You are invited to connect at The Victorian Vernier Society monthly meeting is on Thursday the 13th of May  2021 at Kooyong Tennis Club.

12:30pm for 1pm start

Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club 489 Glenferrie Road, Kooyong.

This is a face to face meeting where food and drinks will be served.

The meeting will close at 3pm.

Chris Stoltz – manufacturing in Bendigo

Chris will provide a brief background about manufacturing in Bendigo and the work of the Fraunhofer initiative

Chris is a graduate in Civil Engineering and a Fellow of Engineers Australia, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Australian Institute of Management. He has been a successful senior manager, CEO and chair of several not-for-profit and private companies, including Boys Town, Sunraysia Rural Water Authority, Royal Flying Doctor Service, Bendigo Hospital and the Victorian Division of Engineers Australia.

He has broad industry experience in engineering, IT, water utilities, agribusiness, manufacturing, not-for-profit organisations and regional development, and is the 2012 Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year.

Chris is currently:

  • Managing Director of Spatial Partners, specialists in engineering and geospatial IT;
  • Professor of Practice in Engineering, La Trobe University;
  • Chair designate of Galaxy Aviation; and
  • Chair of Sacred Heart Mission, St Kilda.

Chris was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in June 2020 for significant service to engineering, and to charitable and emergency medical organisations.

In his university role Chris has been instrumental in setting up the Bendigo Fraunhofer Initiative, also masquerading as Central Victoria Advanced Manufacturing. Chris will explain how he sees this initiative building upon Bendigo’s already strong manufacturing industries to create an even more prosperous sector and, in doing so, create new jobs for Bendigo and Central Victoria.

Josef Stoltz – manufacturing expansion at MSD

Jo has worked in vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing industry for 18 years.  He started out at Intervet in the factory while studying Chemistry at La Trobe in Bendigo.

Following graduation Jo spent 18 months at Bristol Myer Squibb in Noble Park and 12 months with Veolia in the UK.  He returned to Australia and Bendigo in 2007 where he resumed life in Validation at Intervet.

Intervet was taken over by Schering Plough in 2007a and by MSD in 2009 with Jo as Engineering Manager. He has since lead a number of facility expansions – most recently a $20M fermentation facility.

Since 2009 MSD vaccine sales have risen form $15M to $60M AUD and the Bendigo Business has transformed.

MSD manufacture Live and Inactivated Viral and Bacterial Veterinary Vaccines for companion and livestock species.

Our future lies in maintaining our Supply Operational Excellence within a multinational that executes a Product Leadership strategy.

The Vernier Promise!

At Vernier you will:

• Connect and Network with business leaders
• Associate with people who share your interests
• Gain insights and knowledge from authoritive keynote speakers
• Develop and grow your leadership and business prospects
• Promote the sustainability of the Australian manufacturing industry