PMA Australia and New Zealand:
Emerging Leaders Program to unite rising stars of Asia-Pacific produce industry
Hosted by the Produce Marketing Association Australia - New Zealand (PMA A-NZ) in partnership with the PMA Foundation for Industry Talent, and well-renowned business school Thunderbird School of Global Management (TSGM), and sponsored by Monsanto, the ELP offers an intensive knowledge and relationship-building program, designed to increase performance, focus abilities, and equip tomorrow’s leaders with critical management and thinking skills.
Cassia Fergusson, Marketing Manager at Australian fruit distributors N&A Group, is just one of the students joining the inaugural Asia-Pacific program, 22-25 September, 2013 in Auckland, New Zealand.
"It's such an honour to be accepted into the Emerging Leaders Program," Fergusson said, "I had been looking at doing a Masters of Marketing, but the condensed course structure of the ELP is perfect for me and can be applied to my role immediately."
"The best thing about the course will be not just building my knowledge, but gaining the tools to implement what I have learned, within our business."
"I love active learning so being involved in teams over the 3 days will certainly assist my retention of information. I am also particularly excited about the financial component to help me formalise my training in that area" she said.
While the ELP has been customised for its debut in the Asia-Pacific region, it is based on the highly-successful ELP run by the PMA Foundation in the USA. Lukasz Gorajek, Special Projects Manager at Avanti Fresh Produce, participated in the PMA Foundation's Emerging Leaders Program earlier this year:
"I arrived on campus in early March and from my first interactions, I immediately noticed the high calibre of staff and lecturers, and the high calibre of fellow program participants," he said.
"The most beneficial part of my time in Phoenix was easily the business simulation exercise. It not only exposed me to the challenges senior leaders face, but also gave me an increased appreciation of the complexity of their roles and the decisions they are faced with on a regular basis" he added.
According to Michael Worthington, CEO of PMA A-NZ, the Emerging Leaders Program is specially designed to prepare high potential leaders for increasing levels of responsibility.
"This course, run in the USA by the PMA Foundation and TSGM, has been so successful that we felt, with the support of Monsanto, that we just had to bring it to our region."
"It is a proven course design, customised for our industry, and has some really unique elements such as the business simulation component," he said.
The Emerging Leaders Program involves both online course components, and a three-day residential component. It is managed by PMA A-NZ, as part of its initiative to attract, develop and retain talent for the produce industry. For more information, or to apply, visit www.pma-anz.com.