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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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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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Doron Ben-Meir, Founder & Managing Partner, Prescient Venture Capital Doron has been an active venture capital manager for the last 8 years. He founded Prescient Venture Capital and was Principal with Jagen (Liberman Family Office) where he was responsible for the management of a number of Jagen’s private equity and venture capital portfolio assets as well as the qualification and structuring of new investments. Previously, he held a general management position at ES Group Ventures Pty Ltd, a venture capital business established by ESCOR, the Family Office of the Jack and Robert Smorgon families. Prior to that, he was a consulting Investment Director of Momentum Funds Management, one of the five Licence recipients of the Australian Government’s first IIF program. Doron’s venture capital work has encompassed a wide variety of industry sectors and technologies including: content distribution networks, middle-ware solutions, enterprise software, internet 2.0 applications, supply chain logistics, novel manufacturing technologies, payments infrastructure, edible oils production, marine propulsion technologies, telecommunications products/services, data aggregation and distribution, broadcast and surveillance systems, electrical components, home/office automation and alternative energy generation. Before focusing on the venture capital industry, Doron was a serial entrepreneur over a 12 year period, co-founding five new technology based businesses. These businesses addressed a variety of industry sectors from secure identification technologies and smart card manufacture through to specialized printing technology, food & beverage management/loyalty systems and on-line payments. Through his venture capital and entrepreneurial activities, Doron has had opportunity to either invest in, or work with, businesses in Australia, Germany, UK, Singapore and the USA. He has held numerous Board positions including:- Security Magnetics Pty Ltd; Giesecke & Devrient Australasia P/L; CR-X P/L; Akamai Asia Pacific P/L; Samba Holdings inc.; Practel P/L; Centricom P/L; Vertech Hume P/L and Nuvo Solutions Group P/L. Doron received a B.Sc. Degree in Mathematics and Physics and a B.E. (Hons) Degree in Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering from Monash University. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. www.prescientvc.com |
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Nick Birrell, Venture Executive, Innovation Capital Nick joined Innovation Capital as Venture Executive in 2006. He has over 25 years experience in science, technology and finance. He has held a wide range of roles ranging from General Manager of a technology start up to CEO of an Australian investment management company. His most recent executive position was Regional Director – Asia Pacific for global investment management company INVESCO. These roles have involved him in information technology consulting, systems development and project management, providing financial advice to governments and major corporations, managing large dollar investment portfolios and managing employees spread over several continents. Nick has previously been an active angel investor in both information technology and biotechnology start-ups and has provided advice and mentoring to CEOs of such companies. He has a particular interest in the commercialisation of advanced scientific research. Nick is a Professorial Fellow at Monash University and foundation Director of the Monash Asia Pacific Centre for Science and Wealth Creation. www.innovationcapital.net |
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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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Amanda Gome, Publisher, Smart Company
Amanda’s passion for entrepreneurs and small and medium businesses (SMEs) has been honed over more than two decades in business journalism and through her position as an adjunct professor of business at RMIT University. She has built a reputation as being Australia’s leading source of news and information for entrepreneurs and SMEs. Her passion for encouraging entrepreneurs led her to founding and editing the EMERGING COMPANIES section and the influential FAST 100 and UPSTARTS lists at BRW magazine. Through her work, Amanda has championed the issues that matter to Australia’s SMEs. After 20 years in print journalism, Amanda knew it was high time to embrace the overwhelming shift towards online communications. In 2006, Amanda joined forces with independent publishers Eric Beecher and Diana Gribble of Private Media Partners to create SmartCompany.com.au, the website for SMEs and entrepreneurs. SmartCompany links SMEs, entrepreneurs and other business professionals. SmartCompany provides access to breaking news that matters to SME businesses including business trends, advice from leading experts, blogs, podcasts, forums and in-depth features. www.smartcompany.com.au |
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Bob Quodling, CEO, Simmersion Holdings
As CEO of Simmersion Holdings Pty Limited, Bob has been the frontline business and financial entrepreneur. The company has raised $4.5m in investment capital since Oct 2004. Approximately $500k of this was obtained from Angel Investment. From a practical background in command, leadership and management in the Australian Army and in industry Bob has built extensive leadership, business development and general management experience in senior executive roles with Electro Optic Systems (EOS) and Simmersion Holdings. His skills have been gained in a diverse range of activities including project management, marketing and business development in both operational and development contexts. He has led the development and implementation of business and systems engineering processes for complex research and development activities, managed the implementation of new business areas in a growth company; and been instrumental in establishing and growing Simmersion from start up. www.simmersion.com.au |
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Silvio Salom, Executive Chairman, Gramercy Ventures
Silvio Salom is a proven chief executive, change agent and entrepreneur. His expertise in successfully growing technology companies has been acquired and proven through considerable experience. Silvio is an experienced chief executive and non-executive Board member of private and public companies. He has operational expertise with start-ups, as well as with large, rapidly growing companies. Silvio has deep strengths in technology commercialisation, international expansion, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and publicly listed operations. The focus of Silvio's work has been as a technology supplier to Aerospace & Defence, Telecommunication, Aviation, E-commerce, Enterprise and Training markets on a global basis. In 1987 Silvio founded Adacel Technologies Ltd, in Melbourne, as a private company to service the aerospace and defence markets with leading edge technology solutions. Silvio built Adacel to be a $100m world leader in its markets, listing the company in 1998, acquiring a major global player in North America and transitioning the business to the USA. Silvio is Managing Director of Adacel. In 1990 Silvio co-founded Lochard Pty Ltd to deliver best-of-breed environment monitoring solutions to airports. Silvio remains a non-executive director of Lochard and today, the $20m company is the clear leader in its global market. As with Adacel, Silvio used advanced technology to secure customer preference and acquisition of a USA major to realise global market leadership. Silvio currently serves as Chairman of Gramercy Venture Advisors, as an ITC Advisory Board member for the CSIRO, in the Cooperative Research Centres for Intelligent Decision Systems and Smart Internet Technology and as a non-executive director of LogoMedia Inc, a company Silvio founded in Boston to address the on-line machine translation market. He has also served as a director for Melbourne University Private, Vice Chairman of Airport Industries Australia and as founding Board member of the IT&T Skills Hub. www.gramercyventures.com |
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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. |
