Success Stories from Catherine Robson

Justin Quay is the Founder of Shroogle, a start-up company that is building out an online personal finance hub for mainstream Australians.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine speaks with Justin about his experiences in Financial Services and the background that led to Shroogle. He's in the process of building out a series of modules that will eventually comprise a one-stop fully-connected comprehensive advice solution.With financial advice becoming more expensive and increasingly difficult to access due to the attrition of adviser numbers following the Royal Commission into Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services, Justin believes the future of financial advice is digital. This is because digital introduces a high degree of rigour and transparency to the process and the high scalability of digital is key to making high quality and objective advice much more accessible and affordable for mainstream Australians.This interview was recorded in January 2020.

Pascale Helyar-Moray is the CEO of Super Rewards, a start up company that partners with Australia retailers to top up your super when you shop online.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson speaks with Pascale after the October launch of Super Rewards. Pascale's business aims to address the gender imbalance of Australia's superannuation funds. Women retire with 42% less super than men and only enough for six years of retirement. Pascale tells Catherine where this idea started, how scalable she thinks it is and why Barbie might be the key to switching off.Catherine and Success Stories are taking a break. If you want to hear more interviews with inspiring women, Catherine is involved in a new podcast from Scale Investors. You can find it here: https://scaleinvestors.com.au/podcasts

According to her LinkedIn profile, Gwen Sandberg is Business Development Director, Tink AB, Fintech Ladies Ambassador, Pre-school President and Supermom! In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson speaks with Sweden-based Gwen during Melbourne's intersekt Festival. Gwen has experience with Google, Web MD and now Tink. Gwen leads the sales team for Tink's API-developer platform. Gwen and Catherine chat about her move from Texas to Sweden, how she empowers her sales team and why Sweden, as a country, is a successful start-up incubator.

Simone Joyce is the managing director of Paypa Plane which she founded in January 2018.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson chats with Lauren during Melbourne's intersekt Festival. Sometimes jokingly referred to as Brisvagas, Australia’s third largest city does not have reputation as hot bed of tech innovation. However fintech success story Paypa Plane founder and Fintech Australia board member Simone Joyce suggests that growing a start up a bit off the beaten track can have real advantages.

Lauren Capelin, Head of Venture Community at Reinventure and board member of fintech Australia.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson chats with Lauren during Melbourne's intersekt Festival. Their discussion touches upon Lauren's passions: specialist corporate social innovation and fostering entrepreneurial capacity, particularly in women. Lauren shares her thoughts on how businesses can foster community and why it's important to think of community as more than just active on social media.

Nilixa Devlukia is an Open Banking and Regulatory Payments Expert and an international Speaker. In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson chats with Nilixa during Melbourne's intersekt Festival. As a foremost expert on open banking, Nilixa shares what its introduction means for Australia and why having deep expertise in a specific field can make you more likely to be in the right place at the right time in your career.

Rebecca Schot-Guppy is the General Manager at FinTech Australia. FinTech Australia represents over 300 companies in Australia on key policy issues and supports the local fintech ecosystem with events and partnerships - like Melbourne's intersekt Festival. In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson chats with Rebecca during Melbourne's intersekt Festival. Rebecca tells Catherine about her path from corporate lawyer to representative of this growing financial sector. Rebecca is putting her leadership skills to use in her role managing a remote team. At the moment, she's pursuing an MBA at Melbourne Business School. Rebecca has advice for young professionals and has he sights set on an even bigger goal.

Dr Misty Jenkins is a leading scientist in cancer research at the Walter Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, (WEHI). Misty researches in the area of immunology and cell biology, and understanding how immune cells kill cancer cells.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine catches up with Dr Misty Jenkins at WEHI to learn how her research is combatting some of the world's deadliest cancers including brain cancer. She also talks about work life balance, gender inequity in STEM and how she inoculates her emails every day... you can take a doctor out of a lab, but you can't take the lab out of the doctor.

