Vantage Point: Driving Success in the Australian Market

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Welcome to "Vantage Point," the podcast where we engage in enlightening conversations with influential business executives who have achieved remarkable success in their respective fields. Join us as we gain unique insights and perspectives from these accomplished leaders, exploring the secrets behind their achievements and uncovering the valuable lessons they've learned along the way. In each episode of "Vantage Point," we sit down with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who have made a significant impact in the business world. Through thought-provoking discussions.

  1. Aug 4

    "10% of Victoria's Gas for 20 Years": Lakes Blue Energy on the Wombat-5 Discovery

    Lakes Blue Energy has had an eventful 12 months since its last appearance on Vantage Point Podcast, moving from relisting on the ASX to drilling its first 1.5km horizontal well, Wombat-5, in Gippsland, Victoria.  On this episode of Vantage Point Podcast, we are re-joined with CEO Richard Ash, alongside newly appointed Senior Technical Advisor and General Manager Mike McGowan and Reservoir Engineer John Mackintosh to unpack the story of Lakes Blue Energy over the last 12 months. We discuss the Wombat-5 well, which confirmed 237 metres of gas-bearing sands across three separate zones, but also encountered formation damage from drilling fluids reacting with clays in the reservoir, delaying the path to a commercial flow result. The team discusses the remediation program now underway to fix it,  including re-establishing fluid compatibility, then perforating the well using propellant-assisted technology to drive deeper into the formation and reconnect the wellbore to the reservoir. Richard also outlines the scale of the opportunity: a 2C contingent resource of around 329 Bcf, enough to supply roughly 10% of Victoria's gas needs for the next 20 years, along with early-stage discussions around powering data centre demand given the field's proximity to existing pipeline infrastructure. Testing is planned for late August/early September, subject to regulatory approval, with results expected to be communicated by around November. A grounded, technical conversation on what it takes to turn a gas discovery into a commercial outcome, and why the team believes the risk profile has improved materially since drilling began.

  2. Jul 23

    Round Two: From Empired’s Takeover to Monvia’s IPO

    Life insurance is one of the last corners of financial services still running on decades-old technology, and the businesses trying to modernise it are usually competing not against rivals, but against the internal IT teams of the insurers themselves. Listing at 12pm today, we sit down with Board Chairman Russell Baskerville and CEO Simon Bright of Monvia (ASX: MNV), a SaaS platform built to help large life insurers modernise the end-to-end client experience, from new business and policy administration through to claims. The pair previously worked together at Empire, and have reunited to take Monvia to market, with the board and management now owning around 40% of the stock post-IPO. Russell and Simon walk us through the 30-year history of the business, why a five-year-old cloud-native platform gives them a head start most competitors don't have, and how one long-standing client has grown at a 66% CAGR in its retail insurance book since adopting the software. They also cover the enterprise licensing model behind the business, plans to expand into Southeast Asia, how they're building AI into both their own operations and the platform itself, and what "success" looks like three years from now.

  3. Jul 2

    Flying under the radar: Orbital’s quiet rise in engines powering drones

    Orbital’s CEO Stephen and CFO Mark join us to talk through how the business has repositioned itself over the past two years. They unpack Orbital's proprietary dual fuel injection technology, which allows its two-stroke engines to run cleanly on heavy fuel at altitude, something competitors coming from gasoline and hobby engines still struggle with, and why that translates into market-leading time between overhauls and a lower cost of ownership for operators. Stephen and Mark walk us through Orbital's three go-to-market models, from the historical partnership program built around tier-one military customers, to the emerging "power by the hour" model, where drone operators lease engines rather than buy them outright. We also get into the commercial opportunities now opening up in pipeline and infrastructure surveying, logistics, and agriculture, and why the company is targeting a more even split between defence and commercial revenue in the years ahead. It's a candid conversation about diversifying away from customer and product concentration, overcoming a reputation for being expensive, and what's actually changing in the broader drone propulsion market. #VantagePoint #Orbital #UAV #Drones #Defence

  4. Jun 25

    11x in 12 months and “We’re just getting started” | Yoav Amitai, CEO, Elsight

    Elsight (ASX: ELS) is the connectivity layer powering the world’s drones and unmanned systems, and the company’s transformation over the past 12 months has been one of the most compelling operational stories on the ASX. We sat down with Yoav Amitai, CEO of Elsight, who joined the company as an operations manager in 2017 and has since built it into a global defence technology business with a rapidly growing revenue base and real free cash flow generation. In this conversation, Yoav breaks down what Elsight actually does and why it’s fundamentally different to DroneShield and EOS, the Halo product and the critical distinction between concurrent connectivity and failover, and how the business went from 5% defence revenue to 90% in just a few years. He also addresses the bear case on customer concentration, explains what being trusted by US Special Operations Command means for future growth, and shares his view on when the commercial drone market will finally hit its inflection point. For investors watching the ASX defence and drone technology space, this is essential listening.

