Dave Curtis Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Vic, Au

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

My passion is to guide or help individuals and teams to achieve important breakthroughs to both business and personal challenges. As a result, I have worked with, advised or coached the founders or executives of commercial businesses, charitable organisations, family offices and social enterprises across a range of industries as diverse as regnerative agriculture, business model accelerators, digital marketing, education, event management, hospitality, investment, management consulting, product innovation & services, talent management and wellbeing.This work builds on my deep experience with starting and running businesses, my skill set as a professional and an investment manager, as well as my leadership roles in the for profit and not for profit sectors. All of which has helped me to build a unique knowledge base and skill set to utilise in the creation of new approaches and business models in the for purpose space.Enhancing decision making capability and enabling transformational 'mindset' shifts, particularly in relation to strategic challenges, operational hurdles, personal performance and overall impact, is at the heart of the wonderful coaching and consulting work I do in service of others. And finding the courage to lead and collaborate with emotional intelligence, coming from a place of love, is what inspires me to continue doing this work when it calls to me.

Auckland, New Zealand

Soul Capital was born out of the collective experience of its founders exploring models of change from backgrounds of international community development, venture investment, business advisory, and social entrepreneurship : www.soul.capitalSoul Capital is a pioneering impact investment fund manager and ecosystem builder that:• provided access to early catalytic capital through the now closed The Awhi Fund, which invested in and supports social enterprises and social businesses primarily in NZ;• manages Te Pae ki te Rangi, an impact first fund focused on investing in enterprises & ventures that are based in, or creating value for, Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) and Te Taitokerau (Northland) with social, environmental or cultural impact at the core of their business model; and• undertakes a variety of ecosystem building activities in the impact investing space in NZ.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Constellate was a wonderful opportunity to collaborate with my founding co-director for almost 4 years on the development of an impact venture based in Australia with a no harm, values aligned approach to investing, which sought to draw upon our diverse backgrounds ranging from business, investment management, community development and health & wellbeing. We felt there was a need for change within the various communities we'd operated in for more than two decades. Our aim was to get behind and back with capital, as well as other forms of support, entrepreneurs, ventures and projects that provide a vehicle of service for the wider community to thrive from. One of these resulted in providing the seed funding to, and supporting th wonderful work of, Soul Capital in NZ.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ntegr!ty is an award-winning digital strategy agency and a leading voice in digital marketing in Australia. Initially, I started out as a coach and mentor to its founder and CEO, Richenda Vermeulen, helping her to launch and build ntegrity. My role then became an advisor to the lead team, working with them to develop the mindset to manage the organisational challenges that come with rapid growth. For a number of years, I was a founding member of ntegrity's Advisory Board, which met quarterly with senior management to review both the strategic direction and the operational performance of the organisation. Over this time Ntegrity developed the experience, know-how and team to do this work without the need for oversight from an external board and, from its humble beginnings, has developed into an incredible, full service agency for not for profits and purpose drive organisations: www.ntegrity.com.au

Engaged as a strategy consultant by IIA: www.impactinvestingaustralia.com, I assisted with the design and development of the social enterprise ecosystem for the Asia Pacific region as part of an incredible project brief from DFAT's innovationXchange. As part of this engagement, I also co-lead missions that attended SOCAP in San Francisco and the Sankalp Forum in Jakarta, facilitating meetings with key stakeholders, conducting insight gathering roundtable events and running design workshops. And contributed to the project work product and final design recommendations for the innovationXchange: www.ixc.dfat.gov.au.

World Vision is one of the world's largest international aid & development NGOs, with incredible grass roots network of staff + projects across the globe helping 100+ million people in the developing world. Over 6 years, I held senior leadership roles in innovation, business development, strategy and operations in the following reverse order:Innovation:Working as part of a small strategic team, I was responsible for exploring and developing alternative economic models & innovative programs beyond the organisation’s traditional core ‘business’. This involved building strategic foresight as to how the future of development sector was likely to unfold and helping to accelerate the progress of existing innovation projects, which align with that emerging future. Plus originate new innovations to help fill in key gaps identified within the organisation's overall strategic portfolio. My journey finished by helping to launch Good 4 Business set up to create a pipeline of social businesses and partnerships to help fund and 'future proof'​ World Vision’s work.Strategy:Prior to this, I was Group Strategy Adviser tasked with a brief to assist in the refinement and implementation of a new 3 year strategy for the engagement of the Australian public and the development of market driving capabilities within World Vision's Engagement team – a division responsible for generating ~$250m in annual revenues, together with a broad range of non-fundraising activities.Operations:While recruiting a new GM of Operations, I took on this additional role - in an acting capacity - with responsibility for:* managing the operations & budget of the Engagement team with over 200 FTE and ~$30m in operating costs; and* chairing and coordinating a newly implemented Go-To-Market function for World Vision's fundraising operations.Adviser:My amazing chapter with World Vision began as a part time adviser working with the Exec team whilst I was helping to launch Small Giants.

