Mr Larry Lopez (Chair)
Principal Consultant, Australian Venture Consultants

Larry Lopez is Executive Director of RedDog Capital Partners, a technology focused investment bank based in Western Australia. Prior to co-founding RedDog Capital Partners, Mr Lopez spent 18 years at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Financial Group, a publicly traded US bank (NASDAQ: SIVB) occupying a variety of executive roles including President of the SVB private bank, Managing Director of SVB Securitises and Managing Director of the International Venture Group. During his tenure at SVB the company managed several billion dollars of funds ranging from venture capital and private equity to fund of funds. Mr Lopez served on various management committees of the Bank including the Bank’s Loan Committee, Information Technology Committee, Internet Committee, International Committee, Joint Leadership Committee and Employee Recognition Committee. During Mr Lopez’s tenure at SVB, beginning in 1997, the group made over 300 investments.

Whilst Mr Lopez was the Managing Director of SVB’s International Venture Capital Group (SVB Global Financial Services), he was responsible for working with foreign venture capitalists, investors and businesses to facilitate foreign technology and life science companies interested in expanding to the United States. In this capacity he was also responsible for the Bank’s foreign venture capital activities and investments in Europe, Australia, Israel and New Zealand. Mr Lopez also worked with government agencies in Australia, England, Israel, Sweden and New Zealand to assist investment communities with the development of venture capital policy and investment models to enhance growth in emerging technology and life science sectors.

Mr Lopez has served as non-executive Chairman of Steele Productions in Belmont, California and Atrico in Perth, Australia. He was on the investment committee at the IdeaHub in London and on the Advisory Boards of eChron in Stockholm and Crossbow Ventures in West Palm Beach, Florida. Mr Lopez is currently on the Advisory Boards of Bandwidth Capital, Blumberg Capital and Stone Ridge Ventures. Mr Lopez is non-executive director of NWQ Capital Management.

Mr Lopez earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Menlo College and is a graduate of Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington. In 1980 Mr Lopez completed a six-month internship at the Council for Inter-American Security in Washington, DC, where he focussed on open market economic policy in developing economies. Mr Lopez is fluent in Spanish and English.

Mr Jan Dekker
Principal, CleanTech Ventures

Jan is a career cleantech investment professional. He has been employed in a variety of senior executive roles within the cleantech arena for over 20 years. Prior to founding Cleantech Ventures, Jan was the Managing Director of the Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies, an early stage venture fund manager targeting new sustainable energy technology investments. Previously he was an Associate Director at the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA) in NSW where he was responsible for managing its renewable energy business units (solar, wind, co-generation, waste coal mine gas, green power and bio-energy), and the company’s Renewables Investment Fund – a project investment vehicle. Jan has also held positions with Sydney Water, the NSW EPA and as an environmental consultant.

Jan holds a Masters Degree in Environmental Law from Sydney University, a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies from Macquarie University, a Bachelor of Science from Macquarie University and Graduate qualifications in Applied Finance from FINSIA. He serves on the boards of several investments.

Mr Ricky Osborne
Business Development Officer, Ngarda Civil and Mining

Ricky has extensive experience in coordinating interaction between commercial interests and indigenous communities. He has recently joined Ngarda as a Business Development Officer for the Pilbara region. Ricky has unique insight into community development and indigenous and aboriginal issues.

Prior to joining Ngarda, Ricky was Community Relations Manager for the New Future Alliance, Northern Territory. He was responsible for the management and delivery of various research and development and consultancy projects, including an award winning cross-cultural training program for the BHP Billiton Newman workforce.

Ricky was Executive Officer, Curtin University Centre of Aboriginal Studies. He was responsible for the management, leadership and overall direction of the Centre including representation at senior inter-intra University, State, National and International levels.

In addition Ricky was Managing Director of the Pilbara Meta Maya Aboriginal Corporation, a community-based not-for-profit organisation located in Port Hedland. He was responsible for rebuilding a nearly bankrupt company into a leading Aboriginal business. He has also served as the Employment Services Manager at the Karratha-Pilbara Office of Job Futures that held several Federal Government contracts. The primary objective of the organisation was to provide training and facilitate the creation of employment opportunities for unemployed individuals, and in particular long term unemployed Aboriginal people seeking employment. In this capacity, he was required to simultaneously develop strong relationships and networks with the most diverse of stakeholders in remote communities, industries and key employers as well as Government and Non-Government Departments and agencies across the Pilbara, WA and nationally.