Executive Consulting Mergers & Aquisitions Origination Fundraising Advice

I was formerly a member of the senior executive teams of some of Australia’s leading and most well respected companies, including Sims Metal Management Limited, Insurance Australia Group Limited and Australian National Industries Limited. I have also held local executive positions with leading financial services multi-nationals, HSBC plc and Allianz AG, and was instrumental in establishing Sydney-based global equities manager, Magellan Financial Group.

I have had executive responsibility for the planning and implementation of many major transactions and corporate initiatives in my career. I led the demerger of NRMA Motoring & Services and NRMA Insurance, and the subsequent demutualisation and listing of Insurance Australia Group in 2000. Over a two-year period, I managed all aspects of what Credit Suisse, at the time, called the most complex transaction of its type ever undertaken anywhere in the world, on a 24/7 basis, with a budget of $130 million and a team of around 500 people.

My most recent executive role was at Sims Metal Management Limited as the ‘right-hand man’ of the then CEO, Jeremy Sutcliffe. As Director, Corporate Services, I was the key support for the day-to-day activities of the CEO and manager of key corporate stakeholder relationships. My responsibilities included management oversight of all non-finance corporate functions and implementation of all major and Australian-based M&A initiatives. In 2008, Sims Group and Metal Management Inc, an NYSE-listed company, completed their $1.5 billion scrip merger, which resulted in closure of Sims’ Australian head office and transfer of management control of the business to the United States. Being unable to relocate to the US on a full-time basis, and after having managed the local aspects of merger integration, I was made redundant in 2009.

I commenced my career as a corporate lawyer with a large Sydney-based law firm, where I acted for clients largely in the area of capital markets and mergers and acquisitions. In 1991, I was recruited by Consolidated Press Holdings Limited to re-establish an internal legal function for Kerry Packer’s global business interests. My time at CPH coincided with the appointment of Al Dunlap as CEO. This led to an unprecedented period of corporate activity in which assets and businesses were sold and the CPH group was significantly restructured. One of CPH’s largest investments, at the time, was a 48% interest in Australian National Industries Limited, a multi-national engineering and services group and one of the top 20 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. In 1992, I was offered the opportunity to take up the role of General Counsel at ANI. During my five years at ANI, I built a strong legal function, became Company Secretary and took executive responsibility for a number of key M&A and business projects, including the initial public offering of Coates Hire Limited in 1996.

In 1997, I was approached to join MMI Limited, which was then 40% owned by Allianz AG and subsequently became wholly owned by the German financial services giant. After a relatively brief period at MMI in the role of General Counsel & Head of Corporate Services, I was presented with a new and irresistible challenge – to lead the demutualisation of NRMA Insurance, which had been previously attempted and aborted some years earlier in a blaze of adverse publicity. I joined the NRMA Group in 1998 and some two years later delivered the project, with the recapitalisation of the NRMA motoring services mutual and the demerger and listing of what is now known as Insurance Australia Group in August 2000. Following the demutualisation, I continued at IAG until 2003 with line management responsibility for International Business, Corporate Development, and other key support functions. During that time, I was responsible for the acquisitions of State Insurance, New Zealand’s largest insurer, the HIH workers’ compensation business, and Aviva’s CGU and NZI operations, with a combined valued of $2.3 billion. 

In 2003, Challenger International Limited and CPH Investment Corp merged their operations and Chris Cuffe had taken up the role as CEO of the new Challenger Financial Services Group. I provided full-time consulting services to Challenger for over 12 months in a variety of areas, including corporate structuring, capital management, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic planning. While at IAG in 2002, I had sold the NRMA Building Society to HSBC Australia and, through connections forged during that transaction, I joined HSBC’s local subsidiary as Head of Strategy & Planning in 2004. I remained in that role until the end of 2005. In 2006, Chris Mackay and Hamish Douglass recruited me for a 12-month period to assist them in establishing Magellan Financial Group, a specialist international equities manager, which today has over $40 billion under management. During that time, I managed the restructuring and recapitalisation of the group, and the initial public offering of Magellan Flagship Fund Limited, a special purpose listed investment company.  Following my role at Magellan, I joined Sims Group Limited.

After leaving Sims in 2009, I have concentrated my energies on utilising the skills and experience I have acquired during a career of nearly 30 years in a variety of leadership and advisory roles across a broad section of industry for the benefit of corporate, funds management and investor clients.

I have undertaken assignments for clients in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, asset origination, business strategy, merger integration, product development, investor relations and corporate governance.

I have recently completed major assignments for:

• Start-ups, early stage businesses & venture capital funds – providing advisory and management services to in the technology, funds management, biotech and sustainability sectors.
• Avation plc – arranging the refinance of the company’s F100 fleet servicing the mining industry in Western Australia.
• Ellerston Capital Limited – providing consulting services on the execution of a variety of transactions.
• Money3 Corporation Limited – providing strategic advice on the restructuring of the company’s operations to support the implementation of a warehouse facility for its motor finance loan book.
• Tennant Creek Metals – arranging and executing a series of complex transactions involving a group of companies for a syndicate of investors to secure rights to the magnetite, gold and copper reserves contained in the tenements and tailings dams formerly owned by Peko-Wallsend at Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
• APP Corporation Limited – providing advisory services in relation to the purchase of Chesterton International (NSW).
• MIR Investment Management Limited – providing advisory services in relation to the sale to Challenger Limited.
• Telstra Corporation Limited – providing strategic counsel and project management services in connection with Telstra’s $11 billion National Broadband Network shareholder program, including the explanatory memorandum relating to the company’s participation in the NBN rollout.
• Transfield Services Limited – providing strategic counsel and operational support to the senior executive team in connection with the $600 million acquisition of Easternwell Group, and associated entitlement offer and debt refinancing.
• Mitsui’s Metals & Mining Division in Tokyo – providing strategic advice on the company’s investments in the global recycling industry.