Selected Speakers: Stuart Donaldson x

Click [x] to remove speaker from your list or proceed with an enquiry

Speakers Profile - Stuart Donaldson










Travels From:
Sydney

Fee Range: B


Stuart has twenty years experience in Commercial Banking and Finance and has held several senior management positions with Westpac, managing the Business Banking segment. Stuart has always been closely associated with the SME sector and chose to specialise in this area. He has dealt with thousands of small to medium sized businesses, providing finance facilities and partnering with them to help with their development and growth.

In the year 2000 Stuart established the Business Advisory division of Westpac and undertook an ambitious assignment to identify the best available suite of educational tools for SME's, specifically in relation to understanding and interpreting their financial statements. Having spent several months in the USA working with a leading company in this field Stuart successfully negotiated an exclusive licence agreement to bring to market the 'Beyond Survival' seminar series in Australia, New Zealand, and South East Asia for Westpac.

This initiative has enjoyed considerable success and has had in excess of 4,000 business owners attend with 90% of participants rating the course as 'excellent'. Beyond Survival is now conducted throughout Australia and New Zealand and more recently has been in demand and held in the Pacific Islands and Singapore.

Stuart is a regular speaker on topics such as Financial Management principles and Banking and Finance with a focus on driving improved bottom line performance and funding and managing growth. Stuart's expertise covers such areas as:

Cash flow management
Break-even analysis
Managing growth
Business diagnostics
Key performance indicators

It is Stuart's firm belief that accounting tools and financial statements are powerful tools to drive success for SME's, once the complexity is removed and the principles can be explained in plain-English. This will enable business owners to successfully apply the concepts to their specific business.

Summary of experience:

Professionally trained in Seattle, Washington State, USA.

Established Beyond Survival seminar series on standalone basis for Westpac. This is a 2 - 3 day seminar presented on a commercial basis. Target market is SME's and is based on providing practical financial tools for measuring and improving performance.

Personally presented core program throughout Australia and New Zealand over approximately 4 year period.

Over 90% of all participants rated the course and presentation as 'Excellent' throughout this period.

Regular key-note presentations at annual conventions for a range of industry associations and industry bodies. Some examples include:
-Financial Planning Association
-CPA Australia
-Master Builders Association
-Master Plumbers Association
-ACASPA (Australian Canvas and Synthetic Products Ass)
-AUFTAC (Australian United Freight Transport)
-AAPM (Australian Association of Practice Managers)

Developed and presented customized workshops for a range of industries:
-Banking
-Transport
-Rural
-Pharmacy
-Wealth Management
-Services sector

Personally conducted 'train the trainer' program for major accounting firm. This involved training and accrediting six chartered accountants, all partners, and executed a sub-license agreement.

Contracted to Hong Leong Finance Group Singapore to conduct and present workshops directly for HLF customers, in Singapore.

Developed internal training program within Westpac and rolled out progressively across Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Islands. Courses were based on analyzing and interpreting financial statements.

Regularly conducted investor road-shows and presentations on topics associated with wealth management and structured and alternative investments. Typical audiences were sophisticated and wholesale investors.

Key message was to distinguish investment opportunities associated with various asset classes including, infrastructure, hedge funds, structured credit, hybrids, equities and unlisted and listed property trusts.

In summary, Stuart has extensive experience in presenting financial accounting and investment market concepts. He is very enthusiastic about taking the seemingly complex and communicating in a fashion that is easy for all to understand. The real benefit is having such a positive influence on helping individuals and businesses to achieve their goals.

This experience has helped him to develop a wide range of skills and establish contacts throughout Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Asia.