The brightest minds now touring

Peter led the South Australian Labor Party to victory at the March 2022 state election, becoming the 47th Premier of South Australia.

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He first entered state parliament as a member of the Legislative Council in 2015 before being elected as the member for Croydon in 2018.

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During the Weatherill Labor Government Peter held the portfolios of Minister for Police, Correctional Services, Emergency Services, and Road Safety (2016-2017) and Minister for Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (2017-2018).

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As Leader of the Opposition (2018-22) he brought a constructive alternative approach to the challenges facing South Australia during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

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With a focus on health, education, jobs, skills, and the environment, Peter was elected with a plan not just for the next four years, but for the next generation of South Australians.

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In Peter’s spare time, he can often be found at a Port Adelaide game or out on the footy field playing with his beloved Adelaide Uni Blacks.

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His great love though is his family. Peter and his wife Annabel have four young children Sophie, Jack, Eliza, and George.

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Since the formation of Oaktree in 1995, Mr. Marks has been responsible for ensuring the firm’s adherence to its core investment philosophy; communicating closely with clients concerning products and strategies; and contributing his experience to big-picture decisions relating to investments and corporate direction.  

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From 1985 until 1995, Mr. Marks led the groups at The TCW Group, Inc. that were responsible for investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, and convertible securities.  Previously, Mr. Marks was with Citicorp Investment Management for 16 years, where from 1978 to 1985 he was Vice President and senior portfolio manager in charge of convertible and high yield securities.  Between 1969 and 1978, he was an equity research analyst and, subsequently, Citicorp’s Director of Research.  

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Mr. Marks holds a B.S.Ec. degree cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in finance and an M.B.A. in accounting and marketing from the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago.  He is a CFA® charterholder.  Mr. Marks is an Emeritus Trustee and Advisory Member of the Investment Committee at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He is a member of the Investment Committee of the Royal Drawing School in London.  He also serves on the Shanghai International Financial Advisory Council and the Advisory Board of Duke Kunshan University and is an Emeritus Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania, where from 2000 to 2010 he chaired the Investment Board.

Nick Moakes is the Chief Investment Officer at the Wellcome Trust, responsible for overseeing the £37 billion endowment at one of the world’s largest charitable foundations. The portfolio is invested globally across a wide range of asset classes.

Nick joined Wellcome in 2007 from BlackRock Investment Management where he was Head of the Asia Pacific investment team and Co-Head of Emerging Markets. He graduated with a first-class honours degree in Modern History and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford and is a CFA charter holder. Prior to joining BlackRock in 1997 he lived in Hong Kong for nine years and is a Chinese speaker.  He started his career in the Diplomatic Service.

Away from Wellcome, Nick chairs the Balliol College Investment Committee. He is also a longstanding member of the Brussels based European Foundation Financial and Investment Officers Group.

Michael Novogratz is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Digital.

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He was formerly a Partner and President of Fortress Investment Group LLC. Prior to Fortress, Mr. Novogratz spent 11 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was elected Partner in 1998. Mr. Novogratz served on the New York Federal Reserve’s Investment Advisory Committee on Financial Markets from 2012 – 2015. Mr. Novogratz serves as the Chairman of The Bail Project and has made criminal justice reform a focus of his family’s foundation. He also sits on the Board of Overseers at NYU Langone Medical Center and is a board member of Princeton Varsity Club and Jazz Foundation of America.

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Mr. Novogratz received an AB in Economics from Princeton University and served as a helicopter pilot in the US Army.

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Ajay Rajadhyaksha is Global Chairman of Research at Barclays, based in New York. He drives the global macro research and strategy effort including economics, rates, FX, commodities, emerging markets, and asset allocation.

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Since joining Barclays in 2005, Ajay has held various positions, including Head of Macro Research, Co-Head of FICC Research and, before that, Head of US Fixed Income Research and US and European Securitised Research.

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Until recently, he was a member of the US Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, advising the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve as well as the US Treasury Secretary on macroeconomic and market issues.

