Charlie has spent more than 25 years in Perth’s tech and startup sector, firstly as a founder himself, through to exit, and more recently in media, advisory, government and investor roles.

Originally an Economics teacher from the UK, via Singapore, he landed in Perth in 1997 to do an MBA at UWA. Graduating as top student in 1999 he set up aussiehome.com, an online real estate business, running it for 10 years before selling to REIWA, whereupon Charlie and his team ran reiwa.com. In 2013, he moved to Business News to lead their digital transformation, became CEO, and then worked for the federal government’s Accelerating Commercialisation program, and then the WA Government’s New Industries Fund (Department of JTSI). He has worked in an advisory capacity for multiple tech and other businesses, from startups to not-for-profits to corporates and ASX-listed companies, as well as running and co-owning Startup News and the Startup West podcast.

These days, Charlie sits on the advisory board of WA Leaders, the WA Government’s Innovation Advisory Board and is Chair of advocacy group StartupWA. He also works part-time as Entrepreneur in Residence at Venture UWA, writes a startup column for Business News and is Head of Ecosystem Engagement at Meshpoints.