Speaker Biographies
Keynotes
Senator The Hon
Nick Sherry
Assistant Treasurer
Commonwealth of Australia
Senator Nick Sherry was promoted to the position of Assistant Treasurer of Australia in the Rudd Government, on 9 June 2009.
As Assistant Treasurer he assists the Treasurer in the development, implementation and
administration of policies in the Treasury portfolio, including a specific focus on taxation, tax design and the upcoming national tax reform program, foreign investment matters, productivity reform issues, international economic regulation, international mutual recognition arrangements and global accounting standards.
Senator Sherry sits on Cabinet’s Expenditure Review Committee responsible for the management of Australia’s national annual budget and also have responsibility for the Productivity Commission, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Royal Australian Mint and the Board of Taxation.
Senator Sherry previously held the position of Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law since 3 December 2007, the first ever Minister with portfolio responsibility for Australia’s $1.1 trillion private retirement savings system.
He has been a Senator for Tasmania since 1990, and is based in the small country town of Forth, near Devonport on Tasmania's North West Coast.
Nick had over eight years combined experience as a Shadow Minister before the election of the Rudd Government in 2007, having been Shadow Minister for Finance, Shadow Assistant Treasurer, and held Shadow Ministries for financial services, banking, superannuation, business regulation, consumer affairs and intergenerational finance.
He was also Parliamentary Secretary for Primary Industry, Energy and Resources during the Keating Government.
Nick has held important roles within the Labor Party including Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, and been a member of Labor’s tactics, strategy, economic and policy committees.
Nick chaired the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation in the Hawke and Keating
Governments and was later Deputy Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Superannuation
and Financial Services for six years. He has sat on numerous other parliamentary committees including the Senate Economics, Finance and Public Administration Committee, Strategy, Expenditure and Policy Review Committees and Joint Corporations and Financial Services Committee.
He has had more than 20 years experience in the Australian finance, funds and pension/superannuation systems. Nick has kept abreast of the international pension scene, studying closely the systems and developments in the UK, US and Switzerland. He has written extensively on the subject.
Nicks lists the “GFC” as a private interest but he is referring of course to the Geelong Football Club, not the global financial crisis.
Jeffrey L. Bleich
Ambassador to Australia
Embassy of the United States
Jeffrey L. Bleich presented his credentials to Governor General Quentin Bryce on November 26, 2009, as the 24th American ambassador to the Commonwealth of Australia.
On September 11, 2009, President Obama announced his intent to nominate Jeffrey Bleich to be the next U.S. Ambassador to Australia. On November 10, 2009, he was confirmed by the United States Senate. Mr. Bleich served as Special Counsel to the President at the White House. From 1995 to 2009, he was a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, where he was recognized as one of the nation's top lawyers. Outside of his legal practice, Mr. Bleich has a long-standing commitment to international law. After clerking for Judge Howard Holtzmann at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal and acting as Special Rapporteur to the International Court of Arbitration, he assisted the Special Prosecutor for the International Tribunal for the Former-Yugoslavia. He has taught international human rights at UC Berkeley's School of Law, and written and lectured extensively on the international criminal court.
More recently, Mr. Bleich represented the ABA before the United States Supreme Court in several matters including the Medellin case concerning the Vienna Convention on Consular Rights. He recently chaired both the ABA's Amicus Curiae Committee and the subcommittee on Corporate Social Responsibility. Mr. Bleich served as an officer or member in numerous foreign policy organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations, the ABA Section on International Law, the Pacific Council on International Policy, the International Law Association, the American Society of International Law, and Human Rights Watch. In 2008, he served simultaneously as the Chair of the California State University Board of Trustees and as the President of the State Bar of California.
Mr. Bleich received his B.A. from Amherst College, his Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law. He received his certificate in Public International Law from the Hague Academy in 1993. Following graduation from law school, he clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist on the United States Supreme Court as well as Judge Abner J. Mikva of the D.C. Circuit.
He and his wife Rebecca have three children, Jake, Matthew and Abby.
Nick Farr-Jones
Director
Taurus Funds Manager
Nick is a graduate of the University of Sydney having attained a bachelor of law. He practiced for a mid Sized Sydney law firm, Garland Seaborn and Abbott before joining the French Investment Bank Societe Generale where his first 4 years were based in head office in Paris. He was a marketing director for the commodity derivatives desk before returning to Sydney in 1999 where is headed the Bank’s commodity finance team for the next decade.
In 2009 Nick joined Taurus Funds Management (“TFM”) to spearhead their global marketing initiatives and is also a member of the Investment Committee for the Firm’s first private equity resource strategy. TFM is managing Aud 169m in this Fund and will be raising throughout 2010 for their second Fund. The fund aims to invest in junior mining companies across a range of commodities to provide investors with an exposure to companies that are taking what TFM believes are world class orebodies and projects through feasibility stage into financing, construction and ultimately construction. TFM has assembled a highly experienced team of geologists, engineers, metallurgists and banking and finance personnel with a combined experience in the sector of approximately 170 years to effectively execute this strategy.
Nick has represented his country for 10 years in rugby union, captaining Australia to win the Rugby World Cup in 1991. He was awarded an AM the following year for services to rugby. Amongst other things, he has been a Councilor of the City of Sydney, a Senator of the University of Sydney, and is currently a Director of the Wesley Mission.
David Kirk
Executive Chairman
Hoyts Group
David Kirk is currently the Executive Chairman of Hoyts Corporation and serves on the Board of Forsyth Barr, New Zealand’s leading funds management and stock-broking business.
David was the Chief Executive and Managing Director of Fairfax Media Ltd from 2005 to 2008 and served in the same position for PMP Limited from 2003 to 2005. David’s prior working experience includes senior executive roles in the paper and energy industries, three and half years as Chief Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand and as a Management Consultant with McKinsey & Company in London.
