The Advisory Firm team comprises senior executives who are among the best strategic thinkers and practitioners in the country and can claim to have “been there, done that” in almost any situation in which an organisation or executive might experience. When you hire a principal, you have access to the entire team for the same fee.

The Advisory Firm's network includes over 1500 executives and specialists throughout Australia - we have the skills and experience you need.

Write to The Advisory Firm about the skills you require for your business.

Drew Le Grand - Chairman
Drew is the executive chairman and founder of The Advisory Firm, a one-stop-shop of elite corporate mentors whose primary purpose is to enable small to medium businesses to reach their full potential. They are a team of ex-corporate leaders that include experts in strategy, finance, business development, and human resources and who work across a broad range of industries.

Prior to establishing The Advisory Firm, Drew had a long and successful corporate career that included executive director and divisional CEO roles with icon organisations such as Lend Lease, IBM-A, ColesMyer, RACV and McEwans.

From finance to IT, to human resources, Drew’s expertise gives him unique insights into the issues and needs of Australian business, particularly in the medium sized enterprise, not-for-profit and government business sectors.

Drew graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia. Drew is also a director and chairman of a number of companies and not-for-profit organisations.

Alasdair Morrison
With extensive experience in Europe, Africa and Japan, Alasdair is the international strategy, market development and cross-cultural negotiations expert at The Advisory Firm.

Holder of an MBA from the University of Cape Town and as Bsc from Durham University, Alasdair has worked with such heavyweight organisation's as British Aerospace, Rolls Royce, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Komatsu.

Alasdair has led multidisciplinary teams across national boundaries to achieve objectives for multinational corporations. Alasdair brings a track record of using technology to leverage business performance. One such highlight saw a business unit's sales increase from five to 35 percent of company turnover.

Alasdair's broad experience enables him to quickly see the potential in your business to exploit it opportunities, and guide you to achievement.

John Cook
With more than 20 years experience in the food and agribusiness industries with Kellogg, Burns Philp, Berri Limited and most recently Australian Pork Limited. John is The Advisory Firm’s acknowledged expert in this area. He has held a variety of senior management positions including Regional Director Kellogg Europe, Managing Director Kellogg Australia, Director Asia Operations for Kellogg Company in Japan, Global Head of Burns Philp Consumer Foods Division and Managing Director Berri Limited.

John has the depth of experience to identify opportunities in the industry, the network to capitalise on the opportunity and the track record to contribute significantly to their success. In addition to his significant corporate roles he has been active in a range of industry associations throughout his career.

During the period from 1991-1994, John was a Member of the Agri-Food Council of Australia, Trustee and Director of the Australian Food Foundation, Executive Committee Member of the Grocery Manufacturers of Australia and Councillor of the NSW Chamber of Manufacturers. Since 1999, John had been a Director of the Australian Food and Grocery Council and a Member of the Victorian Food Industry Consultation Group. From April 2000, John undertook a three year term as a non-executive director of The Melbourne Markets Authority, a role which led to his serving as the Executive Chairman of the industry’s e-commerce initiative Fresh Chain Limited.

In 2003 John was appointed as CEO of Australian Pork Limited. During this time he was instrumental in establishing the need for and the content of a Restructure Plan for the Australian pork industry an element of which is the Australian HomeGrown concept, which will in time revolutionise the branding of 100% Australian food products.

John is the Chairman of Australian HomeGrown Limited, Chairman of Australian Agribusiness Development Fund Limited, director of Stocklease Pty. Ltd. an initiative with Adelaide Bank that will enable the leasing of livestock.

John was appointed Managing Director of Golden Circle in February 2006 - John remains active within client businesses and is presently consulting to a number of agribusiness projects.

Michael Laletas
With over 15 years in investment banking, Michael Laletas' enviable reputation for creating value-added solutions for some of Australia's largest corporations has been achieved through his extensive knowledge base and dedication to client success.

His experience has been solidly built upon his commitment to excellence in every role he's undertaken. With a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Monash University), Graduate Diploma Banking and Finance (Securities Institute of Australia) and Bachelor of Laws (hons) (University of London), Michael is thoroughly qualified to assess, interpret and advise on a large cross-section of the corporate business sector.