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He received a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona.

Rikki Bannan is an Executive Director at IFM Investors, a global fund manager with over $215bn of funds under management. As a Portfolio Manager in IFM Investors’ Small Caps fund, Rikki is responsible for investment decisions across the consumer discretionary,  health care and technology sectors, as well as being actively involved in fund raising and investor engagement for the Small Cap product.

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Rikki also sits on the Advisory Committee of HEAL Partners, a growth Private Equity fund focused on investments within the Health, Education and Lifestyle sectors.

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Prior to joining IFM Investors in 2015, Rikki spent six years as a Senior Equities Analyst at Macquarie Bank. Over this time she held roles in the Equity Strategy team and as an Industrials Analyst.

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Rikki is a Chartered Accountant and commenced her career in KPMG’s Audit & Assurance division. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance & Accounting) from The University of Sydney.

Paul is a Co-Founder and Partner of Square Peg. He is passionate about backing founders who are building the next generation of global startups that seek to improve our community.
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In 1997, he co-founded SEEK, which operates market leading businesses in the online employment and vocational education markets and became one of Australia’s first globally leading startups.
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In 2012, Paul co-founded Square Peg with a mission to support the next generation of founders seeking to build global businesses. At the time, there was no venture capital market in Australia and Square Peg has played an important role in transforming its startup ecosystem. He has led investments in Airwallex, Athena, Constantinople, Rokt, UpGuard, Zeller and others over the past 12 years and is inspired and energised by the dedication, talent and resilience of their founders and teams.
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In 2023, Paul founded AMPLIFY and serves as Chair. AMPLIFY is a non-partisan community organisation where Australian’s from all walks of life get to have their say on the most important issues facing the country. Paul has been a Commissioner of the Australian Football League (AFL) since 2012, served on the Wesfarmers board from 2012-2018 and, together with his wife and three children, serves on the board of the P&S Bassat Foundation.

Katherine Bennell-Pegg is an  Australian Astronaut and Space Systems Engineer. She is the first ever person to be trained as an astronaut under the Australian flag. Katherine was most recently a  Director of Space Technology at the Australian Space Agency, where she contributed to growing Australia's space capability through being technical lead on scoping the nation's first Moon rover mission, developing plans to capitalise on Australia's space strengths, and managing the Access to Space Team. She has more than a decade of experience developing space programs and strategies, technologies, and missions across Europe, the UK, the US and Australia. These include the Orion vehicle that is taking humans back to the Moon, space station facilities, earth observation missions and robotic satellite capture technologies. 

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Katherine has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut and in early 2023 took the giant leap to achieving that dream when she began astronaut training with the European Space Agency. Katherine currently lives in Germany with her husband and two young daughters while training at the European Astronaut Centre.

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Katherine  holds four degrees across science (physics major), space and aeronautical engineering. Katherine is a keen volunteer, having worked with the Australian Army Reserves, Surf Life Saving, State Emergency Service, and Engineers Without Borders Australia. Her hobbies include scuba diving, flying, reading, backyard astronomy, surfing, sailing, basketball, netball, tennis, hiking and cycling.

Jeremy founded Terra Capital In 2010 launching the long only Terra Capital Global Natural Resources Fund. The fund has delivered strong performance resulting in Terra Capital becoming one of Australia’s longest running open ended global resources fund. 

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Jeremy formally worked at RAB Capital’s Special Situations Fund, a US $2.5B long/short strategy focused on mining and energy. The fund was rated the “Best Energy and Natural Resource Fund” by Hedge Fund Review and ranked No.1 in Barron’s Hedge Fund 50 Global rankings in 2007, during Jeremy’s tenure. Prior to RAB Jeremy worked at Western Australian corporate advisory firm Azure Capital.

Professor Alex Brown is the Professor of Indigenous Genomics at The Kids Research Institute Australia and The Australian National University. He is an internationally leading Aboriginal clinician/researcher (Yuin Nation) who has worked his entire career in Aboriginal health in the provision of public health services, infectious diseases and chronic disease care, health care policy and research. He has family connections to Nowra, Wreck Bay and Wallaga Lake on the far south coast of NSW.

