Thought leadership

meet the acumen international business strategy and consulting team

Dr Courtney Price | Greg Loudoun | Dr Tom McKaskill | Dr Tony Golsby-Smith | David Austin | Linda Shaffer-Vanaria | Freda Bouras | Suzy Roden

Dr Courtney Price

Entrepreneur, author and syndicated columnist

Courtney is president of the Entrepreneurial Education Foundation, and founder of Metropolitan State College’s Institute of Entrepreneurship in Denver, Colorado. Her Scripps Howard syndicated column Entrepreneurs Ask, appears in more than 400 newspapers nationwide. She is the author of 10 books on entrepreneurship, many of which are used both in college courses and by practicing entrepreneurs. Dr Price Answers The Most Asked Questions From Entrepreneurs, published by McGraw-Hill, has been touted by The Wall Street Journal as the definitive book on entrepreneurship. Dr Price has received special local and national recognition awards for her business development program, Premier FastTrac®. Dr Price was the first Scholar-In-Residence of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Inc at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City, MO. In 1993, she received the Edwin M. Appel Prize from the Price-Babson College Fellows Program for bringing entrepreneurial vitality to academia.

As president of the Entrepreneurial Education Foundation (EEF) Dr Price oversees a foundation whose mission is to enable entrepreneurs to succeed through innovative and proven educational programs.

Courtney started her entrepreneurial career at an early age while becoming a double sliver medalist for the US Figure Skating Association. She began brokering hand-knitted ice skating skirts and sweaters for mums as gifts to their daughters. After graduating from college and working in the corporate world she started an income-property business, owning duplexes and apartment buildings. Since then, she has acquired interests in a construction company, a hotel and four restaurants, and has started and managed a business consulting firm and a publishing company.Courtney received her BS and MBA degrees from the University of Colorado and PhD from the University of Colorado at Denver.

Greg Loudoun

Founder and CEO – Acumen International, Principal Consultant and Strategic Thinker

Greg is the founder and CEO of Acumen International and is the author of the Executive Acumen program. He has extensive experience as an entrepreneur and executive manager in major corporations. His successful entrepreneurial career has spanned some 29 years during which he founded Datarom, Computer Maintenance of Australia, Acumen Pty Ltd and Acumen International. During the past 20 years with Acumen he has honed his skills as a practicing business development consultant working with large multinationals and SMEs both in Australia and in international markets.

Greg is a sought-after international speaker on innovation and entrepreneurship with a pragmatic view of developing strategic competence and profitable business growth. He is a practicing business coach and has assisted many CEOs and business owners in developing strategic competence and profitable business growth. Greg has authored business interventions, diagnostics and programs for technology and agribusiness entrepreneurs that accelerate commercialisation and build investor attractiveness.

Dr Tom McKaskill

Educator, author, entrepreneur and business consultant

Global serial entrepreneur, consultant, educator and author, Tom is an established authority on how successful entrepreneurs’ start, develop and harvest their ventures. He is acknowledged as the world’s leading expert on exit strategies for high growth enterprises.

Over a twenty year period as an active entrepreneur, Tom's experience included multiple start-ups in the UK and USA, raising venture capital twice, undertaking two acquisitions and strategic trade sales of three businesses. Recently retired from the Richard Pratt Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship, he is the author of eleven books for entrepreneurs covering such topics as new venture growth, raising venture capital, selling a business, acquisitions strategy and angel investing. Tom is an active member of the Gold Coast Angel Group.

Dr Tony Golsby-Smith

Design thinker and management consultant

Tony has been successfully working with large organisations as a management consultant since 1986. He specialises in helping organisations think together more effectively. Over the years he has developed powerful and profound models and tools that he uses in this task. He discovered that design is an oft overlooked – but key – element in leading organisations.

In 1995 he was appointed as visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, and he held the Nierenberg Chair of Design at this university during his appointment. He is currently a Director of Second Road Pty Ltd. His doctoral thesis, The Art of Strategic Conversations, is a seminal work that writes about how organisations need to look for alternative pathways to analysis and other traditional scientific methods in order to solve major problems and drive forward to creative futures. He has pioneered the application of design thinking to organisational problems and is among the world’s leading innovators in applying design to broader applications.

