Tony Aitchison

Tony has over 15 years of leadership experience managing high-performing teams and complex R&D, commercialisation, and innovation programs across multiple industries, including renewables, energy, medical, insurances, materials engineering, and more... Tony’s portfolio management capability is demonstrated through roles spanning government advisory, management consulting, entrepreneurship, and research-to-commercialisation leadership. Furthermore, Tony has over 20 years of experience in marketing which spans traditional (television, radio, billboards, etc…) to modern forms of marketing (conversion funnels, dynamic digital marketing, etc…), making him a well-rounded executive that explores all elements of continuous improvement to help turn a company around and/or grow it.

In Tony’s previous role as an Industry Growth Program Advisor with the Australian Department of Industry, Science & Resources, Tony managed a diverse portfolio of 125+ innovative SMEs operating all across Australia. Working closely with founders, technical teams, boards, and executive leaders to scope commercialisation pathways that included concept and feasibility, prototyping, pilot projects, IP generation, investment readiness, raising capital (investment and grants), technical validation, market testing, customer acquisition, scale-up planning, and their long-term strategy. It involved coordinating and influencing multidisciplinary project teams, ensuring quality advisory outcomes, whilst supporting companies as they scale domestically and internationally.

In his day-to-day strategic work, he often performs a high level of due diligence of a company across the operational, financial, and its growth potential, to determine its value and opportunities. In particular, he examined and assisted a $150m+ health insurer to turn their current 3x growth into a 5x growth with some operational and marketing changes. In total, across his career, he has assisted over 250 companies with their strategy and implementation. In other cases, he performs high levels of due diligence to assist in a company’s growth and provides tailored workshops to suit his client’s needs.

Tony’s proven ability to building networks and relationships with external stakeholders is one of his core strengths with relationships ranging from domestic to international. He has built extensive relationships with founders, researchers, multinationals, investors, and the government. He actively creates opportunities by connecting people to create synergistic and collaborative opportunities.

B.Sc. Nano (Hons), PhD (Chemistry), Exec MBA, GAICD, Mergers & Acquistions Cert., 6 Patents, 9 Awards