Beginning his career as a mechanical engineer, Michael worked for Containers Packaging (a division of AMCOR) where he reduced production costs by 25%. Moving on to Terumo Australia as a design engineer his designs reduced defects by 30%. Michael has an acute awareness of how process and design impact on an organisation's bottom line.

Michael's career in investment banking is truly impressive. His longevity in a highly competitive industry is testament to the strong client and corporate relationships he has cultivated. As Fund Manager/Analyst for Swiss Re Australia, he achieved above budget returns of 10-15% and enabled them to participate in more underwritings than normally possible. With Rothschild Australia, Michael's finance skills enabled him to transact the first interest rate option with an offshore Central Bank thus increasing revenue by 20%.

In 1997, Michael joined Commonwealth Bank of Australia as the Melbourne Head of Institutional Investors responsible for $3million annual revenue targets. His innovative ideas and lateral approach to business development introduced the bank to highly sought-after clients and derivative business which added 30% to budgeted revenue. Michael mentored clients to improve their rates of return on funds under management while reducing their risk profile and was also instrumental in facilitating over 40 debt raisings for some of Australia's largest corporations.

More recently, Michael has been using his knowledge in a broader advisory capacity where he provided assistance for an IPO in the childcare sector. His brief included facilitating an acquisitions program, providing an innovative and cost efficient management structure, analysis of commercial property returns resulting in lower leasing costs for the listed entity and identifying potential merger and takeover targets.

Michael is an Associate of the Securities Institute of Australia.

Paul Wilkinson
Mergers, acquisitions, divestments, start-ups. Paul Wilkinson has enjoyed a stellar career in all aspects of financial control and management with some of Australia’s biggest companies, including Australia Post, Mayne Nickless and Ausdoc.

Paul’s particular areas of expertise include strategy development, business integration, shared service implementation and overall change management within businesses impacted by acquisition or divestment. He is a highly skilled company secretary, having gained such experience in public companies.

Paul brings an exceptional understanding of the impact of change on organisations and their staff.

With more than 20 years in senior finance or Chief Financial Officer roles, Paul knows how to make the most of a company’s bottom line.

It is rare to find someone with such an exceptional track record in financial control to have the planning, analysis and strategic skills to make the most of a company’s revenues.

In his capacity as Chief Finance Officer, he was a key player in the integration of 22 businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia thar formed a major financial services group.

Paul has had a long involvement in the service, transport and manufacturing industries. In particular, he was involved in strategic planning and analysis at Mayne Nickless (now the Mayne Group), where he introduced value based management with Boston Consulting Group.

Paul has experience in international markets, strategy and negotiation with stints at Mayne Nickless and Adacel Technologies Ltd.

His professional qualifications speak for themselves — an MBA from RMIT, a Bachelor of Business and Post-Graduate Diploma of Accounting from Victoria University.

Paul is also a Fellow of the Certified Practicing Accountants.

David Miller
David Miller has a broad range of experiences in management, marketing and sales across a wide range of industries, particularly in Health Informatics, and Information Communications and Technology.

With a strong background developed through a successful sales career with NCR, David brings a high level of sales/marketing and account management to The Advisory Firm.

David held the role of Managing Director (NZ) for the Dutch multinational, Oce and transferred to Australia with that company 22 years ago.

After 6 years with Oce, David accepted a role as National Sales Manager for Ericsson Information Systems, achieving major success with the introduction of the first fully digital PBX System, the MD 110.

David accepted a senior management role with ICL and undertook an 18 month assignment with the company as Director of Marketing in Malaysia. Returning to Australia, he entered the Health Information industry where he developed the commercial and marketing activities for Health Computing Services (now Allegiance) including 1 year as acting MD.

He moved to Paxus Health for 4 years as General Manager, growing the business and maintaining profitability during a time of severe under-funding in the secondary health care sector.

In the last 10 years, David has managed at COO level with AXICORP during its massive growth phase until the company was acquired and became Primus Telecoms

Most recently, David has held General Management roles with the Sanderson Group for their Health and Logistics business units and Phoneware, a Telco Call Account Billing specialist since acquired by Sirius Telecommunications.

