Chris Rolls
Professional Summary
An entrepreneur, investor and self-professed business geek (having read a new business book every 2 weeks for nearly 20 years), Chris has built and exited 4 businesses in 4 different industries, demonstrating his ability to invest in, grow and most importantly exit businesses across sectors. Three of these businesses (Rental Express, First Class Accounts and Scody Performance Wear) have become some of the largest of their type in Australia.
In his last business, Rental Express, Chris grew the company to become the largest privately owned property management business in Queensland, with over $2.4 billion of property under management. Prior to founding PieLAB Venture Partners, Chris was Operations Director for the ASX-listed investment company Arowana International, where he worked with the portfolio companies of the $500 million diversified investment fund and assisted on investment decisions.
KEY SKILLS
- Operations management, building operational excellence in people-intensive businesses.
- Corporate strategy and capital allocation (i.e., how to spend money effectively to scale a business).
- Recruiting, mentoring and engaging exceptionally talented people and designing incentive structures that help generate performance.
Education and qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Sports Science from Southern Cross University
- MBA from Melbourne Business School
- Private Equity Executive Program at Harvard Business School
- Venture Capital Executive Program at University of California, Berkeley
Chris Rolls
Managing Partner + Serial Entrepreneur
Shaun Bassett
Professional Summary
A former senior banker with Macquarie Bank and National Australia Bank (NAB), Shaun has spent the past 15 years providing funding solutions to over 1,500 businesses ranging in size from $500,000 to $35 million in revenue.
As National Head of Real Estate Relationship Banking at Macquarie Bank, he was responsible for strategy and direction, successfully leading and driving a national sales team to year-on-year growth in balance sheet footings. Most recently, his senior banking company role saw him develop and manage a portfolio of top-end NAB business customers and referral partners.
Key Skills
- Dealing with the funding requirements (cash flow, acquisition, growth capital) of thousands of businesses from micro through to emerging corporate.
- Advising on and facilitating debt structuring, business and succession planning.
- Sales leadership in B2B organisations, having led several high-calibre sales teams including Macquarie Bank’s national sales team of 30 specialist staff.
Education and qualifications
- Bachelor of Business (Majors in Banking and Finance and Management) from Queensland University of Technology
- Venture Capital Executive Program at University of California, Berkeley
- Moody’s Analytics: Financial Risk Assessment
Shaun Bassett
Partner
Richard Anderson
Professional Summary
Richard has been an entrepreneur and investor for 26 years. He worked in accounting (Grant Thornton and KPMG, Perth), finance and investment banking (Quadrex Securities, London) in Australia and the U.K. before establishing a financial consulting and investment firm, Evolve Capital (a principal funded investment firm).
He has founded and exited 3 businesses, including Jesters Jaffle Pie Co., a retail food outlet which he grew to 80 stores across Australia and New Zealand, then sold to the ASX-listed Australian Agricultural Company. He invested in Caporn Young, a single-office real estate business with 15 staff and 200 properties under management which he helped grow to 3 offices, 50 people and 700 properties under management in 3 years.
He also invested in The Healthy Food Chef, a health food café in Avalon which he rebranded to ‘Nourished – The Healthy Food Co,’ growing its annual revenue from $250,000 to $1 million before opening multiple stores and eventually exiting the business via a management buyout.
Key Skills
- Business development skills gained from starting, building and exiting multiple SME’s.
- Financial and management accounting and corporate finance deal structuring.
- Financial analysis, forecast modelling and valuation expertise.
- Financial reporting for businesses in a simplified manner that allows founders/CEOs to make fast decisions based on good data.
Education and qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from University of Western Australia
- Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance from the Securities Institute of Australia
- Chartered Accountant
- Venture Capital Executive Program at University of California, Berkeley
Richard Anderson
Partner + Finance Guru
Tanya Kirchner
PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY
Tanya has more than 20 years in the Venture Capital Industry. Prior to joining PieLAB Venture Partners Tanya worked at one of Australia’s earliest established venture capital firms CM Capital Investments and later at Talu Ventures in office management, fund administration and investor communications roles. She brings a significant level of experience in fund compliance to PieLAB and also provides administration support to the investment team.
KEY SKILLS
- Investor Communications
- Coordination of fund reporting and capital calls
- General Compliance Administration
- Office Administration
Tanya Kirchner
EA + Fund Administrator
Graeme McKellar
pROFESSIONAL sUMMARY
- Since 2008 after selling his software business to a large listed ICT firm, Graeme has been working with entrepreneurs and business leaders to assist them in achieving their goals and navigating challenges.
- Graeme is a graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
- Graeme is also a Certified Advisory at the Advisory Board Centre in Australia.
bIO
Graeme is an experienced entrepreneur and business advisor who provides independent advice to SME clients in the areas of growth, change and strategic finance activities. This includes preparing businesses for sale, facilitating access to growth capital and supporting M&A transactions. He also performs interim / part-time executive management roles, formal advisory and executive Board roles for clients, which are typically initiated after working with clients on commercial, growth and change strategies. Graeme’s key working relationships are with entrepreneurs, business owners, managers, shareholders and investors.
McKeller also provides due diligence advice to a number of investors, investment funds or corporate finance companies with transactions related to technology companies, particularly software-related or IP centric.
Prior to his current roles, Graeme worked in corporate environments and applied his business and IT skills to mining services companies and software businesses that built solutions for the global earth-moving equipment sector. This included senior management roles at Downer, Otraco and iSolutions, with responsibilities for undertaking project assurance, developing technology strategy, and business cases for growth. Graeme also explored growth strategies linked to acquisitions and facilitated the deal negotiations and due diligence process for a business sale to a listed Australian company.
Graeme’s business experience, which commenced in Australia in 2012, is built on extensive experience in South Africa in both business management and IT. In 2009 he co-founded a growth advisory business (Jala) focused on supporting and growing entrepreneurs and SME businesses in Africa. Jala later joined forces with a listed investment bank to win the program management role for Microsoft’s $50m equity equivalent investment into software technology businesses across South Africa.
