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08:30–09:00 Registration  
09:00–09:15 Welcoming tea  
09:15–09:30 Opening remark  
09:30–10:30

Panel: International investment and the evolving Australian private equity landscape

International capital now dominates Australian private equity, through LP investments in the funds of local GPs and − mainly at the top end of the market − through international GP investments. How can Australia continue to attract foreign investment in private equity while maintaining the competitiveness of the local industry?

Speakers:
Anthony Chan, CEO, Isola Capital
Fay Bou, Investment Director,
Allegro Funds

Michael McNamara, Investment Director,
Potentia Capital
Roger Buckeridge, Partner,
Triumph Capital

Moderator:
Ken Licence, Managing Director, Principle Advisory Services

  Networking break  
11:00–12:00 Panel: How is technology re-inventing the investment landscape 

Trends in the investment landscape − health tech, fintech, agtech, online retailing and what else? What are the biggest obstacles fund managers face in funding technology innovation and commercialisation?

Speakers:
Niall Cairns, Managing Director,
Kestrel Capital

Laurence Schwartz, Investment Manager,
Our Innovation Fund

Ben Dunphy, Investment Manager,
Blue Sky Venture Capital

Moderator:
Sara Gilbert, Director of Operations, AltaReturn

12:00–13:00 Lunch  
13:00–14:00  Panel: CEO Perspective  Speakers:
Amin Shayan, COO, littlepay
Jack Stevens, CEO, Edstart
Julie Stevanja, Founder & CEO, Stylerunner
Grace Wong, Director of Partnerships, Liven
David Myers, Co-founder &
Chief Operating Officer, Audinate
     

Moderator:
Adrian Herbert, Managing Editor, Private Equity Media

14:00–14:30 Networking break  
14:30–15.30 Panel: Changing models in venture capital 

Differentiation of venture capital strategies is increasing in a rapidly developing innovation sector; is this compatible with maintaining optimum returns?

Speakers:
James Johnstone,
Investment Director, Bailador

John Henderson, Venture Partner,
AirTree Ventures

Simon Cant, Managing Partner,
Reinventure 

Moderator:
Jeremy Liddle, Co-Founder, Exec Director,
CapitalPitch

15.30–16.30 Post-event reception  

Speakers & Moderators

  • Anthony Chan
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Isola Capital Group
Anthony is Chief Executive Officer of Isola Capital Group, a multi-family office owned platform focused on alternative asset investments. Anthony had an extensive career in investment banking with Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Lehman Brothers Asia before transitioning to private equity and principal investments. He has broad investment experience across the Asia Pacific region in consumer, education, food safety, industrial, and technology sectors. Anthony attained a Bachelors of Commerce (Finance and Economics) from The University of Sydney and Bachelors of Laws (Honours) from The University of Sydney Law School. Anthony is a graduate from the Financial Engineering Program of Stanford University and attended the Stanford Executive Institute. He is a Responsible Officer for Type 1, Type 4 and Type 9 activities licensed by the HKSFC. Anthony is a Director on the Board of various private and public companies.
 

Website:http://www.isola-capital.com/

  • Fay Bou
  • Investment Director
  • Allegro Funds
Fay is an Investment Director of Allegro Funds. Allegro is a control orientated, independent fund manager investing in businesses experiencing headwinds and dislocation in Australia and New Zealand. Allegro has completed over $1bn in turnaround, distressed and special situation investments since 2008. Current investments include: Discovery Holiday Parks, Bank of Scotland Distressed Loan Portfolio (10 loans), McColl’s, Great Southern Rail, Custom Bus, Carpet Court New Zealand and Pizza Hut Australia. Fay is currently on the board of Carpet Court New Zealand. His experience prior to Allegro includes roles at Pacific Equity Partners, PAG Asia, and B&B in Australia, Asia and the US. Fay received a B.Sc in Business Information Technology from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Co-op Scholar, and an MBA (Wharton) and MA (Lauder Institute) from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Macquarie Scholar and a Leonard Lauder Fellow.
 