David graduated as a Medical Doctor from the University of Otago in 1985 and subsequently took a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University. David is a Rhodes Scholar.
David played for the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team from 1983 to 1987, captaining the team for two years and leading New Zealand to victory in the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987. David was created MBE in 1987.
Peter FitzSimons
Senior Journalist
Former Wallaby Peter FitzSimons writes regular columns for The Sydney Morning Herald and the Sun-Herald, as well as occasionally appearing in such overseas journals as the London Daily Telegraph and International Herald Tribune. In his two decades in print, radio and television journalism he has personally interviewed everyone from President George Bush Snr to Greg Norman to Diego Maradona to Matt Damon, and every Australian Prime Minister from Gough Whitlam through to Kevin Rudd. As an author, he has written 20 books, including biographies of Nick Farr-Jones, John Eales, Steve Waugh, Kim Beazley, Les Darcy, Nancy Wake and Charles Kingsford Smith. He was Australia's best selling non-fiction author in 2001 and 2004, the latter with his book on Kokoda which has sold over 250,000 copies, while his book on Tobruk, has sold more than 150,000 copies.
Senior Industry Professionals
Tim Sims
Managing Director
Pacific Equity Partners
Tim Sims is a Managing Director and Founder of Pacific Equity Partners (PEP). He is on the Boards of a number of portfolio companies. He was previously chairman and Managing Partner of Bain and Company’s businesses in Australasia and Africa. He was an elected member of Bain’s World wide Executive Committee. Prior to joining Bain Tim was a Founding Partner of the LEK Partnership in London and Managing Partner of their Australasia practice.
Tim has also led or served on a number of National Strategy issues, The Karpin Committee, Lucas Heights, and the Service Export Initiative. He was a Founder of the Australian Charities Fund Work Place Giving Program, and has served on the Boards of The Garvan Foundation, Sharelife Australia, and Ravenswood School.
He has a BA/MA from Oxford where he was a Mitsui Scholar, and an MPA from Harvard where he was a Kennedy Scholar.
Joseph Skrzynski
Founding Partner
CHAMP Private Equity
Mr Joseph Skrzynski is the Co-Founder of CHAMP and its predecessor, Australian Mezzanine Investment Pty Limited (AMIL), established in 1987. Since 1970, Mr Skrzynski has been involved in the funding and management of venture projects in both the private and public sectors. His career spans merchant banking, corporate management and, for the last 23 years, institutional private equity funds management. The AMIL/CHAMP group is the pioneering private equity group in Australia and has launched nine funds spanning early, expansion and MBO activities, funded by Australian and international institutions.
He has served on many portfolio company Boards in Australia, Singapore, the United States and the UK. Mr Skrzynski is a Foundation Director and Past President of the Australian Venture Capital Association, a ministerial appointee to the National Investment Council, and his services to the industry have been recognised with Inaugural Life Time Achievement Awards by the Australian and Asian Venture Capital Associations.
His community service activities have included chairing the Sydney Opera House Trust, the Australian Film TV & Radio School, and currently he chairs the SBS TV & Radio Service. He is an Honours Graduate in Economics from the University of Sydney, and in 2008 was made an Officer in the Order of Australia.
Philip M. Bilden
Managing Director
HarbourVest Partners (Asia) Limited
Philip Bilden joined HarbourVest in Boston in 1991 and relocated to Hong Kong in 1996 to establish the Firm's Asian subsidiary. He manages HarbourVest Partners (Asia) Limited which supports HarbourVest's investment and client service activities in the Asia Pacific region and other emerging markets. Philip serves on the advisory boards of several international private equity partnerships, including funds managed by Archer Capital, Bain Capital Asia, Brait Capital Partners, Castle Harlan Australian Mezzanine Partners (CHAMP), KKR Asia, Olympus Capital, Pacific Equity Partners, TPG Asia, and Unitas Capital. He also serves on the advisory council for the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA).
He received a BS in Foreign Service (magna cum laude) from Georgetown University in 1986 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1991. Philip serves on the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of Harvard Business School.
David Jones
Managing Director
CHAMP Private Equity
Mr Jones joined CHAMP in 2002. He has spent the last sixteen years in the private equity industry, and was previously in management consulting, investment banking and general management. Mr Jones began his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Australia and New Zealand. He left McKinsey to take the role of General Manager of Butterfields Cheese Factors, of the King Island Dairies group.
Since 1994 Mr Jones has worked in the private equity business in Australia and the USA. He spent four years with Macquarie Direct Investment in Sydney and one year at BancBoston Capital in Boston. In 1999 he founded and led the development of UBS Capital’s Australian and New Zealand business.
Mr Jones holds a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours) from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He is currently a Director Global Sources Limited (NASDAQ), The Beacon Foundation, Centric Wealth and in 2007 he was Chairman of the Australian Venture Capital Association Limited (AVCAL).
Julian Knights
Managing Partner
Ironbridge
Julian is a founding Partner of Ironbridge, a leading Australian MBO firm. Julian was previously the Managing Director of Gresham Private Equity. One of the most experienced local investors, Ironbridge has over $1.5 billion of committed capital and 20 staff in Australia and New Zealand. Ironbridge focuses on $250 - 750 million transactions.
After completing BComm and LLB degrees in South Africa, Julian began his investment banking career in 1980 with Hill Samuel. Julian moved to London in 1985 to become a director of Hill Samuel Group. In 1989 he joined leading UK investment banking boutique J.O. Hambro Magan and was appointed Managing Director in 1994. Julian's extensive international experience involved major cross-border acquisitions and investments.
Julian has served four terms on the Council of AVCAL (Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association) and was Chairman of AVCAL in 2008.
