AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum - Australia & New Zealand 2022
The premier private equity & venture forum in Australia & New Zealand
Four Seasons Hotel, Sydney and Online
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Before co-founding Bondi Partners, the Honourable Joe Hockey served as Australia’s Ambassador to the United States of America, taking up his posting in Washington in January 2016. Notably, Mr. Hockey was responsible for Australia’s relationship with the US during the final year of President Obama’s tenure and the first three years of President Trump’s term. As Ambassador, Mr. Hockey emphasised the importance of a free and fair trade and investment partnership between the US and Australia, while promoting innovative infrastructure investment throughout the US.
At Bondi Partners, Mr. Hockey spearheads the firm’s strategic direction in both the United States and Australia.
Previously, as the elected Treasurer of Australia, Mr. Hockey was responsible for all aspects of the Australian economy. With a reputation as a reformer, Mr. Hockey helped shape the modern financial system in Australia and had a major hand in the formation of industry policy, from tourism and hospitality to health and welfare.
In 2014, Mr. Hockey chaired the highly successful G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meetings. He initiated major infrastructure initiatives ranging from the implementation of asset recycling financing to the creation of the G20 Infrastructure Hub.
Mr. Hockey has had a long and distinguished career in public service. He first entered Parliament in 1996 as the Member for North Sydney and spent more than seventeen years on the front bench. Over the course of his parliamentary career, Mr. Hockey served as a Minister in a number of different portfolios including Financial Services, Small Business and Tourism, Human Services and Employment and Workplace Relations.
Previously, Mr. Hockey served as a banking and finance lawyer with a major Australian law firm. He graduated from the University of Sydney with Bachelor degrees in Arts and Law.
Mr. Hockey is married to Ms. Melissa Babbage, a company director and former investment banker. They have three young children Xavier, Adelaide and Ignatius.
Tim is a founder of Pacific Equity Partners and is a member of the firm’s Operating Committee. Prior to founding PEP, Tim was the Chairman and Managing Director of Bain & Company’s Australasian and African operations and a member of Bain & Company’s Global Executive Committee. Tim has also served on a number of government committees and led national strategy projects. Tim received a BA/MA from Oxford University where he was a Mitsui European Scholar and an MPA from Harvard where he was a Kennedy Scholar. In 2019, Tim was made a member in the general division of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the community through philanthropic initiatives.
Stephen Halmarick is Chief Economist and Head of Global Economic & Markets Research at Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) - the largest financial services company in Australia. He was appointed to the Chief Economist role in April 2020 - having been the Head of the Global Economic & Markets Research team since January 2018.
As Chief Economist and Head of Global Economic & Markets Research, Stephen is responsible for the team of economists and strategists that cover Australian Economics, International Economics, Rates, Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange, Credit and Commodities research.
Stephen and his team work to ensure that customers and clients are well informed and have a strong understanding of key macroeconomic factors in Australia and globally and their impact on a broad range of financial markets.
Stephen is also the key spokesperson to clients and media on macroeconomic themes and a broad range of financial market issues.
The Global Economic & Markets Research team produces a number of economic publications. These include short research notes on economic and market developments, presentation packs, longer thought leadership pieces on key structural issues, and a number of regular reports on key countries and regions of the global economy. The team also regularly appears in public forums and holds meeting with key clients both in Australia and globally.
Stephen has over 35 years’ experience as a financial markets economist and is widely regarded as one of the best economic communicators and presenters in Australia.
Prior to his role in CBA, Stephen was Chief Economist for Colonial First State Global Asset Management (the wealth management arm of CBA) from March 2009 to September 2017. Earlier in his career, Stephen worked for Westpac, SBC Australia, the Nomura Research Institute and from 1994-2009 the Salomon Smith Barney Citibank group, where he held the title of Managing Director and Co-Head of Economic and Market Analysis.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University, a graduate diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia (SIA) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Stephen was Chairman of the Australian Business Economists (ABE) – the peak professional body for financial market economists in Australia from 2008-2017 and he has been on the ABE Executive Committee for over 20 years. He is a Life Member of the ABE.
In March 2016 Stephen was elected as a Member Director on the Commonwealth Bank Group Staff Superannuation Fund Board. He was re-elected to this position in November 2019.
Stephen lives in Sydney with his wife – and their ‘blended’ family of six children.
Doug joined the Guardians of NZ Super in 2018 and is the strategy lead for climate solutions investments as well as covering a variety of the Guardian’s public and private investment strategies ranging from Private Equity and Venture Capital to Real Estate, listed equities and Hedge Funds.
Doug’s career spans over 22yrs where he has held a variety of buy-side and sell-side investment roles. He was Head of Equities for ANZ Private Bank (NZ) before moving to Hong Kong with HSBC (2013-2018) where he spent much of his time in the Global Research division (part of Global Banking & Markets) helping to establish and run their research offering to wealth clients. Originally from the UK, Doug started his career in the technology field.
Doug holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Physics from the University of Manchester, UK and an MBA (dist.) from the University of Canterbury.
David is a Partner with overall responsibility for the firm’s Investor Relations activities with investment consultants globally and additionally covers institutional investors in the UK and Australia. He is based in the firm’s London office.
Prior to joining Coller, David was Head of EMEA at Siguler Guff.
