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.

Will Davies

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.

Alison Deans

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

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 Project.

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.

Jason Georgatos

Genevieve Gregor

Craig Griffin

He has been a key part of Macquarie’s team since 2013, and has played an important role in the execution of a strategy that has seen the division triple management profit and grow its mortgage book from $11 billion to $40 billion. During this time, the business has also transformed its client experience across Personal Banking, Wealth Management and Business Banking.

Prior to joining Macquarie, Craig was Managing Partner at Ernst & Young and sat on their Financial Services Global Executive Team. Prior to that he was Founder and Managing Director of Team Performance, a consultancy firm working with growth companies.

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.

Georgina Lalor

Primarily focused on the Infrastructure, Industrials and Financial Services sectors, Georgina has played a significant role on many of Macquarie’s largest capital raisings and principal transactions. Prior to joining Macquarie, Georgina worked as a solicitor at Clayton Utz focused on ECM transactions.

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.

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.

Francis Milner

In 2014, Francis co-founded London and Geneva-based private equity turnaround firm Valtegra LLP where he served as managing partner until 2018. He has had a long-standing interest in the under-recognition of intangible assets and has demonstrated expertise in realising the value of such assets. While working in Japan, Francis negotiated the sale of Kodak’s OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology to LG which enabled LG to become the world leader in using the technology for brighter and more efficient television displays.

EverEdge Capital focuses on maximising value in assets such as data, patents, software, code and knowledge. The firm seeks to invest alongside businesses to increase the value of intangible assets or in the divestment of under-utilised intangible assets.

David Odgers

Grant Petty

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

Since joining Quadrant, Justin has been on the Investment Committee for 31 Quadrant investments of which he has led or co-led 14, 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.

Margaret Schlott

Margaret contributes to the firm’s research on private investment managers and facilitates the firm’s Australian and New Zealand private investment benchmarking data. She is a member of the firm’s Mission Related Investing Group focused on ESG/SRI matters for Australian and New Zealand clients.

Margaret also works with clients in Australia and New Zealand including superannuation funds, foundations, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds. She works closely with clients on their investment portfolios including; investment policy, asset allocation, manager selection, and monitoring.

Margaret began her career at Cambridge Associates in 2001. Prior to relocating to Sydney in 2007, she worked in the firm’s Menlo Park, California office supporting general advisory work for several endowment and family office clients as well as aided in managing the Menlo Park analyst team. Prior to this, Margaret worked in the firm’s Arlington, Virginia office for the Manager Information Group.

Nick Speer

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

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.

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.