‘It turned out to be quite a whirlwind’

What’s your role at DMC Capital?
DB: DMC is a partnership between myself and my investment partner Mark Goodfellow, providing finance for new or capital-constrained businesses. We look for opportunities to partner with expert management teams who propose innovative business strategies developed as result of their prior experiences. Key to our model is the ability to create market disruption within scalable sectors. We have a particular interest in financial services as this is our background, and is where our management team can add value.

I met Mark while he was an accounting partner at Treasury Group, a firm I worked for previously. He started looking at the other businesses Treasury held in Australia and at our growth strategy for the portfolio companies, and he got me interested in growth-focused investment for smaller companies.

DMC is structured as a partnership with a board. We take a minority equity stake and a seat on the board of our portfolio companies.

We usually invest in experienced management teams – when we do a lift out, it’s often a senior team. There are lots of compliance and processes around that, so I help the teams work together, and generate the cultural alignment. My role has some similarities to an operational partner.

You’re an Olympic silver medalist. How did you get involved in professional sports?
DB: I was a rower in my native Australia. I grew up in the countryside, and went to a boarding school where I was really enthusiastic about sports. I played a lot of basketball and rugby. I got injured one summer and the only sport I could do was rowing, so that was my introduction to it.

I took up rowing seriously when I went to university. I jumped in a boat at the start of university, I was only 19! It turned out to be quite a whirlwind. In my first year, I competed in the state championship, where I was scouted by a coach for the Australian national team.

As part of the national team in my first year, I travelled to Finland, Switzerland and Italy where we had training camps. We also competed in the Henley Regatta every year (winning the Grand Challenge in both 1997 and 2000). I was rowing professionally for eight years.

Then in 2000, I competed in the Sydney Olympics, where I won a silver medal with the team. I was relatively calm about it at the time. When you’re in the event itself, you’re not concentrating on the crowd. You’re in your own headspace focusing on what you need to do.

How did you make the transition from sports into financial services?
DB: Once I completed my Masters of Commerce and International Business, I transitioned into a management intern role at Zurich Insurance Group, first in insurance and then in annuities. I had lots of opportunity to work around the world. I then moved onto the trading side of banking with other firms, and subsequently set up Treasury Group – now Pacific Current Group in London – which invested into boutique fund managers and then sold them on to larger players in the market.

What lessons did you take from your pro-sport experience?
DB: Rowing takes a lot of dedication, as with any high-performance sport. You’re training six to seven hours a day. We’d wake up at 4am to be on the water by 5am, and then train again for a time in the afternoon and again in the evening. Rowing, as with most team sports, is about working with the people around you; it’s a bit of a marriage of sorts. As an athlete, you are always exploring new and innovative ways to find an extra centimeter here and there, to be the best. The perseverance, commitment to excellence and the ability to set goals and work within a team are all transferable qualities that are incredibly beneficial in business.