Immediately prior to joining The Advisory Firm, David has completed consulting assignments in Health, Web Services and Telecoms.

David’s general management, commercial and business development background will be invaluable in quickly understanding Client needs; key in recommending the appropriate skill set necessary for The Advisory Firm to satisfy those needs.

Megan Williams
Megan Williams is the Director of MW Consulting. With a Bachelor of Business and Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, Megan has 17 years experience in the Human Resource field within the Hospitality and Public sector.

With her experience, Megan believes there are a lot of lessons to be learnt about how Human Resources should be managed within organisations: they need to be pro-active with their HR strategies - they tend to be reactive which in the end costs them a great deal of money, time and effort; organisations need to focus on developing strong technical people into strong managers, and, HR practitioners need to understand the business – learn about the nuts and bolts, the environment – not act in isolation and develop strategies that don’t fit the needs of the business, and aren’t aligned with the organisation’s strategies.

Possessing a pragmatic, no nonsense approach with an ability to look at situations laterally, Megan started her company in 2005, with the objective to assist predominantly small business with setting up their HR practices and aligning them with the organizations structure. “With the current Industrial Relations environment, organizations are attempting to circumnavigate their way around an onerous amount of legislation, whilst still attempting to maintain their business – it’s just too difficult and often dangerous” says Megan. MW Consulting does the work for the organization by conducting an audit on the company and formulating tailored systems to suit the organizations needs – and budgets – it’s a formula thats working. “We’ve had some very positive results so far and are looking forward to even more”

Leticia Delmenic
With over 15 years experience in senior roles over a range of industry sectors from Health to hospitality, Leticia Delmenico brings to the team expertise in human resources, change management, workplace relations, training and development.

Leticia started in small busines, providing solid understanding of challenges faced and the delicate balance of cash flow with survival. A realist, she acknowledges that HR is under tough scrutiny in business and defines HR as "(human) asset and cost management". Like any business function it should be accountable and give direct improvements to the bottom line.

Leticia has worked for Australian icons such as Spotless Services, Mayne Nickless and a joint venture business between Village Roadshow, Channel Nine and Westfield. Moving easily from these public companies to working in one of Australia's largest privately owned logistics businesses.

In start-up business and green field sites, Leticia has established human resource administration and management foundations which meet legislative standards and the needs of the business. At the shop floor level she has negotiated Enterprise and Collective agreements with employee representative groups and some of Australia's toughest unions. Her primary philosophy of balanced trade-offs has brought about productivity and quality improvements. The newer trend is business and employee commitment to community/environmental/social participation.

Leticia has a reputation in delivering substantial cost reductions in the areas of unfair dismissals, Workcover claims, recruitment and employee retention, while limiting liability exposure in the areas of employee entitlements, OH&S and other legislative requirements.

Another forte is achieving 'no cost training' by securing Government funding, with the design and delivery done by herself or an industry specialist. For management training programs, Leticia delivers cost conscious programs that are 'actually useful'.

Through her role as Director on numerous industry boards over the last decade, Leticia has long been an active figure in the development of various industry sectors. This has resulted in the increase of state government funding to industry for training & development and allocation of special grants.

Penny Elmslie
A qualified marketing professional, Penny Elmslie combines a rare mix of strategic and practical skills.

As Marketing Manager of Australian Institute of Management (AIM), Penny was responsible for repositioning the iconic Australian business brand from a ‘members-only institute’ to a progressive management education and training leader.

Her role as National Communications Manager at Maps Group gave Penny a unique understanding into government purchasing and the contract tender process as. She worked closely with a range of clients such as Optus, Macquarie Bank, Fuji Xerox and The Age to develop strategic communication plans to target their key government clients.

As a marketing and communications all-rounder, Penny has worked directly with clients to develop clear and concise strategic marketing and business plans that provide practical strategies to achieve business objectives.

During her marketing career, Penny has identified that a strategic Client Management Program needs to be practical, manageable and cost effective. Rather than investing in expensive software, Penny can reveal the marketing principles that can be applied to your existing practices to enable your business to ‘understand and respond ’ to your customers.