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Alex was the Aboriginal Health Equity Theme Leader SAHMRI from 2013 – 2023 and has been a Professor of Medicine at the University of Adelaide since 2019.
He has established three highly regarded research groups over the last 15 years and has built a career spanning public health, quantitative clinical epidemiology, mixed-method health service research, qualitative research, and implementation science, with an increasing focus on novel clinical trials in cardiometabolic disease within Indigenous communities.  

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In March 2023 he was the first Indigenous scientist appointed to the CSIRO Board.

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Peter founded Cooper Investors in 2001. Cooper Investors is a specialist equities fund manager with funds under management of approximately A$13.2 billion. As Chief Investment Officer, Peter created and implemented the firm’s investment philosophy which is applied across the international, domestic and Asian equities strategies.

As Chief Investment Officer, Peter created and implemented the firm’s VoF investment philosophy which is applied across the international and domestic equities strategies. He is responsible for mentoring investment team members and the standardisation and integration of the process across the investment teams.

Peter has over 30 years of investment management experience. In 1987, he joined the NSW State Superannuation Investment and Management Corporation as a specialist industry analyst and progressed to Deputy Portfolio Manager of the $7bn portfolio. In 1993, Peter ran the Australian equities portfolio for BNP and then joined Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (formally Mercury Asset Management) where he worked for 7 years, culminating in his position as Head of Australian Equities and Managing Director, where he oversaw a team managing $7.5bn in Australian equities.

Cooper Investors is a relationship-driven business and is committed to developing partnerships with organisations that share the Cooper Investors core values and their focus on creating shareholder value. Peter is highly regarded for his passion, integrity, and purpose.

Ed Cowan is a member of the Investment Team at TDM Growth Partners and a Core Fund Manager for HM1. TDM Growth Partners is a global investment firm, investing in a portfolio of 10-15 fast growing public and private companies.

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Having travelled the world playing professional cricket for over 15 years, Ed joined his brother Tom at TDM in 2018. Ed is involved in many parts of TDM, supporting portfolio companies and their executives, leading TDM’s platform-building efforts, and helping create and nurture the best possible investment opportunities across TDM's investment landscape.

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Ed holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) from Sydney University, a Masters of Applied Finance form Macquarie University, and currently sits on the Board of Cricket NSW.

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Commencing his career as a chartered accountant, Chris Cuffe entered the funds management industry in 1985. In 1988 he joined Colonial First State where he was CEO from 1990 until 2003. In 2003 he became CEO of the listed Challenger Group.

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Chris is now involved in a portfolio of activities in the investment and non-profit sectors. In addition to being Chairman of Hearts and Minds Investments, this includes:

• Investment Committee member of UniSuper and the Paul Ramsay Foundation;
• Chairman of Australian Philanthropic Services and portfolio manager of the APS Foundation;
• Director of Global Value Fund, Argo Investments, Keyview Financial Group;
• Founder, Director and Portfolio Manager of Third Link Growth Fund.

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Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of NSW and a Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia (now the Financial Services Institute of Australasia). He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, a Fellow of the Institute of Company Directors and an Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia. In 2007 Chris was inducted into the Australian Fund Manager’s RBS Hall of Fame for services to the investment industry. In 2017 he was appointed as an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia.

Sumit Gautam started Scalar Gauge in 2017 and has been the portfolio manager for the fund for over 7 years.

Prior to Scalar, he was a Partner at Hirzel Capital, ~$1.3B AUM long/short equity hedge fund based in Dallas, where he focused on investments in the technology sector for 4 years. He also has significant private equity investing experience, having worked as a Vice President at Audax Private Equity Fund, which is a $20B+ AUM PE fund based in Boston. Prior to Audax, he was a Senior Manager / Principal at Bain & Company's private equity group. In his 4 years at Bain, he worked with some of the largest PE funds in primary due diligence for LBO targets.