He previously worked in fundraising at Credit Suisse, and began his career in investment banking, working in fixed income at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
David has an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Gillian joined JBWere in May 2019 and is Head of Alternative Investments and Responsible Investing (RI), in addition to being an Executive Director of the firm. As Head of Alternatives, Gillian leads the Alternatives strategy, investing selection and execution across Private Equity, Private Debt, Real Assets including Infrastructure and Property and Uncorrelated Assets. Gillian also leads the further expansion of JBWere’s approach to Responsible Investing spanning ESG, ethical/impact investing, and stewardship of capital. Prior to joining JBWere, Gillian held senior multi-asset global investment and structuring roles on trading floors, working across Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, within Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) and Bank of Montreal (BMO) Capital Markets. Gillian was also the global structuring sustainability lead for capital markets in both SCB and BMO. Gillian’s roles have included leading sales and structuring for SCB’s Alternative Asset Group (AUM +USD 2bio) in London, in addition to leading and designing multi-asset investment solutions across Fixed Income, Equities, FX, Alternatives, Credit, Commodities and Responsible Investments (RI) for Institutional, Private Bank and High Net Worth clients.
INSEAD Executive Education (TGM, 2022)
Bachelor of Commerce, University of Queensland
Bachelor of Business (Management), University of Queensland
Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) Australia
Capital Markets Programme, Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments (CISI)
UK Diploma of Investment Advice (Qualified UK Financial Adviser), Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments (CISI)
Ben Hart is a Partner and Head of Investor Relations (Asia) at Adams Street Partners, where he focuses on the firm’s institutional and private wealth relationships across the region. Ben is a 25-year Asia resident with over 20 years’ experience in the venture-backed tech and private equity markets.
Prior to joining Adams Street, Ben worked at Swiss-based private equity firm Capital Dynamics, where he served as Managing Director and COO, Asia, overseeing the firm’s business development efforts in Asia and North America.
Before joining Capital Dynamics, Ben spent over a decade working with VC and PE-backed tech firms in China and across Asia on their market development strategies. He served as Managing Director, Asia, at Aircom International, and also held senior positions at Convergys Corporation, Alliance Digital, Inc., and the JM Network.
Education:
University of Colorado, BBA
Investment/operational experience: 21 years
Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese
Kyle joined Perpetual Private in July 2014 and leads the 20 person Investment Research team. Perpetual Private has $17bn of Funds Under Advice, including $7.5bn in discretionary multi-manager funds and $5bn in direct Australian equities across investment and superannuation funds and platforms.
Kyle is responsible for the overall investment solutions of the firm, managing teams of highly experienced investment professionals across capital markets research, asset allocation, manager research, stock analysis and portfolio construction advice, as well as portfolio analytics and investment insights for client portfolios. Prior to this role, he was General Manager - Research & Operations for Perpetual Investments, where he managed key ratings house relationships and maximised rating outcomes across all funds and asset classes.
Kyle earned his Bachelor of Accounting with Distinction from the University of Technology, Sydney (1997). He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, Chartered Alternatives Investment Analyst designation and is a Certified Practising Accountant.
James Lilico is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Australian Retirement Trust, a $260 billion profit-for-members superannuation fund and is responsible for management of the $9 billion private equity portfolio of ART’s public offer division. His role encompasses portfolio strategy and management, investment and manager selection, and ongoing investment management of fund, co-investment and direct assets in Australia and offshore.
ART’s public offer division private equity portfolio consists of primary funds, secondary funds and direct co-investments across the buyout, venture/growth and distressed/special situations areas. James represents Australian Retirement Trust on various advisory boards in Australia and overseas.
James has over 20 years’ experience in investment management and financial markets. Prior to ART, he was at RMB Capital Partners and Grant Samuel. He has a Bachelor of Science in Finance and a Master of Science in Decision and Information Sciences from the University of Florida.
Will MacAulay is General Manager, Unlisted Assets with HESTA, and is responsible for managing HESTA’s private asset investment portfolios including Infrastructure, Property, Private Equity, Insurance Linked Securities, and Strategic Investments.
Will holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Melbourne, is a Chartered Financial Analyst, and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Scott McNally works in the Private Corporate Assets team at Australian Retirement Trust, a $230 billion profit-for-members superannuation fund. His role encompasses portfolio construction, investment research, selection and execution and ongoing review and reporting across the private equity asset class for Australian Retirement Trust’s public offer division. Australian Retirement Trust’s public offer division has a private equity portfolio of over $8 billion which consists of primary fund investments and co-investments across the buyout, venture/growth and distressed/special situations areas.
Prior to Australian Retirement Trust, Scott was a Principal in the Private Markets team at Mercer Investments. Before that, he was a Consultant at Sovereign Investment Research, focused on private markets and alternative investments. Previously, he worked as a Senior Analyst in the Financial Markets Group at the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Scott holds a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from Western Sydney University and is a CFA charterholder.
Rune Munk is a Partner responsible for origination and execution and is based in the firm’s London office.
Prior to joining Coller Capital in 2007, Rune was a Senior Management Consultant with the Corporate Strategy team at Deloitte.
Rune has a BA (Hons) in Economics and Japanese from SOAS in London and an MSc in Economics and Technological Innovation from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a Chartered Management Accountant.
