Melinda Morris
Managing Director
Melinda is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce from Monash University. Melinda has extensive M&A experience in advising small to medium size privately owned companies. She spent 6 years with Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance in Melbourne, Sydney and London as an Associate Director, specialising in engagements that involved strategic analysis and advice, sales and divestitures, and due diligence. Subsequently, Melinda was Vice President with Baird Investment Banking in London advising on and managing the trade sales of numerous privately owned small to mid-market businesses, including the £65m sale of Finsbury (financial PR services) to WPP and the £45m sale of Haygarth (marketing and communications agency) to publicly listed HighCo in France. She has significant project management experience, including the co-ordination and management of internal and external teams and advisors.
In recent years, Melinda has acted as lead Financial Advisor on numerous successful private company sales to publicly listed and foreign companies including the sale of Kenbrock to Gerflor (French) and Texstyle to Rollease Acmeda (US).
David Morris
Managing Director
David has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (25 year member). He is also a member of the Securities Institute of Australia. David spent over 8 years with Arthur Andersen Corporate Finance in Melbourne, London and Sydney specialising in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, privatisations, valuations and strategic analysis and advice. Subsequently he was a Director at Multiplex, responsible for establishing Multiplex’s UK business and the origination and financing of new business opportunities. Prior to returning to Australia in 2009, David was Managing Director of a successful property development business in Switzerland.
In recent years he has provided complex strategic, restructuring and financial advice to local and international private businesses, including the successful restructure and sale of Transtar International Freight Group to TVS Logistics, the sale of CMS to WiseTech Global, the sale of OTSA and OTSP to a.hartrodt Australia and the recent sale of a majority interest in Clemenger International Freight Group to Hong Kong based Sui Jun Group. David is also familiar with the sensitivities of dealing with private businesses, given his significant “sell-side” transactional experience over many years.
Marc Phillips
Special Advisor
Marc Phillips is a serial technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist. As a founder, he has three exits in data, video analytics, ad platforms and brand protection/domain management software companies. Marc has invested in over 20 software start-ups: Geodelic, GlanceGuide, Playhaven, WebIP, SessionBox, Retargeter, Contivio, Gridium, PacketZoom, Transifex, Qvivr, and CloudStaff. Key investments alongside NEA, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, Tandem Capital and Toba Capital. Marc completed a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and is co-founder of Arafura Ventures.
Marc holds a current Australian Financial Services Licence (No: 493852) and is authorized to provide general and financial advice in securities to wholesale investors including Superannuation Funds, Investment Banks and Financial Services Institutions. He is the author of several books including ‘Inside Silicon Valley’. In recent years, Marc has acted as a Special Advisor to Orrery Consulting.