Venture capital
for the real world

Rohan Workman has been an integral part of the Australian startup ecosystem for over a decade as a company founder, investor, advisor and director. He co-founded Skalata in 2018 and is responsible for fund strategy, portfolio construction, and overall investment fund performance. Rohan is a Director of the Skalata Ventures board and subsidiary companies, a Responsible Manager under Skalata’s Australian Financial Services License, and a member of the Investment Committee.

Prior to Skalata, Rohan co-founded RosterCloud, a B2B SaaS company providing HR solutions to hospitality companies which was acquired by an ASX-listed business.  Rohan has also led a number of entrepreneurial initiatives at the University of Melbourne, including being the inaugural Director of the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP).

Rohan is a graduate of the University of Melbourne where he gained a Bachelor of Commerce.

Maxine Lee has been advising and investing in seed-stage companies for over a decade.  In her role at Skalata, Maxine is responsible for Skalata's deal sourcing strategy, selection process, and ensuring high-quality investment decisions are made. Additionally, Maxine is responsible for portfolio management and company support to improve investment fund performance.  Maxine is a member of both the Investment Committee and the Finance, Audit and Risk Management (FARM) Committee.

Previously, Maxine worked at the University of Melbourne where she led a number of entrepreneurial initiatives, including the Melbourne Accelerator Program (MAP). She has also held roles in marketing, brand consulting, and advertising.

Maxine obtained a Bachelor of Commerce and Master of Management Accounting at the University of Melbourne.

Anthony Glenning is a seasoned Investment Professional and Non-Executive Director with a career spanning 25 years in the software development industry, 14 of those in Silicon Valley. In 1999, he founded Tonic Systems, a web application development company that was acquired by Google in 2007 as part of the Google doc suite of products.

From 2010 to 2018, Tony was the Investment Director for Starfish Ventures, a venture capital firm that specialises in Australian high growth technology businesses. During that time Anthony held directorships at Aktana, Atmail, DesignCrowd, MetaCDN and Nitro Software. Anthony is also a Non-Executive Director of ASX listed Pro Medicus (ASX:PME) and Azure Healthcare (ASX:AZV). He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) and a Bachelor of Computer Science from The University of Melbourne, and a Master of Science (MSEE) from Stanford University in California.

Paul arrives at Skalata with 14 years of experience as CFO and acting Managing Director of the Future Fund – Australia's Sovereign wealth fund. He is a CFA Charterholder and a Chartered Accountant with an extensive audit background in financial services gained in Australia and the UK. Paul also has five years’ experience in the provision of fund accounting and tax reporting services to investment clients gained at National Custodian Services in Melbourne.

Sarah has extensive startup and technology sector experience, having previously worked in San Francisco at Australian-founded PDF software company Nitro. Originally from California, Sarah began her career in San Francisco’s booming technology industry. She has seven years’ experience in program administration, project management, and operations and relocated to Melbourne in 2018. Sarah worked at Nitro for just over five years and saw the company grow from 60 to 200 people. Sarah oversees venture development administration, culture, office and is the Executive Assistant to the CEO.

Tom is an enthusiastic, but relative newcomer to the Australian startup ecosystem, having started his career in the corporate world. Prior to joining Skalata, Tom spent over five years working for leading Australian corporate law firm King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) in the Corporate M&A team, advising clients in the financial services, technology and telecommunications sectors on a wide array of commercial transactions. He holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University. He is also completing a Graduate Certificate in Finance from Macquarie University.

Justine brings experience in both investment banking and law, having worked at top financial institutions in Sydney. She worked at Morgan Stanley for four years in the global capital markets team raising debt and equity funding for ASX-listed companies and government entities across multiple products and jurisdictions. Prior to this, Justine began her career as a lawyer working for Macquarie Bank within Group Treasury for three years and was responsible for debt financing arrangements and hybrid public offerings. Earlier in her legal career, she worked at Ashurst in the litigation and corporate team.