Simon Pillar
Managing Director
Pacific Equity Partners
Simon is a founder of PEP. His current operating company board involvement includes REDgroup Retail, Tegel Foods, Griffin's Foods, Independent Liquor and Hoyts Group. Prior to founding PEP, Simon was a Vice President of Bain & Company. Simon received a BSc(Eng) in Civil Engineering, University of Bristol and an MBA from the Wharton School.
Justin Reizes
Partner
KKR Australia
Justin Reizes joined KKR’s London office in 1999 and is currently a Partner. In Europe, he focused mainly on the Media, Communication and the Financial Services industries. From 2005 Justin moved to Hong Kong, then in July 2006 he moved to Tokyo and in the beginning of 2008 he moved to Sydney. Since moving to the Asia Pacific region, he has been actively involved in developing KKR’s Asian operations. Justin has played a role in the investments in Tenovis, Maxeda, BIS Industrial Logistics and Seven Media Group and currently sits on the BIS Industrial Logistics and Seven Media Group boards. Prior to KKR, he was involved in the private equity investments area of Morgan Stanley (Capital Partners) in London. From 1996 to 1998, he was in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley, where he was involved in a number of mergers, acquisitions and financings. Justin holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in Managerial Studies from Rice University.
Peter Wiggs
Managing Partner
Archer Capital
With over $2 billion of funds under management and 22 investment professionals, Archer Capital is one of Australia’s oldest and largest private equity firms. It has 2 investment funds; Archer Capital 4 a $1.4b mid market LBO fund, and Archer Capital Growth Fund 1 a $200m small buyout fund. Since inception in 1998 Archer has completed 29 LBO’s with a total deal value of over $4b.
Peter was a founding Partner of Archer Capital.
He has a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Economics (Hons) from the University of Sydney.
David Brown
Head of Private Markets
VFMC
David joined VFMC in December 2006 to restructure the private equity program and now manages a broad-based team across private equity, infrastructure and real estate.
Previously, David spent seven years at QIC in Brisbane where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager within the Strategy Division developing their approach to implementing global private equity and infrastructure programs. Prior to this, David spent a decade in the UK where he was an Investment Manager with Standard Life Investments, one of the largest institutional investors in Europe.
He has a Master of Science in Investment Analysis from the University of Stirling in Scotland, and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland and is an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.
Steve Byrom
Head of Private Equity
Future Fund
Mr. Byrom is Head of Private Equity at the Future Fund where he is responsible for $8 billion of capital that has been committed to 11 private equity managers. He has over 14 years of private equity and corporate finance experience across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. His previous experience includes establishing a private equity program at the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Co-Head of ANZ Private Equity, financial sponsors with SG Hambros in London and corporate finance at Ernst & Young in London and Auckland.
Mr. Byrom holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) and a Masters of Commerce (Finance) from the University of Auckland.
Greg Fernance
Head of Investment and Capital Management
University of Sydney
Greg was appointed to the position of Director of the Investment and Capital Management Office in January 2005, following an extensive career in the private sector spanning more than 20 years. During the mid-1990s he was Head of the Australian Fixed Interest Division of AMP Investments Pty Ltd. In 1998, Greg moved across to the Private Equity Division of AMP Investments where he spent several years as a Director within the investment banking team. Since joining the University in 2003, he has fulfilled a number of roles including that of Manager of Private Equity and Commercialisation. Greg is chairman of the Asset/Liability Committee, a member of the Gift Advisory Board and an integral part of the Investment and Commercialisation Committee (a committee of Senate).
The Investment and Capital Management Office is responsible for managing the University’s $1 billion plus investable funds including the endowment component.
Stewart Hay
Partner
SL Capital Partners LLP
Mr Hay is a Partner and member of the Board of Directors at SL Capital Partners ("SL Capital") which is 60% owned by Standard Life Investments ("SLI") and 40% by nine executive partners.
Mr Hay is responsible for product development, marketing private equity products and client relations and sits on SL Capital's Investment Committee.
SL Capital have raised a total of €6.3 billion ($9.5 billion) of private equity commitments.
Mr Hay joined SLI's private equity operation in 2001 from BMB Investment Bank (BMB) where he was Assistant General Manager and responsible for BMB's private equity portfolio from 1989 to 2001. This portfolio consisted of private equity funds and direct investments in Europe and the United States managed on behalf of BMB and its customers. Mr Hay also structured and managed BMB’s private equity fund of funds vehicle.
Mr Hay has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Accountancy and Finance from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
James Leos
Investment Director
Industry Funds Management
James joined Industry Funds Management (IFM) in 2007, after more than 10 years in strategy consulting and 3 years in a senior strategy and corporate development role in a large ASX listed company. IFM is an Australian based specialist manager in private equity and infrastructure with some $A20 billion under management. James is involved in the evaluation, due diligence and selection of private equity managers and direct co-investment opportunities for the IFM private equity portfolios.
James has many years experience advising on strategy across a range of industries such as; Newspapers, Food Processing, Fund Management, Commodity Trading, Agriculture, Insurance, Travel, Utilities, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Retail, and Professional Services.
James holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, an MBA from Melbourne Business School and a Graduate Diploma in Corporations & Securities Law from the Melbourne Law School. James is also a graduate of the International Management Program from the
Stern School of Business, New York University.
Kathy Jeramaz-Larson
Executive Director
Institutional Limited Partners Association
Kathy Jeramaz-Larson was appointed Executive Director of the Institutional Limited Partners Association in January 2007, with a mandate to execute on an aggressive strategy to enhance the value of networking, education and research to the ILPA membership. Since 2007, the organization has substantially expanded its international footprint with the launch of the ILPA Institute, publication of Private Equity Principles and development of key research data sets and tools for access by its members.
