Meet the Mentors

Our mentoring system is one of the key factors in ilab’s success, and the success of our members. When we take on a new start-up, one of the first things we do is assign a group of mentors to work with them. Many of ilab’s mentors are successful entrepreneurs themselves, and are expert at helping you think through your ideas, and arrive at a sound strategy for your company. Your mentors can also help you to access the many valuable contacts in their networks.

If I am ever asked what the secret to our success is, I will always say it was having access to great mentors like Andrew.

“Andrew [Campbell] (ilab mentor) immediately understood exactly what business we were in and what issues we were facing.  His contributions in the meetings are always incisive and thoughtful, and I realised very quickly that I could trust his advice.  In addition to the other mentors on my panel, I feel truly lucky to have someone so experienced helping me on this journey.  If I am ever asked what the secret to our success is, I will always say it was having access to great mentors like Andrew."
Dean Robertson, CEO of ilab member company Mexia. 

ilab mentors come from all areas of business and walks of life. But they all have a common interest in – and vast experience of – start-up enterprises. Here is a small snapshot of a few of our regular mentors.

 

Andrew Campbell

Andrew has over 20 years of experience leading and executing research and development, product marketing and business strategies in Australia and overseas. He is also an active investor in many asset classes, including early stage ventures.

His experience spans initiation and integration of corporate acquisitions; conceiving, developing and launching leading global ITC products; deploying and operating data networks; building commercial, front-office and mining support systems; offshore outsourcing of major SW developments; building global organisations and development of new product markets locally and internationally. He brings together analytical thinking and leadership in the strategy and execution of market, product, financial and operational perspectives. He has held a wide range of senior leadership roles in companies in Australia and internationally, including Senior Vice President of Saville Systems, a Nasdaq company.

For nearly thirty years Andrew has been a successful investor in public financial markets, real estate and emerging ventures and now works professionally in these and other entrepreneurial endeavours. He has a BSc(Hons) in Computer Science and an MBA, both from the University of Queensland.

 

Steve Woodgate

Steve has more than 20 years experience in business and technology solutions in Australia and the USA with a focus on travel, tourism and hospitality information and reservations systems, including an international award winning travel e-commerce web site.

Working directly for start-up companies and consulting to SME in early stage growth, Steve has advised on the creation, operation and sale of numerous technology-based enterprises.

Currently working with games and entertainment software developers, Steve is on the Boards of the Game Developers Association of Australia and Electronic Games Queensland. He is also a Director of Electronic Games Investment Fund Limited. He is also Chief Executive Officer, EYECON Pty Ltd.

Steve has a Masters of Administration from Griffith University and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Queensland.

His advice has been instrumental in bringing us to where we are now, and no doubt will be even more so into the future.

“Steve (ilab mentor) has helped me in every stage of my business, and has been extremely patient with me as I matured. His advice has been instrumental in bringing us to where we are now, and no doubt will be even more so into the future.”
Yazz Krishna – CEO of ilab member company Five Faces.

 

David Gillespie

David is a recovering lawyer with significant experience in the invention, development and commercialisation of enterprise software. After graduating from the University of Queensland with degrees in commerce and law, David practised litigation law with two of the largest firms in Australia before moving into a strategic technology advisory role with Mallesons Stephen Jacques. David then completed a Masters degree in Laws with a focus on the application of technology to the practice of Law shortly before co-founding 80-20 Software in 1997.

David took on the role of Chief Technology Officer with 80-20 and guided it through the development and commercialisation of significant enterprise products focused around Document Management, Enterprise Search and eventually Compliance and Risk Management. During his ten years in the role, David helped obtain two rounds of venture capital finance, grow the company to over 60 employees, create a significant US presence and develop a broad and successful European sales channel. David's technical evangelist role ensured the company received broad-based US analyst coverage and was pivotal in securing significant enterprise sales both in Australia and the US.

David now provides corporate advisory assistance for selected technology start-ups, whilst assembling the team for his next venture.

 

Bob Brammah

Bob's Information Technology career spans 35 years, with his last role as Queensland General Manager for Fujitsu Australia Limited. In this position, he managed a large team of Technical and Sales people that provided support to large corporate and government clients.

During his career, Bob has undertaken many roles while working in various countries as well as across many industries. The roles include Research and Development, Production and Operations Management, Project Management, Business Analyst Management, Queensland and PNG Support Manager, as well as Consultancy. The major proportion of his career has been in sales, account directing and sales management.

 

Mark White

Mark is the CEO and founder of Locatrix Communications, a leading Australian provider of mobile location-based services for major mobile network operators in Australia, South Asia and Europe.

Prior to Locatrix Mark held internationally-focused management, technical and marketing roles with US companies including Bell Atlantic, Tandem Computers and Compaq, before joining Red Hat as Vice-President and Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific Region.

As Red Hat’s first employee in Asia, he grew channel and direct sales operations in over 17 countries in under two years, establishing Red Hat's global internationalization engineering centre and regional headquarters in Brisbane.

He has more than 20 years experience in the ICT industries throughout Australasia, South Asia, Korea, Greater China, Europe and the United States, and is a frequent and respected speaker at mobile industry events throughout Europe and Asia.

Mark has a degree in computer science from the University of Queensland, and postgraduate qualifications in management from QUT.

 

Calvin Treacy

Calvin has been the founding CEO of Intellection, VP Sales for NRX Global, Global Channel Manager for Mincom (LinkOne product line) and COO of Spacerack.

Calvin has over twenty years of senior management experience in dynamic, high-growth, early-stage companies. In 2003 he moved to CSIRO and Intellection was formed just 10 months later in October 2003. Over the next 5 years Intellection received significant VC funding, grew revenues to approximately $20 million per annum and established offices in 4 countries.

Calvin was closely involved with the listing of NRX Global on the AIM board in London, raising fifteen million pounds in 2001 and raising approximately fifteen million dollars from various sources whilst with Intellection.

Calvin has now chosen to focus on personal business interests, and pursue Company Director opportunities.

 

Bob Waldie

Bob describes himself as “an aging serial entrepreneur”. He has an impressive track record of successful entrepreneurship with open-source ventures. His most recent venture is Opengear, also an ilab graduate company, which designs and manufactures products that monitor the ICT equipment in computer rooms and data centres.

Prior to co-founding Opengear, Bob served as CEO then Chairman of Snap Gear, a leading developer of embedded Linux security appliances. In 2003 Snap Gear was acquired by CyberGuard (NASDQ: CGFW). Before this he was CEO of Moreton Bay Ventures, a company he founded in 1996 which developed Internet messaging products. In 2000, Moreton Bay was acquired by Lineo Inc, where Bob served as COO in the USA. Prior to Moreton Bay, Bob was Managing Director of Stallion Technologies, a pioneering remote connectivity company he co-founded in 1985. Bob has participated in a host of other start-ups, and served on the board of a number of private and public technology companies, as well as government industry bodies.

 

If you are interested in becoming an ilab mentor, feel free to contact ilab’s CEO, Colin Kinner.