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Roger Allen, Chairman, Allen & Buckeridge Roger Allen, director and co-founder of A&B, has practical credentials directly relevant to the Fund based upon over thirty years as a chief executive of a major Australian IT services company with worldwide operations, then 13 years as an active investor in private companies in the ICT industries. Roger grew shareholder value in Computer Power from $250k in 1978 to $170m in 1995 (at the time of his retirement) and also 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. He 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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Simon Baker, Executive Chairman, Arts Hub Until recently Simon Baker was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the REA Group (ASX: REA; realestate.com.au Ltd and its subsidiaries). He joined realestate.com.au Ltd in 2001 and during his 7.5 years as CEO, the business increased revenues from $4 million to over $155+ million, turned around a loss of $6m to an EBITDA profit of more than $33m, grew staff from 25 to over 750, and increased its market capitalisation from $8 million to $600 million. Today the business operates 22 residential, commercial and holiday rentals sites in 10 countries - Australia, UK, Italy, UAE, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, parts of France and Germany, Belgium and New Zealand. These sites list 1.5m properties from 25,000 paying agents and are viewed by 9m people (UB's) each month. In addition the business publishes 8 print publications and 4 agent office software products. Prior to becoming CEO, Simon was Chief Business Development Officer at News Interactive, was Chief Technology Officer in a US start up and spent five years with McKinsey and Company providing strategic and organisational advice to Senior Management at major Australian and international companies. Simon has recently set up Classified Ad Ventures to focus on investing in and building new businesses in the global online classifieds space. Simon has also invested in early stage businesses including Artshub, 3eep, Redbubble and Homethinking in the US. www.artshub.com.au |
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Clem Doherty, Chairman, Like Minded Individuals Clem Doherty is an angel investor in start-up technology based businesses. He is Chairman of Like Minded Individuals, Roar Film (Roar Educate) & GeoHunter. He is an Advisory Board member of Network Insight and the ABS. Prior appointments include Board roles at Buildsite LLC, Australian Business Foundation, Australian Coalition of Service Industries (ACSI) & Australian Bush Heritage. Prior Advisory Board roles included NOIE (Deputy Chairman), Australian Information Economy Advisory Council & XT3. He was a member of the Australian Government's Higher Education Review Committee and a member of the Knowledge Nation Taskforce. He retired as a Director of McKinsey & Company, where he led the Asia-Pacific Telecommunications, Electronics, Media & Multimedia Sector, was co-leader of the Global Telecommunications Sector and a member of the Asia Pacific Board. He holds a BSc.BE (UNSW) and an MBA from Stanford University. |
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John Dyson, Investment Principal, Starfish Ventures
John Dyson is one of the founders of Starfish Ventures and has played a crucial role in the establishment of the company. John has established a strong network of relationships with the major venture capital participants and financial intermediaries in Australia, as well as fostering relationships with a network of venture capital participants, especially in the USA and Asia. John has personally overseen and managed nearly 20 investments in a range of technologies and industries. John has built a strong reputation in the venture capital Industry by achieving numerous exits for his portfolio companies including a NASDAQ listing, ASX listings and trade sales to local and overseas companies. In May 1995, John was appointed General Manager (Australia) of JAFCO Investment (Asia Pacific). In this role John was responsible for establishing the Australian office, recruiting a team of investment professionals and overseeing investments into 24 companies totalling $95M invested and achieving 19 exits. Prior to joining JAFCO, John worked in the investment banking and stockbroking industry for Schroders, Nomura Securities, KPMG and ANZ McCaughan. John is also a passionate alpine skier and is Chairman of Mount Buller and Mount Stirling Alpine Resort Management Board, which oversees the management of Victoria's largest alpine resort. John is also a co-trustee of the Dyson Bequest, a $15M Charitable Foundation that provides grants to a range of social welfare, education and environmental causes. John holds a Bachelor of Science from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma in Finance and Investment from Securities Institute of Australia, Masters of Business Administration from RMIT University and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. John has been an active participant in the venture capital Industry. From 1997 to 2002, John was a Director of the Australian Venture Capital Association Limited, including Deputy Chairman in 1998 and Chairman in 1999; thereafter Victorian Convenor until 2006. John is currently a Director of Aruspex Pty Ltd, Distra Pty Ltd, iCiX Pty Ltd and Quickcomm Pty Ltd www.starfishvc.com |
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Geoff Elwood, Chief Executive Officer, Etech Group
Geoff Elwood is a visionary global industry leader with over 20 years professional experience in software development, education and training. Known for his limitless energy, drive and passion and his refusal to acknowledge the impossible, Geoff’s innovative client focused technologies and distinctive entrepreneurial skills have earned Etech Group a reputation for excellence in eLearning. Geoff is a master relationship builder and has orchestrated school partnerships in 20 countries, a strategic alliance with Apple Inc (USA), a joint venture with Gould Group for environmental education, and financial business development support from the Tasmanian Government. He has established worldwide operations teams in Australia, Malaysia, Russia, the United Kingdom and the USA. Geoff has gathered a strong management team and has guided Etech Group through significant growth. An advocate of ‘bottom-up’ management and maintaining a positive outlook, Geoff has been the inspiration and driver behind Etech Group’s dynamic, dedicated and positive culture. www.etechgroup.com.au |