Prior to joining the organization, Ms. Jeramaz-Larson was COO at Macdonald & Associates, a boutique research firm that tracked the activities of the Private Equity and Venture Capital markets in Canada, which she sold to Thomson Financial in 2005. She also had a rewarding career with a major Canadian financial institution where she held progressive roles in both retail and commercial banking.
Ms. Jeramaz-Larson earned her Honors Economics degree from Queen’s University and her MBA from the University of Alberta.
Andrew Boxall
Partner
Allens Arthur Robinson
Andrew specialises in banking and finance transactions, particularly for infrastructure development projects, property financing, asset financing and insolvency and restructuring.
He has acted on a wide range of property financings, including construction facilities (such as the iconic Aurora Place and 111 Eagle Street office developments) and acquisition facilities (most notably, the $4.185 billion facility to fund the acquisition of Investa Property Group), and a wide range of secured and unsecured facilities for listed and unlisted property trusts.
In the infrastructure field, Andrew has acted for borrowers and lenders on a wide range of project financings, including natural gas pipelines, oilfields, coal mines, hard rock mining projects, toll roads, electricity generation and transmission assets, port facilities and manufacturing plants.
He has acted in numerous prominent insolvencies, including Cross City Tunnel, Lift Capital, Allco Finance Group, Record Realty and Great Southern, representing insolvency administrators, various types of creditors or the insolvent company itself. He has advised a wide range of lenders and companies concerning solvency and restructuring issues.
Andrew spent 7 years as the firm's Singapore resident partner. His Asian experience includes a wide range of joint venture, merger and acquisition, infrastructure and financing transactions, in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
Andrew’s finance law knowledge and expertise is recognised internationally. He is named as a leading finance lawyer in Chambers Global Guide, Asia Pacific Legal 500, Law Business Review, and Euromoney Expert Guides.
Anthony J. de Nicola
Co-President
Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
Mr. de Nicola is Co-President of WCAS and a member of the Executive Committee and the Management Committee, having joined WCAS in 1994. He focuses on the information/business services industry. Prior to joining WCAS, he worked for four years in the private equity group at William Blair & Company, financing middle market buyouts. Previously, Mr. de Nicola worked at Goldman Sachs & Co. in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department. He graduated from DePauw University in 1986 and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1990.
Theodore (Ted) Dow
Managing Director
DIF Capital Partners
Ted holds primary responsibility for managing investment mandates in the areas of mezzanine and private debt at DIF Capital Partners (DIFCP), an alternative asset manager which over the course of its history has raised in excess of $580 million in institutional commitments.
He joined DIFCP in 2005 from Westpac Institutional Bank where he was Co-Head of The Financial Sponsors Group. In this role, he completed over 45 transactions worth an aggregate enterprise value of over $12 billion whilst leading a team of ten in leveraged finance. Ted was responsible for establishing a mezzanine debt capability at the bank.
Prior to joining Westpac, Ted worked with AMP Henderson as Investment Manager – Private Capital (1997 through 2000). Working in both London and Sydney, he was a principal in AMP’s mezzanine and high yield debt business and also initiated, managed and advised upon equity investments in the infrastructure sector. He has also been employed in corporate treasury roles at Xstrata (MIM), Shell Petroleum, Fuji Film and Guinness PLC.
Ted holds an MBA from the University of Queensland, an MFM from Manchester Business School in England (Pilkington Scholar), a PD Japanese Studies from Kansai Gai Dai in Japan (Gaikokugo Studies Scholar) and a BA Magna Cum Laude in Economics from Boston University in the USA (Charles M. Melden Scholar).
Simon Dighton
Managing Director
Catalyst Investment Managers
Simon joined Catalyst in 2004 and was appointed as a Managing Director in October 2004. He is a Director on the Envotec and Moraitis Boards. Simon started his financial services career in 1988 with Lloyds Corporate Advisory. In 1992, the executives of Lloyds secured ownership of the business and changed its name to Centaurus. Simon was a Director and shareholder of Centaurus at the time of its acquisition by Merrill Lynch in 1997. He went on to become Head of Industrial Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch. He holds degrees in Law and Economics from the University of Adelaide and a Graduate Diploma in Commercial Law from Monash University.
Les Fallick
Founder & Managing Director
Principle Advisory Services
Over a period of 20 years in Australia Les has served as a pension fund trustee, a fund of funds manager, an investment manager and a placement agent. He was Director of Legal & General Asset Management, special advisor to the managing director of AMP Asset Management, and director of Development Australia Fund, Advent, and Gresham Private Equity. Today Les is Managing Director of Principle Advisory Services, which he founded in 2001. Les has acted as non-executive director or chairman of over a dozen private equity backed companies and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Before moving to Australia Les was an economics lecturer at Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He holds an MA and M.Litt in economics.
Joseph W. Ferrigno III
Managing Partner
Asia Mezzanine Capital Group
Joseph Ferrigno is the Founder and Managing Partner of the Asia Mezzanine Capital Group, an independent specialist hybrid debt/equity capital direct investment fund management firm established in 2004 and based in Hong Kong. The Group manages the Asia Strategic Capital Fund, L.P., in which New York Life Insurance Company, Mass Mutual Life Insurance Company, the ORIX Corporation and other international institutional investors are limited partners. He is a member of the Advisory Board of MIR Investment Management of Sydney.
Ferrigno has been a pioneer in investment management and banking in the Asia region since his arrival in Hong Kong in 1984 with Lehman Brothers Khun Loeb. He is involved principally with private equity and mezzanine direct investment fund management and with the development and financing of infrastructure, energy, telecom and Internet projects and businesses. He also served in Hong Kong with the Bechtel Group and Prudential Financial of the United States; and earlier in New York and London with the Chase Manhattan Bank and Bankers Trust Company.