Anna Donaldson is Founder and CEO of Lively, a social enterprise that brings young and older people together to support each other.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine catches up with Anna Donaldson to learn about how a stint as a 'life writer', yes that is a real thing, got her thinking about how society views the elderly, loneliness and young people. This led Anna to create Lively an organisation that works to tackle these huge social issues, with a mission of, "No young or older person feels unwanted or undervalued because of their age". Lively is growing and so is Anna's confidence in her role as a leader.For more information about Lively: https://lively.org.au

Samantha Ludolf is Deputy Director, Strategy and Operations at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) of Medical Research in Melbourne.In this episode of Success Stories, Catherine visits Samantha Ludolf at WEHI in Melbourne research and medical precinct. Samantha is originally from the UK but always had a fascination with Australia. It was a professional opportunity that brought her here and she's gone from success to success. She's a skilled negotiator and led the WEHI team that successfully sold partial rights to leukemia drug Venetoclax in a $348 million deal that was an Australia-first. She's an advocate for equal representation in the work place and creating opportunities for children to have access to STEM from an early age, because Sam believes, education is your ticket to anywhere - it saved her.

Jodie Hampshire is Managing Director for Australia at Russell Investments. She has the responsibility for Russell Investment’s Australian business across Institutional and Advisor and Intermediaries Solutions.In this episode of Success Stories, Jodie Hampshire chats with Catherine Robson about her international experience. Jodie helps make sense of the importance of the role of a financial advisor through The Value of an Adviser formula. Jodie survived breast cancer, has adopted three of her children from Sierra Leone and volunteers in her free time. She's well-practiced in choosing her priorities and have found intuitive parenting to be very helpful.Jodie mentioned this site as a resource in her interview: https://www.brainpickings.org/

Nicole Mardell is Senior Global Equities Analyst at Bell Asset Management in Melbourne, Australia.In this episode of Success Stories, Nicole Mardell chats with Catherine Robson about how her love of maths set up her trajectory into finance. Nicole took a risk and moved to London where she spent 10 years before moving back to Australia. She works for Bell Asset Management where she researches eligible stocks across the cap spectrum. When she's not at work she's a mum to three young children and would love to carve out some time to read more books.

Anna Leibel is Chief Delivery and Information Officer with accountability for member administration, IT, project delivery and the Digital Delivery Centre for Uni Super's $82+ billion fund.In this episode of Success Stories, Anna Leibel joins Catherine Robson for an in-depth discussion. Picture a 21 year old with enough savings to build a house. Now that same women is looking after 400,000 members of Uni Super. Plus, she's a qualified yoga instructor who claims that may have been the most physically challenging thing she's done. Anna is balancing people and technology and explains how she thinks everyone can get along in the future.

Recorded at the Scale investors portfolio day in 2019, this is a very special group interview going behind the scenes to understand the collaboration between entrepreneurs and investors in early stage, high growth potential companies.This discussion is led by Dr Anabela Correia, the CEO of medical device company Livac. The respect of her lead investor and Scale angel Penelope Lane is palpable and together they share the gruelling journey to successfully raise money as a medical device company and the exciting future they see ahead.

Cyan Ta'eed is the Founder at Milkshake.app, Hey Tiger and Envato.In this episode of Success Stories, Cyan Ta'eed joins Catherine Robson for an in-depth discussion about the origin story of Envato, one of Australia's most successful technology companies. Now with Envato's success more than assured, Cyan has branched out into a social enterprise focused on chocolate and even the app space. She tells Catherine about how she's learning to say no, the importance of surrounding yourself with good people and why the company never said yes to external funding.

Annette King is co-founder of Galileo Platforms, the blockchain enable technology company, revolutionising back office administration for the insurance sector across theAsia Pacific region.In this episode of Success Stories, Annette and Scale angel investors Pen Lewin and Vicky Papachristos talk with Catherine Robson. Annette tells Catherine why the insurance industry is ready for disruption. Pen and Vicky outline what they look for in companies and what is appealing about founder-led businesses. and the three of them, share learnings from the journey to date and the exciting future ahead, and for full disclosure Catherine is also a very enthusiastic investor in Galileo Platforms.

Sarah Last is the CEO and co-founder of Mimictec which has developed the ingenious PeckTec system for use in commercial poultry shed.In this episode of Success Stories, founder Sarah Last, and investors Lisa Galbraith and Maryjane Crabtree give Catherine Robson a behind the scenes look at the collaboration between entrepreneurs and investors in early stage technology companies. Sarah, Lisa and Maryjane share their individual learnings from the journey to date and the exciting future ahead. And Sarah explains why a couple of weeks with baby chooks is so relaxing.