Justine has a track record of building and maintaining trusted client relationships as well as originating and executing deals. She holds a Bachelor of Law (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce with a major in Finance from Monash University.

Mark is a strategic advisor, board member and executive coach for a number of tech companies in Australia and the US. For the last two decades, he has worked within the venture capital community in Silicon Valley, as well as companies ranging from early-stage startups to the Fortune 500. In addition to holding roles as CEO of SkyPilotNetworks, Associate Partner at Mobius Venture Capital (SoftBank) and directing product strategy at Preview Systems, Mark spent 10 years at Apple where he worked in technical, marketing and international management roles, building platform ecosystems.

Shahirah is an award-winning entrepreneur and currently co-founder of Finch, a data intelligence company. She is one of Australia’s leading women in tech, and was recognised as the country’s “Rising Fintech Star” in 2018. Shahirah is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion, and is a founding advisory member of The Giant Warm Intro at Rampersand VC. Previously, she was a board member of Girls in Tech Australia.

Guy is a strategic technology leader who co-founded Australia's longest running real time video streaming company (mView). He then applied his start-up mindset to the corporate, world joining Telstra and working to define and build their software developer program, API strategy, global software growth strategy and innovation & incubation methodology framework. He also led software and design specialists building growth businesses at Telstra Labs and mentored startups in Telstra’s global Accelerator muru-D.

Claire began her career in Academia, obtaining a PhD from Monash University where she went on to hold a Lecturer position. During this time, she led the delivery of multiple tertiary courses across the undergraduate and postgraduate spaces, and was involved in a range of research projects spanning multiple fields. Claire has also previously founded her own startup, which she scaled to a community of over 14,000 women. She has hands on experience in launching and running a company, with an intimate understanding of the early-stage founder journey.

After cutting his teeth consulting at PwC and providing finance to medium enterprises at NAB, Tuong founded two strategy design studios focused on delivering greater product-market fit for clients.

This experience allowed him to build expertise in financing, applying CX frameworks for businesses, building business relationship frameworks, and applying design thinking approaches to problem solving. His work over his career has spread across high growth early stage startups, scaleups, disruptors and traditional incumbents in the finance, B2C, DTC, and education sector, giving him a unique perspective of the world.

Outside of work, you can find him hiking a long winding trail in the bush, or scaling a big rock wall.

With a double degree in Law and Commerce, Rob turned down a conventional corporate path to go work at a startup while living in Canada. This led him to Yardly (a marketplace for yard care & snow removal), where Rob eventually became Operations Manager. Rob then combined his passion for podcasting and tech by heading up Customer Success at Supercast (a platform that lets podcasters sell subscriptions).

Tired of the cold Canadian winters, Rob returned home to Australia to join the world of VC.

Mei brings more than 15 years of corporate accounting and finance experience to Skalata Ventures. Originally working as a Chartered Accountant at KPMG, she has subsequently worked across a diverse range of industries including hospitality, logistics and FMCG. Mei has a keen interest in finance partnering and has a strong commercial acumen which is reflected in the success in her previous roles as Commercial Manager and Finance Partner at Toll Holdings and GlaxoSmithKline respectively. Mei is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Curtin University.

Chris is a highly skilled senior finance and technology executive with over 21 years of experience in the financial services industry. He has strong skills in strategic planning, change management, financial analysis, process improvement and leveraging technology to achieve corporate goals.

Sam has over 10 years of international marketing experience, and has helped accelerate growth in both early-stage and ASX-listed financial and technology companies. Originally from New Zealand, Sam crossed the ditch in 2018 and immediately immersed himself within Melbourne’s thriving startup scene. Specialising in the areas of content strategy and marketing automation, Sam is also well-versed in all forms of early-stage funding (venture, CSF, revenue-based, debt). He is passionate about ensuring Australia’s leading early-stage companies are afforded the marketing support they need to prosper.