In 1996, Ferrigno led the launch and was involved in the management of the first mezzanine capital fund in Asia, the US$246 million Asian Infrastructure Mezzanine Capital Fund, which was sponsored by Prudential Financial, in which the Asian Development Bank is a Core Investor, until 2003. He was Chairman of its Investment Committee. In 1990, he initiated the establishment of the US$780 million Asian Infrastructure Fund, the first of its kind, sponsored by Peregrine Capital, the ADB, the IFC, Frank Russell & Co. and the Soros Group.
Ferrigno is a graduate of the Wharton School and is the Founding President of the Wharton Club of Hong Kong. He is a member of the Hong Kong Forum (associated with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York), the Hong Kong Club, the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, the Shek O Country Club, the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club.
Jonathon Freeman
Partner
Coller Capital
Jonathon Freeman joined Coller Capital in 1996 and has overall responsibility for the firm's Risk Management function. Prior to 1996, he worked for Dowell Schlumberger on tax planning and compliance for the UK, Denmark, Norway and Nigeria. He has also worked for the tax departments of McDermott Engineering and Arthur Andersen. Jonathon has a BSc (Hons) in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, London, and is a UK Chartered Management Accountant.
Scott Greck
Partner
Archer Captial
Scott joined Archer Capital in 2006 from Henderson Global Investors in Singapore where he was a Partner and founding member of Henderson Private Capital's Asian Private Equity Fund. Scott was responsible for sourcing, executing, managing and realising direct investments in Asia. During his six years with Henderson, Scott invested in the media, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and financial services sectors. Prior to this, Scott has held roles with Publishing and Broadcasting Limited, Citibank and TNT Express.
Scott is a Partner of the Archer Capital Growth Fund 1, targeting buyouts and acquisitions of businesses worth between $20 million and $100 million. Scott holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Technology in Sydney and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Wollongong.
Stephan Grillmaier
Partner
MVision Private Equity Advisers
Stephan Grillmaier joined MVision in 2007. He is a highly experienced private equity investment professional with a strong background in private equity and alternative assets investing.
At MVision Stephan manages a number of the firm’s global fundraisings as well as maintaining relationships with general partners and limited partners in Europe, the US, and Asia.
Previously Stephan was a Director at Horizon21 Private Equity, a dedicated manager of Swiss Re’s alternative assets in Pfaeffikon, Switzerland. Prior to joining Horizon21, Stephan was a Vice President and Head of Europe in Swiss Re’s private equity fund of funds team in Zurich. In his roles at Swiss Re and Horizon21, Stephan led numerous fund investments in Europe as well as Asia/Pacific, and served on the advisory board of a number of private equity funds. During his tenure with Swiss Re and Horizon21 Stephan was also closely involved in their fundraising activities. Prior to joining Swiss Re’s private equity fund of funds team, Stephan was a Senior Investment Professional with VCM Capital Management in Munich, Germany.
Stephan has a BA degree in International Relations from Webster University St. Louis, USA, and a M.Litt. degree in Management, Economics, and Politics from University of St. Andrews in Scotland.
Jeffrey Hawkins
Managing Director & COO
Sankaty Advisors
Jeff Hawkins is a Managing Director at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm based in Boston.
Mr. Hawkins serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Sankaty Advisors, the fixed income and credit affiliate of Bain Capital. Today, Sankaty is one of the leading credit and distressed debt managers, with over 160 employees in offices in Boston, London, Chicago and New York and approximately $20 billion in committed assets under management.
Before joining Sankaty in 2001, Mr. Hawkins was a lawyer at Ropes & Gray, practicing corporate law with a focus on mergers and acquisitions.
An active participant in charitable organizations, Mr. Hawkins is Chair of the Chestnut Hill School Board and a member of the Board of the Boston Public Library. Mr. Hawkins received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and a B.A., Phi Beta Kappa, from Trinity College were he majored in Russian Studies.
Cameron Hillyer
CFO
Clearwater Capital
Cameron Hillyer, based in New York, is the Chief Financial Officer of Clearwater Capital Partners and a member of the firm’s investment and management committees. Mr. Hillyer is responsible for all aspects of the financial affairs of the Clearwater Funds and their global subsidiaries, the General Partner and management company entities. As part of his responsibilities, he oversees internal controls, tax structuring, treasury management, marketing and investor relations. As the CFO, he has been instrumental in building out the infrastructure of the Firm. Prior to joining Clearwater in October 2005, Mr. Hillyer was the Chief Financial Officer for two alternative asset management firms, Dolphin Equity Partners and Archery Capital. Mr. Hillyer began his career with KPMG, where he last served as an audit manager within the alternative investments practice in the New York office. Mr. Hillyer holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Accountant (Australia).
Benjamin Jenkins
Sr. Managing Director & Co-Head of Asian Corporate Private Equity
The Blackstone Group
Ben Jenkins is a Senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Asian Corporate Private Equity, based in Hong Kong.
Since joining Blackstone in 1999, Mr. Jenkins has led Blackstone's investments in China National Bluestar Group, Global Tower, Gold Toe-Moretz, and RGIS Inventory Specialists, and has been involved in Blackstone's investments in Axtel, Nalco, Celanese, SunGard, Team Health, Travelport, Vistar and Vanguard Health Systems, among others.
Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Jenkins was an Associate at Saunders Karp & Megrue. Prior to that, Mr. Jenkins worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Department at Morgan Stanley & Co.
Mr. Jenkins received an AB in Economics from Stanford University, where he graduated with honors, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated with distinction. Mr. Jenkins serves as a Director of Bluestar, Axtel, Gold Toe-Moretz and RGIS.
Ian Johnson
Managing Director
Helmsman Funds Management Ltd
Ian was a co-founder of HFM in 2002, an Australian based special situations fund, where he is a Managing Director and Principal. Prior to forming Helmsman, he was retained by Macquarie Bank to manage distressed investments and with Sumitomo Trust in Australia in corporate, project and structured finance. HFM has raised some A$140 million with the close of its second fund in February 2009, with its first fund continuing to report IRR of circa 40%.
