Parth Patel

Parth Patel grew up in Gujarat, India and he's now working his dream job in Rotorua.

Parth credits his success on the work experience he's gained since completing a Graduate Diploma in Supply Chain Management at Waikato Management School.

Now Parth now works as a procurement coordinator for Bidfood NZ, a multinational food service provider company corporation based in Rotorua that specialises in dry, chilled, frozen and fresh foods. Prior to this job, he worked in various supply chain roles within New Zealand supermarkets, including inventory manager, warehouse operations manager and buyer.

“I'm living my dream and one day hope to come back to the University of Waikato for a further qualification," says Parth. “I hope I can inspire other international students and help them believe they can achieve their dreams too.”

Before coming to New Zealand, Parth did a commerce degree (auditing and finance) at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in India and then started up his own small business.

That interest soon turned into a passion, and he started to think about furthering his knowledge of supply chain and logistics.

“I started searching for institutions providing supply chain courses, and after thorough research, the University of Waikato stood out to me,” says Parth.

“Knowing that Waikato Management School is a top management school and the University of Waikato is in the top 500 universities in the world, I decided to apply and turn my dream into reality.”

Parth began his studies at Waikato in July 2018, and completed his one-year graduate diploma in Supply Chain Management in July 2019.

“The anxiety of being exposed to a whole new education system just vanished when I attended my first lecture. What an experience! Every lecture was worth attending and they were the most interactive sessions I have ever had in my entire academic career.”

Parth says his favourite lecturer was Dr Cecile L'Hermitte, a senior lecturer in supply chain management, and her influence has made a great impact on his career to date.

The University’s campus acted as Parth’s second home. “I met heaps of people from different cultures and got to know them well, some have even become life-long friends,” he says.

During his studies, Parth also worked part-time at a PaknSave supermarket, where he was offered the position of inventory manager after graduating. This gave him sole responsibility for around $3.5m of store inventory, and providing accurate data reports to ensure optimum forecasting of stock levels.

That gave him the kick-start he needed to explore his supply chain career further.