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MENTORS
Serial entrepreneur | Mentor | Drones
Josh Van Ross
Co-founder of Drone Light Shows, Josh has had a very non-traditional career path including WAAPA, classical singing, a business undergrad at UWA, the Army Reserves and starting 2 companies, acquiring shares in 2 more before more recently launching Drone Light Shows, the company who lit up Perth’s skies in February 2022. Josh is passionate about alternative career pathways, business development, workflow automation, networking, Latin dancing and saying yes to giving things a go.
How Josh supports Venturers?
Having been there and done it, Josh is your mentor! Josh will meet with you periodically to provide feedback and guidance on the development of your business.
Business development | Tech
Julian Coleman
With experience in companies such as Deloitte and Uber, working both internationally and in Australia, Julian now harness’s his interests in sales and tech at Servian, a technology consultancy with Australia's best technologists as a Business Development Manager.
How Julian supports Venturers?
Experienced in incubation creation, sales and tech Julian shares his network and knowledge to support sales generation, the development of resilience and teach students how to build rapport.
Marketing | Value proposition | Branding
Ruth Callaghan
Ruth Callaghan is a former journalist turned media and digital strategist with communications group Cannings Purple. She's worked extensively with corporates, start-ups, universities and brands on telling their story, connecting with audiences, and selling the dream. A UWA alum, she is a regular media and social media trainer, sometime journalism lecturer and freelance writer for magazines, online news sites and the Australian Financial Review.
How Ruth supports Venturers?
Ruth excels in engaging an audience, marketing, branding, value proposition. Ruth knows people and how to engage them and shares her wisdom with online guidance and personalised advice for each founder/team
Finance | Education | Investable
Shane LaVagna-Slater Phd
Now a product manager at Cash Converters Dr Lavagna-Slater has a wealth of experience in the corporate, consulting and academic worlds, combining broad business perspectives, strategy and academic theories into practical insights. His career has always focussed on finance, financial management and banking. More recently he has been involved with institutions at a board level.
Shane holds four degrees including a PhD in Business Management (Specialising in Finance) and three other finance and investment management degrees. He has also completed an executive education course at Harvard Business School, focussing on Strategic Leadership in Inclusive Finance.
Specialisations include Venture Capital and Private Equity. He has a keen interest in investing in listed and unlisted companies, as well as advisory to start-ups and SMEs.
How Shane supports Venturers:
Shane excels in talking finance in laments terms, working with students to get their cost and revenue structures right and advises us on how to get funding ready.