Dustin has cultivated an award-winning career in franchising through his people centered approach to building winning organizations. With 17 years of excellence in franchising, public speaking, and Board service, he has the unstoppable combination of experience and drive to guide franchise organizations to achieve their full potential.

Dustin’s unique perspective comes as a result from being a franchise owner, franchisor CEO, Global Board member, and Private Equity ownership & acquisition experience.

Peter Snell is a partner in the Franchise Group at Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP, assisting clients to expand their franchise businesses in Canada and around the world. With a unique blend of business law and intellectual property law experience, Peter is well-positioned to address key intellectual property issues and incorporate them into successful strategic planning.

Getting to know his clients and their business is fundamental to Peter’s approach, and his understanding of a client’s business risks and opportunities is a critical component of his effective expansion strategies. He is recognized as a leader in his field by such authorities as Best Lawyers in Canada, Chambers Canada, and Lexpert.

Melissa is Head of the Middle East Intellectual Property Department and ranked as a Thought Leader by Who's Who Legal on Middle East franchising, specialising in acting for international franchisors and master franchisees on their operations. Melissa advises international and regional franchisors, distributors, hotel operators, developers and service providers on their operations in the Middle East and specifically the United Arab Emirates.

She specialises in all forms of strategic and operational franchise, agency, intellectual property, and commercial law governing franchise operations throughout the Gulf and Middle East. Her experience includes franchising and exploitation of intellectual property rights in the fashion & retail, food & beverage, childcare & education, real estate, sporting goods, pharmaceutical, IT services and general retail industries.Melissa is admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland and holds an LLB from the Queensland University of Technology, Australia and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Corporate Governance.

Albert has more than 35 years of franchising experience. His achievements: he and his team have helped over 1400 companies in over 10 Asian countries in franchising & related consulting work; he has built the world’s largest network of franchise consultants network comprising 70+ strategic partners in 50+ nations; he’s a board member at many franchise-related bodies including the World Franchise Council, Asia Pacific Franchise Confederation and the Franchising & Licensing Association Singapore; He’d been awarded numerous awards by various national franchise associations & other organizations, the latest being “Franchise Expert of the Year, 2019 ; he had spoken in 47 nations over 300 occasions; he’d co-authored Developing and Managing a Franchise and contributed to many publications on franchising; He’s the Editor-in-Chief of Asia Franchise & Business Opportunities magazine since 1994.

He has also been invited to judge on several franchise award panels in several countries.

I have been an Educator/Researcher at the UWA Business School since 2014 teaching entrepreneurship, innovation, commercialisation, and small business management in the Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Business, Master of Biotechnology and MBA programs. I completed an ACCA qualification and worked in a private accounting firm, and following this, I obtained an HCIMA qualification in Hotels and Catering Management in Malta/UK.

I remain a keen observer of hotel and tourism development in Western Australia, and my research areas include technology innovation and commercialisation processes, entrepreneurial management, innovation in SMEs and large organisations, policy analysis, public sector administration, and the public focus on tourism. Alongside a professional career that lasted many years, I gained postgraduate degrees and obtained an MBA (2003) and M. Business Innovation (2005) at the UWA Graduate School of Management and a Doctorate in Business Administration (2020) from the University of Western Australia.

Born and raised in Auckland, I am the father of 2 children in their late 20s. My early career was in retail, with the first 20 years spent at Foodtown Supermarkets, ending up as the National Operations Manager. I then held general management positions at Woolworths Supermarkets before spending a few years at The Warehouse. In 2005 my wife and I purchased the Auckland Regional Master Franchise for Cleantastic Commercial Cleaning.

In 2019 I took full ownership of the Franchisor (including the NZ Master Franchise). Since then, I’ve managed to continue to grow and expand the brand into new areas across the country, with the support of a great team. My focus is on the refinement of our system and identifying potential opportunities for our franchisees and support team. This includes continually developing a greater understanding of the franchise model, and what makes a great system. I am a regular attendee at the International Franchise Association (IFA) conference held in the USA annually and other events as travel permits. I’m also currently working towards CFE.

I have proactively worked with NZ government departments over the past few years to ensure our system is compliant, and that as an industry we continue to lift our profile for being so. Being on the Franchise Association of NZ board since 2020, has allowed me to witness the great work that goes on in the background to support franchising in New Zealand

Founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer of retail food franchise, Eagle Boys Pizza. Created and developed a highly successful franchise model, opening over 250 stores throughout Australia, New Zealand and Fiji over a 20 year period. Lead a team of 120 corporate and 4,000 operational staff, with an annual turnover over $200m culminating in a management buy out and the sale of the business to investment banking group NBC Capital in 2007.

Brings diverse business exposure inclusive of strong commercial acumen, strategy, innovation and business transformation and stakeholder engagement experience that has led to a NonExecutive Director and advisory career in retail, franchising, manufacturing and sport with privately owned companies, family business and government owned corporations both within Australian and the USA.

Mark is a Certified Franchise Executive (CFE) and brings over 25 years of senior management experience in franchising and strategic thinking to our team and to your business. This valuable experience ranges across many business models including multi-international companies and local Western Australian systems. Mark has been influential across a number of key industry sectors, including Retail, Manufacturing, Transportation, Childcare, Shipping and Hospitality.

As a growth strategist, Mark specialises in delivering solutions that perhaps haven’t been considered or given enough attention. He brings clarity in determining the way forward and as a natural problem solver he takes a keen interest in teaching clients how to focus on solutions rather than getting caught up in the many day to day challenges that they face. His passion lies in instilling a strong culture of best practice and service excellence with all his clients and stakeholders.

Stewart Germann founded Stewart Germann Law Office (SGL) in 1993 as a boutique law firm at Auckland, New Zealand, specialising in franchising, licensing and business law. SGL is New Zealand’s longest established specialist franchising law firm and Stewart is included in the International Who's Who of Franchise Lawyers 2022.

Stewart Germann has over 40 years’ experience in franchising law and acts for franchisors in New Zealand, Australia, USA and the UK. SGL also act for franchisees and provides legal advice. Stewart has spoken at franchising conferences in New Zealand, Australia, Italy, South Korea and USA and he was on the Board of the Supplier Forum of the International Franchise Association (“IFA”) for 6 years until March 2007.

SGL clients include many of New Zealand’s best known national and international franchise brands and Stewart has extensive franchising contacts worldwide and locally.

Dr Judy Lundy is the MBA Director at the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University. She has a long career in the education, consulting and hospitality sectors and has taught in leading business and hospitality schools in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

Judy’s main research interests are in the field of inclusion and diversity, and she is passionate about using her teaching and research to help build adaptive, inclusive, and sustainable workplaces.

Her aspirations as MBA Director are to help shape future leaders who will transform workplaces to meet the needs of increasingly diverse workforces in a way that embeds care for people and planet. She has a DBA from University of Newcastle, an MBA (HRM) from University of New England and a Bachelor of Adult Education from the University of Canberra.

Nicola joined Stevens & Bolton LLP (the large Surrey based law firm in the UK) in 2011 as a partner and head of franchising. She also leads the Fashion and Luxury practice as well as its ESG team. She is a commercial lawyer specialising in business expansion primarily through franchising and has a particular emphasis on international expansion.

She has in depth experience in advising casual dining and quick service restaurant concepts as well as retail businesses more generally on the scale up of their operations. She has been a member of the Britis Franchise Association’s Quality Standards Committee for many years advising on compliance issues and the promotion of best practice in franchising as well as advising the BFA itself on legal issues.

She is also the director of the American Bar Association's Franchise Forum's international division and a member of the International Bar Association's International Franchising Committee.