Mentor’s Reflection

By Wendy Bezzina, Startup Gippsland mentor

CEO at Latrobe Valley Enterprises (LVE) managing over 84 people with a disability and a team of supervisors

Wendy Bezzina, Program Mentor 2019

As a CEO at Latrobe Valley Enterprises (LVE), I am fortunate enough to work with over 84 people with a disability and our amazing team of supervisors. The small things in my day like making one of our supported workers smile makes all the bigger things seem inconsequential. I’ve had an extensive career with experience gained through diverse employers and diverse roles, but this one is to date my most rewarding.

“The collaboration with LVE and Avail has evolved from Startup Gippsland’s mentoring program, with both the LVE CEO Wendy Bezzina and In2 Project Management Director Neil Betts being mentors and Neil having partnered with Dave Sayers as his mentor. Neil had worked with LVE on a lean process improvement project and so knew the capabilities of the organisation and the important work LVE do in providing meaningful employment for people with disabilities.

As Dave’s mentor, Neil could see the need for Dave to work more on developing the business and increasing the uptake of his products, but also realised that Dave didn’t have the capacity to do both production and sales. Enter LVE ! Neil and Wendy realised there was an opportunity to have LVE’s teams take on the assembly and packaging freeing up Dave to work on the business instead of in it. So through careful planning with Suzanne Lewis, LVE General Manager Operations, Lauren Healand, Manager Business Support and Mark MacManus LVE Supervisor Recycling & Secure Document Destruction – the LVE teams worked together with the Signmaking team to produce the final product with assembly, packaging and labels all completed by our supported employees.

Wendy Bezzina, Latrobe Valley Enterprises

“It’s such an amazing partnership which has given our employees new skills and challenges and a sense of pride to see the finished product going out to customers homes. It’s a great success for both LVE and Avail!”

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