Website:http://www.allegrofunds.com.au/

  • Roger Buckeridge
  • Partner
  • Triumph Capital
Roger Buckeridge is a company director with over thirty years of board level experience across the public and commercial sectors, with experience in the technology, communications, transport, financial services, consultancy, bio-medical and advanced materials industries. He has been an investor-appointed non-executive director of 27 early and growth-stage Australian, US and European companies and has been CEO of an ASX-listed investment company. Currently he is a non-executive director for NYX Gaming Group, BT Imaging and NEISM. As an executive director and the responsible manager of AFSL-holder, Triumph Capital Ltd, he is engaged in capital markets and M&A advisory projects, many being relevant to wealthy private investors from China, assisting enterprises to access investment from China and form business collaborations with Chinese enterprises. Previously, as cofounder and executive director of Allen & Buckeridge Asset Management Ltd, he deployed A$280M of institutional, corporate and government funds into a series of venture capital funds and, with his co-founder, invested in more than 60 early stage Australian technology ventures between 1997 and 2012.
 

Website:http://triumphcapital.com.cn/en/

  • Michael McNamara
  • Investment Director
  • Potentia Capital
Michael has been an Investment Director since December 2014 at Potentia Capital based in Sydney, and serves as a Director of Potentia investee Ascender. Whilst at Potentia Michael co-led Potentia’s investments in payroll outsourcer Ascender and the divisional carve out of NGA HR ANZ. Prior to joining Potentia Michael was an Investment Manager at Archer Capital, where he worked on the Allity Aged Care, ECH Aged Care and Ausfuel investments, and an Associate Director of UBS Investment Bank in Sydney. Michael holds a Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honours and Valedictorian) and a Bachelor of Laws (Distinction) from the University of Western Australia.
 

Website:http://potentiacap.com/

  • Ken Licence
  • Managing Director
  • Principle Advisory Services
Ken joined Principle in 2009 and took on the role of Managing Director in 2010. Ken 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. Ken 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.
 

Website:http://principleadvisory.com/

  • Eloise Watson
  • Investment Manager
  • rampersand
Eloise is the Investment Manager of rampersand, an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2013 that invests in the best Australian technology founders, teams and companies. With $50m+ in FUM, rampersand has invested in over 15 companies including AssemblyPayments, Stackla and Expert360. Eloise is also currently the Chairman of Engage Education, a social enterprise she co-founded in 2010. Prior to rampersand, Eloise worked at Goldman Sachs within the Investment Banking division in the Industrial sector on deals including equity raisings, buy-side and sell-side M&A and debt restructuring.
 

Website:http://rampersand.vc/

  • Laurence Schwartz
  • Investment Manager
  • Our Innovation Fund
Laurence is an Investment Manager at Our Innovation Fund, LP, a leading Australian-based venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders building innovative high growth businesses. OIFVC is led by a team of proven business builders with a long track record of backing leading entrepreneurs. Prior to OIFVC, Laurence worked in venture capital and in the M&A team at King & Wood Mallesons. Laurence co-founded a venture-backed technology business and works closely with OIFVC’s portfolio companies as well as a number of not-for-profit organisations
 

Website:http://www.ourinnovationfund.com.au/

  • Ben Dunphy
  • Investment Manager
  • Blue Sky Venture Capital
Ben is an Investment Director in the Blue Sky Venture Capital team, and is responsible for originating and executing venture capital transactions. He holds directorships on a number of Blue Sky portfolio companies and currently serves as a member of the Blue Sky Venture Capital Investment Committee. Prior to joining Blue Sky, Ben worked for Seabury Group, a leading operational and strategy advisory firm in New York. During his time at Seabury, Ben consulted on a number of engagements across three continents focused on transaction advisory, major operational turnarounds, and growth strategy development. Ben previously worked in South-East Asia as an early employee for Lazada, a now billion-dollar Rocket Internet e-commerce company. Ben holds a B.Bus (Hons1) from the Queensland University of Technology.
 

