Charlie has spent more than 20 years in Perth’s tech and startup sector, firstly as a founder himself, through to exit, and more recently in media, advisory 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 as CEO, and then worked for the federal government’s Accelerating Commercialisation program, funding pre-revenue startups and innovative businesses. 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, is co-owner of Startup News and the Startup West podcast.

Charlie sits on the advisory board of WA Leaders and since 2022 has worked as Director Innovation in the WA state government (Department of Jobs Tourism Science and Innovation), running the New Industries Fund.