Kate Weidenhofer is Head of Australia at Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network connecting the world’s leading asset managers to one of the largest pools of liquidity.In this episode of Success Stories, Kate Weidenhofer chats with Catherine Robson about her unconventional path to success - saying no thank you to higher education, and choosing to learn by doing. Kate has been in her role for just over a year and is finding the confidence to say - "I deserve this". Plus, how she unwinds with Real Housewives and Oprah and how a Liquidnet-sponsored service trip to Rwanda changed her perspective.

Natasha Shamis is the Global Head of Product or Chief Product Officer at Liquidnet, the global institutional trading network connecting the world’s leading asset managers to one of the largest pools of liquidity, and is based in the United States.In this episode of Success Stories, Natasha Shamis speaks with Catherine Robson about her experiences studying computer science and making her way in a male-dominated field. She details her role at Liquidnet and what the company does. Plus, the importance of mentoring for talent retention and what her parents really think of her career path.

Natalie Feehan is the Executive GM, Marketing & Direct Sales at MYOB in Melbourne, Australia.In this episode of Success Stories, Natalie Feehan chats with Catherine Robson about her passion for the fast-paced world of tech businesses. The exciting project MYOB is undertaking to invest in female entrepreneurs. Plus, Natalie is a fan of saying yes to help and what about the future has her excited.

Viki Forrest is CEO of ANZA Technology Network, a business accelerator that works with entrepreneurs from small markets to commercialize and is based in San Francisco. In this episode of Success Stories, Viki Forrest chats with Catherine Robson during a visit to Melbourne. Viki, originally from Sydney, has helped Australian and New Zealand companies raise over $43 million dollars in seed and round-A funding. Viki tells Catherine about her non-linear trajectory, the differences in operating in a large market versus a smaller one and the innovations coming out of Australia that have her excited.

Nisha Dua is Partner, BBG Ventures and the founder of #BUILTBYGIRLS, an initiative, which aims to inspire and support women and girls to claim their place in the tech-enabled economy.In this episode of Success Stories, Nisha Dua chats with Catherine Robson during a visit to Melbourne. Nisha is living her dream - she's based in New York. This was a goal of hers after she first visited the city. Nisha is a trained lawyer but moved into investments and hasn't looked back. She tells Catherine about her varied interests - karate and theatre, plus an investment that has her excited. And it could be WING-ing her way to Australia in the future.

Jules is an investor, 3-time entrepreneur and ‘intrapreneur.’ She helped to create the new IBM Blockchain Ventures group, runs the IBM Blockchain Accelerator. She is also co-founder and managing partner of Prose Ventures, the first independent VC fund investing legal and compliance technologies.In this episode of Success Stories, Jules Miller, a self-confessed workaholic, catches up with Catherine Robson during a visit to Melbourne. Jules unpacks her career trajectory and offers advice to women about the reasons they should think about broadening their networks. She shares her well-honed pitching technique - channel Jay-z - it may just work for you as well.

Liz Dawes is the fearless founder and CEO of the Robert Connor Dawes Foundation, an organisation she started to honour her son Connor who lost his battle with brain cancer in 2013.In this episode of Success Stories, Liz Dawes opens up to Catherine Robson about how she turned her loss into her greatest mission. Liz has well-practiced thoughts about keeping a positive attitude even when it seems impossible. She has learned the ins and outs of setting up a charity organisation, from the colour scheme to the logo which has a special meaning to Connor and the Dawes family.

Maureen Turner is the CEO of BioGrid Australia. BioGrid provides an online data sharing platform for medical researchers to access and share de-identified genetic and clinical data.In this episode of Success Stories, Maureen chats Catherine Robson about her varied career path and how being a classically trained musician prepared her for her corporate career. She has a philosophy on being on time, the importance of keeping her people happy, the benefits of an open door policy and her excitement for young people to take the world forward.

Ariane Barker is CEO of Scale Investors, a Melbourne-based angel investing company which focuses on female entrepreneurs.In this special episode of Success Stories recorded on International Women's Day, Ariane and Catherine Robson go behind the investment jargon with a sweeping discussion about the challenges female entrepreneurs face when it comes to securing capital.They try to answer the question: why when women have a proven track record of entrepreneurial success do they encounter so many roadblocks to access to funding. Plus, they dive into some advice for investors and start-ups a like.

