I’m working with a client on getting seed funding to start what I believe to be a very exciting new business, so much so that I’m taking an active involvement in it on an at-risk basis.

This company aims to generate superior capital returns for it’s clients through rehabilitating landscapes and making properties more productive on a sustainable basis.  It embodies a lot of the things I am passionate about - conservation, sustainable development, property investment, a good risk/return ratio and helping people to improve their businesses (in this case, agricultural potential and drought resilience).

This is a small scale offering, so it can only be offered to sophisticated investors and people I know (for more on this, see section s708 of the Corporations Act). If you fit either of these criteria, would like to get in on the ground floor and have some extra risk capital burning a hole in your pocket, please give me a call. We’re hoping to close stage one very quickly.

Thanks to everyone who attended the Canberra meeting, it was great bunch of people with some great questions and discussion and a relaxed format. 

There was a particular interest in what this will mean to other sectors.  While it’s difficult to predict in detail, I’d suggest that the one to watch is the new recommendation 7.2.  The crux of the wording of this is that rather than just going through a process, management now need to form a view on whether their risks are being effectively managed and report this through to the Board.  This means that risk management can no longer suffice as a standalone process, but must be truly embedded into the governance processes of the organisation, and that due diligence will have to be done on the output of any risk process.  As I found in my last head of audit & risk role, such a signoff requires significant gear changes in thinking to make it effective and relevant.  It’s going to be an exciting time for risk management for those people on the front foot.

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