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Philip Alexander, CEO, OrderPoint Australia Philip has two decades of experience in media and technology, having held senior strategic, M&A, and operational roles in Europe, Asia and Australia. His background includes managerial and CEO positions with Yahoo!, iBEAM Broadcasting Asia, Chello Broadband, and leading media company VNU in Asia and Europe. Most recently he was Regional Corporate Development Director for Yahoo! in South Asia, a role that included observer board seats at Seek and CarSales. A former Chairman of the Internet Industry Association (IIA) in Australia, he remains a director. He is currently CEO of OrderPoint Australia, a digital media strategy and investment business and also Chairman of online search optimisation and marketing business, E-channel Online. www.orderpoint.com.au |
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Roger Allen, Chairman, Allen & Buckeridge Roger was one of the pioneers of the Australian ICT industry starting with the Computer Power Group where he grew the annual revenue to over $300m and staff to more than 3,000. Roger obtained private equity from News Corporation, through the direct involvement of Rupert Murdoch, prior to taking Computer Power public on the ASX in 1987. He has direct personal experience in selling Australian information technology products and services in the USA, Europe, Asia, as well as Australia. After selling the Computer Power Group Roger commended Angel Investing and has actively invested in over 20 early stage companies. He also co-founded Allen & Buckeridge, a Venture Capital company focused on the ICT industry and has raised $300m which has been invested in over 50 companies. He also served for six years until 1997 as deputy chairman of Austrade and is very well known throughout the information technology industry in Australia and internationally. He was the first chief executive from an Australian company to be elected chairman of the Australian Information Industries Association, has represented Australia at the World Computer Services Forum and was vice-president of the Asia-Pacific industry organisation. He has also served on two advisory councils to the Prime Minister and has chaired state advisory boards in both NSW and Victoria. He has been an adjunct professor in the School of Entrepreneur-ship of Swinburne University and regularly lectures at INSEAD in the School of Entrepreneurship. Roger was recently awarded the 2007 Pearcey Medal for Lifetime Achievement in recognition for his outstanding contribution to the ICT industry. www.a-b.com.au |
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Rob Antulov, Co-Founder & CEO, 3eep Pty Ltd Rob is co-founder and CEO of 3eep Pty Ltd, an Australian social media company. 3eep delivers a suite of technology and commercial solutions for companies wishing to build social media into their existing online businesses, or who wish to build a new social network. 3eep’s focus is on online sporting communities. Rob is currently a Director of AutoChic Pty Ltd and is an investor in a number of early stage technology businesses, and also operates an advisory practice, MediaNext. Until recently Rob was Director of Strategy at Fairfax Media Ltd, responsible for Fairfax’s corporate direction on strategic growth, media convergence and digital expansion. He was a key member of the team that assessed corporate opportunities in media sectors including newspapers, magazines, free-to-air television, digital and traditional radio, online classifieds, Pay TV, datacasting and IPTV. Before Fairfax, Rob was Chief Commercial Officer for Peakhour, a pioneering Internet services company in Australia, directing overall commercial strategy as well as partner relationships. www.3eep.com |
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Mike Cannon-Brookes, CEO & Co-Founder, Atlassian Software Systems Mike is the CEO and co-founder of Atlassian Software Systems, an innovative Australian software company providing team collaboration and project management solutions. Recently recognised as Australia's fastest-growing software company from 2002-2005 by BRW magazine, Atlassian has offices in Sydney and San Francisco catering to over 3000 customers in 55 countries. Prior to Atlassian, Mike founded and successfully sold one other internet startup and served as the Asia Pacific Technology Director of JupiterMedia (NASDAQ:JUPM), an online media company. Mike is also an advisor and investor in HomeThinking, a New York-based company that helps home owners make better informed decisions in choosing a real estate agent. Most recently, Mike was the co-recipient of the 2006 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award. www.atlassian.com |
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Mark Jones, Founder, Filtered Media