Geraldine McBride is the CEO and director of MyWave, a powerful AI Enterprise Intelligent Agent.In this episode of Success Stories, Geraldine speaks with Catherine Robson about her career path from a zoology degree to AI entrepreneur, what it's like working with her daughter and funding MyWave. Plus, Geraldine's thoughts on AI as a force for good vs. evil and how she maintains her physical and mental well-being.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time.Books, breaking news and biceps are all passions of Jennifer Byrne. The host of ABC's The Book Club, puts down her tomes to chat with Catherine in this week's podcast.Jennifer started her career in journalism at 16 with a cadetship at The Age and has been running ever since. She shares with Catherine a career misstep, her move to to television and how she gets her enviable arms- watch out Michelle Obama.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Dr Melissa Davis is a computational biologist and Laboratory Head of the Bioinformatics Division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Driven by a passion to make the cancer diagnosis a less devastating one, Melissa and her team are at the cutting edge of bioinformatic studies aimed to reduce the traumatic side effects patients experience while being treated for cancer.In this week's Success Story, Melissa shares with Catherine Robson the role sophisticated data analytics and mathematical modelling play in revolutionising cancer treatment and why a difficult financial decision led to the career she loves today.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time.Launa Inman built a successful career after emigrating to Australia from South Africa. Launa led several of Australia's most iconic companies through difficult transitions. She shares with Catherine how losing her father impacted her life, her love of all things retail and the advice she passed along to her two daughters.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Tracey Spicer is calling for women to challenge their ‘expected’ role in society and speak up on entrenched gender discrimination, from taking charge of personal finances to shunning gruelling beauty routines.Tracey is a popular Australian journalist and author of 'femoir' The Good Girl Stripped Bare. She has shaken off internet trolls and is continuing to call out sexism in the Australian workplace. And she is doing her part to lighten the makeup bags of women around Australia.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019.Cary Carbonaro is an award winning, internationally known Personal Finance Expert.In this episode of Success Stories, Cary catches up with Catherine Robson about how she got her start, her career as an author and how her late father still influences her career.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019.Clara Brenner is co-founder and Managing Partner of the Urban Innovation Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in the future of cities located in San Francisco.In this episode of Success Stories, Clara speaks with Catherine Robson about what investments she's excited about, finding work/life balance in the Bay Area and which books she is recommending at the moment. (HINT: one has the backing of the city of San Francisco).

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019."Pack your bags, you are going to Antarctica", that was the response Rachael Robertson received after responding to a newspaper ad. This is where she led a team for one year, six months in complete darkness. Rachael is this week's Success Stories guest.While living with the same group for one year, Rachael learned in a short time what type of leader she was. Rachael is now an author and a popular public speaker. She ended the Antarctic 'bacon wars' that could have gotten out of greasy hand.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019.Olivia June is Founder and CEO of VINA - a friendship app for women.In this episode of Success Stories, Olivia chats with Catherine Robson about the genesis of the idea to create VINA, a “Tinder for (girl) friends”. Being based in the Bay Area spurred Olivia's entrepreneurial spirit and it was this motivation that helped her land investments from Greylock, Tinder, and NEA. But it's working to end the feeling loneliness that really drives Olivia.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019.In this episode of Success Stories, Barbara Bates, global CEO of award-winning global communications agency Hotwire and co-founder of Eastwick, one of Silicon Valley’s premier communication firms, speaks with Catherine Robson about the value of designing effective employee engagement, the future of PR and being driven by failure.

Over the Australian summer, we'll be replaying some of your favourite episodes. We bet you will learn something you missed the first time. Enjoy and see you in 2019.Boost Juice founder, Janine Allis, speaks with Catherine about her start on celebrity yachts, what you need to be prepared to risk to make your business a success and how working makes her a better mother to her four children.

In this special episode of Success Stories, Catherine Robson talks with angel investor, Neelesh Mehta, as part of Scale's education series.Neelesh is co-founder and managing director of Jaipur Asset Management and a successful angel investor. Neelesh tells Catherine about this start investing in start-ups and why believes in investing in women entrepreneurs. They talk mistakes he's made and how much you should trust your gut when you first meet someone with a 'brilliant' idea.

Vicky Papachristos is an experienced company director, executive and consultant with over 30 years' experience in the corporate world. And she has a solid background in investing in start ups.In this episode of Success Stories, Vicky speaks with Catherine Robson about her successful strategy of angel investing, she outlines what goes into the 'deal' - it's more than you may realise. She also talks about dealbreakers when it comes to investments and the benefits of working with Scale - the breadth of knowledge is just one of the attributes she praises. This is a special episode of Success Stories, it is part of Scale's Education Program. Enjoy!