Jenny Newmarch is a Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Private Equity at Aware Super, one of the largest profit for-member Superannuation Fund in Australia with over AUD $150billion in funds under management. Aware Super’s private equity portfolio is over AUD 9 billion and is invested globally in a concentrated portfolio of funds and co-investments in strategies ranging from venture capital to buyouts. Jenny has over 15 years experience in private equity as an asset allocator and adviser and has over 20 years experience in the investment field having started her career as an investment consultant and actuary in the UK.
Jenny is a graduate of Imperial College London, a Fellow of the UK Institute of Actuaries and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Jasmina is a Founding Partner of Potentum Partners. Formed in 2019 by senior members of Future Fund's private equity team, Potentum Partners offers a new way for institutional investors to access and build world-class private equity programs.
Jasmina joined Future Fund in 2013 and shortly thereafter, became the youngest Investment Director ever promoted to that role at the organisation. During her time at Future Fund, Jasmina led new manager appointment efforts and many of its venture co-investments. Jasmina left Future Fund with Steve and Dave in late 2018 to form Potentum Partners.
Jasmina started her career in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where she advised Australian corporations on financing transactions and mergers and acquisitions.
Jasmina graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a Bachelor of Science degree.
Marina joined Rest in 2020 to build out the Private Equity capability and investment portfolio for Rest.
Prior to joining Rest, Marina worked in the private equity team at the Future Fund for 9 years, where she invested in private equity funds and co-investments.
Marina previously worked in the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs, where she advised Australian corporations on mergers and acquisitions and financing transactions.
She has a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from the University of Melbourne.
Tim is the Chief Investment Officer of Walsh Bay Partners, which provides bespoke wealth and wellbeing advisory services to families and endowments with multigenerational aspirations. Tim has over 16 years’ experience cross a range of roles in funds management. Prior to WBP, he was a Senior Investment Analyst at First State Super (now Aware Super) and a Research Manager at Brookvine. Tim has a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales, and is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder.
Martin Randall is responsible for delivering and maintaining LGT Crestone’s investment offering across hedge funds, private equity and real assets. Engaging with local and global alternative asset firms, Martin’s focus is to source, perform due diligence and structure alternative investment solutions for Crestone’s client base. He is also a member of the LGT Crestone Investment Committee and further supports LGT Crestone’s investment offering across separately managed accounts, impact investments and structured products.
Martin joined UBS Wealth Management Australia Ltd in 2014 and transitioned to LGT Crestone at launch in 2016. Prior to that, Martin worked in the UK for EFG Private Bank as Head of Structured Products, having started his career at Kleinwort Benson Private Bank (now Kleinwort Hambros), developing derivative and tax-based structured products for high-net-worth investors. Martin holds a BSc in Computer Science from the University of London.
Ms. Tavill is the global head of responsible investment, leading all ESG and impact initiatives across all businesses and investment strategies at StepStone Group, a global private markets investment firm focused on providing customized investment solutions and advisory and data services to some of the most sophisticated investors in the world. With more than US$548 billion of private markets allocations, including over US$127 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2021, StepStone covers the spectrum of opportunities in private markets across the globe. Ms. Tavill is also a member of the private equity team.
Prior to StepStone, Ms. Tavill was responsible for AMP Capital’s global alternative investment platform that included private equity, infrastructure and real assets. Before that she spent five years at Van Eyk Research in Sydney, the last four as head of research. Before moving to Australia, she was an executive director at Goldman Sachs Investment Management, responsible for their UK small-and mid-cap portfolios.
Ms. Tavill received a MSc in finance and economics from the London School of Economics, in addition to a BBS with honors in economics and honors in finance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Stephen joined QIC and the Private Equity team in 2008. As a Principal, Stephen established the office in San Francisco and led the team focusing on all North American investment strategies, including venture capital, buyouts, co-investments for 10 years before becoming Head of Private Equity and relocating to Australia in 2020. Stephen is a member of the Private Equity Investment and Management Committees and well as QIC Executive Commitee.
Stephen was very involved in the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), the global industry body for institutional investors in Private Equity and was the Vice Chair of ILPA for a number of years along with the founding Chair of the Industry Affairs Committee
Previously Stephen was Head of Global Private Equity at MLC Ltd, focused on global buyouts. He also worked at Lend Lease Corporation working on Infrastructure investment and Project Finance and previous to this worked at Schroders Australia focusing on Project Financing. He has also spent time Deloitte and Haskins & Sells in a Tax Advisory role.
Alex Wilmerding is a member of the Pantheon global investment team and the Pantheon Asia Regional Investment Committee. He also manages Pantheon’s Asian investor relations. Prior to joining Pantheon, Mr. Wilmerding was a Director at Citi Private Bank with a focus working with financial sponsors including private equity and venture funds and distribution of alternatives. He previously spent nine years as a Partner at Boston Capital Ventures where he sourced, structured, and managed growth and venture investments. Prior to working for Boston Capital Ventures, he served as Commercial Manager Eastern China for the Fednav Group, as well as in executive management positions for the Swire Group in its subsidiaries Cathay Pacific Airways and Cathay Dragon based in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Jakarta. Mr. Wilmerding has a BA from Yale University and MBA from Columbia Business School.