Website:http://blueskyfunds.com.au/

  • Sara Gilbert
  • Director of Operations
  • AltaReturn
Sara Gilbert is the Director of Operations for AltaReturn for APAC. Sara has 22 years of professional experience, nine of which have been spent directly in the alternative investment industry. She joined AltaReturn in April 2016 from SS&C Technologies where she held the position of Managing Director for Asia. Prior to this she was at SunGard Investran with responsibility for North Asia. Sara is a UK citizen but has lived in Asia for more than 9 years, during which time she has lived in both Singapore and Sydney. She is now a permanent resident of Hong Kong where AltaReturn had chosen to set up its Asia Pacific office.
 

Website:http://altareturn.com/

  • Amin Shayan
  • COO
  • littlepay
Amin is the COO of littlepay, having started with the company in Jan 2016 as one of its first employees. Over 2 years littlepay has developed and launched a bank-grade, globally scalable payment processing platform that enables transit operators to offer contactless payments to customers using any Visa or MasterCard token. Littlepay is now operational in the UK, deployed on c.10,000 buses and is now looking to expand into new regions. Amin worked as a Media/Tech investment banker with JPMorgan in New York and London, before moving back to Australia, and eventually leaving banking in 2013 to start his own app and join the disrupters. He has now worked with 3 fintech startups, which equates to 3 lifetimes of experience.
 

Website:https://littlepay.com/

  • David Myers
  • Chief Operating Officer
  • Audinate
David Myers is Chief Operating Officer at professional digital audio networking technology company Audinate. David co-founded the business which was spun out of National ICT Australia (NICTA) in 2006. He has extensive experience in developing and commercializing multi-media and internet products and services. Prior to Audinate, he was co-founder of Dilithium Networks, a leading platform supplier of multi-media communication over fixed and mobile networks. Australian venture capital firms Starfish Ventures and Innovation Capital were early investors in Audinate and supported development of the company through further capital raisings. Yamaha Corporation also invested in Audinate as a strategic partner. The company successfully listed on the ASX at the end of June.
 

Website:https://www.audinate.com/

  • Jack Stevens
  • Co-Founder & CEO
  • Edstart
Jack is currently the Co-Founder & CEO of Edstart, a specialist funding platform helping people pay for education. Edstart launched in 2016 and is housed in Australia's premier fintech innovation hub, Stone & Chalk. Edstart’s first product is focussed on the $10 billion Australian private school sector. A number of additional products are already under development for adjacent education sectors. Prior to founding Edstart, Jack held corporate finance and strategy roles at global accounting firm KPMG. His work spanned across advising high-growth private companies and entrepreneurs, as well as working on large-scale corporate transactions. Jack holds degrees in Commerce and Entrepreneurship and is a Chartered Accountant.
 

Website:https://edstart.com.au/

  • Julie Stevanja
  • Founder & CEO
  • Stylerunner
Julie Stevanja cofounded and launched Stylerunner, the world's first online women's activewear aggregator, in October 2012. The platform stocks over 70 curated sportswear labels, combining some the worlds largest sports brands like Nike, adidas, Reebok, and Puma with the best emerging labels. In 2016, Julie was named the Young Retail Entrepreneur of the Year at the World Retail Awards. She was also a finalist in CEO Magazine's Startup Executive of the Year and Veuve Clicquot's New Generation Award. Stylerunner has won numerous awards, and was listed in Deloitte Tech Fast 50 in 2016 and was a BRW Fast Starter in 2015. Prior to launching Stylerunner, Julie worked at London based tech startup MUBI (mubi.com), a fast growing SVOD service and social network for cinephiles, which has raised $25M in venture capital. Julie is also a keynote speaker and regularly involved in the startup scene in Australia.
 

