Walford Mentors


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Mentor Profiles - Sydney

David Barnett

David is a former General Counsel with Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd, Pancontinental Mining Ltd and Peko-Wallsend Ltd. He has had extensive experience as a director and company secretary in Australia and internationally.

His early career started in private practice with Pritchard & Co (now part of Clayton Utz). With over 35 years of experience in legal practice, David has also written and spoken on a variety of subjects, including mining, land rights, joint ventures and the role of the corporate lawyer.

John Brown

John was a partner with KPMG for over 26 years. He was a member of the KPMG National Board until June 2004 and past Chairman of the Audit Sub-committee.

His roles included Partner in Charge of the Information Risk Management practice in Australia and representative of the firm on the international IT and Information Risk Management Committees. John is currently serving on the audit committees of the University of NSW and the Departments of Commerce and Defence. He is Consultant to the Audit and Risk Committee of the ABC and a Director of Sydney Water Corporation.

Phillip Clark

Phil has 25 years experience as a Managing Partner, with Mallesons Stephen Jaques (1977-1992) and Minter Ellison (1995-2005). He also spent 15 years in executive roles with ABN Amro, CEO of a Visy Industries JV company and earlier in his career with Shell Australia.

Currently Phil is a member of the JP Morgan Advisory Council. He also serves on the Responsible Entity boards of listed and unlisted property trusts, St James Ethics Centre and the Garvan Foundation, and a Federal Government advisory group. During his career, Phil has worked with and advised general counsel of several organisations.

Margaret Cole

Ms. Cole is the global general counsel of international investment and specialised fund and asset management Group Babcock & Brown. Prior to joining Babcock & Brown in February 2005, Ms Cole was the executive and managing partner for the international law firm, White & Case LLP in Singapore. Ms Cole was a partner at White & Case for 10 years, working from the London, Bangkok and Singapore offices. In her private practice career, she had experience in various forms of financings, including limited recourse financings, securitizations, investment funds and private placements and restructurings. Prior to joining White & Case, Ms Cole worked in private practice in New York and Sydney (as a partner at Freehill Hollingdale & Page) and with the International Finance Corporation in Washington D.C.

Richard Fisher

Richard Fisher AM is General Counsel to the University of Sydney and an Adjunct Professor in the University?s Graduate School of Government. He is also a company director, including of a public listed company. Prior to joining the University, Richard was a partner for some 25 years in Blake Dawson and is its immediate past Chairman of Partners. Richard has been an International Consultant to the Asian Development Bank and was a Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission.

Raumann Gagnon

Raumann Gagnon has 25 years international experience in legal counsel roles within the resources sector, including 14 years with Elf Aquitaine's European offices. He qualified and practised law in Montreal, Canada as well as Sydney and Melbourne. His background covers the full range of oil and gas exploration, production, joint ventures, supply, distribution, trading and shipping agreements. He has an extensive knowledge of the European market and is comfortable in the English or French language.

Margaret Gibson

Margaret Gibson was a partner of
PricewaterhouseCoopers for over 20 years. She was partner in charge of taxation of the Sydney West office for six years. She was National Executive Director Industries, leader of the Technology Group and the National Leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers Government practice. She was a member of the Board of Partners of the firm. Margaret is currently a member of the Finance and Audit Committee of Australia Post.

John Harry

John was a corporate partner in Allens Arthur Robinson from 1982-2004. He was Managing Partner of the Singapore office from 1994-1998 and managed the Asian network from 1998-2001. He was a director of the firm and founded Allens Business Solutions, a corporate consultancy with Allens, in 2002. John has served on the boards of several listed companies and charities. He now owns Arcadis Capital, an investment bank specialising in managed funds origination.

Malcom Irving

Malcolm has been an active company director since 1990 following an accounting and merchant banking career culminating as Managing Director of CIBC Australia Limited. Previous roles include Chairman of Caltex Australia and a non-Executive director of Telstra Corporation. Currently he is Chairman of Keycorp Limited and a director of several companies including the Abacus Property Group. In addition he is Chairman of several government organizations and Deputy Chancellor of Macquarie University.

Graham Kelly

Graham has nearly 40 years experience in academic life, Government Service, Diplomatic Service and private legal practice.
He was a partner of Freehills specialising in corporate and government law. He was Managing Partner of the Sydney office from 1991-1995 and a National Chairman of the firm from 1993-1995. He has chaired several listed entities and is currently on the board of Colonial First State Private Capital and Tishman Speyer Office Fund and an Inspector of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Sibylle Krieger

Sibylle has 30 years of broad commercial experience as a lawyer, company director and economic regulator. She was a partner of 2 major law firms for 22 years and had several management roles with responsibility for professional staff hiring and career development, including evaluation of candidates for partnership. She has completed an MBA at Melbourne Business School and currently serves as one of 3 Tribunal members on the principal NSW economic regulator (IPART) in addition to her consultancy work.

Tom O'Callaghan

Tom was Group Company Secretary and General Counsel for the Citigroup banking and life insurance businesses in Australia and New Zealand up to 2005. He brings substantial strategic planning and practical experience within Australia and internationally, especially in the areas of corporate legal, governance and regulatory advice. He currently chairs the Board of the
Prince of Wales Hospital Foundation and is a consultant with Gilbert and Tobin.

Phillip Taylor

Phillip was the head of Freehills National Banking & Finance Group for a number of years following national integration and a member of Freehills National Executive. He was a partner for over 30 years and is currently a consultant to Freehills. Phillip is the Chairman of the Legal Aid Commission of New South Wales and the director of companies associated with ANZ Banking Corporation and Citigroup Limited.

Tony Tobin

Tony Tobin is one of the founding partners of Gilbert + Tobin, which is widely regarded as the most successful new law firm to emerge in Australia in the last 20 years.
Over that time it has grown from 2 to around 180 lawyers while maintaining a tight focus on its chosen areas of practice. He is now a consultant to the firm.
Tony Tobin has had extensive experience in corporate and commercial law throughout his 30 years as a lawyer as well as having been intimately involved in all aspects of law firm management and development. Tony also holds a number of directorships in both the public and private sector. He is also a member of the NSW Advisory Council of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.