Private Advisory
I was CTO of Aston Resources — from a A$400 million IPO to a merger with Whitehaven Coal reported at US$3 billion. I was CTO of the Newcastle Knights and Jets through their corporate restructure. I built Reddog Technology before managed IT was standard. I created Laikim PNG — business, strategy, capital, and ICT — in one of the hardest operating environments I have seen.
Currently advising the founders of an international financial infrastructure company. Details remain confidential while the business continues to scale.
Engagements
Engagements are structured around the complexity and importance of the mandate. I work with a small number of clients at any one time.
Every engagement is different. Some involve ongoing advisory relationships, others focus on a specific decision, transaction or period of change.
I accept a limited number of advisory engagements each year. Most begin through referrals or direct introductions.
You may not need capital
People often come to me because they believe they need to raise money.
Sometimes they do.
But capital rarely fixes a bad strategy.
Before raising capital, I look at what the business is actually trying to achieve and what is preventing it from getting there.
The solution might be capital. It might be customers, partnerships, distribution, positioning, relationships, restructuring or access to the right people.
The objective isn’t to raise money. The objective is to create the outcome.
People often know the outcome they want without knowing the strategy required to get there.
That’s where I am most useful.
Capital raising is one of the tools I can use when it is the right answer — not the answer I start with.
How I work
- I work directly with decision makers.
- I tell clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
- Most engagements are confidential.
- I prefer long-term relationships over one-off advice.
- I focus on judgement, not reports.
I’ve spent my career being called into situations before there was a playbook for them — building an entire technology stack for a mining company from nothing, in months, because the company couldn’t wait; running a business where we only made money if our clients’ technology actually worked, when the rest of the industry was structured to profit from theirs breaking. The pattern is the same regardless of the industry: I get called in when the stakes are real and the answer isn’t obvious yet. That’s what private advisory is — the same judgement, applied to whatever situation you’re actually facing.
Many of the organisations and people I advise cannot be named publicly. The examples on this website are those I have permission to discuss or that are already in the public domain.
I typically work with
- Founders scaling rapidly
- Family businesses navigating significant change
- Investors making high-consequence decisions
- CEOs facing complex strategic challenges
When the situation looks like this
- Major acquisitions and divestitures
- Succession and founder transition
- Board conflict and partnership deadlocks
- Expansion into new markets or geographies
- Capital allocation and fundraising
- Restructuring and carve-outs
- Strategic deadlocks where every option looks wrong
- Performance and identity at the elite level — sport and business
What it is like to work with me
- What does the first month look like?
- We establish what decision is actually on the table — not the one in the board deck, the one you have been avoiding. I meet the people who matter, read what matters, and we name the trade-offs plainly. No ninety-day plan. One decision architecture.
- How often do clients hear from me?
- As the mandate requires. Some weeks are daily. Some are one conversation that changes everything. I do not sell hours. I sell access when the decision is live.
- When do they call?
- Before the board meeting. Before signing. Before the conversation they have been dreading. In the middle of the night when the number stopped making sense. When the partnership is fracturing and lawyers are circling.
- What happens in a crisis?
- We compress. Strip away narrative until what remains is the decision and its consequences. I am in the room or on the phone — not sending notes afterward.
- What do I refuse to do?
- Produce reports no one reads. Validate a decision already made. Attend meetings where I am decorative. Take a mandate where the real problem is one I cannot speak to. Pretend politics are not part of the decision.
Questions
- How are engagements structured?
- Every mandate is different — ongoing advisory, a specific decision or transaction, board work, or a defined period of change. Terms follow the complexity and stakes of the situation, not a standard package.
- Who is not a fit?
- See who I don't work with.
- How often do we meet?
- When it matters. Some weeks daily. Some weeks not at all.
- Can you work with us internationally?
- Yes. I work internationally and spend much of the year travelling between client engagements. Most relationships combine in-person and remote work, depending on where the business and its leadership are based. When the situation calls for it, I get on a plane.
- Do you work with private equity or family offices?
- When the decision justifies it.
- Can you join boards?
- Sometimes.
- How do you charge?
- It depends on the mandate. I do not publish standard rates because the work does not fit a single model. We discuss structure after we have established whether I can help.
- What is the Bare Metal Protocol?
- The foundation for exceptional performance — an intensive framework for founders, executives, athletes, and leaders who need to remove invisible constraints that effort alone cannot overcome. Not motivation, therapy, or coaching. Details here.
Aston Resources · Thinking · Track record · Who I don't work with
I accept a limited number of advisory engagements each year. Most begin through referrals or direct introductions.