About Us
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Partner/Founder
Dave has spent the last 12 years working on Indigenous and minority economic development issues around the world. Prior to founding Big Blue Sky, he was Vice President, International for NANA Development Corporation, a $2.5B Alaska Native company with mining, oil, gas, engineering, construction, government contracting and hospitality development operations in 12 countries and 5 continents. He is a noted expert on supplier diversity having worked with companies such as Apple, Cisco, AT&T, and the U.S. federal government on developing sustainable diverse supplier programs. Dave also founded several Silicon Valley start-ups three of which became successful public companies. He has either led or was a key member of the teams that launched the IBM PC, the Palm Pilot, the Intel Pentium Processor, Adobe Acrobat and Amazon.com. He believes that by enabling access for everyone, the world’s economy can only move forward.
Project Leader, Australia
One of Australia’s leading experts on supplier diversity development, Caroline has a passion for helping small businesses grow. Having worked across a number of industry sectors with both large and small organizations in senior leadership positions in marketing, operational and business development roles, Caroline knows what it takes to move a business from ideas to action. Most recently, she was the Marketing and Relationship Manager and part of the founding team for the Australian Indiginous Minority Supplier Council (Supply Nation), the Commonwealth government’s leading organization for developing Aboriginal business. Her corporate client companies include Qantas, Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, the Department of Defence, Woodside and Wesfarmers. At Big Blue Sky, Caroline is focused on leading the implementation of the company’s Australian business working with Aboriginal suppliers and the corporations, Commonwealth and State governments.
Partner
Partner Phil Collins leads Big Blue Sky’s business and finance services practice. He has over twelve years of diversified financial and operating experience in merchant banking, investment banking, management consulting, corporate finance, and restructuring. Most recently Phil served as a Principal at DCH, LLC, a $400 million private equity firm he co-founded in 2002. He co-founded the Los Angeles investment banking office of US Bancorp Piper Jaffray, the nation's leading growth company investment bank and had primary execution responsibility for the firm's west coast middle market merger and acquisition activities. Phil has also started and sold a highly profitable urban disaster recovery and remediation company which worked closely with the US Army Corps of Engineers and FEMA. Phil has a M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business.
Director of Development
Six university degrees ranging from Applied Sciences to Human Development underscore the intellectual curiosity and academic rigor of Dr. Debra Tufts. Combine that brainpower with 18 years at Apple where she led the Educational Professional Services group, a $900M business and Apple’s largest commercial sector, and you have a powerful combination of management horsepower, entrepreneurial drive and successful business building experience. At Big Blue Sky, Deb leads the thinking and skills development team and is responsible for applying the Company’s advanced organizational design curriculum together with technology platforms that help accelerate how a young business can build capability and achieve sustainable growth.
Advisor
Andrew is currently an advisor to Big Sky Blue and is the former Executive Leader for Corporate Responsibility at Cisco in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Andrew joined Cisco in 1999 to run the Professional Services group in ANZ and moved to Canada in 2003 to head up the Services Division of Cisco. In 2006 he moved back to Australia to head the Presales Engineering of the ANZ Cisco team, he resigned in 2012. He has had management responsibility in many of his previous positions as well as significant experience at the senior levels of Olivetti and Wang. He has also held the role of Company appointed Director and Secretary of the Olivetti Superannuation Fund. Andrew is a former director of Djarragun College, Wangetti TAVEC (Technical and Vocational Education Centre) and founding Director (resigned) of Director Djarragun Enterprises. Andrew has a Bachelor of Business degree and a Masters of Business in IT both from University of Technology, Sydney. He is also an active member of the Industry Advisory Network for the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at University of Technology, Sydney.
Diversity Practice Group Leader
Few people in the world can legitimately claim expertise in supplier diversity program development. But Sandra and Sarah Lyu, Co-Founders of The SanSar Group can. Combined, they have over 20 years direct experience working with federal and state governments, corporations, education and diverse businesses of all sizes in defining, designing and implementing supplier diversity solutions that work.
Sandra Lyu began her supplier diversity career with the U.S. National Minority Supplier Development Council where she was Vice-President of the Northern California chapter. Major supporters included Chevron, Cisco, Union Bank, Pacific Gas and Electric, Robert Half International, Apple and Lockheed Martin. Her duties included development and implementation of training, education and programs designed to increase spending opportunities for certified minority business enterprises. Having worked with both diverse and non-diverse firms has provided Sandra with the unique ability to communicate effectively with individuals of diverse backgrounds.
At Big Blue Sky, Sandra and Sarah lead the diversity practice group which assists government and corporations in supplier diversity process development, program management and accelerating the growth and utilization of diverse businesses within their supply chain.
Diversity Practice Group Leader
Few people in the world can legitimately claim expertise in supplier diversity program development. But Sandra and Sarah Lyu, Co-Founders of The SanSar Group can. Combined, they have over 20 years direct experience working with federal and state governments, corporations, education and diverse businesses of all sizes in defining, designing and implementing supplier diversity solutions that work.
Sarah Lyu has extensive experience in developing new supplier diversity initiatives and revitalizing existing programs for Fortune 500 corporations and their prime suppliers within the public utility (gas, electric and water), pharmaceutical, financial services and technology sectors. She is an expert in the provision of customized solutions that allow companies and government agencies to develop effective supplier diversity process management systems and promote the continuous refinement and evolution of these efforts.
At Big Blue Sky, Sandra and Sarah lead the diversity practice group which assists government and corporations in supplier diversity process development, program management and accelerating the growth and utilization of diverse businesses within their supply chain.