Craig James

Chief economist Craig James has a knack for making economics user friendly. He is currently chief economist at CommSec, interpreting ‘big picture’ economic and financial trends for customers, clients and staff. As well as providing presentations to staff and clients and commentaries on financial and economic trends, Craig appears regularly in the electronic and print media. Craig currently does around two to three regular TV crosses a day, ad hoc radio and newspaper interviews and writes regular commentaries as well as presenting to staff, clients and external organisations.

Ashley Fell

Ashley Fell is a social researcher, TEDx speaker and Team Leader of Communications at the internationally recognised McCrindle. As a trends analyst she understands the need to communicate with the emerging generations to effectively engage with them. From her extensive experience in media and communications, Ashley advises on how to achieve cut through in message-saturated times. Her expertise is in how to communicate across generational barriers. With academic qualifications in communications, an ongoing role in deploying and analysing national research studies, and with her position leading the communications strategy at McCrindle, Ashley brings robust, research-based content to her engaging presentations and consulting.

Linda Sharkey

Linda Sharkey is Divisional Director of Self Storage Valuations and Advisory at Cushman and Wakefield. A Certified Practicing Valuer, Chartered Valuation Surveyor and registered Expert Witness, Linda is an expert in valuing self storage assets across Australia and New Zealand.

Working for all major self storage owners and operators, Linda has unique insight into the financial performance of self storage assets, the investment metrics underpinning the current market and the evolving drivers of demand for self storage. Her team is regularly engaged to undertake market research briefs, provide supply & demand studies and assess the feasibility of proposed self storage facilities.

Tony Raunic

A lawyer advising in Local Government, Property and Construction, Wills and Estates, and Self-Storage. The greatest skill Tony offers his clients is his natural ability to present often complex commercial issues in an easy to understand manner. Just as importantly, he quickly grasps the essential details of an enterprise or document, unravelling them in simple and easy to comprehend terms. This is not surprising, given Tony’s diverse career history involving: - 20 years’ experience in property and commercial law - Owning and operating successful legal and financial services businesses Coveted local government insight, serving as an elected councillor and Mayor for several terms. Tony’s approachable manner and friendly disposition has seen him develop a long-standing and loyal client base who seek his help with many issues including: -Statutory and local government authorities for advice on general property, commercial, environment, governance, probity and town planning matters -Developers, vendors and purchasers regarding residential and commercial sales, leases, subdivisions and off-the-plan transactions -Assisting corporates and other entities successfully navigate their dealings with Commonwealth and State Government departments, statutory authorities and local governments.

Darryl King

Darryl is a partner in Jackson Russell’s Business Law team. His areas of legal speciality are mergers and acquisitions, franchising, securities, and general corporate and commercial law. Darryl has over 20 years' experience of advising on, structuring and negotiating commercial transactions across a range of industry sectors. He specialises in contract negotiations, franchising, mergers and acquisitions, derivatives and securities, and general corporate and commercial law. Darryl is focused on providing effective commercial solutions in a New Zealand and international business environment. Darryl works with companies across a range of sectors, including food and beverage, retail, manufacturing, derivatives, business services and import/export sectors. His clients range from privately-held and family-owned business and investors through to subsidiaries of NZX listed companies, private equity owned companies and subsidiaries of multi-national companies. His international experience includes working in the London office of leading global law firm Allen & Overy. Darryl is an active member of the Franchise Association of New Zealand and is a member of the Association's Legislation and Government Liaison committees.

Kevin McGuiness

More than twenty five years of director/executive management experience spanning ASX listed, private and government enterprises.

Kevin has played a key role in securing, negotiating and implementing a number of major property development projects and continues to hold a number of external Board and committee positions across ASX listed, private and Government statutory organisations.

Stephen Boxall

Stephen Boxall, General Manager of Steel Storage, has over 25 years of commercial experience in the construction industry.

Stephen is dedicated to the strategic direction of the business and ensuring Steel Storage consistently delivers the very best solution for every customer.

Holly Taylor

Holly leads the Council's industry development and partnerships work. She focuses on strategic projects and partnerships that build the market for energy management, facilitating engagement with members and stakeholders, and connecting them with all aspects of the Council's programs.

Jes Johansen – Storefriendly CEO

Jes is co-founder and CEO of Storefriendly in Singapore having first started the business in 2011 and selling it in 2015. In that time Storefriendly organically grew to a market share of 15% with 12 branches. In 2015 Jes bought out eight franchisees and sold the business to SingPost as a self-operated business, but in the process retained control of the Storefriendly brand. Storefriendly relaunched the Storefriendly business in Singapore in 2019; this time with a focus on greater technological advancement for customer delight, space efficiency and regulatory compliance. Further, this time around, the focus is not just on operational execution, but also on generating investment returns, hence the choice to change from a franchise backed expansion to an opco/propco style set-up with institutional investors backing acquisition of single user assets in, initially, Singapore and Hong Kong. The deployment of more than $500m in assets will transform the Storefriendly business and bring the unique Storefriendly approach to more people in more markets. Before Storefriendly, Jes was Managing Director of Steel Storage Asia, the Asian operations of the world leader in self-storage building & design. Before that he was Managing Director of Recall UK, a leading records management company. Jes is a Founding Member of the Self Storage Association Asia and holds an MBA from the IMD Business School in Switzerland.

Matt Hill, Storage King

With over ten years’ experience working for Storage King across multiple departments, ranging from managing stores throughout Melbourne and Canberra, to running Storage King’s Support Centre; Matt is currently a Regional Operations Manager, supporting Storage King locations across NSW, SA and Victoria. Matt’s background is in sales, and with more than twenty years’ experience across a range of industries from new and used car sales to furniture and homewares, Matt brings a wealth of knowledge to assist his team of Area Managers and Operations Coaches deliver exceptional results across the region.