Over her career, planning and managing business events is an art that Penny has mastered. From boutique business seminars to an international management conference, Penny has successfully applied business principles to ensure stylish events that run to budget and deliver the agreed business objectives.

Good communications to your clients is essential for good business relationships. Penny has developed strategic plans to establish and/or re-design communication vehicles such as trade magazines, web sites, print and e-bulletins, corporate profiles and collateral.

Peter Stancliffe
Peter Stancliffe has proven ability to resolve difficult and complex situations involving a mix of strategy, management processes and leadership. He can take the complexity out of problems and processes and show how to make targets simple, communicable and
understandable.

Peter has over 35 years experience in management in numerous fields including the Building Materials Industry, Petroleum Distribution, Steel Manufacturing, Heavy Engineering and Cable Manufacturing and
Marketing, both in Australia and internationally.

Peter recently stepped down from the position of Chief Executive Officer of Pirelli Cables Australia Limited following the privatisation of the Australian public company by the Pirelli Group and the successful integration of the newly-acquired Metal Manufactures Energy Cable business.

Previously, he was the Managing Director of Australian National Industries, a $2.5 billion
Australian public company which operated 15 separate businesses in Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, with over 7000 employees. He was responsible for the successful restructuring the ANI Group and engineering the takeover of the Group by Smorgon Steel.

Peter also spent many years with Pioneer International Limited which included 15 years working in various senior general management positions in Europe including Israel, Italy and Spain where he gained extensive experience in successfully managing small businesses.

He has engineered numerous turnarounds and significantly improved the profitability of all types of businesses in many different environments. Often this has been achieved in conjunction with exposure to new cultures, foreign languages, different business systems and geographies.

Having worked in Europe and overseas generally for many years, Peter has vast experience with international companies and businesses, including dealing with very senior people both in the business community and governments.

Peter has a passion to succeed and is able to instill that passion in others. He is a known team player who can help create an environment of "a great place to work".

Tony Peddie
Tony's corporate history is an international business pedigree.

After a ten year sales and marketing management career in the pharmaceuticals industry, Tony began his journey within the sporting equipment industry as a National Marketing and Sales Manager for a UK company TI Industries , which distributed such well-known brands as Raleigh and Malvern Star Bicycles, Cyclops Toys eventually moving into the Assistant Managing Director's role. Then on to Leisure Industries which had the licenses for Wilson, Diadora and manufactured the famous Duke cricket balls, UK Tony was Managing Director and Chief Executive. From 1989 until recently, Tony embarked upon a series of challenges within NIKE and solidified his executive track record.

As Managing Director of Hutchison, which took over the NIKE license in Australia, he systematically turned the business around from annual losses to revenues in excess of A$100 million and pretax profits of A$18 million. Not surprisingly he was asked to join Nike as Managing Director of Australia and New Zealand.

Once again, within 2 years the Australian company was a A$ 180 million revenue business with pretax profit in excess of 25% of sales. During this time, he was also appointed as a Regional Director of NIKE Asia Pacific where he started up NIKE owned operations in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Tony moved to the US and lead NIKE's businesses into Latin America (Mexico, Chile, a licensee in Brazil and a joint venture in Argentina and distributors in four other countries) working from NIKE's Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. He returned to these shores to hire a new Chief Executive for NIKE Australia and to take on the role of Managing Director Asia Pacific region. Here, he managed the regional headquarters in Hong Kong (over 400staff), as well as ten country managers. Tony achieved CAG of over 60% topping US $1 billion.

With his reputation as Mr. Fixit, Tony took up the role of driving NIKE Africa. He appointed 10 distributors covering 23 countries in Africa, set up manufacturing of footwear and apparel in 3 locations and achieved a CAGR of pre-tax profit in excess of 200%.

Now Tony wants to turn his attention to assisting other growing businesses which can utilize his amazing ability for getting bottom line results.

Robert Dyring
Robert Dyring has had 25 years experience with the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme. For 4 years from 1980 he worked as a grant investigator with the former EMDG Board. He then had an audit role with the Industry Research & Development Board in 1985 before joining in 1986 business consultancy firm, Chandler Export, as a Director. Chandler Export specialises in assisting companies obtain EMDG and Research and Development assistance.

For ten years the company assisted more than 1000 exporters Australia wide in obtaining their EMDG entitlements. The EMDG scheme has undergone many Federal Government introduced changes which has complicated the eligibility requirements of all EMDG recipients.

In 1995 Robert Dyring started his own consultancy business in response to the changes EMDG was experiencing. He has assisted a wide variety of exporters in obtaining EMDG including IT companies, tourism operators, manufacturers, service providers and export merchants. In addition a wide range of business operations from sole traders to publicly listed companies have received EMDG and R&D tax concession assistance from his consultancy work. Each business has unique problems and substantially different methods of business operation.

Clients receive assistance in the form of advice, claim and schedule preparation, attendance at the audit and any follow up matters, including appeals and AAT submissions.

With both schemes representing a major component of the Federal Government’s business assistance packages, Robert has kept up to date with the his professional development by being a member of the Export Consultants Association (ECAL) and a signatory to the Continuing Professional Development standards as administered by Austrade and ECAL.

Changes to the EMDG have been made on average every two years. These changes dramatically affect a company’s export planning therefore requiring specialist knowledge and advice. Further changes to the EMDG scheme will be announced to take effect from July 2006.

Robert has a Diploma in Business Studies (Accounting). For two years up until December 2004 Robert was a Director of the Australian Institute of Export (Vic) Ltd. This organisation provided export training services and other forms of assistance to exporters.

Mike Walsh - Principal Mergers and Acquisitions Expert
Mike has extensive experience at all levels of management. He is a strategic thinker specialising in technology companies taking them from start up to establishment and in some cases to IPO and public listing.

Holding CEO positions in both private and public companies he is well practiced in dealing at board level and with government at the highest levels.

Mike’s expertise includes establishing the focus and goals of the company, creating its strategic direction and building the business around that strategy.

Mike ascertains to set up and manage a business one needs to understand the part that all employees play in its success. He works with the managers of different departments to establish their goals, providing them with the resources they need to achieve those goals.
Joining Mobil Oil, Mike progressed through the organisation to hold a senior position in the Planning and Strategy department responsible for developing the 5 year investment and sales budgets for the company.

Mike joined Mark Sensing Limited as marketing manager and sales revenue grew from $3m to $17m during his time there. Mike was part of the senior management team that then attained a listing for Mark Sensing on the ASX and negotiated the start up of a China JV manufacturing plant.

Negotiating the purchase of a high tech security printing company in Hong Kong for the parent company he then moved to HK. There he established markets in China and Thailand as well as expanding the product range of the company. Clients included HKSB and Standard Chartered Bank.

Returning to Australia he started up a company specialising in the commercialisation of technology held by various government departments. This company was then successfully taken to IPO and floated on the ASX.

In his time there he negotiated the acquisition of a technology company, set up distributors in the USA, Europe, South Africa, Taiwan and Hong Kong and made the company the leader in its field.

Mike specialises in M&A and with his experience both nationally and internationally at all levels of business he provides an excellent resource for those companies looking to expand their business either through organic growth or acquisition.


Brett Galvin
Marketing communications models have been a passion of Brett’s since the early nineties. This experience has exposed him to all forms of marketing from road shows to copy writing to e-commerce.

Brett has worked in sales and marketing for a decade, now a recognised expert in online marketing and channel development as a member of the ADMA and AMI. Brett has held a variety of senior positions in national ICT companies and financial services organisations.

Brett’s experiences include ground floor work with numerous start-ups and product launches. Here he employs skills in market research, depth interviewing, segment profiling and campaign scheduling; most recently working on a U.K. start-up.

Work with The Advisory Firm is driven by the need to create marketing structures which can be adaptable for embryonic businesses. This is often undertaken with a limited budget and within a short window of opportunity, then as the process matures; shifting focus to refine the cost per lead to maximise profits.

Additionally, Brett can assist your business to migrate to a professional brand building, advertising and VAR ‘demand pull’ approach. This positions companies for greater scalability and growth. Successful engagements include product launches into the US, without the need for late nights or long haul flight

Brett is contributor and editor to various media, including The Advisory Firm’s Advisor and is asked frequently to write for PR, whitepapers, case studies, advertising and industry newsletters. This is enhanced by his graphic art, video production and desktop publishing acumen.

In 2000 he graduated from Monash University with a double degree in Business and Communications, with majors in Journalism and Marketing. Now receiving his MBA with an international business and finance focus.

Vishal Kiran

Vishal began his career in the business consulting arena developing a unique perspective of the business services industry. A bachelor’s degree in commerce and an MBA from Monash gives him a strong foundation in business practices, accounting and commerce.

Straight out of college he was offered a position in Deloitte Consulting, as a business analyst. His 3 years at Deloitte gained him valuable exposure to a wide spectrum of businesses. During this time he worked on numerous projects involving analytical and research work and was recognised for his contributions. He soon moved up to a managerial role and was seconded as an on-site team leader at client locations in eastern USA.

In 2003 he joined Siemens Shared Services, the core professional services division of the Siemens group of companies. Here, Vishal was involved in transitioning critical processes from member companies to the shared office locations. This experience provided Vishal with an appreciation of process implementation and human resource management. Having completed his assignment with the Siemens group, he then returned to university to study business management. In July 2006 Vishal completed his MBA from Monash University.

Armed with a clear perspective on business services and professional consulting Vishal is a valuable resource. His core abilities include market research, scenario modelling and process & systems analysis.

Michael Gillis

With an International business background including extensive commercial experience in Business to Business (B2B) marketing in London and pioneering Public Private Partnerships in Africa, Michael’s depth of experience, in varied environments, allows a unique insight into global trends in marketing communication strategy and new market development opportunities.

A highly skilled negotiator, experienced in both consular and private enterprise environments, Michael has the unique ability to craft win/win situations. This has led to Michael’s extensive involvement with the diplomatic task of management restructuring within the SME sector.

Michael’s particular area of expertise is identifying strategic growth opportunities for small business and implementing a comprehensive system of marketing processes to enter those new markets. A system that provides the small business owner with a means to measure their marketing output against agreed benchmarks.

Michael is able to integrate the elements of marketing, sales and business development in a way that provides a complete solution to his clients. Michael is an advocate of integrating ‘go to market’ solutions that are clearly supported by high level internal processes, so as to maximize the potential returns for minimal cost.

With international experience spanning consular, trade marketing, and export market development, along with highly regarded roles within the Australian hotel sector, Michael is able to rationalise modern marketing techniques into measurable, achievable, common sense solutions.

Currently a student of both Japanese and Bahasa Indonesian, Michael prides himself on looking outside the square for answers and providing clients with a value added, user friendly, integrated marketing solution.

Charlie Zhang

With the experience across Australia and China companies, Charlie has extensive concept of business and operation, which is of great advantage on business modelling and analysis in The Advisory Firm.

The previous position of senior planner in the second largest IT distributor of Australia helped Charlie have a deep understanding of the global supply chain. Analysis, forecasting and budgeting ability have been highly improved and practised through the management of high volume of different IT products.

Strong academic knowledge in accounting and corporate finance comes from Charlie’s sessions of experience as a successful tutor in Swinburne University for two subjects: Accounting Information System and Corporate Finance.

Charlie was a member of China Customs Declarer. Before coming to Australia, Charlie worked for China Shanghai Silk Textile Import & Export Co., Ltd and Sweden multinational shipping company Shanghai office for several years. Specialized knowledge and experience in the international logistics together with the international trading have been accumulated and strengthened.

As a key organizer in Australia-China Investment and Trade Association, Charlie has established well communication relationship with Foreign Investment Commission of Shanghai Municipality and China Shanghai Association of Foreign Economic and Trade Enterprises.

Charlie graduated from Swinburne University as Master of Accounting and has the Bachelor of Economics from China Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. He is currently enrolling in the Certified Practicing Accountant program.

If you would like to join our team - please introduce yourself via a quick e-mail
Everyday we connect with professionals with expertise we can use -
so we'd be delighted to hear from you.

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