Ian has over 20 years of experience in corporate, project and structured finance. In a consultancy capacity, he has provided risk management advice to major financial institutions, and has been involved in the workouts and restructuring of some of the major corporate failures in Australia.
Ian’s focus is in the negotiating of distressed acquisitions, financial structuring, strategic direction for investees and value accretion. He recently resigned from the Board of listed HCFII investee, WDS Ltd, a successful initial public listing in December 2006, where he chaired the Strategic Development Committee.
Ian holds a Master of Management from Macquarie Graduate School of Management. He is the current Chairman and past president of the Turnaround Management Association, Australia.
Michael Johnston
Managing Director, Acquisition Finance
BOS International
Michael Johnston is the Managing Director of Acquisition Finance at BOS International (part of the Lloyds Banking Group). BOSI is one of the leading leveraged financiers in the Australasian market and has developed a key lending relationship with all major financial sponsors (both domestic and international) operating in this region. Michael's primary responsibilities are to originate, structure and deliver leveraged finance solutions to financial sponsors, including both senior and subordinated debt and to manage these investments through their life cycles. Michael has more than 20 years banking experience and over 10 years experience specialising in leveraged finance. Prior to BOSI, Michael has headed up leveraged finance teams at Rabo, Calyon and UBS.
Tim Martin
Partner
Crescent Capital Partners
Tim has 18 years experience in strategy consulting and private equity. He joined Crescent in 2007 and is an Executive Partner and member of the Investment Committee. He is Chairman of Australian Music Group and a Director on the Board of Lifehealthcare.
Prior to joining Crescent, Tim was an Executive Director at ANZ Private Equity (ANZPE) in Sydney, where he had overall accountability for the portfolio of private equity investments across Australia and New Zealand. During his tenure ANZPE made 20 exits, including 4 via IPO, returning over 2x cash invested.
Prior to ANZPE, Tim spent ten years working as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company in London and Sydney. At Bain in London, Tim was a senior member of the Bain Private Equity Group focused solely on commercial due diligence and portfolio company performance improvement programs for leading US and European private equity funds. He has also led multiple consulting assignments covering strategy and performance improvement for clients in industries including retail, financial services, entertainment and hospitality, and telecommunications.
Tim has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA (Hons) First Class from Oxford University.
Joshua McKean
Director
Ironbridge
Josh has six years private equity experience with CVC Asia Pacific in Sydney and Cashcard Australia, a portfolio company of Gresham Private Equity.
Following several years with Coopers & Lybrand, Josh joined JP Morgan's M&A team in Melbourne where he advised on a variety of strategy and M&A transactions.
At JP Morgan, Josh helped establish their Small Caps M&A and Financial Sponsors practice in Sydney. Having advised Cashcard on its merger with Electronic Banking Solutions, Josh was appointed as a Business Development Manager for Cashcard.
During his employment with Cashcard, Josh lead the acquisition of Direct Cash, a Melbourne based ATM deployer for $32 million.
Josh joined CVC Asia Pacific in 2003 and worked on a number of successful transactions including the $1.2 billion IPO of Pacific Brands, the sale of Tech Pacific to Ingram Micro for $700 million, and the acquisition and divestment of Affinity Health to Ramsay Healthcare for $1.4 billion. Josh joined Ironbridge in October 2005.
Josh holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne where he graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Finance.
Simon Moore
Managing Director
The Carlyle Group
Simon Moore is a Managing Director focused on Australasian buyout opportunities. He is based in Sydney, Australia.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Moore was a Managing Director and Investment Committee Member of Investcorp International, Inc. based in New York. While at Investcorp International, Mr. Moore was a Director of CSK Auto, Inc., Aero Products International, Inc., MW Manufacturers, Inc. and Associated Materials Holdings. Prior to that, Mr. Moore worked in private equity investments and investment banking at J.P. Morgan & Co. in New York, Hong Kong and Melbourne.
Mr. Moore received honors degrees in law and commerce from University of Queensland.
Howard D. Morgan
Senior Managing Director
Castle Harlan, Inc
Howard D. Morgan is Senior Managing Director of Castle Harlan, which he joined in 1996. From 2000 to 2002, he was Executive Director of CHAMP Private Equity, an affiliate of Castle Harlan in Sydney, Australia. He has been a Director and Executive Committee member of CHAMP since its inception. Previously, Mr. Morgan was a Partner at Ropart Asset Management, a private equity investment firm. Mr. Morgan began his career at Allen & Company, Inc. He is a board member of CHAMP, Alleasing Pty Limited, Centric Wealth Advisors Ltd and Pretium Packaging. He is a former director of over a dozen companies, including US-based AmeriCast Technologies, Ion Track Instruments, Land ‘N’ Sea Distributing, UK-based Polypipe Global Holdings and Australia-based Austar United Communications Ltd. and Penrice Soda Products. He is a director and Vice President of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association, and a director of the Harvard Business School Club of New York, the Alexander Hamilton Institute, the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and Treasurer of the Friends of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research. In 1984, Mr. Morgan received his B.A. from Hamilton College in Mathematics and Political Science and in 1988 his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
Chester Moynihan
Managing Director
Allegro Private Equity
Chester Moynihan is a founding principal of Allegro Private Equity. Allegro took over the management of the $300M ABN AMRO private equity fund when the incumbent manager was removed by the institutional investors in September 2008. Chester has over 19 years experience in private equity investing, corporate advisory, executive management and turnaround. His experience prior to Allegro includes working at Permira Advisers in London, Gresham Private Equity in Sydney and KPMG in New Zealand and South Africa. Chester is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has a Bachelor of Commerce degree with post-graduate honours from the University of Natal, South Africa. He also holds an Investment Management certificate from IMRO, London and has completed the IPAA course, Advanced Insolvency Law and Practice II, from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.
