Judges

Bill Seppelt - Senior Judge
Consultant

Bill commenced full time employment with B. Seppelt & Sons Ltd at Seppelts field in the Barossa Valley as a laboratory assistant. Having graduated from the South Australian Institute of Technology as a Microbiologist and Analytical Chemist, he was transferred to the company’s new packaging centre at Braeside in Victoria where he was Technical Manager for 7 years. On returning to Adelaide in 1978 as National Bottling and Packaging Manager of B Seppelt and Sons Ltd, his experience in managing a packaging operation from a technical perspective changed to a planning, supply and logistics role. Bill's thorough industry experience lead him to become the Packaging Development Manager at Southcorp, where he was involved in the manufacturing perspective of product development for Australia’s largest wine company, working with designers,manufacturers and production personnel at four packaging centres. Bill is a Past Chairman of the SA Division of the Packaging Council and member of the Winemaker’s Federation Packaging Committee. Now retired Bill is partnering a number of exciting packaging development projects.

Associate Professor Margaret Jollands
School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering
RMIT University

Assoc. Prof. Margaret Jollands from RMIT University is Head of Discipline (Chemical Engineering). She lectures in polymers and statics courses and co-ordinates problem based learning courses. Her research interests include sustainability of the polymer industry, polymer recycling, nano composites and mixing.

Emeritus Professor Harry Lovell OAM - F.Inst.Pkg, C.Sc. F.A.I.P., F.I.F.S.T.C.Sc., F.A.I.S.T., CSci
Consultant - Packaging and Food
Technology

With over fifty years of experience in the food industry as a food technologist and microbiologist, Harry has had a keen interest in packaging since the mid 1950’s. As a former Technical Manager with Fisons Ltd, U.K. and Senior Product Development Manager with Cadbury Schweppes, U.K. he swapped industry for education in 1972. This also resulted in industrial consultancy, which has continued to the present day.

A former President of the AIP, he is a keen advocate of education and training and has been actively involved in packaging education and training since 1972 within the U.K and Australian Institutes of Packaging to the present day.

Keith Chessell (FAIP)
Packaging Technical Specialist
Cadbury Pty Ltd

A significant part of Keith's 43 years with both Cottee's, Cadbury Schweppes and now Cadbury has been involved with a wide range of Food, Beverage and Confectionery  packaging and equipment. In his management roles he has also had the opportunity to develop close working relationships with many major suppliers, fully utilising suppliers’ developments and technologies.   

Keith has gained a broad experience and understanding with a wide range of packaging materials including plastics bottles; glass bottles & jars; closures - plastic & metal; labelling - paper patch/wraparound, self adhesive, flexibles; fibreboard cartons and corrugated board.    

Seven years experience in a senior purchasing role provided Keith with a good understanding of commercial, legal and local & international freight & shipping issues.  Project management skills have been an important part of Keith’s roles at Cadbury & Schweppes with the coordination of new product and packaging developments, from the design concept stage through to launch and shipment to customers.  In recent years Keith’s focus has been on environmental aspects of packaging and design developments.     

Keith is currently living in Melbourne having lived and work in Sydney for 20 years.  He is married with 3 children and 5 grandchildren.  For the last 7 years he has balanced his now part time role at Cadbury with his ministry as Pastor of the Canterbury Baptist Church in Melbourne. 

John Davis
Director
Brandspank Pty Ltd

John Davis is the founder of Brandspank, a branding agency and management consultancy specialising in Innovation and Brand Building. John has held senior Marketing and General Management positions with major multinational FMCG companies both locally and internationally. His Global and International experience includes;Heinz - Global Manager Convenience Meals; Mars-Global Co-ordination Dolmio & Pan Asian Strategy MasterFoods; Carnation - Pan European Petfood Rollout Team and various Trans-Tasman roles. Subsequently John also bought, built and sold a successful plastics housewares business branded‘Trend’, competing directly with Décor, Willow, et al. In a consulting capacity John works with numerous larger clients such as MasterFoods, Visy, Heinz, Red Bull, a number of major advertising agencies and more aggressive SME’s. He has worked as a market researcher and in advertising,and is a member of the Australian Society of Certified Practicing Accountants. John has a Post.Grad. in Marketing and has lectured in Marketing Management at Monash/CIT.

Sebastian Giaccotto
Creative Director/ Designer and Partner
Brandism Pty Ltd

Sebastian’s experience in design has been quite diverse over the years with FMCG and corporate identity being his focal point. In 1997 Sebastian together with Hiroshi Kikuchi established their company Brandism (formally ism Graphic Design) to fulfil their dream of servicing any large to small clients who pay importance to strong and successful branding activities. A common high level of service and expertise is also part of that ethos. As a result most of Brandism’s clientele have now become reputable players both nationally and internationally. Brandism is an enthusiastic and passionate brand consultancy with a very strong focus on brand development, management and implementation. The studio is driven to achieve long-term results. It is not only the destination we find important but also the journey we share with our clients.