Small Giants is a privately owned, social impact group focused on developing, nurturing and empowering businesses and their leaders to create a more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable world: www.smallgiants.com.au. Proudly, it was the first Australian organsiation to be:* certified a "B corp" using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems; and* recognised as a "social investment pioneer" by the UN Global Compact & Principles for Social Investment Secretariat.Initially, I had the privilege of working closely with the founders - Danny Almagor & Berry Liberman - to realise their vision and launch Small Giants in 2008 (whilst also consulting part time with World Vision). Then, early in 2012, I was asked to set up a Strategic Advisory Group helping to manage and maintain that vision and operate as an investment review forum, as well as working closely with and mentoring members of the investment team.Small Giants then went on to co-found the Impact Investment Group: www.impact-group.com.au, a leading impact investment group with a professional team of investment managers and impact advisers managing a significant portfolio of funds. In 2015 I transitioned out my role, shifting to an informal adviser to the extended Small Giants family and its portfolio of social businesses, including the Giant Leap Fund.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

My role with the NPT Group - now Australia's largest privately owned, non-emergency patient transport business: www.nptgroup.com.au - was to help its private equity owners drive and deliver a growth business development strategy over a 2 year time frame. Principally, this involved the merger of a number of providers in the industry, the acquisition and retention of key service contracts with most of the major hospital network in metro and regional Victoria and the development of new, high margin lines of business. In addition, I was tasked with managing the 24/7 operations of the Group, which involved more than 9,000 patient transports a month from 3 metropolitan and 5 regional branches, utilising over 300 staff and a fleet of more than 100 ambulance vehicles. During this time, we achieved significant improvements in operational efficiencies and operating costs and, importantly, strengthened the foundations of the business to enable further expansion interstate and attract further private capital.A decade later, ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited, a global transportation company listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange and one of the world’s largest land transport companies, acquired the NPT Group.

Launched in 1998, this was a 'first of its kind' boutique clothing and accessories retail business that manufactured (in Australia) its own cult label, ‘Genki’. In addition to being a founding shareholder of this enterprise inspired by my former partner's creative vision, I was financial controller.Later, I took on the role of General Manager for a couple of years to assist with the expansion of Genki's retail store presence and, at the same time, to provide greater flexibility for us to spend more time with our (at the time) young children.Seeing where the wider industry was heading, we developed and launched an ecommerce platform in 2008 and, by the end of the following year, Genki converted to an online business model. Almost 5 years later, in July 2014, my former partner made the difficult decision to close down the online store and bring to an end what had been a wonderful journey for over 15 years. Genki still continues to enjoy somewhat of a "cult following" today.

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Initially I was tasked by the Board to manage the build of the firm's private equity division and launch the Goldman Sachs JBWere Private Equity Fund, at the time, the largest retail private equity fund in Australia (~$145m). After its launch, I was appointed Investment Director and helped manage this Fund, which invested in private enterprises and early stage businesses in rapidly growing and emerging sectors within Australasia.During this time, I held Board positions with a number of investee businesses including Traffion Technologies Pty Ltd - a start-up software company that developed a unique web based tracking and measurement technology for marketing analytics - and Cerylid Biosciences Ltd - a biotech drug discovery and development company that had an anti-cancer compound and anti-thrombotic agent in preclinical trials, as well as an extensive library of natural & biodiverse product samples for drug discovery.As Goldman Sachs started to integrate its private equity teams across the Asia Pacific, I made the decision to leave my role to help grow my former partner's business and share responsibility for parenting my young children (which, at that time, was not possible in such a role).

I was recruited with a two fold brief to develop a strong in house legal division and enhance the areas of practice focused on assessing legal risks of corporate advisory and M&A transactions, advising on:* internally & externally funded investment products; and * implementing a global standard regulatory compliance & governance system. At the same time, I was given responsibility by the Board for managing and coordinating the legal and commercial aspects of some of the firm's major cross functional projects. On completion of these, I was invited to move across into the firm's corporate advisory area to help build its private equity division.

As a member of the firm's corporate advisory practice group, I worked with company owners and boards (both private and public) on range of venture investments, M&A transactions, capital raisings, ASX listings and various aspects of corporate decision making, management, risk mitigation and governance.Towards the end of my time with Minters, I completed a 6 month secondment as legal counsel of the group of four (at the time) listed Greenchip investment companies tasked with:* completing a number of critical investment transactions; and * project managing the review of under performing 'venture' investments within the Group's portfolio.This opportunity to utilise more of my business management skills led me to a decision to move on from my incredible time at Minters and explore more commercial challenges.

Class Act Waiters was a start-up hospitality service that I co-founded with a classmate whilst we were studying law at university. It grew rapidly into a casual workforce of around 200 personnel hired on contract to most of the major hotels in Melbourne, a number of professional firms, investment banks and corporations as well as to major entertainment and sporting events. After almost 3 and a half years of one of the most intense, personal growth experiences, I resigned so that I could focus on completing my final year of law. The business was sold in the following year to a larger industry competitor.

Inner Mba Certification, The Inner Mba Program Online

Exec Ed - Strategic Innovation & Design Thinking

Exec Ed - Psychology Of Executive Coaching

Ba Llb

Hsc - Matriculation