Romero Sousa Torres

Romero Sousa Torres

Category Lead, Enterprise Services, Procurement and Enterprise Services Aurizon

Romero Torres is a Procurement Category Lead at Aurizon with extensive experience leading strategic procurement, category management, and supplier relationship initiatives within Australia's rail industry. Passionate about leadership, innovation, and artificial intelligence, he helps organisations rethink procurement as a strategic driver of business performance. Romero regularly shares insights on procurement transformation, executive influence, supplier relationship management, and emerging technologies. His long-term mission is to inspire procurement professionals to become more strategic leaders while helping organisations create sustainable value through stronger partnerships, smarter decisions, and continuous innovation.

MAIN CONFERENCE DAY 2 – 20 October 2026, Tuesday

11:20 AM Keynote Panel: How do you redesign your team's ways of working to accommodate four generations with fundamentally different expectations around autonomy, collaboration and career progression to reduce friction and unlock collective performance?

• How do you identify and bridge the gaps between what Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z each need from their working environment — without creating a fragmented team culture that pulls in different directions? 

• How do you redesign workflows, meeting structures and collaboration models so that every generation can contribute at their best, regardless of how they prefer to work? 
• How do you build career progression frameworks that feel meaningful and motivating to a 55-year-old seasoned professional and a 25-year-old early-career hire at the same time? 
• How do you lead a multigenerational team through change — whether that is a new technology, a restructure or a shift in strategy — when each generation responds to change so differently?

2:00 PM 'How To' Roundtable Discussion: Bridging capability gaps across mature and emerging markets

Eight simultaneous roundtables tackling distinct dimensions of capability building across markets with different maturity levels. Attendees will participate in two rounds of discussions across their two chosen topics — beginning with a 30-minute discussion at their first selected roundtable, before moving to a second chosen roundtable for another 30 minute discussion. 

 
To close, each roundtable leader will share 3-minute key takeaways from their discussions with the wider group.

Roundtable 1:  
CORE CAPABILITIES

How to establish a consistent baseline of governance, ethics and sourcing discipline across all APAC markets to build regional coherence without losing local flexibility

Roundtable 2: ADVANCED CAPABILITIES IN MATURE MARKETS

How to accelerate AI, analytics and strategic sourcing capabilities in mature markets like Japan, Singapore and Australia to maximise existing talent investments and sharpen your competitive edge 

Roundtable 3: FOUNDATIONAL CAPABILITY UPLIFT IN EMERGING MARKETS 

How to deliver a structured capability uplift programme for procurement teams in Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia to close the process, digital and supplier development gaps holding these markets back

Speaker: Annie Sachdev, Head of Talent Acquisition, APAC (Medical Segment), Cardinal Health

Roundtable 4: SCALABLE CAPABILITY MODELS

How to build a scalable capability model that works consistently across markets at different maturity levels to reduce duplication and keep every market moving forward together

Speaker: Suman Sharma, Head of People Capability, Wealth & Retail Banking, & Co-Head of AI Learning, Standard Chartered Bank

Roundtable 5: REGIONAL HUBS AS CAPABILITY ENGINES  

How to leverage regional hubs in Singapore, India and Hong Kong as capability development engines to accelerate talent uplift in emerging markets and reduce the cost of building capability market by market

Speaker: Senior representative, KellyOCG


Roundtable 6: DIFFERENTIATED TALENT STRATEGIES BY MARKET MATURITY 

 How to design talent procurement strategies that reflect the maturity, culture and business context of each APAC market to attract, develop and retain the right people for where each market needs to be by 2030

Roundtable 7: How AI is transforming services procurement: Unlocking savings, productivity and better business outcomes

Speaker: Jonathan Winters, Director, Procurement Solutions, International Markets, Allegis Global Solutions


Roundtable 8: BUILDING THE 2030 TOTAL TALENT PIPELINE

 How to identify, develop and retain the next generation of leaders across mature and emerging APAC markets today to build the talent depth and leadership bench strength needed to compete in 2030

Speaker: Romero Torres, Category Lead, Enterprise Services, Procurement and Enterprise Services, Aurizon


Check out the incredible speaker line-up to see who will be joining Romero.

Download The Latest Agenda