Shaw Ng
Associate Director
Macquarie Funds Group's Funds of Private Equity Funds
Shaw Ng is an Associate Director in Macquarie Funds Group's Funds of Private Equity Funds (“MFGPE”) business. Based in Sydney, Shaw leads due diligence and negotiations of private equity fund investments, co-investments and secondary transactions. Shaw has over 12 years experience in private equity, corporate strategy, M&A and investment consulting. This includes sourcing and structuring proprietary acquisitions in funds management firms globally on behalf of Macquarie, corporate strategy at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and investment consulting at Towers Perrin. Shaw serves on the advisory boards of Fulcrum Capital, Anchorage Capital, Quadrant Private Equity, Archer Capital and CHAMP Ventures.
MFGPE has been managing Australian private equity fund-of-funds since 1996 and international private equity portfolios since 2003. MFGPE has over $5.2 billion under management and advice in private equity fund-of-funds and separate accounts.
Rob Nichols
Managing Director
Tasman Capital
Rob Nichols co-founded Tasman Capital Partners in September 2008 following the management buy-out of Nikko Principal Investments Australia. Previously, Rob was a director at DB Capital Partners, the private equity division of Deutsche Bank, where he spent seven years.
Rob worked for Bankers Trust Alex. Brown in London for two years executing M&A, high yield and debt restructuring transactions. He originated a number of private equity deals for BT Capital Partners and was involved in restructuring high yield debt following the Russian Debt Crisis.
From 1991 Rob spent seven years with Deloittes in London, Warsaw, Boston and Sydney in corporate finance, business consulting and audit roles. Rob commenced his career as a trainee manager at Elders IXL in 1987.
Since 1999 Rob has led or co-led 12 private equity deals including a number of turnarounds and buy and build strategies. Rob led deals including Healthcare Australia (formerly Pacific Nursing Solutions), Aptrix, Red Sheriff and Bledisloe Group Holdings and co-led the Loscam, Enterix and Tempo transactions.
Edward Sippel
Managing Principal
Quadrangle Group Asia
Edward Sippel is a Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group LLC (“Quadrangle”). Mr. Sippel joined Quadrangle in 2007 and opened the Hong Kong office in 2008. Prior to opening the Hong Kong office, Mr. Sippel spent time with Quadrangle in its New York headquarters where he was an active member of the U.S. investment team working on new deals and serving on the Board of Directors of several Quadrangle portfolio companies and still serves on the Board of Directors of Protection One, a publicly listed security company in the US. Mr. Sippel also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Tower Vision, a wireless tower company in India.
Mr. Sippel has lived and worked in Asia since 1997. Prior to joining Quadrangle, Mr. Sippel was a Managing Director and Partner at TVG Capital Partners (“TVG”), a private equity firm based in Hong Kong focused exclusively on investments in the telecom, media and technology sectors throughout Asia. In this capacity, Mr. Sippel led deal teams for private equity investments across Asia and served on the Board of Directors of several Asian companies, including six in Australia.
Prior to TVG, Mr. Sippel was with The Asian Infrastructure Fund (“AIF”), a private equity firm based in Hong Kong, where he assisted in managing the telecommunications portfolio. Prior to AIF, Mr. Sippel worked in Morgan Stanley’s Global Communications Group in New York.
Mr. Sippel received a BA degree from Georgetown University.
Thomas Smith
Managing Director
Lombard Investments Inc
Thomas Smith is a Managing Director of Lombard based in San Francisco and Bangkok. He has been active in the investment field since 1979 and joined Lombard in 1997. His investment and management experience in Asia and North America includes operational and financial restructurings, financial services, manufacturing, large scale urban public and private sector projects, mixed-use real estate development projects and residential construction. Prior to Lombard, Mr. Smith held positions as the CEO and CFO of ACI, Inc., a construction products manufacturer; Executive Vice President, WSGP Group, an investment partnership formed by former U.S. Treasury Secretary, William E. Simon, that pursued LBOs, bank acquisitions and real estate; and Senior Vice President, PSB Realty, a diversified real estate investment firm. He began his career with The Rouse Company, a publicly-held real estate investment and development company that was the first to develop the enclosed shopping mall. Mr. Smith graduated cum laude from Harvard College (A.B. 1975).
Gary Stead
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Shearwater Capital Group
Gary is a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Shearwater Capital Group, which recently established an Australasian focused special opportunities investment fund. Prior to establishing Shearwater Capital Group, Gary was the CEO of Fortress Investment Group Australia, where he established Fortress’ Australasian special opportunities business from 2004 – 2007 which invested approximately A$1.0 billion in opportunistic credit and other special situations across the corporate and real estate sectors. Previously, Gary spent 13 years at Merrill Lynch & Co. During this time, Gary held various senior leadership and business building roles including Managing Director and Head of M&A Australia / Asia Pacific / Japan, Co-Head of Investment Banking, and member of the Executive Management Committee of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities, and Vice-Chairman of Investment Banking in Australia. Gary’s experience at Merrill Lynch included building and leading Merrill Lynch’s Asian and Japanese advisory businesses into market leading positions as well as working as the lead advisor on large M&A and restructuring assignments during the Asian Financial Crisis and during the peak period of Japanese bank NPL acquisitions. His career in investment banking commenced at Salomon Brothers in New York where he spent 7 years working in the corporate finance and M&A departments. Gary holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Law degree from the University of New South Wales and an MBA from Wharton.
Bela Szigethy
Co-CEO
The Riverside Company
Mr. Szigethy co-found Riverside in 1988. He manages all aspects of Riverside’s activities and co-chairs the Riverside Investment Committees.