Kathryn Young is Head of Investments for Cambooya Pty Ltd, which is one of Australia’s longest-running family offices. In that role she guides investment selection and portfolio construction across a wide range of assets, both listed and unlisted. She has more than 15 years of investment experience in Australia and the United States. She spent much of that time in manager research for Morningstar, ending her tenure there as Director of Manager Research Ratings, Aus/NZ. She completed her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a CFA Charterholder.
Adrian Alonso joined Vista Equity Partners in 2009 and is currently a member of the private equity Flagship team. Mr. Alonso serves as a member of Vista’s Private Equity Management Committee, the firm’s governing and decision-making body for the overall management of Vista’s private equity platform. He sits on the boards of Advanced, CentralSquare, EagleView, iCIMS, Mindbody and Pluralsight, and is involved in the firm’s investment in Jio. He was also actively involved in the firm’s investments in Aptean, Omnitracs, Sovos Compliance, SumTotal Systems and TransFirst.
Prior to joining Vista, Mr. Alonso worked in the Technology, Media and Telecommunications group of Goldman, Sachs & Co. While at Goldman, Mr. Alonso advised technology and media companies on a broad range of transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, financings and other corporate restructuring activities.
Education
B.S. in Business Administration, University of Southern California, cum laude
Michael Blickstead is a Senior Managing Director in the Private Equity Group based in Sydney and Head of Australia / New Zealand Private Equity.
Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Blickstead was a Division Director / Managing Director and Head of Principal Finance Asia Pacific for Macquarie Group where he invested across the capital structure. Prior to that, he was an Investment Director at Archer Capital, one of Australia’s leading domestic private equity firms. Mr. Blickstead started his career in the Private Equity Group at Goldman Sachs in New York and London.
Mr. Blickstead received a Bachelor of Arts, cum laude in Economics, from Harvard University as well as an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Tim Burroughs is managing editor of Asian Venture Capital Journal, having joined the publication in May 2011. He is responsible for all editorial content put out under the AVCJ brand, including Asian Venture Capital Journal, AVCJtv, AVCJ Awards and AVCJ.com. Tim previously spent five years at China Economic Review, serving as editor-in-chief and then editorial director. Located in Greater China since 2003, during which time he has lived in Beijing, Qingdao and Hong Kong, Tim has been a China-based contributor for publications including The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, BBC and China Daily. Prior to moving to China, he trained and worked as a journalist in the UK. He was honored at the Society of Publishers in Asia awards in 2007, 2008 and 2010, and at the State Street Institutional Press Awards - Asia in 2012.
Dr. Caristo is one of Australia’s most experienced healthcare investors. He is a founding Partner at Australia’s only healthcare-focused private equity firm, Genesis Capital, and over the past two decades, has invested in over 50 businesses. At Genesis, Dr. Caristo’s portfolio includes investments in clinical trials, GP clinics, dental clinics, and behavioural health.
Prior to co-founding Genesis Capital in 2017, he was a senior investment professional at Crescent Capital Partners. During his time at Crescent, he served as the interim CEO of Australia’s largest skin cancer clinic network and presided as Non-Exec Director over several of Crescent’s healthcare businesses, spanning medical & travel insurance, surgical implants, and medical deputising.
Dr. Caristo began his career at Bain & Co. and is a qualified medical doctor, holding a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (Honours) from the University of New South Wales. He is also a published contributor to the field of stem-cell research.
Iwen Chen is Datasite’s Head of ANZ, responsible for driving growth and innovation for Datasite clients in Australia and New Zealand through the implementation of Datasite solutions that power thousands of deals in more than 170 countries. Datasite’s products are used by professionals across banking, capital markets, insurance, legal, healthcare, energy, and other global sectors and markets.
Prior to joining Datasite, Iwen worked with companies such as Apple, Ascender, and Macquarie Bank. His knowledge of M&A and Financial Services clubbed with rich experience in corporate and cloud-based software solutions, enabled him to be instrumental in the launch of Datasite’s local data hosting capabilities in Australia most recently, to further support our clients.
Find Iwen on LinkedIn.
AboutDatasite
Datasite, is a leading SaaS provider for the M&A industry, empowering dealmakers around the world with the tools they need to succeed across the entire deal lifecycle. For more information, visit www.datasite.com
Len Chersky is a Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group, responsible for investment origination, analysis and execution in the Asia Pacific region.
Mr. Chersky has over 20 years of commercial and investment experience. Prior to joining Brookfield in 2013, he was Executive Director in Lend Lease Corporation and previously held a number of senior positions in investment banking and financial services as well as executive roles in major listed organizations in Australia.
Mr. Chersky holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Law, both from University of New South Wales.
Mark Chiba is Group Chairman and Partner of The Longreach Group. The Longreach Group is an established independent private equity firm with offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. The firm focuses on Japan and related Greater China control buyouts in the mature industrial and technology, consumer, business services and financial services sectors. The firm manages three Funds which have accumulated approximately US$2.1 billion of committed limited partner and co-investment capital.
Mark co-founded The Longreach Group in late 2003. Mark's lead responsibilities at Longreach include firm management, senior relationship driven deal sourcing and execution, investments in the financial services sector, and building the firm's capital base and global networks.
Before co-founding Longreach, Mark served as Chief Executive Officer and President of UBS Securities Japan, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Investment Banking Management Committee, Head of Japan Investment Banking and as a member of the UBS Global Investment Bank Board. Previous to this role in Japan, Mark headed the UBS Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions Group.
