We’re dedicated to search innovation

Nino Svonja

Founder & Head of Product Development

Nino is uniquely driven to pioneer innovation of intelligent search technology that allows people and business to powerfully interact with data. He has a strong background in search and distributed system arising from a career in enterprise software engineering including positions at ANZ Bank, Sensis, Fast Search (now Microsoft), and Sun Microsystems. Most recently as technical lead and co-designer of a high speed, low latency, globally distributed FX trading platform still transacting volumes over a trillion dollars per year at a leading Australian bank. Nino’s research into structured search and relevance algorithms at UNSW has won the National ICT Australia (NICTA) research scholarship and Canon Information Systems Research Australia (CISRA) project price and contributed to the publishing of popular papers in leading industry journals. Nino believes to not be evil is only half-way there, and is passionate to do good where he can.

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James Horton

Solutions Director

James draws on over 25 years experience leading data centric initiatives across local and global enterprises. He has worked across the Asia Pacific region building teams and leading projects across organisations such as Teradata, HP, EMC, Mayne Group, HDFC Bank and China Mobile, in sectors including IT, healthcare, logistics, retail & banking. James enjoys mentoring, collaborating and supporting data technology providers and start-ups, as well as private, public and not-for-profit sector organisations to enable new ways of thinking about their data and new ways of operating to realise value.

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Andrey Shirben

Founder SYD Ventures,
Co-Founder Follow[the]Seed

Andrey Shirben is the founder of SYD Ventures, a venture company that invests in early-stage startups, and co-founder of Follow[the]Seed, a global VC fund. Over the last 10 years he's invested in and acted as mentor and advisor to over 40 early stage companies such as Face.com (acquired by Facebook for $100M+), Storwize (acquired by IBM for $140M), and Kenshoo (recently raised at approx. $500m valuation). In addition to his international portfolio he invested in many local startups including Ollo Mobile , Ninja Blocks, Ingogo and Aeratron. Andrey has a unique combination of vast technological experience, business leadership, sales and marketing skills, having over 10 years of experience in Online Marketing and Social Media strategy, specializing in the retail & travel sectors, overseeing over $5B of advertising budgets over the past few years all over the globe. Andrey loves to get his hands dirty and help visionary entrepreneurs turn their ideas into great companies.

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Alan Cullen

Managing Director of Cullen Capital

Alan brings deep insight into capital markets and corporate structure from extensive experience in senior positions in the finance industry including CEO of the Australian Finance Conference, Executive Director of Midland Bank's Merchant bank and CEO of the Australian Bankers’ Association. His advice has been sought by listed and private companies, governments and their agencies and industry associations. His business advice has encompassed a wide range of business issues and he has been particularly active in assisting growth businesses of significant scale. Alan has a history of assisting early stage technology business and has had experience in the design and application of natural language processing systems.

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Danny Wallis

CEO of DWS Ltd

Danny is the founder and CEO of DWS Advanced Business Solutions Limited, a leading publicly listed professional IT products and services company, providing solutions to large blue chip organisation for over 20 years. After many years of operational and strategic leadership through all stages of company growth Danny has acquired a deep insight into enterprise software markets for solving real business problems. Danny is a also a serial entrepreneur having co-founded or invested in numerous companies along the way including SMS Central, BlueChilli, DriveMyCarRentals , MyGuestList, Eventarc, and Energy Watch International.

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Dr Aron D'Souza

Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Good Super

Dr D’Souza read law at Oxford and wrote his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne. In addition, he is Honorary Consul of the Republic of Moldova in Australia, Co-Chair and Co-Founder of the Nexus Australian Youth Summit, Honorary Chairman of the Wadham College Rugby Football Club and a board member of the Henley Club. He is the foundation editor of The Journal Jurisprudence, a quarterly publication on legal philosophy, and author of three books. In 2013, the World Economic Forum named Dr D’Souza a Global Shaper and the ADC Forum, a policy think tank, selected him for the Australian Leadership Award. In 2014, Men’s Style magazine recognised him as one of Australia’s most influential men.

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Jeremy Rosenthal

Principal at SBA Law

Jeremy is a commercial and corporate lawyer and a Principal at SBA Law. He has over 17 years of experience in transactional law, corporate reconstruction, capital raisings, joint ventures and corporate governance. Throughout his career Jeremy has been involved in the evolution of a number of start-ups and small groups into large, successful enterprises across diverse industries. He is a trusted advisor to many private groups and entrepreneurs. Aside from his law practice, Jeremy is a member of the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board of Racing Victoria and of the Panel of Chairmen of the Grain Trade Australia Export Contracts Tribunal.

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