Prior to co-founding Riverside, Mr. Szigethy worked as a Vice President in the leveraged finance department of Citibank.
Mr. Szigethy received a Master degree from Columbia University and BA degree from Oberlin Colleage.
Andrew Thompson
Nation Head of Private Equity
KPMG
Andrew has over 18 years of experience with KPMG principally focused on major Corporate and Private Equity transaction due diligence and IPO project management. He is currently responsible for the origination, transaction execution and portfolio support activities for the KPMG Private Equity client base in Australia.
Andrew has led the transaction execution support work on more than 200 significant transactions with an aggregate deal value of more than $70 billion with the majority being Private Equity sponsored or in the Communications or Media sectors.
His major location experience include: London (5 Years), Sydney (10 Years) and New York (2 Years). In addition he has lead transaction teams in New Zealand, Japan, India, Canada, Ireland and Hong Kong.
His principal focus is on private equity transactions. Private equity sponsors he has acted for include: CHAMP Private Equity, Macquarie, Gresham, Goldman Sachs PIA, CSFB / DLJ, AMP Capital Investors, Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, TA Associates, Ripplewood, Veronis Suhler, Morgan Stanley and Texas Pacific Group.
Andrew’s has also acted as lead Investigating Accountant for many landmark public and private transactions including the Macquarie Media Group IPO, DUET’s IPO, AUSTAR’s refinancing, the consortium acquisition and listing of Dyno Nobel, the consortium acquisition of Boart Longyear, the consortium acquisition of the DBNGP, the acquisition by AGL of Southern Hydro, and the acquisition and public fund raising by AGL of Powerdirect.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of West Australia. He is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.
Michael Tierney
Managing Director
Head of Leveraged Finance, Asia Pacific
Credit Suisse
Michael Tierney is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the Fixed Income department, based in Melbourne. He has responsibility for Leveraged Finance for Asia Pacific, including Japan.
Michael joined Credit Suisse in 1993 and has 24 years of investment banking experience based in Sydney, London, New York and Melbourne.
Since joining the Bank, Michael has focused on originating, arranging and syndicating leveraged and acquisition financings for Corporate and Financial Sponsor clients. He led the financing teams which supported Reynold’s/SIG $3.4b multi currency bank loan & bond financing in October 2009, Rank Group’s acquisition of Alcoa’s packaging business (US$1.6B), Primary Health Care’s acquisition of Symbion Health (A$2.3B), Colony Capital’s investment in Challenger, KKR’s leverage acquisition of MMI (A$600m), CVC and PBL’s leveraged acquisition of PBL’s media assets (A$4.2b), the largest LBO in Australian history. KKR’s acquisition of Cleanaway and Brambles Industrial Services (A$1.83b), Rank Group's acquisition of Carter Holt Harvey (NZ$3,400m facilities), Colony Capital's acquisition of the Raffles Hotel group (US$700m facilities), CVC/GIC/Ironbridge's acquisition of Affinity Health (A$728m facilities), Burns Philip's hostile acquisition of Goodman Fielder (A$2,400m facilities), Rank Group's acquisition of New Zealand Dairy Foods (NZ$359m facilities), Gresham/GS/Macquarie's acquisition of Repco (A$240m facilities), and the MBO of Blue Star print (NZ$125m facilities).
Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce / LLB from the University of NSW and is an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia (ASIA).
David Wenger
Partner
Allens Arthur Robinson
David Wenger is co-head of Allen's Arthur Robinson's private equity practice spanning Australia and the Asia Pacific. He has extensive experience in acquisitions, exits/divestments, privatisations and IPOs, and advises local and international private equity investors on legal and regulatory issues.
David has acted on many of Australia's most significant public merger and acquisition transactions in the past few years and has been the team leader in a large number of private M&A transactions, many of which involved private equity participants.
David's recent private equity experience includes advising on a significant Australian media investment by an international private equity firm, advising a global firm on an international beverage business acquisition; advising on the structuring and implementation of a multi-billion dollar investment involving a consortium of private equity firms and advising on the Australian aspects of a global restructuring of a private equity investment.
Katherine Woodthorpe
Chief Executive
AVCAL
Katherine Woodthorpe is the Chief Executive of AVCAL, the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.
Dr. Woodthorpe has an extensive background as a management adviser and professional director, including working with Australian technology companies seeking venture funding through to being a board member of listed companies. She has consulted to government groups on innovation and commercialization.
With more than 25 years in the technology and commercialization industry, Dr. Woodthorpe has held a board range of management and board positions. She is currently a Director of pSivida Ltd, Chair of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre and Council Member, University of Technology Sydney.
Yibing Wu
President
CITIC Private Equity Fund
Yibing Wu is the President of Private Equity Funds Management Co., Ltd.
Prior to joining CITIC PE, Dr. Wu worked as Managing Director of Legend Holdings, responsible for overall business operations and oversees its direct investment business. During his tenure at Legend Holdings, he successfully led the equity investments in financial, energy and consumer sectors as well as a number of growth capital investments in new energy and high-tech arena.
Prior to that, Dr. Wu spent 3 years full time leading the entire process of IBM PCD acquisition, serving as Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Integration Officer, Chief Transformation Officer / Chief Information Officer of Lenovo Group. He directly led the team in deal negotiation, transaction execution and the post-investment integration and transformation.
Before Legend Holdings, Dr. Wu was Senior Partner of McKinsey, Head of Asia Pacific M&A and General Manager of McKinsey Beijing, in charge of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructuring and IPO advisory for large Chinese enterprises. He advised a number of leading Asian companies international expansion effort, as well as advised a dozen top Chinese SOE’s restructuring and overseas IPO.
Dr. Wu is non-executive director of Lenovo Group and sits on board of China Social Entrepreneur Foundation. He holds a PhD from Harvard University and a BSc. from University of Science and Technology of China.
