Page 34 - Packaging News Magazine Sep-Oct 2019

34
PEOPLE IN PACKAGING
NADIA TAYLOR www.packagingnews.com.au
September-October 2019
Love among the potato
chips... and other stories
Nadia Taylor, co-founder and director of Australia’s most successful packaging and processing OEM, tna solutions, is a well-known and respected figure in Australia’s packaging industry and has been widely recognised for her business success and philanthropic initiatives. Lindy Hughson had the privilege of unpacking her story on this page.
NADIA Taylor emigrated from Egypt in the 1960s, and a series of early career moves saw her find her way into the snacks in- dustry, working at Arnott’s Snack Foods for a decade. It was here she met her husband and soon-to-be business part- ner Alf Taylor (it was love among the po- tato chips, she tells me) and where she
had the idea to start their business.
“After ten years, I was at a crossroads, choosing between continuing with a job I loved or fulfilling a desire to do something rewarding and purposeful. I had the expe- rience, but I wanted to explore what I could do with it. tna is the result of Alf’s engi- neering expertise, my passion for the in- dustry and our aspiration to create some-
thing meaningful together,” she says.
LEFT: Nadia Taylor, co-founder
and director, tna solutions.
ABOVE: Prime Minister Scott Morrison honours Nadia and Alf Taylor at the Ethnic Business Awards.
What the duo have created is more than
meaningful – it’s downright admirable. They
have grown the company from two employ-
ees in a kitchen office to 600 in a global enter-
prise, and from zero to a combined revenue in
The Australian-headquartered global business has over 30 sales and support of- fices around the world and more than 14,000 systems installed in over 120 countries.
“What I cherish is a sense of pride to have supported Australia in becoming a signifi- cant player in the global food processing and packaging industry. A couple of Aus- tralians once told me at a packaging trade show, ‘tna has put Australia on the global map’ – and that was the moment it sunk in precisely what we have achieved.”
Proud as she may of the company and its
people, in Nadia’s persona hubris makes way
for humility. She’s acutely aware of the plight
of many less fortunate than herself and has
made it her life’s work to share tna’s success
with communities in need around the world.
Nadia’s efforts to lend support to socially ex-
Another issue close to her heart is ad- vancing women in our industry, and to this end tna has been a strong supporter of PKN’s Women in Packaging initiative.
“In our industry it has been challenging to hire women, particularly in engineering and technical support, so I continuously strive to boost the number of women working in tech- nology-based companies like ours. Both Alf and I feel strongly about women having posi- tions of equality in the industry (we have two daughters). What is also very important is that women are treated with utmost respect, enjoy the same remuneration and benefits, and are presented with equal opportunities for career advancement.”
Nadia tell me that her experience travel- ling globally has shown her that more women are needed at the forefront of global businesses. “I’m often regarded as an ex- ception to the rule and I would like to see that change,” she says. “I think the world needs more women in decision-making roles that are going to be defining in the ad- vancement of humanity itself.”
For young people considering packaging as a career path, Nadia says it’s a fascinat- ing global industry that is evolving rapidly, and presents many opportunities for ad- vancement both in management and engi- neering or technology.
On a person alno te,wh ena sked about the next chapter in her life, Nadia says: “I want to continue to enhance tna’s credentials as a single-source solutions partner; expand our work with lesser privileged children and marginalised communities globally; help and mentor youth, especially young women; and yes... spend some time in the Bahamas!”
It’s clear her journey to date has been re- warding and her path ahead, which will
excess of $2 billion turnover over 35 years.

touch many lives for the better, is imbued with hope of her own making. ■

cluded groups under the aegis of tna’s hu- manitarian programs earned her a member- ship to the Order of Australia in 2019.