David has over 25 years of experience in financial services, including most recently as Head of Investec Emerging Companies. He has held numerous board positions on behalf of Investec, including Goshawk Aviation Limited, IGAF and IASL (Investec aviation entities which collectively owned US$6bn+ of commercial aircraft globally), as well as a number of high growth companies including ICM Airport Technics, H2 Ventures, Propelair, Splend and Pulse iD.

David is currently on the board of ASX listed Openpay, and Commencer Capital Fund investee companies Dresden, MadeComfy, Comestri and Tiliter. He also serves on the Investment Committee of W23, the venture capital arm of the Woolworths Group Limited Prior to joining Investec, David was a Director in the Corporate Advisory division of Deutsche Bank for 5 years where he was involved in large merger and acquisition transactions both domestically and offshore, and prior to that was a tax lawyer and adviser with Freehills and KPMG respectively. His qualifications include B.Com, LLB (Honours) from the Australian National University, Master of Laws (International Tax) from the University of Sydney.

Jeff has over 20 years of experience in financial services, most recently as Head of Power & Infrastructure at Investec Australia, where he led the team on a range of transactions across advisory, debt and equity roles.

Jeff represents the fund as board member for Vamp, Inkl and Longtail UX. Prior to Investec, Jeff held roles at Optus, Compass Group, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Jeff is a CFA charter holder and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Victoria University in Wellington.

Shane specialises in early stage investing, with professional experience across venture capital, investment banking, venture debt and equity derivatives trading in both Sydney and Silicon Valley. Shane is primarily focused on deal origination, execution and portfolio management. He is also an observer on several portfolio company boards. Recent fund transactions include equity and convertible note investments in Tiliter, Longtail UX and Dresden. Shane has also previously advised on IPO and M&A transactions.

Shane holds an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, Masters of Finance from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Finance from Santa Clara University.

Sean has 15 years investing, consulting and banking experience across a broad range of industries as well as being a founder of a forensic science automation start-up. He has experience across the full lifecycle of investments from initial transaction and working closely with founders through to exit – including investments in MadeComfy, Pulse iD and Vamp.

He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Mechatronics from University of Canterbury and a Master of Applied Finance from Macquarie University.

Kat joined Commencer Capital in September 2021 and has over 7 years of experience in financial services and accounting. Prior to Commencer, Kat has held roles in various funds services areas specialising in private equity, debt funds, real estate and property funds and infrastructure funds.

She is a qualified CPA and holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Professional Accounting from Macquarie University.

Colin has nearly 30 years of experience in finance and senior executive positions in some of Australia’s leading companies.

Most recently Colin was a senior executive at Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW) where held various roles including the Managing Director of New Business and Partnerships and Managing Director of Group Portfolio Businesses where he was responsible for Big W, ALH Group, Quantium Group, venture capital business W23, Mergers & Acquisitions, Government Relations, Group Strategy (until 2018), Group Data and Analytics, Woolworths International, Woolworths Wholesale and Property. Colin was a member of the Woolworths Executive Committee from 2016 to 2021 and from 2015 to 2016 was Deputy Chief Financial Officer.

During his time at Woolworths Colin ran the closure and sale of Masters Hardware ($2.7bn closure), sale of Woolworths Petrol ($1.7bn), acquisition of PFD Food Services ($0.87bn), increased stake in Quantium ($0.2b) and the demerger of Endeavour Ltd ($11bn).

Prior to Woolworths, Colin spent three years at AMP (2011 to 2014) where he was Chief Financial Officer. During this period he also oversaw the integration of the AXA and AMP finance functions following the takeover of AXA Australia.

From 1997 to 2010 Colin held senior executive positions at Qantas Airways including Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, Group Treasurer, Member of the Qantas Executive Committee.

Colin is currently on the board of Endeavour Ltd and a member of its Audit and Risk Committee, Chair of PFD Food Services Ltd, a Director of the Quantium Group Ltd (Australia’s largest data and analytics firm) and Chair of its Audit and Risk Committee, a member of the Investment Committee of W23 Investments and a Director of North Queensland Airports.

