David Abela
Chief Executive Officer
As the CEO of AWH, David leads with a strategic focus on operational excellence, commercial growth and delivering value to Customers. With extensive experience in logistics, business transformation and leadership, David brings a result driven approach that builds high performance teams and drives sustainable success.
Prior to joining AWH, David held senior executive roles at Visy, O-I and Orica including a global role based in Singapore.
David holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons), MBA and GAICD.
Marcus Hill
Chief Financial Officer
Marcus is a strategically minded and commercially driven executive with a pragmatic leadership style. He thrives on leading change in a business through a commercially focused KPI approach supported by robust controls and procedures. Marcus has worked across a number of industry segments including retail, 3PL logistics, manufacturing, and telecommunications.
Prior to joining AWH, Marcus held senior finance and executive operational positions with Myer, Coles, Concept Group and Workwear Group.
Marcus holds a Bachelor of Business and is a CPA.
Mia LaBurniy
General Counsel and Company Secretary
Mia is an accomplished lawyer, governance, risk and compliance and strategy professional. Mia has 12+ years of legal and corporate strategy experience in the entertainment, sports and professional services industries, both nationally and internationally.
Mia has developed skills in diverse areas of law, including Corporate and Commercial, Property, Corporate Governance, Competition and Consumer, Strategic Planning, Risk Management and Dispute Resolution.
Prior to joining AWH, Mia was the Executive Director, Strategy and General Counsel at the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Mia is a Non-Executive Director and the Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee of Red Dust Role Models, a non-for-profit organisation that aspires to improve the lives of Indigenous youth.
Mia is also AWH's Company Secretary, and also the Company Secretary of IWD Pty Ltd an AWH associated company.
John Ward
National Operations General Manager
John Ward has worked in a diverse range of industries and roles ranging from electrical contracting, where he managed his own business, to National Operation/Marketing Manager for a large whitegoods service manufacture overseeing 15 Regional sites. John was also the General Manager of DP World WA from December 2014 to May 2016, whilst also performing his duties as AWH’s General Manager, Western Region.
During his time at DP World, John was responsible for managing the total resources for the Fremantle terminal to achieve optimum levels of employee productivity, ROI and state based financial profit. These responsibilities were in addition to ensuring customer expectations were exceeded and translating this into a best practice business across all areas.
John has been instrumental in establishing DAFF (Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) and mining related quarantine business within AWH which resulted in a new site being built within the Fremantle Port precinct.
John is also member of the Freight and Logistics Council, Chairman of the Port Carriers Group and a member of the Fremantle Port Taskforce. He has studied extensively, obtaining a Bachelor of Business and an Executive Masters Business Administration (MBA) as part of his studies.
John has been with the company for 23 years, covering a variety of roles and responsibilities. He AWH’s General Manager of Western Operations, being responsible for the day to day management of warehouse, distribution, quarantine, and Port related activities across 4 sites, covering 126,000 square metres of warehouse space. In recognition of John’s deep knowledge of AWH’s business operations and the wool industry, John is also responsible for AWH’s wool innovations and standardisation initiatives.
Marnie Briggs
General Manager Human Resources and Safety
Marnie Briggs is an experienced HR practitioner (CPHR) with broad generalist experience across several diverse industries. After completing a Bachelor of Business (HRM) Marnie engaged in generalist HR roles in aged care and education and complimented this experience with work in recruitment and training, before commencing with AWH in 2013.
Marnie has completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, a Diploma in WHS and is a qualified ICAM lead investigator. Further training includes HR metrics, strategic workforce planning, managing workplace investigations, WHS and risk management, advanced payroll and job evaluation.
Marnie is a business-driven HR professional who cultivates her understanding of AWH’s key objectives and challenges into relevant and effective initiatives for all areas of her responsibility; HR, WHS and Payroll.