Our Team

Su-Ming Wong

ME MBA
Chief Executive Officer

Su-Ming is an investment professional with over 30 years’ direct investment, international corporate advisory and merchant banking experience.

He is a director of several portfolio companies including Lorna Jane and Scentia. Prior portfolio directorships include SG Fleet, H-E Parts, TSmarine, Retail Apparel Group, Dexion, Amdel, Mulford and Intercast & Forge.

Mr Wong was a member of the Council of University of Technology, Sydney (2010 – 2014). He was a founding director of National ICT Australia (a centre of excellence in ICT research & development), a member of the Industry Research and Development Board and a director of Unisearch. He was a council member of the Australian Venture Capital Association and was a member of the South Australian Government’s Venture Capital Board.

He holds a Master of Engineering from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand and a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Greg Smith

Diploma Accounting NIA
Executive Director

In late 2009, Greg Smith became a partner in CHAMP Ventures, following the merger of AMP Private Equity business with CHAMP Ventures.

Greg is currently chairman of 4 investee companies; Sea Swift, RSEA, Employment Services Holdings and BMT. Also, Greg is a director of Ansett Aviation Holdings.

Greg is formerly Head of Private Equity, AMP Capital Investors and has over 30 years of professional experience in the Australasian private equity industry.

Greg joined AMP Capital Investors’ Private Equity Team based in Sydney in 1995. Over the 15 years Greg has been responsible for three private equity funds and a number of large international unlisted direct investments owned by the AMP Group. Greg was elected Chairman of the Australian Venture Capital Association in 2002 and appointed Head of AMP Capital Investors’ Private Equity Division in late 2003.

Prior to AMP Capital Investors, Greg was an executive director of Audant Capital Services Pty Ltd for 10 years. Audant was one of the first private equity funds in Australia. It was a joint venture private equity fund owned by the State Bank of NSW, State Authorities Superannuation Board and Sydney businessman Robert Whyte.

Gareth Banks

BSc (Mathematics Hons), ACA
Director

Gareth joined CHAMP Ventures in April 2004. He is responsible for originating new investment opportunities and providing strategic advice to portfolio companies as a value-adding non-executive director. Gareth also co-manages investor relations and led the fund raising for CHAMP Ventures’ seventh fund.

He is currently a director of TR Group and H-E Parts and chairman of Cater Care. Previously Gareth was a director and actively involved with Taura Natural Ingredients, Intercast & Forge, ATF, APB, Mulford and Minelab Electronics.

Prior to joining CHAMP Ventures, Gareth spent six years in the restructuring division of KPMG in the UK working with underperforming businesses across Europe, Asia and Australia. In 2001, he moved to one of the UK’s leading lower mid-market private equity firms, Livingbridge, where he was involved in development capital and MBO transactions across multiple sectors. He also managed a £40m fund of fast growth companies listed on the Alternative Investments Market (AIM).

Gareth holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Manchester University and is a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has been an AVCAL Council Member since January 2011 and has been the Chairman of AVCAL since November 2014.

Barry Zuckerman

BCom
Consultant

Barry joined the CHAMP group of companies in 2001 as Chief Financial Officer. He has considerable experience with acquisitions, due diligence, structuring, listed reporting and accounting for mortgage, property, equity trusts both retail and wholesale, taxation and compliance.

His funds management industry experience was initially with the Howard Group, and subsequently with Challenger International Limited (“Challenger”), both listed ASX companies. He was the CFO and a member of the Executive Committee of Challenger, and played a significant role in its emergence from a niche investment bank into a top 100 listed business.

Barry also gained professional experience with Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers in audit and information systems. Barry is a member of the Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Barry received an AVCAL Outstanding Service Award for his contribution to the AVCAL Disclosure Guidelines in 2004, and received the AVCAL Award for Excellence in Investor Reporting for four consecutive years from 2009 to 2012. He is also a member of the International Private Equity & Venture Capital Valuation Board (“IPEV”).

Professor Jeremy Davis AM

MBA B Ec (Hons)
Non-Executive Director

Jeremy has been involved with the group since 1989. He was Dean and a director of the Australian Graduate School of Management from 1980 until 1989. He then continued as a Professor in the School until January 2006 having been appointed to the Australian Mutual Provident Society Chair of Management.

In 1970 Jeremy joined the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a leading management consulting firm specialising in corporate strategy. After working in Boston and Paris, he was appointed Vice-President and director for San Francisco where he established the BCG’s West Coast office. Immediately prior to joining the AGSM, Jeremy was BCG’s Vice- President and Director-General for France.

Professor Davis is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and director of Transurban Group, Singapore Power and the SP Ausnet Group. He has also acted as chairman of AIDC Ltd and Capral Aluminium Ltd and a director of Nucleus Limited and The Australian Stock Exchange.

Paul Readdy

BCom CPA
Director

Paul joined CHAMP Ventures in 2009 following the merger of AMP Capital’s Private Equity business with CHAMP Ventures. He is responsible for identifying and transacting new investment opportunities.

During Paul’s nine years at AMP Capital, he was a director or alternate director of a number of portfolio companies including Multix, Olex Holdings, Vision Group and United Equipment. Paul is currently responsible for and is a director of Lorna Jane, RSEA and Sea Swift.

In addition to 15 years of private equity experience, Paul has practiced as an accountant and has 5 years experience in banking and finance with Westpac and Sanwa Bank.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland and is a CPA.

Melanie Strong

LLB (Hons) B Comm
Director

Melanie joined CHAMP Ventures in June 2006 and has helped many companies during the investment period in their transformation with growth opportunities and challenges, including HealtheCare Australia (hospitals), Retail Apparel Group (retail), RSEA (safety), Ansett Aviation Training (aviation training) and Scentia (education).

Melanie is currently a director of Scentia and manages the investment in EnGeneIC (biotech).

She also has broad transaction experience including five major acquisitions (HealtheCare, BMT, Australian Institute of Management, TR Group and Ansett Aviation Training) and a large number of bolt-ons. In addition Melanie has delivered four successful exits (HealtherCare, Retail Apparel Group, Jeminex and Intercast & Forge).

Melanie has a combined bachelor of Commerce and Law (Hons) from the University of Melbourne.

Ghazaleh Lyari

Bsc (Physics/Comp Science), MBA
Director

Ghazaleh joined CHAMP Ventures in January 2015 and is responsible for identifying and transacting new investment opportunities and monitoring investments. She is a director of Aviation Training Holdings and BMT Group Holdings.

She brings a combination of corporate and entrepreneurial experience to the team. She started her finance career with JP Morgan in New York working in their technology M&A team. Ghazaleh then served as a director in Deutsche Bank’s Investment Banking team in San Francisco, where she spent 6 years advising technology companies on capital raising and mergers and acquisitions transactions. She also served as a director in Citigroup’s Investment Banking team in Sydney leading the bank’s Mining Services and Building Materials corporate finance efforts. Prior to her career in finance, Ghazaleh spent six years in the technology industry at IBM.

Before joining CHAMP Ghazaleh gained 6 years of experience as an entrepreneur, founding, building and running a food production and retail business in Sydney, where she worked effectively with her investors in growing the business.

Ghazaleh holds a bachelor of science with double majors in Physics and Computer Science from the University of NSW, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.