TMA Australia President’s message

I am delighted to be writing to you as the incoming President of TMA Australia. Having been a Director for 3 years, and prior to that a member of the NSW Committee and National Conference Committee, I look forward to the challenge.

I take over the role at a time when the TMA in Australia has never been in better shape. Membership numbers are growing across a diverse community of likeminded individuals committed to corporate renewal. Our conference and event program continues to break new ground and is the market leading program for the Turnaround community in Australia and APAC. In response to what your membership surveys have reported, your TMA Board continues to focus upon thought leadership, the CTP designation, social citizenship with Foodbank, Corporate Law reform programs like Safe Harbour and we continue to advocate to create better alignment with other industry bodies.

Plans for 2020 and Beyond

Your TMA Australia Board met in early December 2019 to discuss our focus to bring a better and stronger organisation for its members. The key focus being around – Membership, Events, Finances, Sponsorship, Education, Partnerships, Communications. We will be sharing with you the plans around each of these, so watch out for updates.

A particular focus of the Board will be our education offerings. Reconising this as an area of critical importance to the TMA we will update you on how we are resetting our position and seek your involvement in the process.

Our annual Conference is TMA Australia’s signature event and is taking place in Sydney on 2-3 September. It is with great pleasure that I announce the Chairs of this year’s event – Jeffrey Largier (Allegro Funds), Nikki Smythe (Herbert Smith Freehills) and Ryan Eagle (KPMG). I refer you to highlights from last year’s event and we are confident of delivering another outstanding conference for our members this year.

We are equally proud of the growing and wide range of events held in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. I look forward to meeting as many of our members at these events throughout the year.

My request to you as members is to please make the effort to attend the events and to get involved in your TMA. The events are of course intended to educate, but they are also designed to promote networking which is at the core of the TMA’s philosophy. Take the opportunity to bring someone along with you, we always welcome guests and prospective members. Apart from events, there are other ways to get involved – submit content for our new TMA Australia website, host an event or contact us with speaker or topic suggestions for us to feature that would be of interest to the membership.

Being part of the TMA will grow not only the TMA, but your own profile as well. Many connections have been made at TMA events that would probably not otherwise have happened – don’t be the one to miss out!

It is of course hard to look forward into 2020 without touching on the wider economic and political environment we find ourselves facing. We all understand that uncertainty is rarely helpful – but as an organisation, we have within our membership the skills and experience to assist Australian businesses navigate through these times. The ability to leverage a network as wide ranging and diverse as we have is a valuable asset that I would encourage you to remember and use. Sharing ideas and experiences will always help and TMA can play a vital role in this for all of our members.

I wish you all a successful and rewarding year.

Carl Gunther
TMA Australia President