  5. Jun 2

    Built in the Downturn: Nick Leitl on Lauching LSN into the Downturn and Delivering through it

    On the latest episode of Vantage Point Podcast, Nick Leitl joinsus to discuss the journey from fund manager to co-founder of LSN Capital Partners and what it takes to build and grow an investment business from the ground up. Drawing on more than two decades in markets, including 16 years managing money at K2 Asset Management, Nick reflects on launching a fund in a challenging environment, how LSN's investment process has evolved over the past four and a half years and the lessons learned along the way.  We also explore why management quality sits at the centre of LSN's investment philosophy, how the team approaches sector allocation and capacity management and a candid investment mistake where a compelling macro thematic ultimately couldn't overcome poor execution at the company level.

  6. May 25

    From Prompting to Orchestration: Decidr AI and the Case for Governing AI in Business

    Most businesses are using AI the same way; typing prompts into ChatGPT or Claude and hoping for the best. As business usage proliferates during the rush to harness AI, the question of who governs these models, and how, is becoming one of the most important problems the world must face. On the latest episode of Vantage Point Podcast, David joins us for a second time to update us on Decidr AI, an AI infrastructure company that sits on top of the major models, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other open source models, and orchestrates them into structured, deterministic business workflows. David explains why the world is moving from prompting to tasks, how Decidr’s approach to deterministic workflow design tackles the twin problems of AI accuracy and cost, and why he believes we're entering what he calls the sovereign era of AI; where governance, accountability, and visibility matter as much as capability. We also get into SugarWork, Decidr’s recently acquired knowledge-capture platform, the concept of building your own company large language model, and why protecting how your business actually does things is fast becoming a strategic priority. A genuinely interesting discussion on what it looks like when AI grows up.

  7. May 18

    Alterity Therapeutics: The race against Multiple System Atrophy

    Multiple System Atrophy progresses faster than Parkinson's, attacks multiple systems at once, and takes an average of seven doctors before patients receive the correct diagnosis. There is currently no approved treatment. On this episode of Vantage Point Podcast, we sit down with David Stamler (CEO) and Daniel Claassen (CMO) of Alterity Therapeutics to discuss their drug candidate ATH434, phase two results showing nearly 50% reduction in disease progression rate, and the path to a phase three trial. We also cover Alterity's orphan drug and fast track FDA designations, upcoming phase three study design discussions, and the drug's potential beyond MSA - including Parkinson's and Friedreich's Ataxia.

  8. May 11

    Green360— A Green ASX Story That’s Actually Generating Money - and Scaling Fast

    In this episode we’re joined by Executive Chairman of Green360 (GT3:ASX), Aaron Banks. Cement is the second most consumed product on earth after water, and the industry generates roughly 8% of global emissions — the equivalent of the entire global car fleet. Yet the chemistry behind it hasn’t meaningfully changed in over 200 years. Green360 is changing that. Aaron acquired a Victorian production plant from French multinational Imerys for $1.9 million — an asset that would cost $120 million to replicate today — and has built it into a business doing circa $25 million in revenue over the last two years, supplying blue-chip clients including Dulux, Visy, Selleys, Bostik, Nufarm, Estée Lauder and Body Shop. Now he’s commercialising metakaolin, a low-carbon supplementary cementitious material that partially replaces Portland cement inside the concrete binder system.

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About

Welcome to "Vantage Point," the podcast where we engage in enlightening conversations with influential business executives who have achieved remarkable success in their respective fields. Join us as we gain unique insights and perspectives from these accomplished leaders, exploring the secrets behind their achievements and uncovering the valuable lessons they've learned along the way. In each episode of "Vantage Point," we sit down with CEOs, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who have made a significant impact in the business world. Through thought-provoking discussions.

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