Entrepreneurs Panel

"BOOMERNOMICS - Inside the head of WA's young guns"

Introducing this year's panel members

Julie Smith-Massara

Julie Smith-Massara is co-founder of Australian Mine Services, a specialist provider of engineering and maintenance services to the mining industry. In just 4 years, AMS has become a recognised industry leader.

In 2006, Julie became the ‘face’ of AMS through her successful participation in a number of awards and commendations including the BRW Fast 100, WA Business News Rising Star Awards and WA Business News 40under40 Awards.

In addition to her business activities, Julie is a devoted mother of two, part-time model and energetic supporter of various charities.

David Simmons

David Simmons, then CEO of Key Group, rose to the challenge after seeing one of their former clients, TSG, fall on hard times due to forces outside its control. Personally setting about ways to keep the company alive, David discovered the best option was to acquire the company lock, stock and barrel and amalgamate it with TSG – which was successfully achieved in 2006.

The TSG Key Group has since then grown significantly becoming a new commercial entity and a major influence in the WA engineering sector.

Michael Malone

Michael was the founder of iiNet and has seen the company grow from humble beginnings in 1993 to a Public Company with revenues of over $200 million dollars in 2006. Having been involved in the Internet industry since its commercial inception in Australia, Michael has been President of the WA Internet Association from 1996 to 2002, board member and Chairman of the .au Domain Administration and one of the founders of Electronic Frontiers Australia. He is presently a member of the Advisory Board of the Australian Institute of Management and a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Michael has won an industry lifetime Achiever award in the WA Information Technology and Telecommunications Awards in 2005. He was the winner of the Business News Award in 2006 for the most outstanding business leader in WA under the age of 40, and the Young Leader of the Year in the JML Australia Human Capital Leadership Awards in the same year.

Stephen Lauder

AHS Hospitality was formed in July 1993 and is now Australia’s largest provider of outsourcing labour services to the hotel accommodation industry. With offices around Australia they have a workforce of over 3000 employees in over 120 hotels. The outsourced hospitality services model pioneered by Stephen is quietly revolutionising the hospitality industry and by maintaining its market share, AHS is set to capitalise on this growth in the years ahead.

Stephen has won many awards including the Western Region winner of Ernst & Young’s 2005 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Services category. Mr Lauder cites personal attributes such as calculated risk taking, overcoming obstacles and learning from past experiences as some of the key factors behind his entrepreneurial success.

Peter Harold

Peter holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Chemistry from the University of Melbourne. He established Sally Malay Mining in 2001 and has taken the Company from the initial Sally Malay Project acquisition, through IPO, feasibility study, financing, construction and into the operational phase. The business has grown from a blank sheet of paper into a significant nickel producer with two operating mines and a market cap of $150 million.

Peter started his career with Shell Australia before joining Australian Consolidated Minerals in 1989 as Marketing Manager for the Golden Grove Project.  After the takeover of ACM by Normandy, Peter worked for Normandy as Manager Minerals Marketing until he joined MPI Mines in 1992 as Commercial Executive in Melbourne. In 1999 Peter joined the AWI group of Companies with specific responsibility for the Cawse laterite nickel project. In 2001 he was enticed back to Perth to run Sally Malay and enjoy the unique lifestyle.