the company was at that time the best kept secret, particularly in our own state, so I became involved in advocacy to see where that would lead.
I made a submission and was successful in Novaris becoming recognized as OPCET Employer of the Year for training, (we also received a national award for training in electrotechnology), the Premier’s Exporter of the Year and the Family Business Australia, First Generation Award. Clearly, we were doing something right and as a result of this recognition for excellence, I was invited to become a member of the Tasmania Training Council (TTAC).
In 2003 we established four companies, two of which have become important divisions of The Powercom Group Pty Ltd. (The Powercom Group was also founded in 2003 to become the umbrella company under which all the other companies sit) Powercom Systems Pty Ltd, Datacall Telemetry and Novaris technologies Malaysia were also founded at this time.
Malaysia had gone through a turbulent period where the Ringgit was tied to the US dollar and when the US currency fell, so too do the Ringgit. In less than 3 months our prices to the customer had risen 40% and made us completely uncompetitive. We decided to be masters of our own destiny, establish manufacturing there and see where that led us. During the first few years, we learned to manage staff from a distance and learned negotiating skills and different styles of management to Australian standards and most important of all, learned to be accepting and respectful of our differences.
2005 Appointed: Tasmanian Manufacturing Industry Council
In 2005, I was appointed to an industry advisory group for manufacturing. This was the first time that a woman had been appointed to their group and for the first time ever I had to indicate a willingness to voice opinions in a completely male dominated environment. Fortunately for me this wasn’t so difficult, for the past 13 years I had been responsible for leadership at management level of predominately men, male engineers, technicians and assemblers. In this instance however, I didn’t know my colleagues and had to establish trust and respect. I have always been grateful to those men for teaching me humility, for giving me enormous confidence and for respecting my opinions.
Awarded: Tasmanian Business Woman of the Year 2005
This award was to have a quite a marked impact on my career.
2006 Appointed: Managing Director: Powercom Group
It was decided that I be given a title for the work that I was undertaking with the group. It was also decided that I would take a less operational role in the company and a General Manager was appointed to oversee all operations.
Appointed: Chair Tasmanian Skills and Learning Authority
It was because of this offer that I realized that often awards can be an indication to others who don’t necessarily know you, that you are competent and worthy of consideration for important roles.
It was during this time that I discovered my lack of knowledge of governance and board management. Although I had a fabulous government team at my disposal including a Departmental Secretary, I felt that to show excellent leadership I had to become better educated in governance so I joined the AICD and undertook their DPD to achieve closing the knowledge gap.
National President-Elect: Women Chiefs of Enterprises International Pty Ltd
Honorary judge: Honor Roll for Women
2007 Appointed: Board of the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce,
The Tasmanian Skills Authority and
SCOPE
Elected: Inaugural President of the Tasmanian Conservatorium Alumni
Chairman of Family Business Australia, Tasmania
Delegate: APEC WLN-Port Douglas
Honorary judge:
Honor Roll for Women
Tasmanian awards for Family Business Australia
2008 Appointed: Advisory board for the CSIRO Niche Manufacturing Flagship
Future Manufacturing Industry Innovation Council and
Enterprise Connect Manufacturing Interim Advisory Board
2008 saw a change of direction for me personally. I became far more involved in manufacturing and was appointed to several national boards. It was an exciting and very valuable experience. I also met leaders in many scientific fields where I learned about the latest methods and newest ideas concerning renewable energy and manufacturing techniques. It always beneficial to listen and to learn from others.
Enterprise Connect
The Advisory Board formulated the policy for this new government initiative. The vision was that manufacturers with a turnover of more than 2M AUD were able to access a diagnostic tool to examine shortfalls in their enterprise processes and make them more efficient. I was able to influence that turnover figure to be reduced to 1.5 M arguing that many regional areas would be unable to access the program.
The Advisory Group met in a different state of Australia for 18 months and a small number of the group were instrumental in writing the policy document.
Elected President: Women Chiefs of Enterprises International (National)
Becoming President of WCEI is without doubt the most difficult job that I have ever faced. Trying to run an organization for my peers was far more difficult than I ever believed possible. I learned an enormous amount during this time and certainly although very stressful at the time, the experience has given me the skills to run efficient board meetings and control difficult situations.
During the time that I was president we rebranded the organization and prepared it for the future.
Elected President: Association of Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Tasmania
Appointed: Inaugural Austrade Women’s Delegation, “Australian Women Business Leader’s Mission to India” 28th Jan – February 2008.
(Travelling with remarkable women like those of the Indian Delegation in 2008 made me realize that I had achieved a great deal but still needed to learn more.)