Cliff has over 20 years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and senior executive in the technology sector.

Cliff is currently a Director of ASX-listed Nearmap Ltd, TechnologyOne and A2B Australia as well as JSE-listed Bidcorp. Cliff was also previously Director of ASX-listed Afterpay Ltd.

Cliff was, until recently, the Managing Director for LinkedIn South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand (November 2009 to June 2017). Cliff established LinkedIn in Australia, growing the Australian business to ~300 staff across the Sydney and Melbourne offices. During his tenure Cliff increased membership in Australia from 1 million professionals in 2009 to well over 8 million in 2017.

Prior to joining LinkedIn, Cliff was the Managing Director of Yahoo! Australia & NZ where he was responsible for all aspects of the local operation for over 3 years. He was also an investor, adviser and Non-executive Director of Australia’s leading online restaurant booking platform, Dimmi, which was sold to TripAdvisor in 2015.

Prior to joining Yahoo!, Cliff was the Founder and Managing Director of iTouch Australia & NZ, a leading wireless application service provider. He grew the Australian office to one of the largest mobile content and application service providers in Australia with key partnerships with Ninemsn, Yahoo!, Telstra and Vodafone. Prior to that, Cliff was Head of Corporate Strategy for Vodafone Australasia and was an international management consultant with Gemini Consulting and Bain Consulting.

His qualifications include MSc (Hons) in Management from Universitat Ben Gurion Ba-Negev and BBusSci (Hons) in Economics and Marketing from the University of Cape Town.

Garry is currently the Chairman of Helloworld Travel Limited and a Director of Treasury Wine Estates Limited, Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation and Findex Limited.

Garry has also previously served as a Director (including as Chairman in numerous instances) of various listed and unlisted companies including Myer Holdings Limited, Spotless Group Holdings Limited, PanAust Limited, Qantas Airways Limited, DuluxGroup Limited, Ingeus Limited, Integral Diagnostics Limited, Orica Limited, Nufarm Limited, Mitchell Communication Group Limited and eMitch Limited.

For many years Garry was a senior Partner at Arthur Andersen and then Ernst & Young. During his time at Ernst & Young, in addition to his operational responsibilities Garry’s executive roles also included Managing Partner of the Ernst & Young Victorian and Tasmanian offices and being a member of the Ernst & Young Management Committee. Whilst at Arthur Andersen, Garry was the CEO and Country Managing Partner for Australia and a member of the Andersen Asia Pacific Executive Committee. Whilst a senior audit partner at these firms Garry had responsibility for numerous high profile clients, including BHP Billiton Limited where he acted as the signing partner for its financial statements.

Garry is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chartered Accountants in Australia and NZ.

Ben is an experienced company director, adviser and private investor with a strong emphasis on positively supporting management to build long-term value. He has deep private equity experience gained from over a dozen directorships across US & Australia.

Ben has built active investee portfolios in healthcare, life sciences, financial services, energy & agriculture sectors, often working with investment partners to drive value and develop company business models.

Ben was previously Managing Director at CHAMP Private Equity, having been with the firm from 2005 to 2014.

Ben is currently the Chairman of Gerard Lighting Group and Rocking Horse Finance Pty Ltd. He is also a Director of Shelf Drilling Limited, and acts as a Senior Advisor to Branford Castle Partners LP, a NY-based lower middle-market buyout firm.

Ben has also represented the Fund as board nominee on investee companies Vamp and Longtail UX.

Ben was formerly on the board of Riverina Fresh Pty Ltd, Centric Wealth Limited, Healthcare Australia, Study Group, United Malt, Ion Track, Associated Packaging Technologies, Equipment Support Services and AdobeAir.

Prior to joining CHAMP Private Equity, Ben was a Managing Director at Castle Harlan (New York PE firm), a leading middle market buy-out firm for 7 years.

Ben has also worked at Goldman Sachs in capital markets, served as a Special Adviser to the Hon. Nick Greiner AC (former premier of NSW), and started his career in management consulting at PwC, where he also qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Ben holds a MBA from the Harvard Business School, BCom (Hons) from the University of New South Wales, CA and GAICD qualifications.