Hot Topic: Checklist for Success
Speaker: Roger Pitt

As you enter the home stretch of the competition, now is a good time to reflect if you’ve got what it takes for a winning submission.  Don’t miss this “Checklist for Success”, which applies to both business and social enterprise competitors.

With its origins in the US venture capital industry in the late 80’s this list has stood the test of time. The checklist sets out the essential structure and content of a business plan if it is to meet the commercial information needs of investors, bankers and other providers of support seeking to evaluate their possible participation in either a commercial or social enterprise.

For the last 20 years, Roger Pitt has been an investor and executive director of KADAC Pty Ltd – Australia’s premier health & organic company. In that time, KADAC has grown six fold, developing from a health food distributor operating solely in Victoria to an importer/exporter, brand owner, supplier and national distributor of health and organic foods to supermarkets, pharmacies, organic and health food stores. This growth has resulted from a carefully conceived strategy, which has included making a number of key acquisitions, such as the Real Good Food brand of whole foods, and developing retail concepts targeting emerging consumer trends concerning health and wellness.

Following a BE, (Monash), and an MBA, (UC Berkeley), Roger worked in merchant banking (international project finance) in London for five years with Barclays Bank and Kleinwort Benson. He then returned to Australia to manage a family engineering-based manufacturing business before selling it in 1985 to Johns Perry.  After a year working with Western Pacific, one of the pioneer venture capital firms in Australia, Roger decided to invest in another business, KADAC.

For the last four years Roger has been a business entrepreneur who provide pro-bono support to the social entrepreneurs at SoFA.

Date: Thursday, 1 April, 2010
Time: 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Venue: MBS, Mawby Theatre
Address: 200 Leicester Street
Carlton VIC 3053
 Registration: Not required