ABOUT

Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, I grew up in a typical kiwi environment, playing rugby, watching rugby, and supporting our beloved All Blacks (our National Rugby team). I'm sure there was a life outside of rugby, but not if you're a kiwi.

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My parents ran a motel business and at a young age I was called upon to help out (child labour laws didn’t exist back then), whether it was delivering papers, checking in guests, delivering breakfasts, or cleaning the units after the guest had left. I became very efficient at cleaning bathrooms, changing beds, washing and ironing (something my wife Linda is thankful for to this day). My parents even got me to do the payroll, working out the hours of the cleaners (including myself), and how much they should be paid. It was an invaluable experience and taught me the value or hard work and gave me empathy for the life of a business owner.

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Rebelling against my parents’ entrepreneurial nature (I saw how much of a toll working 24 hours / 7 days a week can take), I got my first full time job working for the State Insurance Office of NZ at the tender age of 16. Oblivious to what insurance was, I worked in this incredible industry for almost 40 years. It allowed me to meet great people and taught me so much about the risks and challenges that businesses face on a daily basis. My career also took me to countries all across the globe and I was lucky enough to work and live in London, Singapore and Sydney. Through this career, I found I had a natural skill for structuring deals, building and managing great teams, and for growing revenue quickly, both organically and through new business. 

 

Despite having a successful career in insurance, my underlying passion always lay outside of the industry. From a young age I was fascinated by investing and would spend any free time reading as much as I could on the subject, attending courses, watching stock market tickers and talking to anyone about investing that would listen. Despite having all the knowledge, I did little with it, until in one seminar the presenter said "where you are today financially is where you have put yourself, it is nobody's fault but your own". This hit me like a two-ton truck and gave me the wake-up call I needed. It made me look at where I was at in life, and I realised that I wasn't where I wanted to be financially. From that point on, I got serious and started to steadily build my investment portfolio. I began investing strategically, analysing investments, and applying the knowledge that I had accumulated over many years, both from insurance and investing. Slowly but surely my investment portfolio grew until I became more and more proficient in my ability to analyse investment opportunities.

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But still there was an itch that wasn't scratched. Maybe it was growing up in a motel, seeing the commitment and effort that my parents put into it making their business successful. They worked incredibly hard to build a thriving business, one whose clients travelled from all across NZ every year, just to stay with them. Maybe, it was the regret of not following in the family businesses, or possibly it's just that I saw all of the incredible value that small businesses bring to economy. Whatever the reason, my passion found its calling and I started investing into and acquiring small businesses.

 

Today my vision and purpose is clear (that itch is almost scratched). My passion now is finding great, profitable businesses to acquire and in doing so, I hope to help these businesses continue to grow and thrive.  My aim is to also help the owners, transition to their next big adventure in life, whether its retirement or another entrepreneurial venture.

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Outside of the business investing world, I am happily married to my wife Linda, who is a successful artist and business owner in her own right. We are the proud parents of two daughters, and grandparents to one grandchild. Today we live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, where, I run my investment business, and in my spare time enjoy playing the guitar, swimming, reading (mostly investment books still to this day), and playing golf.

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