The FundWA Team
We’ve intentionally developed a team that comes from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, offering your startup a bundle of insightful perspectives that you can apply to your business as well as specific 'been there, done that’ advice.
Our team includes a collective of highly accomplished General Partners – Glenn Butcher, Pia Turcinov AM, Dr Michael Nguyen and Asheesh Malaney – each bringing their wealth of knowledge, expertise and networks that extend across the life sciences, resources, technology, education and energy, government, innovation and finance sectors, and supported and enriched by venture partners, special advisors and an investment analyst.
Front L to R: Glenn Butcher, Pia Turcinov AM and Asheesh Malaney
Back L to R: Dr Michael Nguyen, Trent Rachow and Glenn Murray
Glenn
Butcher
Managing Director and CEO
Glenn Butcher is a technology company builder with 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles at major technology companies and organisations. Glenn is currently chairman of two technology companies, a director of two further start-ups, and the venture partner at CP Ventures, which runs two Australian based Venture Capital Funds, both now closed to investment. Both funds have achieved significant growth in value at over 50% per annum since inception.
Glenn started his career at the medical research organisation Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, and subsequently at the internet service provider Internode in a senior technical leadership role, before beginning his executive career as an early employee at Atlassian. He led the transformation of Atlassian to deliver its software as software-as-a service.
Subsequently to Atlassian, Glenn held executive roles at multiple start-ups or scaling companies across diverse technology sectors including Advertising Technology (AdTech), Finance Technology (Fintech), and others. Glenn held a founding role in creating Amazon’s Australia engineering, leading a global organisation, before entering venture capital. Glenn is a venture partner at CP Ventures, which operates two funds.
Pia
Turcinov AM
General Partner and Director
Pia has 30 years’ commercial and corporate experience across multiple industries. Pia brings commercial and corporate legal experience, and is well versed in governance systems, intellectual property protection, commercialisation and licensing strategies, and business structuring. Having practised in corporate, commercial and IP law, Pia transitioned into commercial advisory work in the private and public sector innovation spheres.
With expertise in the development of innovation systems, idea management processes, intra/entrepreneurship capacity building, training and mentoring, Pia has created and delivered multiple bespoke innovation programs and co-led Australian delegations into North America, Canada and Europe.
Pia holds a number of current board positions including Chair of the East Metropolitan Health Service and is the immediate past Chair of Women in Technology WA. In June 2023, Pia was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in the King's Birthday 2023 Honours List for her significant service to technology and innovation, and to women in STEM.
Pia has a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of NSW and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Michael
Nguyen
General Partner and Director
A/Prof Michael Nguyen is a cardiologist in Perth who has dedicated his career to the care of his patients as well as medical research and teaching/mentoring. Michael brings core life sciences experience to the Fund WA team, increasing the Manager’s capability across life sciences.
Michael has been a leader in cardiovascular research, including medical technology and cardiovascular device assessment and commercial implementation. He has been on advisory boards for several cardiovascular device and pharmaceutical companies including Boston Scientific, Medtronic and Abbott Vascular. He is currently also the Director of Clinical Trials and Research in the Department of Cardiology at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
He is a key opinion leader in the Asia-Pacific region and has been on the organising committee and faculty for many international and national conferences. He is passionate about supporting start-ups in the medical technology space and transitioning technology from bench to clinical practice and commercialisation.
Michael has also been a significant supporter of local startups and has invested at seed stage funding for several companies including lead investor forVitalTrace. Michael has also started several businesses of his own including one for the busiest cardiology companies in WA (Access Cardiology Pty Ltd) and a thriving sales and distribution company (Tyreline Australia Pty Ltd) for which he is a Director.
Asheesh
Malaney
General Partner and Director
Asheesh is an advisor at one of the world’s biggest early stage venture capital funds – Antler. He is also a co-founder, director, advisor and investor in various startups around the world.
Asheesh is a regular speaker and judge at startup events and competitions in London and Perth resulting in a wide network of players in the ecosystem in Australia, UK, USA and Asia. Prior to moving to Perth in 2020, Asheesh co-founded Tripifini, a San Francisco based global digital marketplace.
Asheesh’s previous experience includes building and managing a family office new venture fund, a leading global consulting firm in New York and London, where he advised blue chip firms and private equity companies like BBC, Sony, British Telecom and Bridgepoint Capital.
Asheesh has a Finance and Management degree from The Wharton School of Business (USA) and an MBA from INSEAD.
Emlyn
Scott
Special Advisor
Emlyn Scott sits on our Investment Committee and advises the Manager on fund structuring and portfolio management. Emlyn is the Managing Partner of CP Ventures, which runs two Australian based VC Funds. Both funds have achieved significant growth in value at over 50% per annum since inception. He is a successful founder and investor with approximately 50 personal investments in private tech companies including Kami, MGA Thermal, MealMe, Zainar, EnsuredIt and OpenMarkets Group.
He is also the founder of OpenMarkets Group, Australia's second-largest retail broker currently servicing more than 200,000 client accounts and clearing over $50bn annually. He was the former CEO of the National Stock Exchange of Australia, Australia’s second largest listing stock exchange, for four and a half years. Prior to that he was Head of Business Development at LCH. Clearnet for equities and CFDs in London for nine years, the world’s largest independent clearing house.
Emlyn has four finance-related degrees as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from CFA Institute, Masters Business Administration (MBA) from University of Edinburgh, Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment (GDAFI) from FINISA, and Bachelor of Economics (BEc) from Macquarie University.
Glenn
Murray
Venture Partner
Glenn is a former Chief Executive Officer/ Managing Director with 20+ years of professional experience, gained in multiple industries. Glenn has built an innovation capability within a tier 1 engineering consulting firm and was the Managing Director and CEO of a cybersecurity start-up company.
Glenn has significant experience as a Director focusing on technology driven innovation projects. This involved building multi-discipline project teams, understanding strategies, embracing innovation, and building technology road maps. Glenn has extensive experience in leading multi-million dollar projects in ASX listed companies across multiple departments, including innovation projects across the oil and gas, public, mining, heavy vehicle manufacturing, mining, defence (Electronic Warfare) and telecommunication industries.
Glenn has built an extensive global network of intelligence, innovation & technology and cybersecurity professionals including c-suite level. This, combined with a passion for technology and innovative solutions, allows him to be up to date with the latest technology, as well as the competitive landscape within the industry. He has a proven history of thought leadership in innovation through presenting at industry events, TEDx, magazine publications, academic publications, news articles and media interviews.
He is in his final stages completing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Cybersecurity, when combined with a focus on strategic design, digital transformation, innovation and organisational effectiveness, allows for technology and digitally enabled outcomes. Glenn also holds a Masters in Systems Engineering and a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering with 1st class Honors from the University of New South Wales.
Trent
Rachow
Analyst
Trent is a recent graduate of the University of Western Australia, after studying finance and marketing. During his time at university, he worked with Ammo Marketing to get hands-on with local startups and their growth marketing functions.
Later, Trent became a Student Fellow at AfterWork Ventures. Trent worked with the General Partners and witnessed the fund grow to over one hundred community members whilst working on deal flow and due diligence. Trent has also undertaken several research projects, advising founders on key aspects of their business.
Trent has lived in Perth his entire life and is endlessly passionate about Western Australia’s innovation ecosystem. He’s excited to be able to continue to support founders through FundWA.