Paul Bloxham

Neil Bourne

Managing Principal, Eaton Square

With over 20 years experience in the IT industries in roles ranging from technical, operational through to financial and strategic, Neil brings a distinctive range of insights to bear on the journey from start-up through to final exit for businesses in the technology sector.

Neil has been working as a corporate advisor in the technology sector assisting with growth strategies, capital raisings, mergers and trade sales for over 10 years. His clients range from software companies, IT services businesses and digital media businesses. Neil’s venture capital experience includes working as an investment analyst at Technology Venture Partners and making his own angel investments.

In addition Neil draws on his experience with large organisations based on his time as a management consultant with Andersen Consulting (Accenture), assisting commercial and government clients with eCommerce strategies and IT implementations. Neil is an active early stage investor and director of several early stage companies.

James Brown

James is an experienced genetic engineer, who has helped catalyse the emergence of Synthetic Biology on the international stage. Prior to founding Bondi, James was the architect of a new wet lab facility at world-leading technical-consultancy Cambridge Consultants. There he took the technical lead on a range of projects including HT characterisation platforms, cell-free sensing & DNA data-storage, culminating in the successful authorship of Wikipedia in DNA.

James worked in Microsoft Research’s Biological Computation Group & spent time in Saudi Arabia, working to generate sustainable biomanufacturing solutions for global chemical producer SABIC. James served as National Programme Director for UK Synthetic Biology & was Secretariat to the UK’s Synthetic Biology Leadership Council, where he supported the implementation of the UK’s Strategic Roadmap in Synthetic Biology. He was an iGEM Ambassador during the formative years of the competition, and was Principal Advisor to the University of Cambridge iGEM teams from 2007 through 2010, including the award-winning E. chromi team in 2009.

James holds a PhD, MA & MEng from the University of Cambridge.

James Burton

LeapFrog makes ‘profit with purpose’ investments in emerging economies in Africa and Asia. The company only invests in businesses which improve the lives of low-income people and has achieved some impressive private equity scale exits.

James has a breadth of experience in financing and nurturing the growth of organisations that leverage innovative technologies for social impact. This work has included helping Boston Consulting Group’s corporate venturing arm BCG Digital Ventures launch its first social impact start-up and aiding senior members of the Swedish Nobel family in their development of initiatives that support and reward sustainable technologies. James has also advised the World Bank and the Nigerian Ministry of Finance on maximising the impact of funds directed toward early stage entrepreneurs.

Earlier in his career, James served on the personal staff of XPRIZE and Singularity University founder Peter Diamandis and as an analyst direct to the chairman of Australian private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners.

Jared Connor

Jared has served clients in multiple EY offices, including Los Angeles and Boston, where he serviced prominent alternative asset managers. His experience in different jurisdictions has enabled him to gain experience over a wide range of investment structures, strategies and regulatory frameworks that align with the complexities of global private equity and venture capital fund managers. This has also enabled Jared to develop a comprehensive skillset on the challenges which present around valuation of companies at various stages in their life cycle.

Lindley Edwards

She has a track record of successful advising to private and public companies. Previously Lindley was a State Manager (Vice-President) with Citibank. Prior to this position she spent nine years with Macquarie Bank and was an Associate Director with the Corporate Banking Division. Lindley has also worked on a secondment basis for Boston Consulting Group and for the Victorian State Government.

She is an accountant and a Senior Fellow of FINSIA. Lindley holds two undergraduate degrees, one in Accounting and the other in Banking and Finance. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Governance of ASX Listed Companies. Lindley is a non-executive Director and Advisory Board member of various organisations and Government bodies.

Lindley has been a state finalist in the Telstra Businesswomen’s awards for Private Sector with less than 100 employees. In the year 2000 Lindley was admitted to the Australian Businesswomen’s Hall of Fame.

Kylie Frazer

Passionate about introducing more investors to the joys of early stage tech investing, Kylie is a regular contributor at Australia’s leading investor education providers in the sector: Wade Institute’s VC Catalyst; The Australian Graduate School of Management’s Angel Education Program; Airtree Venture’s Explorer Program and Startmate’s First Believers program.

Prior to her role at Eleanor, Kylie was an M&A consultant at Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

Jason Georgatos

Genevieve Gregor

Adrian Herbert

Private Equity Media is Australia and New Zealand’s first and leading private equity and venture capital publisher. The company is working to develop this position to serve the entire private capital investment community in the two countries.

Howard Leibman

Before co-founding EVP in 2011, Howard spent most of his career at the intersection of finance and technology. He began his career as an electrical engineer with GEC Marconi, at the time one of the world’s largest diversified engineering groups. After business school and a brief period in management consulting, he joined the corporate finance team at Emerging Growth Capital, a specialist technology focused investment firm. In 2005 he joined Heartware International as head of corporate development, having served as corporate adviser to the company during its IPO. There, over a five year period, he saw HeartWare’s technology evolve from venture-backed pre-clinical development through to global market leadership, ultimately transforming the lives of many thousands of heart failure patients.

Howard’s objective upon founding EVP was to partner early with talented technology entrepreneurs with ground-breaking products and ambition to create Australia’s next generation of global businesses. As the EVP team and portfolio grow, this vision remains core to what we do.

Howard holds undergraduate degrees in arts and electrical engineering from the University of NSW and an MBA from the AGSM and London Business School. He is a director of EVP portfolio companies Deputy, Outfit, Practice Ignition, Fergus, Practifi, Rezdy, Oneflare and Fusion Sport.