Mark is an Australian citizen, resident in Hong Kong. He holds First Class Honours degrees in Economics (University of Melbourne) and Law (University of Sydney). Mark is a Rhodes Scholar with a Master of Philosophy degree in International Relations (with Distinction) from Oxford University.
Fred supports all aspects of the decision-making process of the Private Credit Team, including sourcing, structuring, reviewing, and negotiating deal opportunities.
Prior to joining Adams Street, he was a Vice President at Goldman Sachs. In this role, he focused on investing capital out of various private debt vehicles, including the firm's first Business Development Company (BDC), as well as managing initial credit reviews, structuring the financing, business due diligence, participating in Investment Committee approval, negotiating deal terms, and coordinating legal documentation.
Fred’s other experience includes a Vice President role at Fifth Street Asset Management, an Associate role at Greenhill & Co. and Golden Arc Capital, and an Analyst position at Banc of America Securities. He commenced his career at Lehman Brothers, as an Analyst within the Credit Derivatives team.
He is a member of Adams Street’s Private Credit Investment Committee.
Alister is the founder and Managing Partner of Folklore Ventures, an Australian venture capital firm with three top-decile funds under management that invests in ANZ founders building global technology companies. Alister has over 15 years’ experience as an investor, advisor and founder of technology companies.
Marcus joined Quadrant Private Equity in March 2006 and is a Managing Partner. Marcus has nearly 30 years of private equity experience starting in the UK with NatWest Ventures (now Bridgepoint). He joined AMP in 1994 as Joint Head of Private Equity where he completed several major buyouts including Tasman Building Products.
Marcus has been a member of the Quadrant Investment Committee for every fund from QPE I to QPE VII and QGF 1 and 11. He jointly heads Quadrant’s Growth Funds and is a Director of Quadrant investees Partnered Health, TDG Environmental, JAG, Cancer Care Associates, Prime 100 and Quadlock.
Dr Michelle Deaker is a Managing Partner of OneVentures, Australia’s leading technology and healthcare multi-strategy investment firm. The firm now has circa US$330M in funds under management and raising its fifth fund, 1V Growth Fund V (US$150M). Dr Deaker has been primarily responsible for the foundation of OneVentures firm and capital raisings of OneVentures Funds. Dr Deaker serves on the investment committee of OneVentures Funds, leads the technology practice within the firm, is a Director on OneVentures portfolio companies Employment Hero (Chair), Phocas Group, My Mobile Data and 8i and is responsible for investor relations. Dr Deaker founded multiple businesses prior to her move into venture capital including one of Australia’s first fintech companies (E Com Industries/giftvouchers.com) sold to UK publicly listed company Retail Decisions (ReD). She has over 20 years’ experience in the development of high growth technology companies in Australia and the US, has served on the boards of large and small listed and unlisted companies and expertise in global business expansion. Her previous board appointments include NICTA (now CSIRO’s Data61) and Seven West Media (ASX: SWM). She has also served in advisory board roles with NSW Government’s Taskforce for the Digital Economy, Heads over Heels and Australian Investment Council Venture Capital Working Group. Dr Deaker holds a Bachelor of Science with first class honours, Master of Science and a PhD (Applied Science). She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chief Executive Women (CEW).
Shaun has been a senior reporter, news editor and deputy editor at Infralogic covering Australia, NZ and Asia for more than seven years. Prior to that, he worked as a reporter and editor at Fairfax Media for eight years. His roles there included editor of CFO magazine, reporter on AFR Dealbook and financial services reporter for the Companies and Markets section of The Australian Financial Review.
Simon B. Feiglin joined Riverside in 2007. leads the RAF transacting and operating teams in the acquisition, growth and sale of portfolio companies, as well as the development of the strategic direction of the fund. Prior to Riverside, he was a founding Partner of Silver Oak Services Partners, a private equity fund focused on investing in the services sector. He also served as the Vice President of Corporate Development at CBIZ Inc., where he managed the merger, acquisition and divestiture effort for a $600 million publicly traded company. His earlier career includes four years at Morgenthaler Partners, a private equity firm. He holds a BBA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Nick Gainsley is a Partner at OneVentures and leads the credit practice of the firm. He also serves on the Investment Committee of the 1V Venture Credit Fund IV and the OneVentures Growth Fund V.
Nick has 15 years of debt experience both in direct lending and advisory, in Europe and Australia. Specifically he has over 8 years of venture credit experience having led investments to over 100 high growth technology companies.
Prior to joining OneVentures in May 2019, Nick was based in the UK and was a Principal at Kreos Capital, Europe’s largest growth debt fund. His experience there covered deal origination, execution and portfolio management for a significant number of transactions across European markets. He has wider sector experience across technology sub-sectors including FinTech, software, cybersecurity, hardware, e-commerce/DTC, AdTech and life science, investing in both private and public companies.
Prior to this, Nick was a Manager at KPMG in London within the Debt Advisory team where he was involved in managing and advising on a range of debt transaction from mid-market to large cap. Transaction experience covered leveraged finance, corporate refinancing, capital market issuance and strategic financing advice.
Nick holds an BSc (Hons) in Management from UMIST, UK. He is also an Associate member (AMCT) of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in the UK. He is a keen skier and loves to travel the world.