Honorary judge:
Telstra Business Women of the Year Award
2009 Elected: Council member of the Tasmanian Division of AICD
Appointed: Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors
Honorary judge:
Telstra Business Women of the Year Award, Tas
Leadership Awards and the WA business ICON awards
Delegate APEC WLN-Singapore
2011 Appointed: Regional Commissioner for the Pacific and Asia- FCEM (Les Femmes Chefs d’Entreprises Mondiales)
2012 Appointed: WeConnect Advisory Group
2013 Member: ARC Council for research and development Grants to universities working with businesses.
2014-2016 Delegate: IORA Empowering Women conferences, Malaysia, Seychelles and Indonesia
Telstra Business Awards – Award for Medium Sized Enterprise
2015 Appointed: Foundation board member of IWEC
2015-2016 Appointed: Australian “Expert” for the Coaching and Mentoring Program for Business Women of the Indian Ocean islands. Responsible for writing the program developed into a booklet written in both French and English. Workshops held in all countries over the two years
The project in the Indian Ocean has been in progress for three years with a plan to take Australian women leaders over there next year to help present in more details the 6 modules outlined in the manual. The program grew out of my attendance at the 1st Indian Ocean Rim Women leaders network conference held in KL in 2015. A month later I had a conversation with my friend Aline Wong {and the AMFCE (Mauritian) president of the time Margaret} in Taiwan at the FCEM congress. We decided to embark on the project of mentoring and coaching by Australian women as our FCEM project. Aline arranged through the fabulous Ambassador to the Indian Ocean Islands, Susan Coles, to meet with Natasha Stott Despoja and Julie Bishop and the idea became a reality. I have written and devised the program, my friend Patricia in Mauritius translated it into French. The program is now being run by Scope Global and DFAT throughout the Pacific islands.
The project above has been a labor of love. The money which would normally have been given to the “Australian Expert”, has been put back into the development of the program and has allowed women of the Indian Ocean islands to travel to remote islands to impart their knowledge and skills to those who requested it.
One of my passions has always been in education and began in my youth. I feel I’ve always wanted to impart knowledge to others. When I studied music at the conservatorium I did so knowing that ultimately, I wanted to teach music rather than perform. Of course, in order to teach music there is actually an element of performance, but the spotlight is on the student and that’s how I like it. Seeing a student shine under my tutorship meant a great deal more to me than personal glory.
My passion is in providing the tools to allow female entrepreneurs to be the best that they can be, but the impact of the project has gone beyond my wildest dream. Training and mentoring adults has become something that I really enjoy and I find that it gives me an opportunity to “make a difference” in the outcome of a person’s career and even their family life.
In regard to mentoring, I feel my task is not yet done and I would like to do more work with women in remote islands. (I am an accredited mentor for the Cherie Blair Foundation and the University of Tasmania.)
There is quite a large emphasis on leadership in the program and I personally feel that it is important to stress to entrepreneurs that it is just as important for business owners to show good leadership as it is for corporate women. We should at all times act with honesty and integrity. This is a message that I make repeatedly.
2017 Appointed: As President Elect and First VP TIAW
Achievements
Diane has:
- Jointly established and guided an SME, maintaining its profitability for over 26 years despite the fact that during this time the economy and the business has had several turbulent periods and endured a changing environment.
- Enabled the business to become a leader in the sector for training and in excellence of product and service delivery (I am reliably informed that Novaris is the number one company for lightning and surge protection in Australia and South East Asia and that Powercom Solar is number one in Tasmania for solar systems design and installation.)
- Become extremely competent at good governance and processes essential to the management of a capable and successful company.
- Shown that she is capable of making quick and hard decisions to avoid her company’s demise.
- Become familiar with working across borders both domestically and internationally, managing enterprises in countries with completely opposing styles of leadership.
- Been recognized by her male peers as one who has a sensible opinion and is willing to voice those in quite confronting circumstances.
- Been asked to represent government ministers at both a federal and state level at manufacturing center launches and skills conferences in Tasmania.
- As Chair of the Skills authority, delivered speeches and welcome addresses at various Skills Tasmania events.
- Has become a recognized world leader for women, being recognized as such by the Australian government and international organizations for women.
- Has been involved in formulating policy and making national decisions regarding skills and training and manufacturing in both national and state platforms.
- Has been proactive in helping other women be the “best that they can be”. Not only writing and producing a comprehensive manual written in English and French, but also helping to deliver the program to women of the Indian Ocean Islands over a period of three years.
- Has nominated women for awards both domestically (Telstra awards) and intentionally (TIAW and IWEC)
- Mentored women in business, domestically and internationally.
- Been elected to international boards as a recognition for the work that she has done with female entrepreneurs.
- Produced three successful children with careers and families.
Company Websites:
Vision
The Powercom Group will continue to expand by increasing its global presence through the ethical promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship.
The underpinning strength of the company will remain the high quality of its capabilities, resources and its people.