Brian McAvoy

Brian is a project management, engineering and supply chain management professional with broad experience in manufacturing, distribution and logistics companies, including global leaders such as GE, Mercury Marine, Bemis and Dunlop Slazenger.

As De Stefano & Co's Head of Protective Security Services, Brian lives and breathes all things related to the Defence Industry Security Program (DISP), supporting our clients by managing the entire DISP process, beginning with the initial gap analysis, all the way through to the submission of final documents and finally, membership attainment and ongoing compliance. Brian is also a Member of the Australian Information Security Association (MAISA).

After graduating from the University of Wisconsin - Madison with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering, Brian joined GE's prestigious Manufacturing Management Program (MMP). This time at GE provided exposure to heavy manufacturing such as locomotives and gas turbines as well as fast-moving consumer goods.

After GE, Brian earned the Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CIPM) certification from the American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS) as a first step toward expanding his career into operations and supply chain management. This led to his first management role with Dunlop Slazenger. As Brian's career progressed he took on roles with increasing responsibility across functions such as sales and operations planning, forecasting, demand planning, procurement, warehousing, distribution and logistics.

Project management has also been a theme throughout the last 20 years, including certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). This has resulted in real-world technology delivery experience, including successful leadership of multiple IT systems implementations and business process overhauls.

Always open to opportunities to learn and grow professionally, Brian has recently graduated from the Defence Teaming Centre's Defence Industry Leadership Program and is actively enrolled in the Diploma of Digital Technologies program at Flinders University.

Outside of work, Brian is a volunteer mentor at the University of Adelaide's ThincLab where he works with start-up and scaling businesses.

Professional expertise and interests:

• Defence Industry Security Program (DISP) membership and accreditation
• Essential 8 compliance
• Project management
• Change management
• Supply chain management
• Interim management
• Strategic planning
• Process improvement and operational excellence
• Business intelligence and analytics
• Grant applications
• Tender responses