Our Mentors

We are supported by the Queensland Government, City of Gold Coast and over 20 corporate and community partners, sponsors and supporters committed to driving a new digital economy on the Gold Coast.

We would like to acknowledge and thank all of you for your support and generosity.

INVESTMENT & FINANCE

Baden U'Ren

Internationally Recognised Entrepreneurship Educator

Baden is a nationally recognised entrepreneurship educator, leading Bond University’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation disciplines for over a decade. He is the Director of Bond’s Commercialisation Centre, building entrepreneurial capability across campus through curriculum, workshops, immersions and events. Outside of the University he leads the Startup Community Leaders Missions to Silicon Valley, Boulder and Israel for Startup Catalyst and supports his wife in their veterinary business Pet Wellness Centres. His background is in commercial banking (NAB) and private equity (QIC), and he is a regular contributor to conferences, community events and the media on the topics of disruption, innovation and the entrepreneurial method.

Michael Murtagh

Director at Wavebreak International

Michael V. Murtagh MBA, B. Bus., Com. Dec, Michael has over 25 years experience with technology start up companies and has been involved in investing and growing a diverse portfolio of companies. After graduating with an MBA from London City University, Michael worked in Europe for over a decade with a privately operated seed capital investment firm and technology incubator. After returning to Australia, Michael co-founded the Angel group ‘Founders Forum’ and later ‘Gold Coast Angels’ which operate today investing in and assisting early stage technology companies. For ten years he served as a Comet Business Advisor – delivering the Commonwealth Government’s Commercialising Emerging Technologies Scheme and assisting young high growth companies develop and execute their commercialisation plans.

Rick McElhinney

Chairman of Founders Forum

Rick McElhinney, BE, MIEAust, CPEng. Rick has invested in and provided advisory services to a number of manufacturing, energy and service corporations.

He is chairman of Founders Forum, is a fellow of the Australian Association of Angel Investors and a founding member of Golds Coast Angels.

Other early stage investments included Autodesk, Plastics Unlimited, Eduss Broadcast & Media, Eco-kinetics, Seasafe., GrassAds, Endnight Games, MyWorkPapers, MCE Energy, Ubaryon and JESI Management Solutions.

MARKETING

Ryan Tuckwood

Co-Founder & CEO Swish Sales Coaching

Ryan teaches people how to sell, ethically. As a businessman, strategic advisor, investor, speaker and proud father, Ryan is considered the go-to expert for anyone looking to understand negotiation and influencing with integrity by inspiring people to take action, fast.

Adam Beverley

Founder & Director at APB Sales Strategy

Adam Beverley helps Digital Marketing Agencies & Professional service businesses create & develop their own highly profitable sales teams, sales processes & tools through his Strategic Sales Coaching and 1:1 Sales Mentoring Programs.

Over the last 5+ years, Adam Beverley has received over 30+ sales awards, previously working for a major Telecommunications provider.

Adam has been leading sales team professionally since he was 18, including leading a nationally recognised B2B Sales team through COVID here on the Gold Coast during his telecommunications sales career.

After many years of success as a Sales Professional & Trainer, Adam Beverley founded APB Sales Strategy. This business is considered the first of its kind to disrupt the Sales Training/Coaching industry since its establishment with its strategy/results-focused coaching methods.

Adams’s core Sales philosophy is to be a problem solver, ask intelligent questions, use active listening, provide a valuable service and not overcomplicate closing, and ask for the business right at the right time.

Adam is considered one of the forefront figures in the Gold Coast networking community, with his family having strong roots entrenched in the Gold Coast Business community for over the last 50 years.

Adam is a passionate entrepreneur and is always open to hearing from other entrepreneurs on the Gold Coast, whether they are just getting started or own established businesses – the best way to reach out is to send him a message on LinkedIn.

