Sweat Capital

This week on Sweat Capital, we sit down with Blue Owl Managing Director Marc Pillemer – an Australian who’s built a global career inside one of the world’s leading alternative asset managers with over $300B AUM. Marc takes us inside how GP staking actually works - from sourcing deals, to evaluating culture and strategy, to deciding which investment firms will endure over the next 10–20 years. He b...

Paul Tranter, CFO of Boston Consulting Group, joins Will and Charlie from his home in Boston, USA to share his remarkable story from a boy on the farm to a global leader in management consulting. We explore: Paul’s unique path to university, including going back to complete Year 12 at the age of 22 and how he considers this decision to be the “turning point” of his life His pathway into management...

Steven Marshall (President, American Australian Association; Former Premier of South Australia) joins Will and Charlie to unpack a career spent at the crossroads of public service, business and international engagement. We dig into Steven’s time leading South Australia (2018–2022) and the tough, high-stakes decisions he made during the COVID outbreaks. We trace his beginnings, his move from state...

It's been a huge October at Sweat Capital, and there's a lot to catch up on. In this monthly recap, Charlie, Will, and Dimitri discuss: The whirlwind launch and rebrand of the show Charlie and Will's trip to New York to interview world-class investors like Matthew McLennan Lessons we've taken from conversations about value investing, career ambition, and not sweating the small stuf...

This episode was recorded OnAir @ IMARC. For more information on the world's biggest mining conference and how to get involved, visit imarcglobal.com . From Wollongong to leading a team of over 160,000 staff as CEO of Anglo American, Mark Cutifani CBE is an example of how Australia’s best are amongst the most elite mining executives across the globe. In this episode, we unpack… How Mark self-funde...

In this episode, we sit down with Matthew McLennan, Head of the Global Value team at First Eagle Investments, in his New York City office for a rare, wide-ranging conversation on investing, temperament, and compounding wisdom over time. Matthew shares stories from his childhood in rural Queensland, lessons from mentors at Goldman Sachs in both Sydney and London, and what he learned stepping into s...

In this episode, we sit down with Larry Anthony AO – third-generation Federal MP and former Minister for Social Security in the Howard government – for a deep dive into life in and out of Parliament. We cover the early days of his political career, including his unconventional campaign methods (including riding a push bike around Byron Bay), his infamous hungover Question Time appearance in Parlia...

Welcome to the first episode of Sweat Capital – the next chapter in our journey of exploring ambition, effort, and the long game in business and life. In this launch episode, we introduce the new brand, share what Sweat Capital stands for, and set the stage for the conversations ahead. At its core, Sweat Capital is about doing the daily work, making the most of opportunities, and building somethin...

Martijn Wilder AM has spent decades at the intersection of climate, capital, and policy—shaping the way governments and private markets respond to the challenge of decarbonisation. In this episode, we unpack Martijn’s career journey—from starting out in law and founding Pollination Group, to playing a key role in the National Reconstruction Fund and sitting on boards like WWF and the Clean Energy...

Andrew Purcell – Energy, Emerging Markets, and the Value of Going Off-Piste From investment banking in Hong Kong to drilling exploration wells in Cuba, Andrew Purcell has built a career that defies convention. In this episode, we sit down with the Executive Chairman of Melbana Energy to explore how and why he’s always chosen to operate in the world’s harder-to-navigate markets. We talk about his e...

Justine Morton started her career on the trading floor at Lehman Brothers in London—where she was the only woman in a sea of 100—and was offered the role of Global Head of Hedge Fund Sales in her twenties. But despite the prestige and momentum, she made the rare and courageous decision to walk away. In this episode, we dive into that early chapter of Justine’s career—life in the high-stakes world...

Following last week’s episode on intrapreneurship inside a Big Four firm, this week we sit down with someone doing something just as bold—on the legal side. Xavier Keary is the co-founder of G&T Ventures, a specialised group inside Gilbert + Tobin dedicated to supporting startups, scaleups, and investors. After starting his career as a capital markets lawyer, Xavier made the leap into the earl...

Amanda Price didn’t follow the traditional Big Four path. After building and scaling startups early in her career, she brought that same founder mindset into KPMG—where she now leads High Growth Ventures, a division built to serve Australia’s most ambitious startups. In this episode, Amanda shares how she carved out a space for startup-focused work inside one of the world’s largest professional se...

For our 100th episode, we’re joined by Cathie Reid—an entrepreneur, board director, investor, and trailblazer whose career is anything but conventional. Cathie opens up about how a breakup in her early twenties sparked the journey that would see her build and scale a pharmacy empire, move into aged care and then founded a global cancer care business. We talk about losing 60% of revenue overnight i...

Dr Nick Coatsworth became a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic, fronting national press conferences as Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer. But behind that calm presence is a remarkable career in medicine, public health, and humanitarian aid. In this episode, we explore Nick’s path from medical school to conflict zones with Doctors Without Borders, his time working in the Northern Te...

Few lawyers can claim a career as dynamic and globally mobile as Lewis Grimm. With decades of experience across New York, Europe, and now Australia, Lewis has built a reputation as a trusted legal adviser on some of the most complex and high-stakes leveraged finance and restructuring deals in the world. From billion-dollar chapter 11s in the U.S. to groundbreaking Australian schemes of arrangement...

Stephen Cole oversees four mining hubs, thousands of employees, and the daily operations that keep one of Australia’s largest iron ore producers running. In this episode, we sit down with Fortescue’s Director of Mining Operations to explore what that leadership actually looks like—on the ground and from the air. We talk about his early days at BHP, the cultural shift he experienced moving to Forte...

Innovation is often talked about in terms of breakthroughs and big ideas—but the real challenge lies in turning those ideas into investable, scalable businesses. That’s where today’s guest comes in. Ken Jefferd is the Executive Director of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation at the University of Melbourne and Managing Director of its commercialisation arm, helping guide one of Australia’s m...

Turning world-class research into real-world impact is no easy task. It takes deep scientific knowledge, a sharp commercial eye, and a whole lot of persistence. Few people understand this better than our guest today, Dr. Peter Devine, CEO of Uniseed—Australia’s longest-running venture fund focused on research commercialisation. Peter’s career has spanned the lab bench and the boardroom. With a bac...

In the world of financial services, where every process must be airtight and every action traceable, documentation isn’t just admin—it’s risk management, compliance, and operational continuity. Yet teams still spend 4 to 6 hours manually writing SOPs and process guides—until now. Our guests today are Finn and Oliver, co-founders of Fluency, a company that’s reimagining how operations teams work. B...

It’s always fascinating to examine the economy from two different angles—especially when one is through the eyes of a wealth adviser and the other from the perspective of a business and restructuring specialist. While both are navigating the same macro environment, their day-to-day realities couldn’t be more different. In this episode, recorded just before the announcement of the latest Trump tari...

In a country as vast and decentralised as Australia, the heavy vehicle industry is the lifeblood of our economy—connecting farms to ports, factories to distribution centres, and towns to cities. It’s easy to overlook just how critical the sector is, but without trucks, Australia stops. At the centre of this essential industry is our guest today, Todd Hacking, the CEO of the Heavy Vehicle Industry...

Brisbane has never been more front and centre. With the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games on the horizon, the eyes of the world are firmly fixed on the River City. But beyond the stadiums and sporting headlines, Brisbane is undergoing a broader transformation—economically, culturally, and globally—and few people are better placed to talk about that than today’s guest. Anthony Ryan is the CEO of th...

Very few businesses in Australia can claim a history as rich and enduring as Washington H. Soul Pattinson. Founded in 1872 as a single pharmacy, it has since evolved into a diversified investment powerhouse, yet remarkably, it has remained a family-led enterprise for over 150 years. As the second-oldest ASX-listed company, Soul Patts has not only weathered world wars, economic depressions, financi...

If there is one thing that Australians have always loved, it is property. The Great Australian Dream is the desire for every Australian family to own their own home. Owning your own home on your own block of land was a symbol of success. If you are lucky you may even manage to get yourself an investment property. However, the opportunities to invest in real estate are more expansive than they have...