• Extensive executive team C-level experience, leading international, enterprise-wide, strategic business transformation at multi-billion dollar scale.
  • Leader of large-scale corporate activity, capital raisings, mergers, acquisitions, investments and divestments with complex finance structures.
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  • Expert builder of high-performance management teams, business operating models, robust governance and performance-led culture.
  • Focused on utilising team expertise & knowledge and creating successful, simplified outcomes from more complex organisational situations.

An exceptional strategic metamorphosis...

Working directly with the CEO and Executive Chairman as a member of the executive leadership team, I was responsible for taking the former Leighton Holdings company, and constructing a more efficient, competitive and robust enterprise.

  • Restructure business operations into a 4 sector activity based model: CPB Contractors (Construction), Thiess (Mining), Pacific Partnerships (PPP) and EIC Activities (Engineering).
  • Leighton Holdings -> CIMIC Group rebrand to support the company transformation (internally – externally)
  • Established new organisational designs with new leadership teams and carried out large-scale physical relocation
  • Evolved Leighton Contractors brand to now, CPB Contractors.
  • Takeover initiatives for Sedgman and Devine.
  • Established the sale process of John Holland which led to the sale to China Communications Construction Co.
  • Established the process for the sale and integration of Leighton and Thiess services businesses – resulting in Ventia (a 50:50 investment partnership with funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management).
  • Defined & implemented new results-focused project management approach.

Strategic planning for a complex, global market leading construction group…

Leighton has provided an amazing diverse learning and development environment and I have invested over a decade of my professional career here. This has provided a great financial and strategic planning foundation and track record to create value in the large scale corporate space, to grow and thrive.

As the group’s strategic leader I have worked with the CEO and Deputy CEO/CFO on the remit of capital control and recycling, mergers and acquisitions, major equity participation in PPP projects and management of group investments.

  • Led Leighton Holdings program of divestments and capital recycling to improve the group balance sheet following material financial loss and capital raising in 2011.

  • Completed three large-scale strategic divestments:
    • Sale of 70% of NextGen Group to OTPP 2013;
    • Sale of 100% Thiess Waste Services to RWE 2012;
    • Sale of HWE Mining business to BHP Billiton 2011.

Development Manager:

Brisbane based with Australia wide projects.
Working directly with the national Development Director.

Responsible for all aspects of industrial and infrastructure project development including feasibility studies, government approvals, financing and investment strategies, partner relationships, contract negotiation. Overall mandate to deliver contracting work to JHG construction divisions.

Internal Financial Advisor to JHG

As a resident energy & financial specialist inside a large-scale construction company, my role was to ensure there was an intense focus to bringing Greenfield projects to a financial close.

We worked on a broad variety of projects including toll roads, water infrastructure, high efficiency power stations, 6-star property developments, renewable energy and forestry facilities. This required strong negotiation skills and energy for extensive travel.

Manager Market Developments

Tarong Energy

Established middle office function of the energy trading division at Tarong Energy, with new tools, systems and pricing methodologies to support participation in the newly established and deregulated energy market.

Amazing team development experience. Reported to the GM of Energy Trading.

Deregulation of the Australian Energy Market

In this time I was pivotal in the establishment of new trading systems and methods to deliver financial success in short term trading and longer term asset development strategies. I was fortunate to work with and learn from some exceptional talent to achieve a common goal:

  • Financial performance – trading strategies
  • Identify market trends & opportunities
  • Collaboration with university on mathematical techniques to be applied in electricity industry.

Forecaster/Senior Forecaster

Energex Retail

I was attracted to the electricity sector following the deregulation of the energy markets in Australia. the traditional demand forecasting models for energy consumption needed to be over-hauled to accommodate a live market with real-time electricity pricing and a major shortage in electricity supply.
Reported to the GM Energy Trading who had extensive commodities trading experience to learn from.

Development Opportunity

In this role, I felt privileged to be contacted by the corporate head office of Energex to work on the development of a large scale project to introduce alternative energy sources into the QLD market. This provided exposure to multi-national oil and gas companies and long term commodity market dynamics.

Ventia

May 2015 - 2016
Board Director and audit committee member following the sale of Leighton & Thiess Services operations into a 50% investment partnership with funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management LLC.

Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute

2012 - Current
Director and Industry Advisory Committee member. Resigned Mar'16 and reappointed in May'16 as Deputy Chairman.

Nextgen Holdings

July 2013 - May 2016
Board Director, remuneration & audit committee member following the 70% sale to Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (OTPP)

Devine Group

Feb 2016 - May 2016
Alternate Director following the take-over bid launched in late 2015 which increased CIMIC stake to 59%.

Manila North Tollways Corporation

2009 - Board Director position until I completed the sale of Leighton Holdings equity stake.

I have a never ending passion for learning, and I was privileged to attend the IMD Business School in Switzerland initially participating in two module program for Executive Development before enrolling in the executive MBA which occupied most of 2011.

Field trips to India, China and Silicon Valley were notable. MBA studies occurred in parallel with a fulltime executive role as EGM Strategy at Leighton Holdings however assignments blended both study and real corporate environment together.

My MBA thesis was on high performance teams, an amazing and powerful force that I believe is under utilized in most organisations but which mostly contains the solutions needed if harnessed correctly.

With a new powerful and global network of associates, I feel well connected and exceptionally well supported in my work now – assisting companies from start-up to multinationals - in areas of growth, capital raising, organisational structuring and sale.

…For me, maths is the language of the universe that we live in - it is powerful, beautiful, infinite with never ending challenges.  Much like the real world, it requires logic, knowledge and creativity to find solutions for complex problems.

It was my privilege to be able to complete a PhD in mathematics and I remain forever grateful to the support I received from UQ maths department to pursue this.

My PhD was in a field of pure mathematics called "Combinatorics" which deals with patterns and characteristics of countable discrete structures and I chose to explore new learnings about Latin Interchanges and Critical Sets.

I don't explicitly apply my PhD work in the business world, however there are so many common elements - complexity, unknowns, chaos - and mathematics provides a powerful tool kit.

Australian Institute of Company Directors

Company Directors Course 2002 – 2003

Securities Institute of Australia 1998 – 1999

Graduate Diploma: Applied Finance & Investment

The University of Queensland:

PhD, Mathematics 1995 – 1997

The University of Queensland

BSc. Mathematics,
First Class Honours 1992 – 1994

Awards: University Medalist

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