Judges' Profile
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Chris has been the driving force in a number of start-up companies both within and outside the Information Technology sector. He has a strong focus on revenue achievement and on building value for stockholders. Chris has also held COO or CEO positions in several companies where he improved economic performance through the implementation of proper planning and controls and significantly increased the value of the businesses. During his time as an operating executive, Chris was actively involved in managing a number of merger, acquisition and divestiture projects and in numerous debt and equity capital raisings, including two IPOs. From January 1996 to April 2002, Chris lived in the USA working as an investment banker for a boutique firm specialising in Information Technology clients. During this period he worked on capital raising projects, mergers and acquisitions. He also provided interim management services to VC Funds with distressed portfolio companies, including a 14 month period acting as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Lightspeed Interactive Inc in Pleasanton, California. Lightspeed provides a content management system (Astoria), a web content management product (liveSITE)and an enterprise information integration platform based on leading edge XML technology (iEngine). Throughout his career, Chris has maintained an active involvement in international marketing. He has a sound working knowledge of doing business in Asia and Europe and has worked extensively in developing international opportunities for Australian, European and US based companies. In 1994 he co-authored a book on selling computer software internationally. Chris has a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics from Macquarie University in Sydney and a certificate in Information Technology Management from Melbourne University. He also undertook an MBA program in Technology Management at the University of Phoenix (USA). In April 2002, Chris returned to Australia and joined Newport Capital Group as a Director in the Corporate Finance division. |
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Christopher G. Pearsall
Chris Pearsall is an experienced "hands-on" operational executive with over 25 years experience in both management and marketing in a variety of industry sectors. His key skills are in strategic planning, business plan development and execution, international marketing, team building and people management. He has had extensive experience in negotiating key partnership alliances, joint ventures, labour contracts and in general commercial negotiations.