Tony is a Co-founder and Partner of Square Peg Capital. From inception in 2012, Square Peg today is a venture capital fund that invests in Australia, Israel and Southeast Asia with a focus on Series A and Series B.
Tony has deep experience in technology, media and telecom investing and advising and has worked and lived in Melbourne, New York, Sydney and Asia. From 1991 through 2006, Tony was with Merrill Lynch in the Investment Banking division. From 2006 through 2008, Tony was a Managing Director at Citigroup’s Sydney Investment Banking Group and Head of its TMT business in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 Tony joined Macquarie Capital where he worked until co-founding Square Peg Capital. While at Macquarie Tony held a variety of roles including co-head of TMT for Asia and Head of Principal Investments for Macquarie Capital Asia.
Imran is a Managing Partner at Gaja Capital.
Gaja Capital is India’s leading mid-market growth capital investment firm with AUM of $750. Gaja Capital aim is to help create India’s next generation of market leaders in sectors such as Software, Education, Consumer, Financial Services and Healthcare.
Imran has 25 years of experience in Private Equity, Pharmaceuticals and Technology services. Prior to Gaja Capital, Imran worked in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility at Dr Reddy’s and Wipro Technologies.
At Gaja Capital, Imran leads investments in the Software, Education and Consumer clusters. He has been closely involved with Gaja Capital’s investments in Amber (Student accommodation marketplace), Signzy ( SaaS platform for BFSI), Leadsquared ( Sales automation SaaS platform), Education initiatives (B2B Ed-tech), Kangaroo Kids (Pre-K and K12), KOOH Sports (Performance sports), Sportzvillage (youth sports), Eurokids ( Pre-K & K-12), John Distilleries (AlcoBev), CL Educate (Supplemental education), and Indus World Schools (K12).
Imran has postgraduate degrees in software engineering from BITS-Pilani an MBA from IIM-Bangalore.
Ian Jedlin is a managing director in the Valuation Advisory Services practice, based in the Sydney office. Ian has more than 25 years of experience in preparation of public fairness reports and valuations of shares, companies and businesses. He has extensive experience in all aspects of valuations, including financial reporting, acquisitions and disposals, restructuring and demutualizations, and tax-related matters. His valuation experience extends across a variety of industries, with focus on financial services, media and technology, infrastructure and property.
Matthew Koertge is a Managing Partner of Telstra Ventures. Telstra Ventures manages over A$1.3B FUM with a team based in Australia and the USA which has invested in 90 companies around the world of which 34 have achieved liquidity events so far, delivering 15 Unicorns, including 4 of which are Decacorns. Since its inception in 2011, Telstra Ventures has generated more than A$630M of revenue for its portfolio companies across 1,600 customers. Matthew has more than 20 years experience in the venture capital industry including leadership positions at Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, Macquarie Bank and Accede Venture Partners and he has worked with around 200 private equity backed companies including many successful acquisitions and IPOs. Prior to this, Matthew started his career as a software/hardware design engineer and project manager at Fujitsu. Matthew holds degrees in Engineering, Law and Business Administration and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Ken Licence joined Principle in 2009 and was appointed to the role of Managing Director in December 2010. Mr. Licence has over 25 years’ financial services experience across a range of investment strategies including property, private equity and infrastructure. He has held senior management positions with Lend Lease, Deutsche Asset Management, and CP2, assisting major domestic and international institutional clients.
Mr. Licence has been a Board Member of the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (NSW) and holds a Bachelor\ of Commerce from Griffith University and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Queensland.
Commenced at Metrics May, 2013
Andrew has considerable loan origination, structuring and portfolio risk management experience and has been responsible for the origination and risk management of large, diversified and complex loan portfolios including extensive corporate restructuring experience
Andrew has approximately >30 years’ banking, funds management and financial markets experience and previously specialised in leverage and acquisition finance as well as corporate and institutional lending
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Business and Masters of Business Administration from the Queensland University of Technology.
Mark McLean is a Managing Director and Head of Asia-Pacific for Morgan Stanley Infrastructure. He has over 20 years of experience in investment management and investment banking, including extensive experience in Australia in the investment and management of infrastructure opportunities. McLean is focused on generating opportunities for MSI in OECD counties in the Asia-Pacific region and is based in Melbourne.
Natasha Morris has been Adamantem Capital’s Director of Responsible Investing since 2019, responsible for developing and implementing a best practice responsible investing strategy which is fully integrated across the investment decision making process and portfolio company stewardship activities. This supports Adamantem’s ambition to deliver outstanding financial returns to investors alongside positive social and environmental outcomes.
Natasha has worked across both the private sector and the social impact sector over the past twenty years in both Australia and the UK. Before joining Adamantem Capital, Natasha was focused on impact investing, venture philanthropy, operations and strategy in the social sector (including at Social Ventures Australia). Prior to that Natasha’s private sector career included working in infrastructure investing in the investment team (at Hastings Funds Management) and project and infrastructure finance law (at King & Wood Mallesons in Australia and Norton Rose in the UK).
Natasha holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales and a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact from the University of New South Wales.