Filtered Media was founded by Mark Jones, a technology and business journalist of over 10 years standing. He is the former IT Editor of Fairfax Media’s Australian Financial Review, the country’s leading daily national business newspaper. Mark is also host of The Scoop, a weekly technology business podcast he produces for the AFR and MIS Magazine. The Scoop was recently the number one downloaded business podcast on iTunes Music Store. Mark also conducts video interviews with some of Australia’s leading technology executives, which are published on misaustralia.com. Prior to joining Fairfax, Mark was deputy managing director at IDG Communications in Australia, where he launched Computerworld Live, arguably the first podcast produced by an Australian technology trade media publisher. He also worked at IDG in various editorial roles on publications including Australian Reseller News, Computerworld Australia, and Network World for about 7 years. His IDG years included a stint in San Francisco between 2001-03 as executive news editor at InfoWorld Magazine where he interviewed some of the biggest names in the technology industry such as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell., and Salesforce.com founder and CEO Marc Benioff. Mark began participating in the blogosphere in 2001 while working at InfoWorld, setting up the publication’s first group news blog, TechWatch. He has blogged professionally and personally ever since. Mark’s industry awards include "Winner Best IT Editor 2001" at the Consensus IT Writers Awards. www.filteredmedia.com.au |
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Ron McCulloch, Chairman, VioCorp
Ron McCulloch is an accomplished management professional with over 30 years experience in the development and management of businesses both in Europe and Australia in the areas of hospitality, leisure, radio and internet broadcasting. He is particularly qualified in start up enterprises with an in-depth knowledge in this area of commerce. In many of his ventures Ron has been at the forefront in introducing new and improved technology and initiatives and is known for his commercial insight into strategic planning. Currently Ron is Executive Chairman of Viocorp, a position he has held from 2002.In this role he is responsible for the senior management and strategic direction of Viocorp - an IT company specialising in corporate digital media broadcasting on the web. Prior to that, Ron was owner/director of leading entertainment business Big Beat (Australia) from 1998 to 2006 where he was responsible for the management and operational activities of the company. Ron is currently on the executive committee of both the CBD Licensing Accord and Surry Hills Licensing Accord. www.viocorp.com |
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Nick McNaughton, CEO, Blue Cove Ventures
Nick established Blue Cove ventures in 2007. Nick has a strong heritage in IT Investments and has a long track record of helping to build and grow software and web companies. Prior to founding Blue Cove Ventures he was co-founder of Quivalent Pty Ltd an email and blog marketing company behind www.zookoda.com and www.quivamail.com. In March 2007 Zookoda was sold to www.payperpost the leading marketplace for Consumer Generated Advertising based in Florida, USA. From 2002-2004 he was Director - Asia/ Pacific for Wily Technology www.wilytech.com - Wily Technology provided performance monitoring and management solutions for enterprise java applications. Nick established their presence in the Pacific and helped them to identify, evaluate, mentor and manage their partners in Japan, Korea and Australia. Wily Technology was sold to CA (NYSE: CA) for US$375M in Jan 2006. In 2001-2002 he was VP Strategy for Soulmates Technology. This company provided multi-lingual, multi-currency private-label ASP dating solution for MSN. Nick was instrumental in engineering a trade sale for Soulmates to Interactive Corporation (NASDAQ: IACI) the owner of Match.com for US$24M in April 2002. From 1997-2001 he was Director - Asia / Pacific for Allaire (now owned by ADBE - NASDAQ: ADBE). He was responsible for establishing distribution for Allaire throughout the Pacific. During his tenure Allaire grew globally from US$9M in Revenue (1997) to over US$100M in 2001. In 1998 he participated in Allaire's successful IPO on NASDAQ. From 1993-1996 he was based in Hong Kong as Director - Asia for Claris Corporation (owned by Apple Computer and now called FileMaker, Inc.). Once again he was responsible for the establishment of Claris' distributor and channel network in the region. Nick is also a successful angel investor and business mentor for a number of early stage ventures. Nick has an Honours Degree in Computing in Business from The University Huddersfield in the UK. www.bluecoveventures.net |
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John Murray, General Partner, Technology Venture Partners
John has been involved in the venture capital industry for 16 years in Australia and Asia. He co-founded Technology Venture Partners (TVP) in 1997 with Allan Aaron. TVP is now one of the leading venture firms in the region investing in the IT, communications and new media sectors. John is on the boards of Avega Systems Inc; Cap-xx Ltd; Emotiv Systems Inc; Viator Inc; and ManageSoft Holdings Inc. Past directorships include Intertouch; Security Domain; Integrated Silicon Design; and Flextronics. Previously, John was involved in the start up of the Australian Technology Group in 1993, with responsibility for technology related venture capital investments in the IT and communications sector. Prior to that, he established Bank of America's Asian venture capital business based in Hong Kong. He also spent six years with Bank of America in corporate finance and investment banking roles in the UK and Hong Kong. John is a qualified Chartered Accountant and graduated with honours in Law from the University of Edinburgh. John was Chairman of the Australian Venture Capital Association in 2002, and is a frequent speaker at industry events. www.tvp.com.au |
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Juliet Potter, Director, Autochic.com.au