Duncan Clarke, Storman

Duncan Clarke is the General Manager of Storman Software with over 30 years’ experience in the software industry, and has previously worked for several blue chip companies such as Oracle and IBM. Duncan has been involved with the self-storage industry since 2015 when he took over the running of Storman software.   He manages Storman across Australia, New Zealand and the UK.  His approachable manner has seen him develop many long-standing relationships with self-storage operators and suppliers alike.

Jim Mullin

Mr. Jim Mullin has over 25 years’ experience in designing decision support systems.  Jim began his career in management science at Decision Focus Incorporated, a consulting firm that was one of the pioneers in using data science for more disciplined and effective business decision-making.

Jim has led operational planning groups at Sun Microsystems, Amazon.com, and Safeway.   His recent work at Veritec Solutions is focused on data analytics to develop new pricing tools for the self-storage industry.  Jim received his MS degree in Operations Research from Stanford University.

Warren Lieberman

Dr. Warren Lieberman is President of Veritec Solutions.  Veritec provides pricing and revenue management software and consulting.

Warren is a well-known expert in non-traditional revenue management, having worked in more than 30 industries.  He works with small self-storage operators and those that own or manage hundreds of stores.  He is a co-inventor on a patent application with Jim Mullin for a dynamic pricing method for self-storage.

Warren has published numerous articles on dynamic pricing/revenue management and has a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Yale University.

Andrew Klein

Virtually an MC Andrew is one of Australia’s leading Professional Conference MCs and a Pitching & Presentation Skills speaker, trainer and writer, working on conferences (back in the ‘good old days’ when OS travel was allowed!!!) around the Asia-Pacific region as well as the US and South Africa. Since March 2020, he now works from his home office or local studios! As an MC, Andrew brings his casual yet corporate style to proceedings and is well-known on the conference circuit for his revealing speaker introductions, his improvisational skills and ability to adapt to different audiences. He is now very comfortable to say he is “Virtually an MC.”

Chuck Gordon

Chuck Gordon, CEO of Storable, is focused on building the leading integrated technology company in self-storage. Chuck originally started SpareFoot with his co-founder Mario Feghali and has since overseen its expansion to become the leading aggregator in storage. In 2018, Chuck helped the company acquire other self-storage tech companies SiteLink and storEDGE and now leads a team of storage loving people toward delivering a comprehensive all-in-one tech solution for self-storage operators.

Keith Edwards

CEO - All Secure Self Storage

The CEO of All Secure Self Storage, Keith has used his considerable business acumen to help All Secure grow into the nationwide company it has become today. Keith is married with two children and began his business career after retiring from the Police Force with the rank of Detective Senior Sergeant.

Following his retirement from the Police, Keith established a leading alarm installation and monitoring company in Lower Hutt. Following the sale of this company to a major multinational company, Keith used his extensive security experience to form All Secure Self Storage in 1999 – and has overseen its subsequent growth into a nationwide company with facilities across New Zealand. Keith has an overriding responsibility for Project Management.

Guy Wilson

Director - Fort Knox Self Storage   Guy Wilson has been involved in the Self Storage industry since 1999, when he joined the family business at their first self storage site in Moorabbin, Melbourne. Since then, Fort Knox has grown rapidly and now have just 10,000 storage units across 10 large facilities throughout Melbourne. Guy is very involved in the day to day management of the business and has worked closely with his team through the COVID-19 daily challenges.

Michael Dogger

Michael has been in the Self Storage industry for more than 8 years. With a background in Electrical Engineering, Finance and Telecommunications, Michael has brought varied experience to innovate the Self Storage Industry. He wrote “RapidStor” – the world’s first online integrated move in procedure for storers that uses SiteLink’s API, used by leading Self Storage companies and the AccessEzy iOS app, a world first for Self Storage access control. Michael is responsible for the development and strategic direction of many Self Storage websites. As the CEO of Centreforce Technology Group, he is responsible for the day to day running of the group. Michael is also the Chief Financial Officer of a US based property investment firm.

Makala Ffrench Castelli

Makala Ffrench Castelli has more than fifteen years’ experience in strategy, marketing communications and corporate affairs.

Makala works creatively and analytically across a range of industries, with significant experience in self storage, property, funds management and the social impact sector. She loves customer-centric businesses and purpose-led brands where experience drives advocacy.

Having held a range of senior roles at National Storage, including General Manager – Marketing and Corporate, and later Strategy and Innovation, Makala now consults to storage industry operators and service providers on growth strategy, marketing and customer experience.

An experienced non-executive director, Makala is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and has also spent more than a decade in board and committee roles in the not-for-profit sector.

Rebecca Smith

Rebecca is Founder and Managing Director of That Comms Co. She has extensive experience in advising executives and boards in Australia and in Europe with their communication needs, and has worked across a range of different businesses and sectors including technology, banking and finance, aviation, education, property, luxury goods, government and food and beverage.

Prior to That Comms Co., Rebecca headed up the communication function of ASX listed Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) where she oversaw its demerger from Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) with outstanding results. Whilst based in Europe she led external communication for Berkshire Hathaway owned NetJets Europe and worked agency side for the likes of Microsoft, BSkyB and Chorion.

Jacqui Scott

Director & Barrier Removal Specialist – The Great Scott Company Before starting her business- The Great Scott Co in 2000, had a background in Customer service, Telephone sales and Sales Management of 30 staff. She has created a Sales Psychology from her experience, that works not only in sales, but leadership and at home - and has helped thousands of people all over NZ and Australia to WOW their customers, communicate better and sell more.