Martine Letts is Chief Executive Officer at Committee for Melbourne, a strategic leadership think tank, and an apolitical, not-for-profit, member-based organisation.In this episode of Success Stories, Martine speaks with Catherine Robson about her time as Ambassador to Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, the importance of education to her family and where she went wrong on choosing mentors. Plus, why Melbourne is still such a beautiful city - thanks Victorians.

Louise Kavanagh is a Managing Director at TH real estate in the Asia Pacific region.In this episode of Success Stories, Louise is back in Australia for a bit and joins Catherine Robson to fill her in on the ups and downs of life overseas, her trajectory to real estate and fund management and the importance of networking outside your organisation.

Helen Rowell is Deputy Chairman at APRA, she was appointed in 2015 and is serving a five-year term. In this episode of Success Stories, Helen talks with Catherine Robson about her love of maths and her background as an actuary. She has participated in the Royal Commission on banking and uses a financial advisor. Plus, the quote she loves and the best investment she's made.

April Palmerlee is Chief Executive Officer of the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia. It's Australia's largest and most influential international business organisation providing assistance to U.S. and Australian companies by promoting trade, commerce and investment to and from Australia.In this episode of Success Stories, April speaks with Catherine Robson about being an American in Australia, the career decisions that led her to Australia and the AmCham and how she fits in ultra marathons and learning so very many languages - there are a lot of them.

Alice Breheny is Director of Property, Global Head of Research at Henderson Global Investors based in the United Kingdom.In this episode of Success Stories, Alice visits Catherine Robson in her favourite city, Melbourne, to talk about why property should be in an investment portfolio. Alice talks about the appeal of staying with one company and which cities are on her radar for investments and why. Plus, she makes a case for shopping malls.

Sian Simpson is Director of Community and Content at Kiwi Landing Pad, an organisation that supports entrepreneurs and companies through the journey from an idea to building a global business.In this episode of Success Stories, Sian reconnects with Catherine Robson over Skype to chat about her pathway to becoming location independent, how she sells her array of experience (there's a lot) and how personal loss has formed her outlook on personal and professional development.

Deb Noller is co-founder and CEO of Switch Automation. Switch is the world’s first 'cloud-hosted Enterprise Operations Platform for managing buildings and building data'.In this episode of Success Stories, Deb chats with Catherine Robson her pathway that led her to start Switch, the ups and downs of raising capital and how she divides her time around the Switch offices - it's now a global company. Plus, she talks her preferred exercise and whether or not she's a tea or coffee person.

Samantha Crompvoets is is a Director at Rapid Context, a research consulting firm built on the premise that 'academic rigour and rapid delivery can enjoy each others company'.In this episode of Success Stories, Samantha speaks with Catherine Robson about transitioning from a career specialising in the Sociology of Health to founding her own business and building a team that buys into the company's mission. Plus, she has some thoughts women's networking groups.

Olivia, Liv, Pennie is founder and CEO of BEcoME designs products and programs to inspire children and young adults to explore, design and manage their careers in this increasingly evolving world.In this episode of Success Stories, Liv catches up with Catherine Robson about the importance of encouraging children to imagine a world of career possibilities, how her commercial and advertising background has helped get BEcoME off the ground and her pick for an 'escape book'.

Dr Helena Popovic is a medical doctor and a leading authority on how to improve brain function. In this episode of Success Stories, Helena talks to Catherine Robson about her work, how she became best-selling author and international speaker. Plus, she is an advocate for the importance of education and how it shapes who you are.

Christine Bartlett is an experienced company director, business advisor and chair of the Smith Family Foundation among many other roles. In this episode of Success Stories, Christine talks to Catherine Robson about the wide spectrum of roles she is tackling at the moment, what it takes to have such a varied career and the benefits of having a feminist husband.

Baroness Susan Greenfield is is a research scientist, author and broadcaster based in Oxford and is currently CEO of a biotech company Neuro Bio that she founded in 2013.In this episode of Success Stories, Susan chats with Catherine Robson on subjects ranging from her work on dementia prevention and her start as a STEM role model to her thoughts on what having a work/life balance means to her.