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Michael Field, AC. Tasmanian Innovations Advisory Board Chair, ex Premier of Tasmania
Michael Field, AC was Tasmanian Labor leader from 1988 until his retirement in 1996, and was the Premier of Tasmania between 1989 and 1992. Since retiring from politics in 1997, Mr Field has been working as a consultant on leadership. In 2003, Mr Field was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia for his service to the Parliament of Tasmania. Mr Field has received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Tasmania for his service to the state and the university. Michael Field has been chairman of the Tasmanian Innovations Advisory Board since it was established in May 1999 and also chairs the Australian Innovation Research Centre Board. www.tas.gov.au |
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Martin Hosking, Executive Chairman, RedBubble Martin Hosking is an entrepreneur and investor. He is the Chairman of Aconex, the dominant provider of collaboration services to construction and resource projects. He is co-founder and Chairman of RedBubble, the third largest and fastest growing art site in the world, and sits on the board of Southern Innovation, which provides a next generation in digital pulse processing capability. Martin started his career with DFAT, serving as a diplomat in Egypt and Syria before joining McKinsey & Company, serving Australian clients focusing on emerging technologies. In 1996 he joined Evan Thornley and Tracey Ellery at LookSmart. He was with LookSmart in various senior roles through to its IPO in 1999 on the NASDAQ, when it became the highest returning investment ever for Australian VCs. www.redbubble.com |
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Simon Mackay, Chief Executive Officer, UXC
Simon has been the Chief Executive Officer of UXC Applications Development since May 2008. UXC Limited provides asset inspection and management, environmental services and bespoke enterprise applications development to medium and large organisations and governments in Australia and New Zealand. It operates in three segments: Business Solutions Group, Field Solutions Group, and Intellectual Property (IP) Ventures Group. Simon has a Masters in Systems Engineering, 20 years strategic business development systems & commercialisation experience, and a keen passion for Execution & Business Excellence, product development, Sales Execution & Innovation. Prior to UXC, Simon held various strategic roles with Lexis Nexis, and before this, as part of the Senior Management Group at MYOB, was involved in running commercialisation, strategic partnering and integration of acquisitions. In the late 90s, Simon was the CEO and Founder of Venture Capital backed e-commerce 3D Technology start up, Escape3D.com, a merchandising portal with an I.P valuation of $60 M as well as CEO of Victorian Innovation Centre. Simon managed the $1.2 M Business Vic Gov initiative to support the commercialisation of State Innovations, successfully growing surplus eight fold. Simon has been involved on several Judging panels for Telstra and Yellow Pages Small Business Awards and developed Michael Gerber's E-Myth Worldwide strategies for the AU Market. www.appsdev.uxc.com.au |
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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 PayPerPost Inc. the leading marketplace for Consumer Generated Advertising. 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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David Skellern, CEO, National ICT Australia 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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Diane Tompson, Managing Director, Powercom Systems
Diane is co owner of four companies working under the banner of the parent company, The Powercom Group, based in Tasmania. Diane is a founding director of the Board of The Powercom Group and is co-owner of Novaris Technologies Malaysia. She is a member of the Enterprise Connect for Manufacturing National Interim Board, the CSIRO Niche Manufacturing Flagship Advisory Committee, the Tasmanian Manufacturing Industry Council, the Information Technology Industry Council. Diane is the Tasmanian President of AME, (Association of Manufacturing Excellence), The Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music Alumni and Family Business Australia. Diane is the current National President of Women Chiefs of Enterprises (International) Pty Ltd. In 2005 she received the honour of being acknowledged as Tasmania’s, Telstra Business Woman of the Year and was named number 22 by BRW for Australian Entrepreneurial Women in 2006. www.powercomgroup.com |
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David Vitale, Principal Consultant, Focussed Strategy
David graduated from RMIT University in 1995 with a business degree majoring in Accounting. He subsequently graduated with a Diploma of Financial Planning from RMIT in 1996 and, in 2002, he graduated from the University of California - Berkeley's Executive Development Program for High Growth Start-up Firms. Since March 2006, David Vitale has been responsible for the sales, marketing and business development activities of Lark Distillery and provides assistance to a range of other businesses on a consultancy basis. Previously, David was a Senior Consultant with ROCG Portfolio People focusing on the key areas of strategic planning, product development and marketing in high growth start-up businesses. Before joining ROCG, David was CEO and founder of Melbourne based company FlexiComm from 1998 to 2004 where he was commercial by the Victorian State Government as an emerging entrepreneur and was invited to attend an executive development course at University of California - Berkeley designed for local (silicon valley) high growth start-up firms. As CEO, David developed extensive experience in commercializing innovative services and technologies for use both locally and internationally. Previously, David worked with Norwich Union Navigator, then the fastest growing Master Trust Service in Australia, as Training Manager. David developed and delivered training workshops to financial advisers on financial analysis and business management. www.focussedstrategy.com |