Website:http://www.stylerunner.com/

  • Grace​ ​Wong
  • Founder
  • Liven
Grace founded Liven - the rewards-based payment platform for dining and lifestyle experiences. Liven aspires to reinvent the world of mobile payments by incentivising every single purchase, and building the world’s smartest and largest centralised spending network. Liven secured seed funding of $1 million in late 2015 which was seen as an expansion into the Sydney market, while partnerships with Uber, Taste Food Festivals, The Good Food and Wine Show and Secure Parking made users flock to the platform. To date, Liven has 135,000 users onboard. The team has just secured a $10 million Series A round in March 2017 from a private equity fund, setting the stage for a huge push in 2017 and international expansion in early 2018. Grace began her entrepreneurial journey working as a lawyer at a corporate law firm. She took on the role of marketing manager for the firm, building out the firm’s entire brand and content strategy, digital media campaign architecture, and lead generation funnels.
 

Website:www.liven.com.au

  • James Johnstone
  • Investment Director
  • Bailador Technology Investments
James is an Investment Director at Bailador Technology Investments. Bailador is an ASX-listed expansion stage investor that has a portfolio of 10 high growth technology businesses. James sits on the boards of DocsCorp, Straker Translations and Standard Media Index.  James has 16 years’ experience in investing, strategy consulting, corporate development and as a start-up entrepreneur. Prior to joining Bailador, James was a founding Director of Mozo, an online marketplace business that won multiple Deloitte Fast 50 and BRW Fast Starter Awards. He started his career as a strategy consultant and has worked in the UK and Australia in corporate development roles across the Virgin Group.
 

Website:http://bailador.com.au/

  • John Henderson
  • Venture Partner
  • AirTree Ventures
John Henderson is a Partner at AirTree Ventures where he focuses on investing in and supporting great founding teams at the very early stages of building a business. John sits on the boards of Employment Hero, Hyper Anna, Glam Corner and The Right Fit. Prior to AirTree, John spent 6 years in London and New York. There he held roles at Facebook, then as COO of Summly (acquired by Yahoo for US$30m in 2013), and most recently as a Principal at White Star Capital. John also co-founded London.ai which has become Europe's leading event for AI practitioners. John has also worked at The Boston Consulting Group, having started his career founding Bush Campus, a startup whose failure taught him more than the rest of his experiences combined.
 

Website:https://airtree.vc/

  • Simon Cant
  • Managing Partner
  • Reinventure
Simon Cant is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Reinventure. Founded in 2013, Reinventure is a corporate venture fund with $100m under management bringing together the best of independent venture capital and corporate venturing with Westpac as the primary investor. To date, the portfolio has 16 ventures which are focused on Fintech and adjacent areas. Simon is also the founding President of FinTech Australia, the industry’s peak representative body, and a member of the Australian Treasurer’s FinTech Advisory Group, and Austrac’s Fintel Advisory Group.
 

Website:http://reinventure.com.au/

  • Jeremy Liddle
  • Co-Founder, Exec Director
  • CapitalPitch
Jeremy Liddle believes entrepreneurs change the world. He is Co-founder and Exec Director of CapitalPitch, a venture capital fund and investment platform. CapitalPitch offers an end-to-end platform for companies to manage raising capital and investors. CapitalPitch ventures helps startups become investor ready, leads the investment round via their venture fund and syndicates the round with smart and strategic follow-on investors. They also help investors by providing a co-investment vehicle and comprehensive filter, showcasing revenue-generating startups with rigorous and transparent due diligence. Jeremy served as President for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance in Australia for 5 years and has worked on youth employment and entrepreneurship with the United Nations, Global Entrepreneurship Week and B20 task forces. Jeremy is a Tedx speaker and author of the Book “From Idea to Start-up”.
 

Website:https://capitalpitch.com/

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