| FUNDING CONNECT SA 2008 - speakers

Susan Andrews | Industry Development Manager, ICT, Electronics & Digital Content, Department of Trade and Economic Development
Susan Andrews has been closely involved with building South Australia's fast growth information and communications technology (ICT) and Creative industries companies for the past 11 years in her role as ICT Industry Development Manager with the Centre for Innovation in the South Australian Government. Her role involves facilitating the growth of the local ICT, Electronics and Creative Industries industry sector by increasing exports, management capabilities and innovation in entrepreneurial ICT firms. She runs the Growing Global Companies entrepreneurial skills program and also mentors new start-ups with innovation and growth potential.

John Ballard | Chairman, BioAngels
John Ballard was Managing Director and previously CEO of the GroPep Ltd until 2002, positions he held since the inception of the company in 1988 and through its listing on the ASX in 2000. He was one of the founders of BioAngels, of which he is currently Chairman. He is also a Director of BR-Angels Pty Ltd, Applimex Pty Ltd, AdAlta Pty Ltd and Neubody Pty Ltd as well as the not-for-profit companies, Australian Proteome Analysis Facility Ltd, The Australian Association of Angel Investors Ltd and the Australian Institute for Commercialisation Ltd. He is a biochemist by training (PhD, BSc), has authored more than 300 research publications and is an inventor of 10 patents. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 1997.

www.bioangels.org

Shane Cheek | Investment Manager, Playford Capital
Shane has a strong background in helping companies realise value from intellectual property, including extensive experience negotiating licensing deals and contract research with leading research institutions in Australia and overseas. Most recently Shane has worked with high growth companies in the automotive, medical device, energy and mining sectors seeking collaboration partners and advice in commercialisation strategy.

www.playford.com.au

Rahmon Coupe | Chief Executive Officer, YourAmigo Limited
Rahmon has over twenty years' experience in technology-based organisations in roles including corporate management, business development, international marketing, engineering and contract negotiation. Rahmon is currently CEO and co-founder of YourAmigo Limited, a highly profitable search engine technology services company whose customers include Sony, Reebok, the Home Shopping Network and General Motors. In the early 1990s Rahmon was Managing Director of a start-up defence electronics simulation company, MRad Pty Ltd, which signed up $30 million in business in three years and employed sixty staff. Rahmon holds an Honours Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Adelaide.

Frank Grasso | Managing Director, eChannel Online
An energetic advocate of search engine marketing over several years, in the late 1990s Frank founded a SEM consulting firm in Melbourne. He has parlayed this experience into the successful national e-Channel business, with media clients like Fairfax Digital and a travel portfolio that includes industry leaders such as Flight Centre, Octopus Travel and Asia Rooms. Frank's continuing commitment to R&D led to the development of Dynamic Creative™. He is also a co-founder and shareholder of WaterFind, a water rights trading service for growers.

Amanda Heyworth | CEO, Playford Capital
Amanda Heyworth is Chief Executive Officer of the Playford Capital technology seed fund. Since 2001, Playford Capital has helped attract more than $70m to innovative South Australian technology companies. Portfolio companies operate in a wide range of industries including water, health, food and beverage processing and e-commerce. Playford Capital operates as an evergreen fund with the proceeds of investment exits, such as the recent acquisition of Maxamine by Accenture, providing a recirculating pool for further investment.

Prior to joining Playford Capital in 2001, Amanda co-founded a software company which sold software tools to more than 60 countries and worked as an accountant, investment banker and economic adviser in Australia and the United States. She holds a MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and has taught marketing for AGSM. Amanda is a Governor of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia and a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

David Landers | CEO, Allen & Buckeridge Emerging Technologies Fund
David is responsible for A&B's pre-seed and seed stage investments into discriminated intellectual property arising from R&D efforts within major research universities, government research organisations and corporate research labs in Australia.

His background comprises a blend of senior entrepreneurial, operating, corporate finance and strategic roles across Asia. A proven entrepreneur, he was Executive Vice President of Sales and Chief Financial Officer of AFL Ltd, a manufacturing business he co-created in Shanghai and Beijing from 1995 to 1998. David was the driving force behind the company's successful fund-raising efforts and eventual trade sale to a major UK based multinational.

Prior to that he was the Asia regional head of M&A for Pepsi Cola International; where he completed close to $1 billion in acquisition and joint venture transactions. David began his career with leading global management and technology consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton, where he gained over five years experience in technology driven strategy development and implementation for clients throughout Asia.

www.a-b.com.au

Nick McNaughton | CEO, Blue Cove Ventures
Nick established Blue Cove ventures in 2007. 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. Nick established their presence in the Pacific. 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.). 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.

Alan Noble | Engineering Director, Google
As the recently-appointed Engineering Director at Google Australia, Alan's role is to manage the growth of Google Australia's engineering and R&D centre. Alan joined Google from NetPriva, a software company which he co-founded and where he served as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer for nearly two years. In 1996 Alan founded NetMind in California, which was acquired in 2000 by Intellisync and subsequently Nokia. He remained at Intellisync as VP of Engineering until 2002, when Alan took on the role of CTO at Foursticks, which was acquired by Netpriva in 2005. Alan has been granted seven U.S. patents and has several others pending.

Fiona Pak-Poy | General Partner, Innovation Capital
Fiona Joined Innovation Capital in early 2002. She has experience in the engineering, technology and retail sectors.

Prior to joining Innovation Capital, she co-founded a catalogue and e-commerce retail business. Before this Fiona worked with The Boston Consulting Group in the US and Australia. As a member of the High Technology practice group, she worked in the areas of strategy definition, business planning, marketing, operations, quality improvement and cost reduction initiatives for a variety of companies in sectors including telecom, manufacturing and retail. Earlier in her career she practised as a consulting and R&D engineer.

Fiona was twice the recipient of the South Australian Women's Scholar Award, has represented Australia in field hockey, and is on the board of a not-for-profit international aid development agency, Mercy Works incorporated.

www.innovationcapital.net

Mike Richards | Principal Investment Manager, Venture Capital SA
Mike Richards is Manager of Venture Capital SA. Venture Capital SA supports the entrepreneurial community in South Australia through the Equity Ready program. The program provides a series of workshops addressing the key requirements of making a business attractive and ready for investors, and is complemented by consultation with Venture Capital SA investment managers.

Mike has been with Venture Capital SA since 2005. Prior to his time Mike was Principal Investment Manager with Science Technology Innovation Directorate monitoring state government investments through the Premier's Science & Research Council.

Mike spent 4 years at the Centre for Innovation, Business and Manufacturing as health industry development manager. Prior to this Mike was Manager of the Small Business program at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Peter Vroom | Co-founder, NetPriva
Prior to his current position as Executive Chairman and VP Sales and Marketing at NetPriva, Peter has held sales and CEO positions in the computer industry since joining Burroughs in 1965. In 1970 he founded CMC, a company that developed a range of packaged software and online services for corporate and government customers, and which expanded to include over 100 employees in Australia and Singapore. Peter founded Vroom & Associates in 1997, with a focus on assisting clients to turn technology ideas and passion into a business. In this role he worked with over thirty technology product and services companies. He was instrumental in Rocksoft gaining access to capital early in the company's life, leading to a successful sale of Rocksoft to US interests in 2006. Peter holds a Master of Science and Technology Commercialisation from the University of Adelaide. He has served on various industry boards, including that of the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA).