Mentor Profiles

Profile coming soon.

Dr. Benni Ben Ari holds a B.A degree from the University of Haifa, MBA from the University of Derby and PhD from the University of South Australia.

Over more than 33 years of Business Management and International Marketing in the High Tech Defense Electronics Industry, he has been involved and practiced in areas of strategy planning and implementation, marketing innovation, business development, operational requirements definitions and solutions, project management, negotiations, project supervision, training, lecturing and other relevant subjects. The extensive experience in Defense Marketing and related activities was the basis for his PhD research thesis with the title “Marketing Indicators and Performance in the Defense Electronics Industry”.

Dr. Ben-Ari joined Elbit Systems Ltd, a leading Defense Electronics Company, in 1978 as Naval Systems Marketing Manager, followed by managing Elbit’s operations in Asia from the Singapore office. In 1996 he was appointed the Director of International Marketing of Elbit Systems, heading the Marketing Division and a member of Elbit Systems Executive Management; a post he held until 1999. Since 2001 he is Managing Director of Elbit Systems Singapore.

Peter set up the Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurs in the University of South Australia. His research is in the field of innovation capability and entrepreneurial orientation of small businesses. He delivers a range of courses in entrepreneurship at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and to industry.

He joined UniSA following an international management career in Switzerland, Germany, France, UK and Australia in small, medium and very large businesses. Along the way he also started new business ventures.

 

 

Rosey founded Rosey Batt & Associates in 2001 with a vision of creating a highly professional legal firm that valued its clients and provided a flexible and friendly environment for staff. Rosey’s primary areas of practice are in Business Transactions, Trade practices, Commercialisation of Business opportunities, Intellectual property, Agriculture and Corporate governance. However her firm provides a full range of legal services including conveyancing, family law, wills and estates.

Rosey has extensive commercial legal experience acting for publicly listed Corporations, SME’s and individuals and in complex aviation, corporations law and trade practices litigation. As well as being a facilitator for the Australian Institute of Company Directors in their Company Directors Course and for Regional Skills Training in their various programmes, Rosey also sits on a number of private and Not For Profit Boards.

With 25 years of ‘hands on’ business experience from working with respected and successful brands throughout Australia and New Zealand, Lorraine established her own business advisory practice Methodik™ enabling her to partner with a broad range of organisations that are developing and implementing strategic growth agendas.

Lorraine works alongside innovative leaders who have a strong vision for their company's growth and are looking for action orientated business partners to assist them in realising their vision.

Not for the faint hearted, Lorraine calls it as she sees it and with a mantra of 'Take Massive Action', moves quickly to remove barriers and implement proven processes and procedures to achieve strategic objectives.

With a strong passion for effective leadership, Lorraine focuses on the sustained growth of both the business and the people within the business and believes that one cannot be successfully achieved without the other.

Methodik™ are experienced at running organisations across a variety of sectors, disciplines, countries and cultures, and are able to bring into business a suite of skills, street smarts and proven applications to maximise growth opportunities.

Susie Chant has been teaching entrepreneurship at the University of Adelaide since completing a Masters in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and a Masters in Gastronomy. She has been lecturing in the areas of innovation and creativity; ethics and cultural aspects of entrepreneurship; and entrepreneurship in the hospitality industry.

Susie is also Senior Academic Project Manager at the global culinary institution Le Cordon Bleu, where her focus is primarily in the area of writing entrepreneurship into their current bachelor of business and MBA degrees.

As well as owning many successful and award winning hospitality businesses in tourist regions around South Australia, Susie is also a property developer and in the past has lived and worked as a successful chef in many locations around the world such as Grand Cayman Island in the West Indies and at Blenheim Palace in England for the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.

 

I work with new businesses in early stages of commercialisation, especially in the areas of strategic planning, market assessment and governance. I was a founding member of BioAngels Inc, an organisation that mentors technology related businesses and am a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

My business experience has involved responsibility for all stages of identifying market opportunities and establishing effective teams to provide products and services of appropriate quality and cost. This experience ensures thorough evaluation of business plans, that expectations are realistic and performance is measured.

Though committed to private enterprise, I have also managed relationships with public sector and professional organisations, and understand their cultures and objectives. My main focus is to improve performance through high quality planning while identifying and managing the associated risks.

I have been the managing director of Medvet Science Pty Ltd and a non executive director of BioAngels Inc, Workskil Inc, Nexus Pty Ltd, and PT SMI Indonesia.

My executive roles included marketing, manufacturing and general management in the highly regulated areas of medical diagnostics,biotechnology, health services and pharmaceuticals (with Medvet Science Pty Ltd, Mediflight and Faulding Ltd), and also with fast moving consumer goods ( Faulding Consumer, D&J Fowler groceries ), high technology service industries ( R M Osborne printing ) and industrial products ( Tubemakers  Ltd).

This has involved liaison between people with differing technical, functional, social and commercial priorities to ensure profitable outcomes with appropriate risk management, governance and financial reporting.

Michael is the Director KMT Partners. Michael has advised on business planning for new businesses in organic foods, electronics industry, food, IT, distribution on wholesale and retail levels; and acts in a board member or board of advice member to airline operators (fixed and rotary wing) along with export orientated food growers and manufacturers. He has been business mentor for the Enterprise Workshop; assisting programme participants to create a business plan for new ventures (Mentor of Year 2001 & 2002), and the SAYES program for over a decade. Michael assists family owned businesses with succession planning.

 

 

Ronald Grill has 30 years of start-up and management in electronics manufacturing and marketing of high technology electronic systems. He is the Managing Director of technology commercialisation firm, Technology Management Pty Ltd and part-time lecturer at University of Adelaide.

He is also a part-time PhD research student at University of Adelaide, studying the origin and sustainable development of the high-technology electronics industry in selected Australian and global regions.

 

 

Dr Gurr is a consultant to technology businesses. He advises on general strategy.

Graham received his PhD in Physics from the University of Adelaide. After two years as a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh he joined 3M Company in St Paul where he worked for 23 years, gaining experience in R&D management, marketing, strategic planning and general management. He created and managed the group in which Post-It notes were developed.

He was President and CEO of a start-up high technology company formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the commercialisation of capacitor technology from Sandia National Laboratories. As such he was involved in the usual start-up activities for about 1 year before it was decided that a process for volume manufacture was not available, and the company was aborted.    \xC2\xA0 

After returning to live in Adelaide he was the Business Manager for the Institute for Telecommunications Research at the University of South Australia. He obtained the funds to allow that group to grow from 6 to over 80 people.

At Adelaide University he was Director of the Master of Technology Commercialisation degree program. He conceived and jointly led with Dr Gibson from IC2 Institute at U Texas (Austin) a comprehensive assessment of South Australia’s business opportunities.

Penelope has enjoyed a long and varied career in marketing, public relations, media, event management and publishing in government, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting her working life in the television media where she worked for eight years, Penelope then spent nine years in international roles managing promotional events and strategic marketing in Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, America and New Zealand.

A seasoned public speaker, Penelope has developed and facilitated numerous strategic marketing and communication seminars for small business and consulted widely to small business owners. In 2006, Penelope was initiated as a SABAN Ambassador for South Australia as part of the Premier's Business Ambassadors Network.

A Contributing Editor to South Australia's own in-business magazine for seven years, Penelope is also the co-author of 'Underdog Marketing'. Published in 2008, Underdog Marketing has received excellent reviews for its value to SME's in marketing, communications, public relations, event management and internet marketing. Penelope currently works in Executive Management in the not-for-profit sector.

Graeme has worked in technology companies for over 30 years with 20 years in senior leadership roles.  He has extensive experience in Australia and internationally with major information technology, telecommunications and satellite services companies.

Graeme was actively involved with the sustainable commercial development of the Internet globally, and had the leadership role as General Manager, Telstra Internet where he led the creation of Australia’s largest Internet business from 1994 to 1999 and the world’s first carrier grade national and international combined fibre, satellite, copper and wireless internet networks.

On returning to Adelaide in 2003 after heading up the Internet services business unit at Intelsat, the world's largest satellite provider based in Washington DC, Graeme was involved with corporate and business development in small high-tech companies producing various real-time hydraulic and electronic control systems, sensor technology, global navigation positioning systems, wireless networking and graphical information support systems.

Graeme is a member of SA Angels where he focuses on exciting investment opportunities in digital media.  Currently he is establishing a new start-up, One Tap Publishing Pty Ltd, a mobile phone game publishing company focused on engaging, simple, and easy-to-play games for iPhone, iPad and Android.

Graeme has a degree in computer science from the University of Sydney and since 2006 has been a team mentor, presenter and contributor in various programs run by industry associations, the South Australian Universities and Government, including Mega and eChallenge.

Anthony is a Construction Project Manager & Personal Business Coach with over 30 years experience in the Building industry from Apprentice Carpenter through Commercial & Civil Projects to Contract Building Consultant

He has worked for Companies such as Baulderstone Hornibrook, Built Environs, Pickard Group & Specialist Contractors. He has studied Building Technology, Management, leadership Coaching & Mentoring.

Anthony offers eChallenge participants: Leadership and Results Mentoring and Coaching, Strategic Planning, Systems and administration experience. DISC Behavioural profiling for individuals, Job Profiling & team Building. Networking, Photography, NLP, Hypnosis & Personal Development Disciplines

Anthony is also a member of the Differencemakers Community, Thought leaders, Integral Institute & ANZI Institute of Coaching with a keen interest in changing what is Normal. In addition he is  a member of the International Coach Federation holding a leadership Position in the SA Branch Chapter.

Anthony enjoys being of service to others making a difference having Fun. He believes there is allways something to learn in any Circumstance and in the importance of giving back the benefit of those learnings to others.

M: 0417 812 540

E:  lifeflowcoaching@iinet.net.au

Craig Pickering, Managing Director at 3C's Consulting and Sales Director at Mihell & Lycos, has over fifteen years experience in senior management, mostly in business development and change management environments.  He has experience in sales, sales management and product management with companies such as Harvey Norman Commercial, Panasonic and Hagemeyer.

He has achieved immediate results in sales, gross profit and business development across a variety of industries.  These results are due to his ability to quickly assess a business and its environment and implement change that immediately benefits the business and its staff.

His industry experience covers retail, manufacturing, finance, insurance, wholesale, consumer electronics, IT, telecommunications and construction in both B2B and B2C roles.  He has worked in Sydney and Adelaide, and has travelled to Japan, England and throughout Australia during his career.

He greatly enjoys assisting small to medium businesses to improve their profitability, efficiency and marketing.

Craig is an Associate Fellow with the Australian Institute of Management; a Certified Professional Manager; a past board member of the Conservation Council of SA; and has tutored and lectured in the School of Marketing at the University of South Australia.

Description coming soon.

Rosanne was admitted as a lawyer in South Australia in 1981, working in private practice until August 2000, including being invited to join the partnership of Ward & Partners (now Hunt & Hunt) in 1989. During this time she practiced mainly as a litigation lawyer in the areas of general insurance and matrimonial law.

Since 2000 Rosanne has worked as an in-house lawyer and in 2001 took a position as a corporate lawyer with Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd. Rosanne’s focus is now assisting in the transfer of research outputs and corporate matters.

Rosanne has been active throughout her career, acting as a mentor for young lawyers, assisting as a coach in alternative dispute resolution and providing pro bono work at the Local Court as a mediator whilst also engaged in community programs, such as at the Women's Information Service and a Women's Community Centre, providing free legal advice.

Rosanne has served on a number of boards and committees, both for and not for profit, currently on the board of two not for profit organisations: Grandparents for Grandchildren Incorporated and the South Australian Women’s Housing Association. She is a Director and proprietor of Maldec Enterprises Pty Ltd and is on the committees of:  The Knowledge Network Management Group; the Licensing Executive Society (Australian and New Zealand) South Australian Committee; and a member of the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association.

Pi-Shen Seet is Associate Professor in Management at the Flinders Business School, Flinders University.  He is active in helping and consulting start-ups and SMEs with business planning and development. As leader of the winning team in the 2003 A.T. Kearney-Judge Business School business plan competition, he continues to advice potential managers and entrepreneurs on new venture creation strategies.

In 2007, he was business mentor to 2 business plan teams that reached the semi-finals and finals of the eChallenge competition.  Pi-Shen is also active in family business and has also helped to start up a science education consultancy that focuses on developing science education programs for children as well as creative teaching and life science education courses for professional educators.

Over his career Andrew has held various senior Sales and Marketing positions in a variety of industries.

Currently, as Director of Executive Education, he works closely with a diverse range of public and private organisations in designing and delivering executive development programs, tailored to middle/senior managers.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. W. Swietek is currently Chairman of Finding Workable Solutions and Managing Partner of Lortek Consulting. He has over 15 years experience in health and aged care and past roles including Chairman of the Lutheran Aged Care Network SA Inc. as well as a former non-executive director of organisations such as A.N.H.E.C.A. and C.C.I.  He has had extensive experience within the service industry sector.

His professional affiliations include; the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Australasian College of Health Service Management and the Adelaide University MBA Alumni Association.

He is married with children and enjoys travelling and adventure activities such as four wheel driving, scuba diving as well as snow and water sports.

Tim has a Degree in Electronic Engineering and a MBA, is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers Australia and a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

From 1971 to 1993 he worked for Telstra, ultimately becoming GM Consumer and CEO's representative for South Australia. From 1994 to 1999, he worked with the SA Government as an executive responsible for whole of government IT and telecommunications strategic planning and policy.

Tim is former MD and now a Director of Sentek Pty Ltd, which designs, manufactures and markets "best in class" soil moisture and salinity sensors and display software. Sentek exports to more than 35 countries.

He was a Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures for all of its seven year life, is a director of Australian Water Investments and is Chairman of the Water Industry Alliance.

In his semi-retirement he spends considerable time mentoring entrepreneurs and start up businesses in the IT and water sectors.

Over 25 years of international experience have left their mark on Glen, making him a communicative problem solver.

His career has taken him to project and long-term assignments in Australasia, Europe and the Americas and involved him in numerous manufacturing and service industries. He has worked with companies of all sizes: from sole traders to some of the largest global companies.

Glen was with the German chemicals conglomerate, BASF AG for ten years, engaged in roles ranging from investment feasibility studies to sales and marketing management. Later Glen was General Manager of the Beijing subsidiary of the German gas detection and protection multinational Draeger.

He founded Best Solutions International (BSI) in 2000 with mission of connecting the dots between people, strategy, and systems. Glen is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, member of the Australian Association of Angel Investors and SA Angels and currently the President of the Rotary Club of Eastwood.