He masterminded the establishment of the Integrated Administrative Design function in the Australian Taxation Office and is continuing to help clients discover and apply the power of design. He works extensively in bringing strategic thinking capabilities to organisations and he argues that design is the natural partner of strategy – the key to implementation.

David Austin

Consultant, Mentor, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur

David specialises in merging the demands of operational effectiveness with a relentless search for innovation. In his twenties he started his first significant company in Singapore designing and manufacturing industrial optical scanners. David completed an MBA at the Melbourne Business School while working as Major Account Manager at Hewlett Packard, then become Managing Director of a Hong Kong-based Australian software venture which he was responsible for establishing in the Asian region.

He went on to run the Asia-Pacific operations of the world leader in Engineering Automation software, Concentra. When Concentra was sold to Oracle, globally, he took the opportunity to return to Melbourne. David was appointed to run Moldflow, the world leader in plastic flow simulation. When Moldflow listed on the NASDAQ, he took a sabbatical before deciding on his next move. Today, David combines the roles of Consultant, Mentor, Angel Investor and Entrepreneur. He is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Business School (Melbourne University), runs the Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation unit of the MBA course and is Managing Director of Bailey Austin Strategic Innovation Partners Pty Ltd.

David has been a benefactor and personal contributor to Breaking the Cycle, a charity dedicated to helping long-term unemployed youth get their lives back on track, and is a keen cyclist and motorcyclist.

Linda Shaffer-Vanaria

Executive coach, author and edge performance specialist

Linda is an executive coach and team learning engagements consultant, specialising in ‘edge’ performance. Her focus in 'edge' leverages the leadership mindset of individual and organisational clients to achieve their strategic objectives. She is also a member of the Alliance for Strategic Leadership. Linda was the US Navy’s third female test pilot and the first woman to command a squadron in the San Diego area. Prior to transitioning to the private sector, Linda was the Director of the Naval Leadership Training Unit, the entire US Navy’s Pacific Coast leadership school. The school trained over 11,000 officers and enlisted personnel annually, providing graduates with leadership tools for success.

Freda Bouras

Consultant and chartered accountant

Freda has a unique combination of skills, knowledge and experience gained over many years in various roles. As a Chartered Accountant she practised in the traditional disciplines of the accountancy profession for over twenty years, becoming a partner in a boutique practice and then a Director in a middle tier firm.

Over time her focus shifted to the improvement and management of business beyond, but including the financial perspective. She left public practice to explore other opportunities that have included senior management positions across a wide range of industry sectors including ICT, manufacturing and hospitality. Most recently Freda has worked as a consultant and facilitator and has advised a number of organisations around Australia. Her capabilities assist in identifying areas of a business in which assistance may be required, clarifying and articulating the issue and then developing the appropriate strategies to address those issues.

She is an experienced presenter of financial, management and business skills development programs and has delivered many courses around Australia. Freda started up her own consultancy business, EmeraldPlus, to provide her skills and expertise to businesses that want to improve their performance and outcomes and recognise that they may need assistance to do so. Freda has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Adelaide and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.

Suzy Roden

Principal consultant, executive coach and author

Suzy’s career has spanned a broad range of consulting areas. After completing her MBA, she worked as a consultant and researcher in the development of the Team Management Profile™, which today, is an organisational tool used world wide. As a consultant at the Centre for the Development of Entrepreneurs (University of Queensland) from its initial stages, Suzy advised people in business plan development to attract venture finance and was involved in authoring and educating in Entrepreneur Development programs such as the Queensland Enterprise Workshop.

Suzy has worked with a wide range of public and private organisations and industries across Australia as a consultant, facilitator, educator and executive coach, particularly in the areas of change management, customer focus, leadership, values development and team building. Her earlier background in Human Movement Studies evolved into a passion to help people balance their lifestyles and build organisational cultures that value work life balance with resulting higher performance.