One of Sumit’s differentiation is direct operational experience in technology companies – having worked at a VC funded tech startup in silicon valley which later got acquired by Dell for ~$700MM. Sumit started his career as a management consultant at Mckinsey & Company in Silicon Valley.

Sumit is a CFA charterholder, has a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, and an MS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Adam Gilmour is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Gilmour Space Technologies, an Australian-owned company that is leading the development of sovereign space capabilities in launch vehicles, satellites, and access to space. Founded in Queensland, Gilmour Space is today the largest space manufacturer in Australia with over 200 employees, funding from some of Australia's biggest private investors, and contracts for launch and satellite systems from both commercial and defence customers.

Before starting his career in space, Adam spent over two decades at Citi managing a billion-dollar regional sales business dealing in complex financial products for institutional and corporate clients in the Asia Pacific. An avid space fan, his inspiration for change came in 2004 when the X-Prize was won by Scaled Composites’ SpaceShipOne, which demonstrated just how affordable spaceflight could be. Today, he is leading a growing team of talented engineers in Queensland, Australia, on a mission to develop and deliver truly low-cost access to space.

With over 30 years of experience in financial markets—two decades of which have been in global equities—Nick Griffin is a founding partner and the Chief Investment Officer at Munro Partners. He developed Munro’s proprietary investment process and is responsible for selecting companies for the firm’s core global growth mandates, including both Absolute Return and Long Only strategies. In his role, Nick also leads the investment team and shapes the direction of the team’s research efforts.
Career highlights include:

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• Head of International Strategy for the K2 Select International Absolute Return Fund from 2005 to 2015.
• Senior Analyst (Global Oil and Gas) at Deutsche Bank UK from 2000 to 2005.
• Manager of Australian Equities for Commonwealth Financial Services from 1996 to 1999.

Another highlight of Nick’s career was when he moved to Edinburgh Scotland, where he had the privilege of working alongside some of the world's best global investors, which fuelled his passion for investing in international markets. These experiences ultimately inspired the founding of Munro Partners, and Munro’s mission to be your global growth investor. When he’s not managing stocks, Nick enjoys fly fishing, hiking, playing golf, and spending time with his family.

Nick is a co-founder and CEO of Endo Axiom. Endo Axiom is a biotechnology company focused on the prevention of autoimmune diseases and improving the quality of life for diabetics. The company develops platforms for the oral delivery of drugs and biologics, and brings these innovations through clinical validation. Endo Axiom's mission includes creating solutions for pharmaceutical challenges such as delivering oral insulin without hypoglycaemia and immune modulation for preventing type 1 diabetes without immune suppression. Nick is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney and the ANZAC Research Institute at Concord Hospital. His group develops nanotechnology platforms for the oral biologic delivery and inverse vaccinations for prevention of autoimmune diseases.

Lt Gen (USAF Ret) Larry D. James is the Strategic Advisor for SmartSat Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in Adelaide Australia and a Distinguished Professor of Space Research and Innovation at Monash University in Melbourne Australia. At SmartSat CRC he provides advocacy, technical advice, and support for SmartSat’s R&D, innovation and educational activities. At Monash he engages with senior university leadership to further space curriculum expansion and development; help build government partnerships both domestically and globally; build research collaborations and opportunities; and support indigenous student development programs.

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Prior to this assignment he served as Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 2013 to 2024. As the Laboratory's Chief Operating Officer, he was responsible for the day-to-day management of JPL's resources and activities. This included managing the Laboratory's solar system exploration, Mars, astronomy, physics, Earth science, interplanetary network programs, and all business operations.

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Prior to his retirement from active duty in 2013, Lt. Gen. James was the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) at the Pentagon. He was responsible to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the Air Force for policy formulation, planning, evaluation, oversight, and leadership of Air Force ISR capabilities and led more than 20,000 ISR officers, enlisted and civilians across the Air Force ISR Enterprise.

