Our Advisory Board

In 2011 we set up an Advisory Board to provide strategic advice & guidance and to bring in to the company complementary skills to steer the business into the future. The Board meets quarterly to monitor our business performance, provide options, insights and new ideas for the business. Their advice is non-binding and it provides us with an independent source of information that gives us insights and ideas to explore new business avenues to grow the business. Each member brings to the business a unique skill set that covers all facets of our business.

Martin Heffernan, Chairman

Martin has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry managing compliance infrastructure; cross-organisational change programs; process/productivity improvement; revenue enhancement as well as substantial project management experience. He is the Chair of the Advisory Board and holds an Executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Avril Henry, Managing Director

Avril established Avril Henry Pty Ltd in 2003, focusing the business on leadership, change management, talent management, diversity, recruitment and retention strategies. In 2008 the business was one of the 5 finalists in the City of Sydney Business of the Year awards.

Avril is a Fellow of CPA Australia, a Senior Associate of the Australian Institute of Banking & Finance, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Australian Human Resources Institute.

In 2011 Avril was appointed as a Director of the board of the Australian Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry and was their Governance, Risk and Audit Committee Chair. Avril is Director of the board of Living Years, a social media networking organisation focussed on bereavement care and from 2007 - 2009 was a Director of the board of Hands Across the Water Australia, a charity which raises money to build and operate self sustainable orphanages in Thailand for Thai children who lost their parents in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. 

Penny Burke, Director of Essence Communications

Penny has worked in the field of marketing and advertising for 25 years spanning Melbourne, Sydney, and London.  Most recently she spent 12 years at Clemenger BBDO as Strategy Planning Director, overseeing strategic developments for major communications projects.  She holds a Bachelor of Business (Marketing), and has lectured and tutored at a range of Melbourne universities including RMIT, Monash and Swinburne.  She is a full member of the Australian Social and Market Research Society (AMSRS), the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2), Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) and Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Penny is a skilled change agent, keen to explore new boundaries and horizons and find better ways to do things.  It is her particular skill to bring fresh eyes to a scenario, logically and articulately identify and debate the key issues, bring intuition and grounded thought to a way forward, and then form a plan of action encompassing key stakeholders.

Annette Fontana, Principal, Forum Law

Annette was admitted to practice law in 1991 and has worked for large, medium and small firms in the Sydney CBD and the suburbs. Her experience has included in excess of 15 years in corporate and individual insolvency, working for liquidators and external administrators as well as for creditors and directors of companies. Annette has strong experience in commercial and residential property including litigation, drafting agreements, leasing and conveyancing.

Annette has been a speaker for the Law Society's Speaker's Bureau for many years and a trainer for the Law Society's Mock Trial competition.  She has been an active member of the Law Society's Inner West branch for a number of years arranging seminars and is currently a member of the Law Society's Business Law Committee. She is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is currently a director on the boards of private and public companies.

David Kwasha, Managing Director, Alexion Pharmaceuticals

David’s career has been one of broad experience in hospital and primary health care, commencing with Intensive Care and Critical Care nursing in his youth until 26 years of age. The past 22 years have been marked by a unique and very successful management career in the pharmaceutical industry with medical, marketing, commercial and senior leadership depth in the pharmaceuticals and biotechnology industries. His background qualifications are in Nursing Science with post graduate diploma qualifications in marketing and business management.

Prior to joining Alexion in July 2008, to lead the introduction of unique biological products for rare life threatening disease in Asia Pacific, David was Vice President, Asia Pacific and Australian Managing Director of the Swiss biopharmaceutical company, Actelion from 2001 - 2008. From 1989 – 2001 David worked in a variety of medical and marketing management roles in Australia and Switzerland, with regional and global responsibilities, for Roche.

Anne-Marie Syme

Anne-Marie has extensive corporate management and business development experience within the banking and finance sectors and currently works in Director and Executive capacities with several organisations throughout Australia.  These include insurance, liquor, pets, mortgage aggregation and business coaching industries.  Anne-Marie also sits on the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia’s Tribunal.

In 1998 Anne-Marie started The Loans Café, pioneering the first retail/shopfront mortgage broking company in Australia. In March 2000, The Loans Café partnered with another broking company to form Finance & Systems Technology Pty Ltd (F.A.S.T., an aggregation company in the mortgage broking sector with funds under management totalling in excess of $AUD 30 Billion).  In September 2007, she became the principal owner of FAST with the remaining ownership owned by Challenger Financial Services Group.  Anne-Marie remained as Chairman of FAST until the sale to National Australia Bank in January 2010. 

Anne-Marie recently won an award for “Most Inspiring Woman of the Year – Business” and was presented this award by Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, Governor General of Australia.

Susan Wahhab, Managing Director, Winner Partnership

Susan established her accounting and business advisory firm in Sydney in 1995 and advises hundreds of small and medium enterprises in all financial aspects of their business.  She has a Bachelor of Business (Accounting), Masters in Commerce (Accounting) and a Diploma in Financial Services (Financial Planning).  She is a qualified CPA (Certified Practicing Accountant) and a member of Thought Leaders, a global movement of cross category, multi-disciplinary experts who come together to create positive change on the planet. She also holds non-executive advisory positions on the boards of five growing SME’s in Sydney.

Susan is a leading financial strategist with an uncanny ability to create lateral solutions to complex business and financial problems.  She is sought after to give her financial and business ideas in the Australian media and business networks and has featured in leading Australian publications: Business Review Weekly, Sydney Morning Herald, Dynamic Small Business, Daily Telegraph, ANZ Small Business hub, Sydney Business and many investment publications.