Speakers

Will Davies

CEO and Co-Founder, Car Next Door
Will Davies is the CEO and co-founder of Australia’s biggest peer-to-peer car sharing platform, Car Next Door.

Will believes in sustainable business as key to addressing the environmental challenges the world is facing, and wants to empower people to take steps in their everyday lives to reduce their climate change impact.

Car Next Door is on a mission to free people and the planet from the ‘one person, one car’ mentality. By connecting car owners with trusted borrowers in their local community, Car Next Door empowers people to save money, reduce waste and build cleaner, greener, better communities.

Founded in 2012, Car Next Door has grown to a community of over 4,000 car owners sharing with over 150,000 borrowers, with over 400,000 trips taken through the platform.

Dr Michelle Deaker

Managing Partner, OneVentures
Dr Michelle Deaker established OneVentures and is the firm’s founding Managing Partner. The firm now manages over $320M across 3 major funds. Michelle is a member of the Investment Committee and manages the Supervisory Board for OneVentures’ Funds. She is a successful entrepreneur and business executive with over 20 years experience in information technology enterprise businesses targeting finance, retail, media, security and education. She has served on the Boards of major listed and unlisted companies across media, healthcare and information technologies in Australia and North America.

Alison Deans

Non Executive Director and Advisor
Alison Deans has spent over 20 years working with technology-enabled businesses – driving innovation and business growth. She was the first managing director of eBay Australia and was the CEO of two technology funds: publicly-listed ecorp and then netus, which enjoyed one of the highest returns of any fund in Australia. Alison remains focused on technology-enabled growth and transformation as a non-executive director of Cochlear, Deputy, Westpac and Ramsay Health Care. She is also on the Investment Committee of Main Sequence Ventures and supports entrepreneurs building digital businesses in Australia.

Alison previously spent eight years with McKinsey & Company. She has a Masters in Physics from Cambridge University, and an MBA from Stanford University.

Genevieve Gregor

Partner, Colinton Capital
Genevieve Gregor is a founding partner at Colinton Capital. Prior to this role, Genevieve spent 20 years working for US investment banks, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. She was Managing Director and Co-Head of the Australian Special Situations Group at Goldman Sachs, a lending and investing platform where she lead investments across a range of industries. Genevieve is the Chair of Dimeo Facility Services, a leading commercial cleaning and facility management services company. Genevieve was the former Deputy Chancellor, member of the Board of Trustees and chair of the Finance and Investment Committee for Western Sydney University.

Adrian Herbert

Managing Editor, Private Equity Media
Adrian Herbert has worked as Managing Editor of Private Equity Media since 2006 and led a management buyout of the business in 2012.

Private Equity Media is Australia’s first and leading private equity and venture capital publisher and is seeking to further develop this position to serve the entire business development community in Australia and New Zealand.

Grant Petty

CEO and Founder, Blackmagic Design
Grant Petty, founder and CEO of Blackmagic Design, has become one of the world’s leading innovators of creative video tech. His goal was – and still is today – to empower creativity by making film, television and AV production equipment affordable for everyone. And because of Grant Petty, a huge amount of the new films, TV shows, commercials, music videos and live concerts you watch was created with Blackmagic Design product.

Blackmagic Design, with more than 1,000 employees in seven countries, has millions of customers around the world. This includes Oscar winning cinematographers to 15 year old students; and projects from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, to Game of Thrones, NCIS, Elton John’s end tour and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Grant is focused on design and problem solving, and has assembled world leading software, hardware, R&D, industrial design, interface design, manufacturing and marketing, and focused them all on design and creativity.

Justin Ryan

Managing Partner, Quadrant Growth Fund
Justin Ryan joined Quadrant Private Equity in February 2011. Prior to this Justin was Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Alesco Corporation Limited, an ASX 200 diversified industrial company, which he joined in 2004 (Alesco was taken over by Dulux Corporation Limited in 2011). Before joining Alesco, Justin was a Director of Catalyst Investment Managers and was Chairman of Australian Investment Council (formerly AVCAL) in 2003.

Since joining Quadrant, Justin has been on the Investment Committee for 29 Quadrant investments of which he has led or co-led 13, 6 of which have been successfully exited.

Justin leads the Growth Fund and is currently Chairman of GraysOnline, Modibodi and Adore Beauty and a Director of Love to Dream.

Nick Speer

Partner, The Riverside Company
Nick joined The Riverside Company in 2014 and is a Partner in the Melbourne office. Prior to joining Riverside, he was the Executive Director at leading domestic PE fund, Catalyst Investment Managers. Previously he was an M&A adviser at Greenhill Caliburn. He holds a Program for Leadership Development degree from Harvard Business School and a +Bachelor of Commerce, with Honours in Finance from The University of Melbourne.

Elaine Stead

Committee Member, Australian Investment Council
Elaine Stead is passionate about working with organisations that deliver genuine benefits for the community. Her professional focus has been on the innovation spectrum, holding several diverse roles including CEO, Board of Director and executive level roles within industry, venture capital and both the public and private sector. Elaine has specialised in helping innovation companies grow value and develop products that genuinely improve people’s lives.

Melissa Widner

Managing Director, NAB Ventures
Melissa Widner is a Managing Director at NAB Ventures, a division of National Australia Bank. Through her experience she has a deep understanding of both the entrepreneur’s journey and the role of a Venture Capitalist. 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. Melissa has served on the boards of several venture backed technology companies. 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 co-founded Heads Over Heels, an organisation that works with women entrepreneurs leading companies with high growth potential. She serves on the boards of AIC (The Australian Investment Council–formerly AVCAL), The Shore Foundation and Heads Over Heels. She has served on the boards of several US and Australian based venture backed technology companies.

Growth Capital Forum 2020 • Privacy Policy • Community Charter