Peter Manettas

Tom Matthews

Tom joined Pemba in 2015 and has led a number of transactions across Pemba’s areas of sector focus. These include HR3, JobReady, Vital Software, VETTrack, Esher House, EmployGroup, Smart Loyalty and THREE60. Tom represents Pemba on the board of ReadyTech and Marque Group.

Tom joined Pemba from Sovereign Capital, the UK ‘Buy & Build’ specialist private equity fund, where he was based in London and focused on investing in mid-market consolidators in the healthcare, education and business services sectors. Tom was previously with the Investment Banking Group at Macquarie Bank Limited, which focused on principal investment opportunities across a variety of sectors.

Prior to Macquarie, Tom gained substantial transaction experience at Deloitte Corporate Finance both in Sydney and London. Tom’s primary areas of expertise at Deloitte Corporate Finance involved business valuations, independent expert’s reports and corporate advice.

Kelly Morton

With over 17 years’ experience, Kelly has led the refinancing of many corporations, using both the Australian and US financial markets, as well as a diverse range of small, mid-sized and large leveraged and acquisition finance transactions. This has led to her cultivating strong relationships with financial institutions, law, accounting and private equity firms which she believes is critical in achieving the best outcomes for all involved.

She is well known for superior financial analysis and judgement, which has increased profits and shareholder value within risk and governance frameworks. Her reputation for remaining calm and focused under pressure and ability to think outside the box has led to workable solutions to the most complex issues. However above that Kelly has a reputation for providing the ‘right’ advice. The philosophy that “the best advice is always the right advice” has led to Skye Capital holding so many long standing relationships.

She is extremely hands on and passionate about working with clients to achieve results.

Previously Kelly was at Pottinger, where she started up and built a successful debt advisory and capital structuring business. Prior to this she spent nine years at UBS, where she was one of the most senior members in the private equity, leveraged and acquisition finance team and also Head of Corporate Lending. She has previously worked at National Australia Bank, Macquarie Bank and Andersen Consulting.

David Odgers

Kieren Parker

Kieren trained with a US corporate firm in Sydney, and then worked with a magic circle firm in London, specialising in private equity. He has never been too far from the industry, taking commercial roles with portfolio companies of The Carlyle Group in London (energy infrastructure) and Advent Capital in Sydney (construction), and consulting to CHAMP Private Equity.

David Potter

Previously a chartered accountant, David has over 30 years’ experience across a broad range of operational accounting and consulting roles. David has focused on business development in fund administration services since 2016.

Justin Ryan

Justin has an MBA from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Law from The University of Sydney.

Elaine Stead

Nicholas Sweeney

Prior to joining Macquarie, Nicholas worked as a Director in ANZ Banking Group’s Corporate Banking Division, as well as holding senior roles within Esanda FleetPartners and Campese Management Group.

Suzanne Tavill

Prior to StepStone, Suzanne 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.

Suzanne received an 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.

Barry Westlake B.E., Ph.D.

Barry is currently commercialising a revolutionary type of electric motor vehicle, first demonstrated by Ferdinand Porsche in 1899. He identified the basis of the problem that plagued this concept for over 100 years and patented the solution. The fully-tested prototype is currently being reviewed by people from the international motor vehicle industry. He is also working with a business that appears to have a cure for Parkinson’s Disease, another business with a game-changing technology for restaurants and is on the Board of a mental health enterprise.

He received an Advance Australia Award for his contribution to the computer industry.

Barry’s direct involvement in his own businesses over more than 40 years and his indirect involvement in hundreds of growth companies through the Redfern Photonics Group and ATP-Innovations, has given him extensive insights into the issues of timing, especially with regards to expansion and market-targeting.

Melissa Widner

Previously she was the Managing Director of NAB Ventures, the venture capital arm of National Australia Bank, where she invested in and served as a director for several global fintech companies, including Lighter Capital.

As CEO she led two companies to successful acquisitions that provided over a 10X return to investors. She co-founded and was the CEO of Silicon Valley enterprise software company, 7Software (acquired by Concur Technologies NASDAQ: CNQR, acquired by SAP).
Melissa served as a general partner at SeaPoint ventures, a US based venture capital firm focused on mobile technologies and SaaS enterprise software solutions. She is an active angel investor who served on the board of US based Alliance of Angels, one of the longest running and most active angel groups in the world. She was a lecturer in the subjects of Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship at University of Washington’s MBA program.

In 2009, Melissa relocated to Sydney with her Australian husband. She is the co-founder and chair of Heads Over Heels, an organization that works with women entrepreneurs leading high growth companies. She served on the boards of AIC (The Australian Investment Council–formerly AVCAL), and currently serves on the board of the Shore Foundation and Heads Over Heels.

Dai Williams

Prior, Dai filled several key roles that spurred SiteMinder’s growth from its earliest days. After establishing SiteMinder’s first overseas office, in London, he led the global sales organisation, and led the expansion of the company’s EMEA operation as managing director for the booming region.

David Willington

Previously, he was a Senior Partner at Deloitte Corporate Finance — and prior to that, an investment banker with NM Rothschild and Citigroup.

David currently serves on the boards of Janison Education Group Limited (ASX: JAN) and Orbx Limited.

He has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree. He is also a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia.