Sweat Capital

In a South Vietnam battlefield where the fog was so thick you could barely see 10 metres in front of yourself, with no direct fire support and just a platoon of young soldiers in tow to take out an occupied enemy bunker, it was under these sets of circumstances that our next guest, Sir Peter Cosgrove, pulled off his first of many remarkable military feats. The son of a soldier, Peter joined the ar...

You would all be familiar with Australia’s status as a resources powerhouse. Digging stuff up out of the ground has long been our specialty with it not being uncommon for a figure on the AFR’s Rich List to have a resources background. Our next guest, Benjamin Cleary, is a subject matter expert. Ben heads up Tribeca’s Natural Resources business but alongside David Alyward has been critical in growi...

Working at the interface of industry, government and universities seeking to drive research value into the community, our next guest is Paul Nicholls, Executive Director of Research Partnerships at the University of Queensland. Universities such as UQ are the backbone of some of the most important research that solves some of the biggest issues facing Australia and more broadly, the world. Paul he...

When you say the name Liz Ellis to someone, their train of thought could justifiably go in a multitude of different directions. She is someone who has accomplished so much. Whether it be her unbelievable netball career in which she was named Australian Netball’s most valuable player on 4 separate occasions, her role as a commentator in the coverage of Australia’s domestic netball competition, or e...

Credited as being the firm that brought the sharemarket to ‘Mum and Dad’ investors, our next guest is Tim Crommelin of Morgans Financial Limited, Australia’s largest full-service stockbroking and wealth management network. Tim played a crucial role in the formative years of the company, having started in 1986 and working closely with founder Paul Morgan. As you will hear, Tim has lived and breathe...

In this week’s episode Will Chapman and Charlie Selth are joined by Ronni Kahn AO to discuss her role in founding one of Australia’s most recognised and impactful charities in OzHarvest.   The discussion reveals some invaluable insights into Ronni’s efforts in becoming one of Australia’s leading social entrepreneurs and voices for meaningful change.   Key talking points from the discussion include...

What does an auditor and arguably the nation’s leading finance journalist have in common? Not a lot you would think. However, our chat with our next guest suggests otherwise. Anthony Macdonald is the 2nd-in-charge of the highly regarded Chanticleer column at the Australian Financial Review. Crediting much of the early lessons taught by his parents, Anthony has always shown signs of being someone w...

Daryl Holmes is the founder of 1300Smiles, a pioneer in the dental industry. Despite toying with the idea of being a physio post-school given his love of sport, a chance run-in with one of his most trusted school teachers, who pointed him toward dentistry, began a career that would shape the way dental practices operate across Australia. Daryl's idea was simple, yet brilliant, bring aging dent...

This weeks guest has had an illustrious career in 2 of Australia’s most prominent spheres. Anna Bligh AC, former premier of QLD and now CEO of the Australian Banking Association has had a career that has seen her leave a lasting impact on the state of Queensland and now more broadly the whole of Australia. Starting out as an Arts student with a keen interest in politics at the University of Queens...

For aspiring lawyers the pathway post uni is fairly simple, direct, and perhaps boring – you become a grad lawyer at the best firm possible then go from there. Or so we thought… This week's guest is Mel Scott, Global Senior Legal Counsel at Megaport, and she is trying to change the way people view working in-house as opposed to a law firm. Mel’s career started at a large law firm before she wa...

In this week's episode we were lucky enough to be joined by Marcus Simpson - founder of QIC's private equity division. Marcus has a lot of great lessons he imparts on us in this interview where he stresses the importance of taking opportunities as they come. Marcus' career is a perfect example of letting opportunities come and taking them when they present themselves. Marcus went on to...

Peter Lock, CEO of Heritage Bank, joins us this week to shed light on his career path to such a coveted role and to give us an insight into all things Heritage Bank. Peter's career is a great example of how tenacity, persistence and lateral thinking can get you promoted within these large organisation

Invention to innovation – as listeners you might be thinking don’t these words mean pretty similar things. Our next guest, Larry Marshall, will help you understand that Australia has historically punched above its weight as inventors but have left a bit to be desired in terms of our ability to commercialise and innovate game-changing inventions on home soil. With a PHD in Physics from Macquarie Un...

