Left to right: Timothy Weale, Mirvac (Highly Commended); Peter Allen, SCCA Chairman and CEO, Scentre Group; Carl Woodward, Scentre Group (Winner); Melissa Prpic, GPT (Highly Commended)

The Shopping Centre Council of Australia (SCCA) is pleased to announce that Mr Carl Woodward, Group Manager Engineering has been awarded the Frank Lowy Fellowship for 2020, becoming the fourth Fellow of the prestigious industry initiative.

For 2020, the judging panel has also awarded three High Commendations, being: Mr Timothy Weale, National Manager, Retail Solutions, Mirvac; Mr Garry Hendrix, Senior Engineer, ISPT and; Ms Melissa Prpic, Head of Digital & Marketing, GPT.

The Frank Lowy Fellowship 2020 evaluated 18 nominees from Blackstone, Dexus, ISPT, JLL, Lendlease, Mirvac, QICGRE, Scentre Group, Stockland, The GPT Group and Vicinity Centres.

Nominees for the Frank Lowy Fellowship 2020 were evaluated by a judging panel comprised of Peter Allen, Chairman of the SCCA and CEO of Scentre Group, along with other SCCA Directors Grant Kelley, CEO of Vicinity Centres; Susan MacDonald, Head of Retail at Mirvac, Sam Curry, General Manager of Retail at ISPT and Tony Doherty, Head of Retail at JLL.

2020 Nominees

Tasha Adam – Marketing Consultant

151 Property

Tasha provided essential strategic support for the 7 national assets within the 151 Property Retail Portfolio during the COVID-19 pandemic. She successfully implemented a framework to re-calibrate marketing investments away from increasing customer dwell time to increase frequency of visitation, customer share of wallet and positive brand attitudes.

Lucy Burnitt – Development Manager, City Retail

Dexus

Lucy is leading the ~$170m retail development of Sydney’s MLC centre. She has successfully navigated challenges including; a heritage listing while under construction, a 55 year lease with the NSW State Government to reopen the Theatre Royal; responding to the diverse needs of incoming tenants and challenging design outcomes to improve amenity and accessibility.

Jonathan Forsyth – Asset Manager

Dexus

Jonathan implemented the installation of solar panelling at Beenleigh Marketplace (Brisbane) which has indicated 47% of the centre daily power for the centre, can be supplied through these panels. He also managed the COVID-19 land tax relief initiative across Dexus’ wider retail business. This included ensuring all property assessments were completed and applications were submitted.

Sharyn Mickhael – Senior Performance Manager – Retail and Funds

Dexus

Sharyn proactively lead some detailed analysis to understand the ‘value-add’ of the Asset and Funds Management business on retail performance. This included evaluating assets performance against publicly available data, which determined Dexus’ ability to add value to investors.

Christopher Varrica – Asset Manager

Dexus

Christopher successfully navigated key capital expenditure projects to future proof COVID-19 impacted retail centres. He has also on-boarded an asset management activity for the Dexus Healthcare portfolio.

Garry Hendrix (Highly Commended) – Senior Engineer

ISPT

Garry secured over $13m in solar PV funding and managed the install of over 5MW of solar power in the last 12 months. In 2016 he committed to the target of installing solar PV at 50% of the ISPT retail portfolio within 5 years. In the next 12 months ISPT will install additional solar across 20 retail properties, resulting in a saving of 10 million kWh of electricity per year. ISPT’s solar PV program is just one of the ways they are future-proofing their buildings and responsibly investing on a low carbon future.

Miri Lackovic – JLL – ISPT Portfolio WA

JLL

Miri has successfully used a disruptive marketing strategy to minimise the community impact during the redevelopment of Forrest Chase, including a 27m augmented reality walk to engage and attract consumers to the CBD.

John Ainsley – Operations Manager Leichhardt Marketplace

JLL

John successfully implemented a waste management strategy for Leichardt Marketplace, which has resulted in a waste diversion rate of 80% after 14 months. He is also working towards creating NABERS ratings for retail waste, in conjunction with NABERS.

Jessica Wilkinson – Senior Research Manager, Lendlease Group Research

Lendlease

Jessica developed a research strategy that is reviewing the key areas of impact from COVID-19 and how these impacts are likely to change retail in the short and long term. The report was shared with the Global Leadership Board and has been used to influence marketing strategies based on the re-opening of centres. It has also been used to inform investors.

Timothy Weale (Highly Commended) – National Manager, Retail Solutions

Mirvac

Timothy led a team, which in 5 days designed, built and onboarded retailers to a bespoke enterprise grade e-commerce marketplace that assisted SMEs across Moonee Ponds Central (Vic), Orion Springfield (QLD), Rhodes Waterside (NSW) and East Village Zetland (NSW) to move their products and services online to combat a steep decline in foot traffic and sales during COVID-19.

Matthew Reed – Senior Property Analyst

QICGRE

Matthew has assisted QICGRE in managing the disruption and volatility that COVID-19 has caused by developing an integrated digital tool which facilitates adaptable modelling for tenant concession management.

Derek Cable – National Parking Experience Manager

Scentre Group

Derek lead in the planning and national deployment of the Westfield+ Membership Programme across Australia and New Zealand from a parking operational perspective. Furthermore, through a data driven approach to reducing customer friction, Derek was able to drive significant improvements in parking NPS results across the Westfield portfolio.

Mathew Clee – Senior Manager – Analytics & Commercial Effectiveness

Scentre Group

Mat oversaw the end to end commercial modelling that shaped the structure of the Westfield+ Membership Programme across Australia and New Zealand. Additionally, Mat demonstrated agility in rapidly modifying Westfield’s Business Intelligence capability for Parking to deliver insights on the impacts of both COVID-19 and Westfield+.

David Brennan – Development Executive

Scentre Group

David displayed strong collaboration and partnership skills to negotiate and deliver an innovative framework for the ongoing development of Coomera Town Centre.

Carl Woodward (Winner) – Group Manager Engineering

Scentre Group

Carl led the development of an innovative digital platform that enabled the launch of Westfield Plus, Digital Gift Card and Westfield Direct. The platform powers content, customer and commerce capabilities across multiple channels. This platform has led to over 500k members, increased gift card purchases and increased advocacy for 590 retailers during COVID-19.

Eliza Hodgson – Customer and Digital Ecosystem Manager

Stockland

Eliza led the development of a number of industry leading campaigns and projects, including through the COVID-19 pandemic. This included a Community Hub project centred around curated digital experiences, on-demand and live-streamed events, communications to keep customers and retailers connected while in shutdown.

Melissa Prpic (Highly Commended) – Head of Digital & Marketing

The GPT Group

Melissa led the development of ‘The Hive” (a centralised customer data platform) and the enhancement of customer sentiment analysis using AI. She developed conceptual ideas into real solutions which are now leading key insights in the business and their retail partners. These projects have assisted in determining the success of marketing campaigns, driven customer focused initiatives and enhanced the customer data profiling at GPT.

Michael Whitehead – Centre Manager – Chadstone

Vicinity Centres

Michael leads a team that has consistently increased MAT, foot traffic and customer satisfaction. He has been instrumental in the creation of Chadstone’s unique experience position and championed the China Engagement Strategy which included partnership with international tourism and trade delegations. During this time Michael has also lead the integration of the hotel’s 200 member team into the precinct.

Read the full media release here.