1. curriculum
vitae KATIE WALLIS
403/ 52 Dow Street
Port Melbourne
VIC 3072
Australia
0402 429 556
DOB: 15.05.1981
MY UNIQUE SELLING POINT:
I am a bright, friendly and confident person who boasts proficient and professional working
abilities. I enjoy being part of a team but also equally efficient at working on my own. I am
committed to achieving a high quality of work and meeting tight deadlines for FMCG companies. I
have had extensive experience in the customer service industry and I am therefore confident in
managing high level projects and achieving overall customer satisfaction.
I believe working in the Packaging industry for 13 years has helped me to achieve these personal
attributes due to the nature of the highly pressured environment. I have gained a great deal of
technical experience in this industry but more so I have excelled in my experience of dealing with
clients all over the world.
In 2010 when I progressed into the role of a team leader, I enjoyed supporting, advising and
managing colleagues and using my experience to train and recruit new team members. I am
looking for a new challenge in this field and always keen to consider new opportunities within my
area of expertise.
WORK EXPERIENCES:
July 2011 to date – Kraft Foods ANZ
October 2010 to July 2011 - IMS Group
In September 2010, I was presented with the opportunity to work for an artwork and pre-press
studio in Australia, IMS Group based in Sydney. The opportunity arose for IMS Group to open a
Melbourne division to service a new client Kraft Foods/Cadbury and I was offered a position as
Account Manager so I relocated to Melbourne in October 2010. Being the onsite Account
Manager for this major client, I soon became engaged with the Category teams and had to learn
quickly about the different functions within the business. I was heavily involved in rolling out this
new process dictated by the head of Marketing Services and believe that due to experience in my
field, made inroads into the overall understanding of the artwork/repro packaging process at Kraft
Foods. I was soon maintaining close working relationships with the Brand Managers of my
categories, Legal, Regulatory, Procurement and R&D Packaging to ensure the process was rolled
out as efficiently as possible. I gained a good understanding of the commercial values and
business objectives of my employer but felt that my responsibilities were inherently with the client.
In July 2011, I was fortunately presented with another opportunity, this time to work directly for
Kraft Foods and so in keeping with my current job role, moved from IMS to Kraft Foods ANZ. .
My roll to date has been to support the Kraft vision through the provision of Project Management
2. for nominated Portfolios, providing project planning, management, consultancy and delivery of
contracted design services, ensuring engagement of strategic design, artwork and print.
Rolling out such an important and necessary cost saving artwork process into Kraft Foods, has
been a massive achievement for me and what seemed like a big mountain to climb in the
beginning, is now something which Kraft Foods have reaped benefits from in terms of
commercials and expertise in all areas of artwork adaptation. I have now taken more of a step
back from the day-to-day role of Account Management and am progressing into a Project
development role. I have most recently executed the launch of our Olympics range across
Confectionary, Snacking and Grocery products, which is Kraft’s biggest activation project for
2012. I am currently involved in new initiatives for the business such as colour harmonisation and
looking at a consistent approach into printing the Cadbury Purple.
2009 to 2010 GMG Services (Sunbranding Solutions Ltd)
Gilchrist Marketing Group is a sub brand of Sunbranding Solutions, an International Brand Design
Packaging Consultancy firm. GMG are a team of 12, based within one of the biggest UK retailers,
ASDA, and I joined as an Account Manager for the Meal Solutions Category. The team fell under
private brand marketing at ASDA and my responsibility was to ensure all packaging for the Meal
Solutions team was produced to a high standard and on time. On a day to day basis, I would
organise and chair pre-artwork meetings in which we discussed all aspects of the product
packaging; from the design, colours, pack formats, cutter guides, and print feasibility. Then
seeing through the life of the artwork from design, approvals, proofing, repro and delivery to print.
The main focus of the team was artwork management and GMG’s online client based asset
management tool aids with this; however due to my extensive background in artwork, repro and
print, I feel I bring more to this type of role and enjoy having technical discussions with printers
and suppliers to ensure they are receiving something more than just a piece of artwork but
something that is print ready with no hidden complications.
Being involved and working within such a big retailer, was incredibly demanding and high
pressured. Everyday, I would communicate with Suppliers, printers, studio contacts, ASDA
marketing, buyers and product managers as well as managing a high volume of work to tight
turnarounds and a fast moving market in order to meet not only ASDA’s demands but the
commercial demands of GMG and Sunbranding Solutions.
During quarter 3 of my employment with Sunbranding, in order to prepare for ASDA’s September
re-launch, I managed 500+ Meal Solutions artworks. The idea of this re-design for Asda was to
give all products across the store a more premium look and feel. Not only did I successfully
participate in the launch of more than 500 products, I was also promoted to Senior Account
Manager. On top of my day to day duties, I managed 11 other team members. I was responsible
for their day to day duties as well as weekly reporting, development within the team and
organising appraisals. Due to the high pressure of this organisation and the workload involved in
the re-design, team moral was of paramount importance. Communication within any team is
crucial, so I would hold weekly meetings to ensure all day to day responsibilities were being met
and workload shared fairly and effectively. Prior to leaving the UK for new challenges overseas, I
was also involved in interviewing and recruiting new team members.
2007 -2009 SGS Ltd
I was employed by Southern Graphics Solutions and worked as part of a team of Account
Managers that dealt with all of the reprographics for Tetrapak packaging – one of the biggest
manufacturers of wax carton drinks. The Tetrapak account internally was split into factories and I
dealt with Germany, France, Serbia and Hungary. Within this role I was fortunate to travel to these
factories, this gave me a greater insight into flexo printing.
In addition to this I was also the main contact for Webtech Ltd. Webtech are a shrink sleeve
printer for large beverage companies such as Coca Cola, Silver Spring, Barr, United Soft Drinks,
Princes etc and outsource their reprographics management to SGS. My role for the Webtech
account was to book in orders and ensure plates were made to specification and despatched
according to Webtech print schedules. The role was predominately technical based and during
these 16 months at SGS I gained a great deal of knowledge in plate making and the flexo print
process in general.
3. 2003 to 2007 Springfield Solutions
I was a Customer Service Representative for 4 years at Springfield Solutions in Hull,
coordinating the ICI Paints Account. My skills and job role included:
Dealing with many different ICI clients and projects. These clients were mainly based in Slough,
Berkshire but my role also included managing projects overseas. My customers at ICI had faith in
my ability to turn their projects around in the most efficient, time and cost effective way. In addition
to maintaining client satisfaction, I also feel it is important to build good relationships with internal
colleagues. I worked daily on requirements for new products for Dulux, Cuprinol and Polycell. I
also had the additional responsibility of managing the workload of my artworking and admin team.
As part of my commitment to my customers, I spent some time based at ICI in Slough, where I
attended meetings, advising of the best time frames, costings and routes for certain projects. I
also took part in team conference calls, I am of the opinion that regular contact leads to overall
better customer satisfaction which is essential.
1998 – 2002 Trident UK
I started work at Trident as an office junior, on a placement as part of my NVQ training scheme.
During my time here, I worked as an assistant Project Manager for the senior staff and after
training I was promoted to Account Manager for the brand Proctor & Gamble working as part of a
team and co-ordinating and managing packaging for products such as Pantene, Head &
Shoulders and Wash & Go.
During my time between leaving Trident and joining Springfield Solutions, I travelled across
America and on my return worked for The East Riding Council and Ideal Standard.
EDUCATION:
GCSE’s at Wolfreton School, Hull:
English BB
Business Studies B
Maths C
Geography C
Law C
Science DD
French D
Drama D
Levels 1,2,3 NVQ at Beverley College passed with distinction.
HNC evening course in Business and Marketing, Hull College.
I have more recently (May 2012) completed a training course in Advanced Project Management
which is part of the recognised PRINCE2 Diploma qualification.
HOBBIES:
I am a keen horse rider and have gained several show/competition awards. I also enjoy playing
tennis and golf.
I own my own property in the UK and have a clean driving license.