Marlie Jolanda

Meaningful Marketing Coach

Marlie Jolanda is a Meaningful Marketing & Business Coach with high-energy. She is passionate about helping Entrepreneurs-on-a-Mission to stop being the ‘best kept secret’ and turn more potential customers into paying clients with Meaningful Marketing. She helps her clients save time/money and make more money by working SMARTER, not harder.

She started her career in corporate at BMW Group Netherlands in 2007. With over a decade of experience in the Marketing/ Sales/ Networking Industry, Marlie has helped thousands of entrepreneurs world-wide stop wasting time and money on marketing that doesn’t work, and to excel beyond expectations.

COMMERCIALISATION

Brian Hall

Co-Founder of Bartercard

Co-Founder of Bartercard, former CEO of Bartercard Group and former director of ASX listed company BPS Technology.
Brian is Canadian born, has lived on the Gold Coast for over 26 years and co-founded Bartercard in 1991. Since this time Brian has helped develop and lead the company to its peak of 72 offices in 8 countries, employing over 800 staff, 35,000 business memberships, and over 50,000 card holders transacting in excess of $1billion a year.

Larissa Rose

Environmental Consultant

An energetic and resilient professional with a comprehensive knowledge of renewable fuels, environmental sustainability and biofuels. Tertiary qualified, Larissa has obtained a comprehensive knowledge and background in environmental studies, carbon & waste management, administration, project management, social media & business development. Managing Director and Founder of the Queensland Renewable Fuels Association (QRFA), Larissa is committed to renewable fuels & the triple bottom line role they play. The expertise and value Larissa offers is her drive to succeed, her practical and theoretical knowledge & experience within this emerging industry.

Jad Jubaili

Business Strategy Consultant

Jad Jubaili is a successful business owner in a family business, equity and crypto investor, who is looking to share his knowledge for building winning strategies.

Jad helps businesses find commitment to their vision/mission and digs deep to inspire inventive strategies.

For early stage businesses, Jad conducts sessions with owners to reinforce what they want to achieve (Vision) and formulate what needs to be done (Mission). He then develops the business plan which will include a market study, competitor analysis, resource requirements, budgeting, risk management, identifying their competitive advantage, and sales & marketing strategy. Each session will result in actionable tasks that will move the business forward immediately while also putting steps in place for a long term plan.

For mature businesses that have a well thought out vision, mission and strategic plan, owners can benefit from having him get involved as a non-executive advisor to challenge their outlook. A review of the strategic plans combined with a brainstorming session can yield new ideas which build on the existing plan and provide clarity.

TECH

Brett McCallum

CEO Virtech

Leader in Digital Workplace Thinking – Driving behaviour change and changing people’s way of working by introducing and managing cloud productivity tools. Providing options and choice to be connected and motivating business and IT to enable the ability to work anywhere, anyplace, anytime.

Programme / Project Management professional with 20 years’ experience leading teams for multi- national companies across diverse industries including Corporate, Banking, Energy, Government, Sport, Health and IT.

Robert Feldman

Director, Gadens Brisbane

Robert specialises in advising on complex information technology (IT) projects – from project procurement inception through to contract award; project delivery through to the operate and maintain phase. Overall, Robert has over 20 years of IT, corporate/commercial, and construction and IT experience gained in private practice, in-house roles and directly within the IT industry.

He has extensive experience in the IT industry, having worked for twelve years with Cubic Transportation Systems, initially in the role of Contracts Manager and then in general operations management on the delivery and ongoing maintenance of a critical IT project and related services to State government. Robert also has advised on general corporate and commercial matters for major law firms in London and Sydney.

Paul McCarty

SecureStack Founder

Paul’s specialty for the last 5 or 6 years has been helping enterprise customers migrate safely to the cloud. Eventually, he started my own company SecureStack and built a platform that lets enterprise customers manage the ongoing lifecycle, governance and security of their private and public cloud infrastructure from our SaaS solution SecureCloud.

Law

HR & Recruitment

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