In this week’s episode Charlie and Will are joined by Ross Israel (Head of Global Infrastructure at QIC). The discussion unpacks: - The motives behind his transition from tax to finance - His experience working overseas and how this held him in good stead for the privatisation of many of Australia’s government owned assets - The establishment and growth of QIC’s Infrastructure team from two desks...

Our next guest debuted for QLD in State of Origin at just 18 years of age and now heads up the organization that is Queensland Rugby League. Although Ben Ikin began his sporting pursuits as a keen AFL player, his transition to rugby league came as a result of his time spent battling away in interschool sport, where he quickly showed potential and was thrust into the rugby league pathway. Whilst in...

Campbell Newman, whether you like him or not has certainly done a lot in the world of business and politics. In this episode Campbell is generous enough to take us behind the scenes of what it is like to have a career in the heavily scrutinised sector. Campbell’s insights are from the perspective of someone who has performed roles in both the private and public sectors – a unique characteristic to...

Today’s guest is literal career rocket scientist Michael Smart – chief technology officer and co-founder of Hypersonix. A world leader in scramjet technology, Michael spent 10 years as a Research Scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center: Scramjet Branch. A pioneer in scramjet engine and hypersonic vehicle design, Michael was awarded Australia’s top scholar in his field of Aviation & Aeros...

This week, Charlie and Will were lucky enough to be joined by Llew Jury. Llew successfully founded and exited two businesses in his time including leading web design, app development and digital agency Alfresco in 2006 followed by his successful development and sale of digital marketing agency Reload Group to Hardie Grant Media in 2022. Now Llew puts his time into his role as Founder and Executive...

This week’s episode is the greatest insight into a career in investment banking available. Will and Charlie are joined by one of Australia’s most highly regarded investment bankers, Tim Foy. From the mouth of a long-lived investment banker, the discussion unpacks Tim’s journey into investment banking, what it is like working on a live deal, and finally we yield some invaluable advice for aspiratio...

On today's podcast, Charlie and Will were lucky enough to be joined by Playbook Co-Founder Chelsea Murphy. Playbook is an online marketplace that connects people who love playing sport to coaches and mentors so they build confidence and enjoy the sport they play. Chelsea and husband, Kieren's journey of building Playbook from the ground up, with numerous challenges along the way - includin...

On this week's podcast, Will and Charlie learnt about one of the most pressing issues facing contact sports in across the world. The man aiming to fix this problem by putting objective data around the detection and prevention of concussions is Mike Vegar - CEO and Founder of HitIQ. Through specialised high-tech and highly accurate sensors implanted in a mouthguard, HitIQ's technology can m...

On today’s podcast, Will and Charlie were lucky enough to be able to sit down with rugby league legend, turned highly successful businessman, Darren Lockyer and his equally as successful business partner Grant Wechsel. During the interview we delve into a side of Darren Lockyer’s life that is underexplored – his illustrious business career. We hear the story of how Grant approached Darren and conv...

In this week's episode, Will and Charlie get to talk to one of Australia's more successful property investors - Warren Ebert - the founder and CEO of Sentinel Property Group. On the podcast, we get to unpack how Warren has built Sentinel Property Group to become the largest private property fund in Australia. Warren's story of how he got started in property is fascinating and his obses...

This week on The Business Of we had the privilege of interviewing Australian sporting legend Kieren Perkins OAM. With Kieren, we got into the simultaneously lucky and unlucky story of how he started swimming, his transition from athlete to executive and go into his current role as head of the AIS and ASC. Since his time in the pool, Kieren has held executive positions within NAB Personal Bank, Pre...

Graham Turner, affectionately known as Skroo, grew up in Stanthorpe driving tractors from 7 years of age before studying veterinary science. Hardly the typical upbringing of one of Australia’s best business people. In 1973, Skroo and 2 mates made the decision to buy a run-down double-decker bus for 650 pounds while travelling in England. One bus turned into two and so on until they formed Top Deck...