Our People - AVC Trading Pty Ltd

AVC Trading: Our people

A division of Wesfarmers since 2007, AVC Trading staff are part of one of the largest, most diverse, oldest, and most successful publicly listed companies in Australia.

We are part of Wesfarmers’ Chemicals, Energy & Fertilisers (WesCEF) division, which operates eight businesses in Australia and employs approximately 1,300 team members. As a group, Wesfarmers employs more than 100,000 people in Australia and New Zealand.

As part of the Wesfarmers family, we strive to create an inclusive work environment, with particular attention to gender balance and the inclusion of Indigenous people. We provide opportunities for our team members to enhance their job performance and develop their careers.

Extensive industry knowledge

Across each of our four business units, AVC Trading is considered a knowledgeable and experienced Australian industry leader.

The AVC Trading leadership group has extensive experience and technical knowledge in the industries our company serves. Between General Manager, David Cooper, Technical Manager, Nigel Jones, and Supply Chain Manager, John Cortese, in 2020 the AVC Trading leadership team has collectively been with the company for 65 years.

David Cooper, General Manager

David joined AVC Trading as General Manager in 2008 and has been in the industrial chemical industry for more than 30 years. Joining the company soon after it was acquired by Wesfarmers, David has overseen an exciting growth period for AVC Trading. Before joining AVC Trading, David was Managing Director, ANZ, for National Starch and Chemical which was a part of ICI previously owned by Unilever. He holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from RMIT.

Lia Maiorino, Senior HSE & Business Improvement Manager

Lia has more than 30 years’ experience in Occupational Health, Safety, Environment and Quality Systems and has spent more than half that time with AVC Trading.

Committed to providing a safe, healthy and sustainable workplace, Lia’s area of responsibility includes compliance with legal and corporate requirements as well as providing leadership, training and advice in sound business practice.

Lia holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) and Diplomas in both Occupational Health and Safety, and Competitive Systems and Practices.

Nigel Jones Technical Manager

Nigel joined AVC Trading as a Senior Technologist in 1997. Over more than two decades with the company Nigel has held many roles, including Technical Services Manager, Business Manager Specialty Products, Market Development Manager. Today, Nigel holds two roles at AVC Trading: Technical Manager for the group, as well as Product Development Manager for our ModWood Technologies division.

John Cortese, Supply Chain Manager

A supply chain management leader, John has devoted more than 30 years to AVC Trading, and even longer to supply chain management, with an emphasis on sea freight and freight trading. John uses his extensive knowledge of sea freight and logistics to manage our large ocean freight operation from Asia to Australia.

John helps manages the movements into Australia of the approximately 20,000 shipping containers for our Shipping Solutions customers and for our own products that we import each year. John leads our sea freight operation, which works with companies that import around 500 containers or more into Australia from Asia on an annual shipping schedule.

Chris Summerville, Business Manager Polymers and Additives

With a double major in Chemistry, Chris started his career in sales for a chemical company in 1996. After joining AVC Trading in 2006, Chris has worked in senior customer focussed roles, and now leads the Sales Team.

Chris has over 20 years Sales and Management experience in the PVC industry, and oversees company sales in excess of 120,000MT of Polymers and Additives annually.

Ian Owens, Commercial Manager

Ian joined AVC Trading in 1987 as a Graduate Accountant. Over the past thirty three years Ian has held many roles within the Finance, IT, and Commercial sectors of the business, and has gained extensive experience and knowledge relating to the procurement and supply chain of imported goods. He holds a Bachelor of Business – Accounting with minors in Law and Marketing.

As Commercial Manager, Ian is responsible for the Procurement, Supply Chain, and Finance groups within AVC Trading.

Paul Pitsillou, International Shipping & Procurement Manager

Paul joined the business in 2002 as Purchasing Manager and since the transition from manufacturing to imports in 2015, he has held the position of International Shipping and Procurement Manager. Paul has extensive shipping knowledge and the ability to develop strategic relationships with many shipping lines, overseas suppliers and freight forwarders. This places him in an excellent position to negotiate and manage the more than 20,000 containers we move annually of own product and containers for Shipping Solutions customers we help with freight facilitation from a number of different ports across Asia into all states of Australia.

Glen Williams, Polymer Additives Manager

Glen joined AVC Trading in 2008 as an Account Manager for polymers and additives. Since that time Glen has merged into other areas of the business which included management of the caustic soda division and is now the Polymer Additives Manager.

Glen had previous experience within the polyethylene rotational moulding and polymer industrial flooring industries. Originally from New Zealand, Glen has resided in Melbourne for over 20 years and has studied Marketing at RMIT Melbourne.

Russella Molina, Account Manager

Russella has worked in the chemicals and plastics industries for over 30 years, originally with Hoechst chemicals in the sales and logistics department.

She joined AVC Trading in 2001 and has worked in a variety of roles across the company including customer service, exports, supply chain and sales. With extensive training in Sales and Marketing, Russella has been an Account Manager since 2014, focusing on polymer and additive sales along with customer engagement.