With a car the second largest purchase decision a woman will ever make, the statistics are undeniably clear. Women now purchase over 60% of all new cars and make the final decisions in 85% of all new car purchases and have more power in automotive than ever before - yet 89% of women still report a negative experience in their dealings in the industry. It's a fact - the "boys club" have found it difficult to adapt and market to their now largest consumer. Enter AutoChic, driven by Juliet Potter who is recognised by Australian women as a "champion" and "pioneer" in feminising the automotive industry. Juliet launched the very first automotive website for women in 2000, (a world's first!) and the first automotive brand and communication initiatives for women to help facilitate change in the automotive industry. No mean feat for a single mother of two who pioneered these changes alone. Juliet and AutoChic have gained regular press in female magazines, contributing and instigating car features as the "industry expert." Juliet also launched the very first Car of the Year Awards for women in 2006. Juliet also has worked with such prestigious brands as eBay Motors, the NRMA, Bridgestone, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Autobarn to ensure they understand just what women want both online and off. www.autochic.com.au |
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David Skellern, CEO, National ICT Australia (NICTA) David is one of Australia's most successful ICT entrepreneurs, with a strong background in research, education, collaboration, and commercialisation. David became interim CEO of NICTA in May 2005 and in February 2006 confirmed a further 3-year appointment as the Chief Executive Officer. In 1997 he co-founded the Radiata group of companies in Australia and the USA, established to commercialise the results of the WLAN research project that he led at Macquarie University in collaboration with CSIRO. Over the next three years he played an integral role in building a successful company with a team of 65 staff. In September 2000 Radiata demonstrated the world's first chip-set implementation of the 54 Mbit/s IEEE 802.11a High-Speed WLAN standard. Radiata was acquired by Cisco Systems, Inc. in 2001, at which time David joined Cisco and subsequently moved to the United States as Technology Director of the Wireless Networking Business Unit. David was appointed to the NICTA board in 2003. In 2007, David was awarded with the CSIRO Tony Benson Award for Individual Achievement in ICT. He was also honoured with an IEEE Fellowship. www.nicta.com.au |
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Professor Michael Vitale, Director, Commercialisation, Monash Asia-Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation Michael is a Professor at Monash University and is affiliated with the Monash Asia-Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation. Michael is an Adjunct Professor at Melbourne Business School and teaches Managing Biotechnology. Michael was Dean and Director of the Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) in 2001 – 2002 and was formerly a Professor in the Centre for Management of IT at the Melbourne Business School and the Foundation Professor of Information Systems and Head of the Information Systems Department at the University of Melbourne. Prior to coming to Australia, he was a Fellow at the Ernst & Young Center for Business Innovation in Boston and an Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His industry experience includes four years as Vice President of Technology and Corporate Services at the Prudential Insurance Company of America. www.monash.edu.au/swc |
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Ian Webster, IRM
Ian has been involved with angel funded tech startups since 1981 when he cofounded Imagineering which went on to list on the ASX. Since then he has been involved in three angel funded stratups that all ended with trade sales. He was principal analyst at www.consult and later ACNielsen during the early years of the internet in Australia. Ian has continued to work as a analyst and advisor to both pre and post startup tech companies. |
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Scott Wilkie, Vice President, Arasor International
Scott is an experienced investment banker and company director. After completing his law degree, Scott moved to the USA and transitioned into financial services, working first at Morgan Stanley then at UBS AG in San Francisco. This allowed Scott to immerse himself in the tech boom that followed, advising on a variety of equity, debt, taxation and derivative strategies. At this time he became an active participant and advisor to the private equity market. Arriving home in Australia in 2001, he held a national role with Credit Suisse until co-founding boutique corporate advisory firm Sierra Capital where he remains a Non-Executive Director. Scott is now Vice President of Arasor International Ltd (ASX:ARR) responsible for the Australian operations as well as global investor and public relations. Scott is currently a Non-Executive Director of a number of companies (both in Australia & the USA) and remains an advisor to the ANZA Tech (the Australian American Technology Alliance). He previously sat on the Board of Directors of the Australia American Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, chairing numerous discussion groups and conferences on venture capital. www.arasor.net |