Tony Moussa is the Partner in Charge of the Sydney office of KPMG’s Debt Advisory business which specialises in providing independent structuring advice and capital arranging services to borrowers across a range of sectors. KPMG’s team is the largest independent debt adviser in the Australian market with over 35 professional advisers in all major State nationals and has deep relationships with the full range of capital from banks, investment banks, life insurers, super and sovereign funds, through to domestic and offshore credit and private equity funds.
Tony has over 30 years of experience gained across all aspects of investment banking, corporate advisory, global markets, debt and equity products, securitisation, structured and leveraged finance; bank lending, institutional and family office debt and equity investing; and private equity, venture capital, mid-market corporate restructurings recapitalisations, startups and fintechs, with particular focus on the real estate, financial services and technology sectors.
Prior to joining KPMG in early 2018, Tony held senior roles which included roles at CPE Capital, ANZ Bank (Head of Private Capital), Deutsche Bank (Head of Commercial Real Estate), Westpac and Clayton Utz. Tony has extensive experience advising institutional, corporate and private equity clients on a range of financing related initiatives associated with specific and portfolio acquisitions and divestments, corporate mergers and acquisitions generally, refinancings, restructures and recapitalizations.
Chester Moynihan is a founding Partner of Allegro Funds. Mr. Moynihan has almost 30 years’ experience in private equity investing, turnaround and restructuring, corporate advisory and executive management.
Allegro is currently investing its fourth fund of $750m and has ~$4 billion in AUM and targets transformation style investment opportunities in Australia and New Zealand. Allegro Funds have won a number of awards including the Australian Investment Council Firm of the Year and Mid-Cap Investment of the Year for Best & Less Group in 2022, the AVCJ Operational Value Add award for Best & Less Group and the AIC Diversity and Inclusion award in 2019.
Prior to Allegro Mr. Moynihan worked at Permira Advisers in London, Gresham Private Equity in Sydney and KPMG in both New Zealand and South Africa.
Mr. Moynihan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with post-graduate honours from the University of Natal, South Africa. Mr. Moynihan also holds an Investment Management Certificate from IMRO, London and has completed the IPAA course, Advanced Insolvency Law & Practice II, from the University of Southern Queensland.
Mr. Moynihan is currently on the boards of Gull New Zealand, Perth Radiological Clinics, Questas Group, Pizza Hut Australia and the Australian Investment Council.
David is an Executive Director in IFM Investors’ Private Equity team. Since joining in 2019 David has been part of the leadership team that has reset IFM’s private equity strategies and capabilities. He is responsible for sourcing, leading and managing investments as well as developing IFM’s private equity value creation approach. David has more than 25 years of experience in private equity, strategy consulting and business leadership roles. Prior to joining IFM Investors, David was with Bain Capital for six years following an international career in strategy consulting and leadership roles with Bain & Company, eBay and The Nuance Group. He has a Masters degree from Cambridge University and an Executive MBA from Columbia University.
With previous positions including CFO to one of Europe’s top 25 hedge funds, Co-Founder and CEO of energy technology company Handled, and CFO at Reinventure, Carl Prins’ unique background spanning funds management, technology and energy markets uniquely places him to lead Pathzero on its mission to accelerate the decarbonisation of the global economy.
Growing up in an off-grid home in South Africa, Carl has always had a personal passion for climate change. As he pursued a professional career in finance, he realised that global capital markets have the power to make a radical impact on decarbonisation by directing investment towards low-carbon organisations. However, this positive influence was not being utilised, mainly due to the lack of a standardised approach to implementing carbon accounting standards, combined with poor transparency around emissions data relating to their investments. Seeing the opportunity to combine accounting knowledge with the power of technology, Carl founded Pathzero to organise this information and make it accessible through a SaaS-based platform, so that businesses around the world can make an impact on our race to zero emissions.
Qualifications:
- Chartered Accountant (SAICA)
- Climate Active Registered Consultant
Justin Ryan is co-founder and Managing Partner of Glow Capital Partners. Justin has extensive private equity experience since starting in the industry in 1997 at Catalyst Investment Managers, including the last decade at Quadrant Private Equity. Justin was Chair of the Australian Venture Capital Association (now Australian Investment Council) in 2003.
In recent years, Justin has led the investments and acted as Chair of four of Australia’s leading online businesses: Adore Beauty, Grays, Quad Lock and Modibodi. Justin also has extensive operational experience, gained while CEO and Managing Director of Alesco Corporation, an ASX 200 listed company which was acquired by Dulux Corporation in 2011.
Jeremy Samuel is the founder and Managing Director of Anacacia Capital.
Anacacia manages >$800million investing into leading small-medium enterprises. It is currently raising Anacacia Private Equity IV, focused on Australasian lower mid-market growth buyouts. Anacacia has won numerous awards including the Australian Investment Council Firm of the Year.
Jeremy is a non-executive chair of Anacacia portfolio company Sureway. He was the former lead director for Anacacia's successful investments including: Appen, Big River, Home Appliances, Lomb Scientific, Rafferty's Garden and Yumi's Quality Foods.
Jeremy holds an MBA from Yale University School of Management and Arts/Law degrees from the University of NSW.
Niki is a co-founder of Blackbird, an investment firm with the dream to be a generational owner of generational companies born from Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Blackbird, he founded Startmate, an accelerator that helps nerds with ideas become great CEOs and build global startups. Earlier, he co-founded two software companies.
Blackbird partners with founders at the very beginning and surrounds them with a community of other founders who have built successful technology companies before. The firm began in2012 and currently manages $2.4 billion dollars of committed capital across 5 funds.
Kyle is the Founder and Managing Partner of ShawKwei & Partners, a private equity investment firm established in 1998. ShawKwei & Partners has offices in Hongkong, Singapore, Shanghai and San Francisco managing investments in Asia, Europe, and the USA. Kyle’s private equity experience before ShawKwei & Partners included managing Asian private equity businesses for Security Pacific National Bank and then the Tudor Group. Kyle has served as a director of several Asian and European industrial and service companies including as founder and director of Flex Ltd. (formerly known as Flextronics International Ltd).
Kyle received an MBA from the Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania, a BS in Commerce from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, as well as studied Mandarin Chinese at Taiwan’s National Normal University.
Steven Shirtliff joined KPMG in September 2018 after 22 years with another Big 4 firm in Australia and Canada. Mr. Shirtliff has worked exclusively as a partner in M&A Transaction Services since 2005, where he has focussed extensively on Private Equity and Capital Markets transactions. Mr. Shirtliff has led due financial due diligence and advisory engagements for a number of Australian and international based private equity firms on both entry and exit. With a prominent audit background (including two years as an audit partner), Mr. Shirtliff specializes in accounting for complex M&A transactions and structures.
Michael Tobin is the founder and Managing Director of Vantage Asset Management, one of the leading private equity fund of funds, investment managers in Australia. Since establishment in 2004, Vantage has developed and managed a private equity fund of funds investment strategy, focused exclusively on the lower to mid-market Growth, Turnaround and Buyout segment, across Australia and New Zealand.
Vantage currently manages over $400 million of commitments across five fund of funds, as well as feeder funds, co-investment vehicles and a secondaries fund.
Michael is responsible for the development and management of all private equity fund investment activity at Vantage and has managed Vantage’s funds share of investment into 28 Private Equity funds who in turn manage over $11 billion of capital, resulting in more than $9 billion of equity funding across 150 underlying portfolio companies of which 75 have been exited to date.
Michael is also responsible for the operational and compliance management of all Vantage managed funds and investment vehicles. Michael has over 30 years’ experience in private equity management, advisory and investment, as well as in management operations.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil) from the University of NSW, an MBA from The Australian Graduate School of Management, a Diploma of Financial Services (AFMA) and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Matthew Turner has over 27 years of debt markets experience and is the Head of Australia & New Zealand Senior Debt at ICG. He previously was responsible for covering the largest PE firms in the Australian market in NAB’s Acquisition Finance Team. He has been previously rated in the top 5 DCM Bankers in Australia in the East Coles annual bankers survey. Prior to 2007, he spent eight years working in London, five years as a debt specialist within the Investment Banking Division of Credit Suisse. Before that he spent three years at FleetBoston (now part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch) where he concentrated on Leveraged Media and Telecom credits and was responsible for FleetBoston’s European secondary loan trading. Before moving to London, Matthew worked in Corporate and Institutional roles in Australian trading banks. He is regularly quoted in the Financial Press, particularly on the emergence of Private Debt in Australia. Matthew holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.
James Viles is a partner in Bain & Company's Sydney office, where he leads Bain’s Sydney PE advisory practice and specializes in Healthcare. He has 17 years of consulting experience across Australia, London and Africa mostly focused on working with PE sponsors.
James has deep experience in advising local and global private equity companies across the ownership life cycle, with a particular focus on diligence (>100 diligences completed and counting) and PE portfolio company value creation.
James has deep experience across all major healthcare provider segments, from allied health to hospitals, with a particular focus on rapid performance improvement / transformation.
Outside of Bain James is on the Board of Life Circle, a charity that assists corporate decision makers and carers avoid regrettable deaths for those in their care, and Thud, a direct to consumer sports nutrition company.
He holds an MBA with distinction from INSEAD France / Singapore and an MA (Oxon) from Oxford University.
Greg leads Wellington Management’s private company investment activity in companies developing innovative climate solutions. He works closely with portfolio managers, global industry analysts, and other global research resources within the firm to identify and pursue investments. As the firm’s climate innovation efforts continue to grow, Greg helps build the team, develop investment talent, and further integrate Wellington’s research capabilities into this emerging business.
Greg holds a bachelor of business administration from George Washington University. Additionally, he holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He also serves on the board of non-profit, Hudson River Park Friends.
Rohan Wolfers joined Pacific Equity Partners in 2010. Before joining PEP, Rohan was with Navis Capital Partners and Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity in Australia, Asia and North America. Rohan received a PLD from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney.
Johnny is a Partner at Navis Capital, a pan-Asia/Australasia Private Equity firm. During his ten years at Navis, he has sat on the boards and executive committees of five Navis portfolio companies, spanning sectors in automotive, education, healthcare and IT. Prior to Navis, Johnny was part of Macquarie Capital’s investment banking team in Sydney, advising industrial companies across food & beverage, transport, consumer retail and healthcare. He has a law and finance degree at the University of New South Wales.
Xiaying Zhang is Wellington Management’s Director of Private Investments, based in Singapore. Prior to joining Wellington, Xiaying was Head of Singapore at Hamilton Lane. Xiaying has a Masters’ and Bachelors’ degree in Finance from San Diego State University and is a member of CAIA.