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Lt. Gen. James received his Bachelor of Science in Astronautical Engineering (1978) from the US Air Force Academy (Distinguished Graduate) and his Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics (1983) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. He was also a Draper Fellow at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, MA. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Jordan is a partner and senior investment team member of Advent Global Opportunities. Jordan joined AGO in 2015 at the inception of the fund and oversees AGO’s investments in a number of key sectors including aerospace and fintech.  Prior to Advent Global Opportunities, Jordan was a member of the investment team of Belfer Management, a single-family office based out of New York. From 2011-2013, Jordan was an Associate at Crestview Partners, a middle-market private equity firm. He began his career in the investment banking division of JPMorgan. Jordan graduated from Princeton University where he was a member of the men’s rowing team.

Responsible for leading our investment team, Chris has served as a Director and Portfolio Manager of Ellerston since 2005 and has over 39 years investment experience.

Prior to joining Ellerston, Chris co-founded the Melbourne based Investment Management firm Portfolio Partners in 1994, where he held various positions including Director and Senior Investment Manager and was formerly the Head of Equities until January 2003. It was from that point that he gave up his role to conceive and focus on managing the highly successful Elite Opportunities Concentrated Australian Shares Fund.

Prior to Portfolio Partners, Chris worked as a Senior Portfolio Manager, Deputy Head of Equities and Head of Resources Strategy at County Natwest Australia Investment Management where he was responsible for the management of County’s largest specialist equity mandates.

Chris has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne and is a Senior Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australia.

Chris was inducted into the Australian Fund Managers Foundation Hall of Fame in 2018 in recognition of his contribution to the industry.

Jason graduated from University of Melbourne Medical School in 1994, and then undertook residency and cardiology training at St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney. Jason then completed a PhD at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute (VCCRI) in Sydney in 2007, followed by a postdoc at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He then moved to the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, where he established his research program focusing on vascular diseases, while also practicing as a clinical cardiologist.

After over a decade in New York, in 2020 Jason returned to Australia to become Institute Director and CEO of the VCCRI. He now holds the position of the Robert M. Graham Chair and Professor of Cardiovascular Research at University of NSW and is also Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA.

He is the President of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance (ACvA), and Co-Chair of the NSW Chapter of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI).

Beeneet Kothari is the Managing Partner and Principal Portfolio Manager of Tekne Capital Management, a global fund manager he founded in 2012. Prior, he was a Managing Director at PointState Capital and Duquesne Capital, a global macro hedge fund founded by Stan Druckenmiller.

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Tekne Capital is a global Technology investment manager based in New York with a footprint across several global Emerging Markets. Tekne manages over USD$1 billion, and their investment focus is exclusively on tech-related businesses with a heavy tilt towards non-US/emerging markets in a concentrated portfolio with multi-year holding periods. Their flagship fund remains highly focused on owning a concentrated and diversified group of the leading non-US technology companies globally, where growth remains robust while public market valuations remain depressed.

Eric is part of the founding team at Varda Space Industries where he is the Chief Revenue Officer. Varda Space Industries develops small reentry vehicles that are used both for the commercial development of pharmaceuticals in microgravity, as well as a test system for all manner of reentry related technologies. 

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Varda is currently in partnership with NASA Ames, NASA Langley, and multiple branches of the US Defense Department, as well as the commercial pharmaceutical industry. Varda recently completed their first end to end reentry mission and the W-1 capsule was the first commercial spacecraft to ever land on US soil.

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Prior to his work at Varda, Eric worked in similar roles at the drone logistics company Zipline International, operating mass-scale delivery drones in sub saharan Africa, and the payment processing company Stripe. Eric has a degree in Physics from Colgate University.

Anthony is the Chief Executive Officer and former Chief Operating Officer of Proto Axiom, a multi-stage life sciences investment firm with a strong focus on incubation.

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Previously, Anthony co-founded Applecart, a platform generating over $30 million in annual revenue, which helps advertisers connect with high-value business decision-makers. He has also held roles working with Malcolm Turnbull, the Tony Blair Institute, and on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and John Kasich.

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Anthony serves as Chairman of the St. Vincent’s Hospital Discovery and Innovation Fund. He holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford (2020) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from the University of Pennsylvania (2014).

Simon Lucey Ph.D. is the Director of the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) at the University of Adelaide, Australia’s largest machine learning research group. His previous appointments were at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute (RI) in Pittsburgh USA, autonomous vehicle company Argo AI and CSIRO  
(2009-2014).

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He has received various career  awards including an ARC Future Fellowship (2009-2013). He has published over 300 articles, has over 18,904 citations with an h-index of 61. He has also registered 11 patents in computer vision.

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Simon’s research interests span computer vision, machine learning, and robotics. He enjoys drawing inspiration from AI researchers of the past to attempt to unlock computational and mathematic models that underlie the processes of visual perception.

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Greg Mauro is the Founder and Managing Partner at Learn Capital and oversees the investing practice of the firm. Greg previously managed an affiliate of Founders Fund and co-founded several venture-backed startups used by millions across the education, wireless, and media sectors. Greg has helped lead Learn investments in companies such as Coursera, Udemy, General Assembly, OnDeck, Ascent, Wave Neuro, and MindPortal. Greg is the co-founder of Edmodo, the world's largest social network for learning with over 100M users. Greg also helped incubate and co-found Higher Ground Education, the world's largest Montessori operator, where he serves on the board and is the largest investor. Greg has served on the board of NewGlobe — where Learn is also the largest investor — as the company has grown from serving one school to over 8,000, transforming the lives of over 3M students across Africa and India.  

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Prior to Learn, Greg was the co-founder of Founders Fund backed SmartDrive, a WSJ Top 50 Startup that was purchased by Vista Equity; Tachyon, a predecessor to SpaceX’s Starlink used by GE, the US Dept. of Defense, and Burning Man; and Nextivity, a provider of coverage solutions for over 120 mobile carriers globally. Greg’s ventures have collectively raised over $500M in venture capital. Greg started his tenure in education in 2000 as an eight-year foundation board member for High Tech High, the ‘MIT of charter schools’, where he financed their second campus by founding a facilities fund for high-performing charter schools.

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Mauro began his career as a strategy consultant for Monitor Group and is a graduate of UCLA’s College of Honors. Greg is the owner of Powder Mountain, the largest ski resort in the United States. Greg’s exploits — visiting over 100 countries, surfing on six continents, buying his local ski mountain — have been covered in The New York Times, Financial Times, The Atlantic, Surfer Magazine, and Ski Magazine.

Samir has over 34 years' industry experience and joined JOHCM in May 2011.

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Prior to joining JOHCM, he was a Partner and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at a firm specialising in Asian equities – Silver Metis Capital Management Pte Ltd. Samir was previously at Lloyd George Management where he worked as CIO. Prior to joining LGM, he worked at Peregrine Securities and ANZ Grindlays Bank for close to eight years as an Analyst specialising in India.

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Samir is a CFA Charterholder and holds a BCom from Bombay University.

Nick Molnar is the co-founder of Afterpay. As a young serial-entrepreneur, Nick’s vision for Afterpay was to create a global payment solution that would allow consumers to pay for things they want and need over time, using their own money. As a millennial himself, he recognised that his generation has an aversion to credit cards and compounding debt.

Nick launched Afterpay with his co-founder, Anthony Eisen, in Australia in October 2014 and listed the company on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2016. The company expanded into the U.S. in May 2018 and soon after, expanded into Canada, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. As of December 2023, Afterpay had more than 24 million customer accounts globally and was offered by more than 340,000 merchants globally.  

In August of 2021, Afterpay was sold to Block (NYSE: SQ) for US$29 billion. Nick currently co- leads Afterpay’s business at Block.

Flavia Tata Nardini is Co-founder and CEO of Australia’s leading space exploration company, Fleet Space Technologies. A rocket scientist, former propulsion test engineer at the European Space Agency and holder of two patents, Flavia has worked across a broad range of innovative space projects. Along with her team, Flavia led the development and launch of Fleet Space’s pioneering Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation - Australia’s first - and continues to push the boundaries of exploration by delivering high-value, real-time satellite-enabled solutions in mining, space exploration, and defence. Flavia is also a highly engaged leader in the global space and mineral exploration sectors as Chair of the Australian Space Agency Space Industry Leaders Forum, Mission Chair of the 7 Sisters Moon Mission, and director on the board of Austmine - the leading industry association for Australia’s mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector, representing over 700 companies advancing mining innovation around the world. A strong advocate for women in STEM, Flavia also regularly speaks at events to empower the next generation of leaders.

Mark Nelson is Chairman and Co-founder of Caledonia, a specialist global investment manager founded in 1992 and based in Sydney, Australia. Mark was educated at the Universities of Melbourne, and Cambridge, receiving his Doctorate in 1986.

Dr Nelson has over 35 years experience working in Australian and International investment and equity markets, analysing and assessing the business models of global companies in a wide variety of industries, and successfully placing Caledonia at the forefront of Australian-based equity investment firms.

He is currently Chairman of Art Exhibitions Australia, and a Director of Kaldor Public Art Projects. He is also a governor of the Florey Institute of Neuroscience, a Director of the MindGardens Neuroscience Alliance, and a Director of Telix Pharmaceuticals. He serves on the International Council of the Tate Museums in London, and the Directors Council of The Getty Museum in Los Angeles , and is Chairman of the Cricket New South Wales Foundation. He has previously interviewed several keynote speakers at the Hearts & Minds conference including Howard Marks (twice), Michael Milken, Scott Bessent, and Charlie Munger.

John O'Loghlen is the Coinbase Country Director, Australia and Managing Director Coinbase APAC. Prior to joining Coinbase, John led the expansion of Alibaba Group and Ant Group in Australia and New Zealand as well as overseeing the WorldFirst cross border payments business. Before relocating to Sydney in 2014, John spent the previous 11 years in China building businesses in the food delivery space following on from a career in investment banking with Goldman Sachs in London, New York and Beijing.

With 25 years’ experience in disruptive business models gained during a career with Macquarie Bank, Alex heads one of the best-performing teams in global investment management in Australia.

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He has a deep understanding of the mechanisms through which disruption changes business models and the impact it has on company valuation, having identified and invested in AI in 2016 through Nvidia, among many other companies which have generated strong portfolio returns over the ten years the fund has operated.

Mike has held high ranking roles advising the leadership of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community as well as their international counterparts in the conduct of cyber and intelligence activity across the globe. He helped develop national and international policy with respect to cyber, intelligence, privacy and technology – including extensive work with corporate leadership in the finance, IT, telecommunications and technology –and national security more broadly.
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Mike’s 37 years of naval service culminated in his posting as Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency Director. Prior to his final duties, he also served as Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Indo-Pacific Command, focusing on issues associated with China and the broader set of global security challenges.
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As a Senior Advisor to Bondi Partners and a board member for multiple private sector companies, Mike leverages his experience for consulting and venture capital initiatives across the globe.

Vihari Ross has over two decades of experience in investment management working across large institutions and boutique investment managers. She is currently a portfolio manager with global coverage at Antipodes Partners, a specialist equities firm managing over $10 billion on behalf of Australian and international investors.

Prior to joining Antipodes, Vihari was a senior investment team member at Magellan Financial Group where she spent over 15 years. She was head of research, responsible for the management of the 30-person global research team prior to her departure, and during this time, she designed the Magellan Core Global strategy and was the Fund’s portfolio manager. Earlier in her career at Magellan, Vihari was sector head of franchises (consumer) and covered the financial and consumer sectors as an investment analyst.

From 2003-2007 Vihari was at Ausbil Dexia, responsible for coverage of the financial and consumer sectors as well as quantitative analysis. She commenced her investing career at Commonwealth Investment Management in a strategy and research role.
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Vihari holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Actuarial Studies and Finance) and a Master of Commerce (Finance) from the University of New South Wales and is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries.

Ricky founded Eminence Capital in 1999. Today, Eminence is a ~$7.8B global investment management organisation investing client capital across global financial markets. As CEO and CIO of Eminence, Ricky is responsible for setting the firm’s strategic direction as well as directly managing its 20+ person investment team and diversified investment portfolio.

Prior to launching Eminence, Ricky was co-founder and co-general partner of Fusion Capital Management, a firm that managed a global long/short equity fund. Prior to that he was a research analyst at Mark Asset Management, where he began his investing career in 1991.

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Ricky received a BBA in Accounting and Finance graduating with honors from the University of Wisconsin. Ricky developed and teaches a capstone Finance course at Wisconsin, Applied Equity Markets Research, and launched Badgers in Finance, a professional and recruitment network for UW students and alumni across financial services. Ricky serves as an advisor on the Investment Committee for the University of Wisconsin Foundation and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Associate Professor Tim Sargeant earned his PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in 2008. He then undertook two postdoctoral roles at the University of Cambridge from 2008 until 2014. At Cambridge, his studies focussed on lysosomes, which are cellular structures that are essential for recycling damaged materials through a process known as autophagy.

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Since 2015, Tim has been at SAHMRI (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) in Adelaide, Australia where he studies the role of lysosomes in Alzheimer’s disease. His work has revealed key connections between lysosomal function and Alzheimer’s disease, particularly the importance of autophagy in clearing build up of a protein called tau, which is a hallmark of the disease.

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Recently, Tim’s focus has shifted to developing tools for measuring human autophagy, with the goal of advancing this research towards preventing age-related diseases.

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Niki is a co-founder of Blackbird, an investment firm with the dream to be a generational owner of generational companies born from Australia and New Zealand. Prior to Blackbird, he founded Startmate, an accelerator that helps nerds with ideas become great CEOs and build global startups. Earlier, he co-founded two software companies.

Blackbird partners with founders at the very beginning and surrounds them with a community of other founders who have built successful technology companies before. The firm began in 2012 and today manages a portfolio of 100+ technology companies worth over $7 billion, with committed capital across five funds.

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Adam Spencer was completing a PhD in Pure Mathematics when he won the national Triple J Raw Comedy championship in 1996. A television/radio career beckoned and Adam completed 15 years as one of Australia’s most respected radio commentators across Triple J and ABC 702.

His dexterity at being both mathematical - authoring eight best-selling books - and verbal - voted best debater in the world at the 1996 World Championships - makes him a curious customer indeed.

Adam is the Ambassador for Science and Mathematics at the University of Sydney, and a celebrated author of seven books, his latest is Maths 101, for Dumb Dads and Desperate Mums.

James Thomson is the senior Chanticleer columnist at The Australian Financial Review. Previously he was the Companies & Markets editor at the AFR, the editor of BRW, the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and a senior editor at Business Spectator. He writes on the Australian corporate sector, markets and global business.

Fleur has over 25 years investment experience and is portfolio manager and analyst for the Global Equity strategy. Fleur joined Northcape in 2018 and is in our Sydney office.

Before joining Northcape, Fleur was a Managing Director at UBS in Sydney. Having joined UBS in London in 2004 as a European Special Situations Analyst she progressed to Pan European Equity Sales and Account Manager for a range of fundamental hedge funds and long only institutions before returning to Australia with UBS in 2011. Initially Fleur established the business of European and US Equity Sales to investors based in Asia, then took over Global Sales to Australian based investors before eventually running the wider APAC Global Equity sales team. Before moving to the UK Fleur spent five years as a Generalist Equity Research Analyst at Capital Partners (now CP2), a boutique independent research advisory firm with expertise in the infrastructure sector.

Fleur holds a Bachelor of Commerce (First Class Honours in Finance) from the University of Sydney and is a CFA® Charterholder. In 2017 she completed not-for-profit directorship training with the Australian Institute of Company Directors under The Observership Program®.