Career History

Overview

Company Director and Co-founder of BurnVoir Partners in 1999 (renamed BurnVoir Corporate Finance Limited in 2005).
David has over 35 years of investment banking and commercial experience.

Listed Company Directorships and Board Advisory

Chairman of Rex Minerals, a minerals exploration and development company with large-scale copper-gold projects on the Yorke Peninsula, South Australia (January 2014 - present). Executive Chairman from August 2014 to present.
Non-executive Director of Indophil Resources, minerals exploration and development company with a 32.5 ownership of the large-scale Tampakan copper-gold projects in the Philippines (September 2011 - January 2015 on takeover by Alsons Prime Investments Corporation) member of the Audit Committee and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee.
Non-executive Director of Polymetals Mining Limited, a minerals exploration and development company with a minority share and operatorship of the White Dam gold project in South Australia (November 2010 - August 2013 on merger with Southern Cross Goldfields). Chairman of the Audit Committee.
ERA on the provision of advice to the independent directors.

Aug 1999 – June 2016 - BurnVoir Partners / BurnVoir Corporate Finance, Executive Director, Sydney

Mergers and Acquisitions:

QIC in relation to the A$400m acquisition of Epic Energy SA, owner of the Moomba Adelaide Pipeline System.
Queensland Alumina Limited in relation the divestment of a confidential asset.
Rio Tinto on the divestment of several confidential assets.
Kingsgate Consolidated on the divestment of a minerals sands project.
Synergy on its participation in a consortium to purchase the WA Alinta electricity assets and on the revised offtake arrangements to underpin the divestment of the Emu Downs wind farm.
Alcan on managing the bid for the $1 billion TransTerritory Gas Pipeline.
NSW Treasury with respect to the sale the government’s consumables, printing and mail businesses

Financing:

ERM on the development of the capital structure and arrangement of the debt package to underpin the development of the 450MW Braemar 2 Power Station located near Dalby in Queensland.
Rex Minerals Limited on the project debt funding of its Hillside copper, gold and iron ore project in South Australia
Resource Pacific on its successful float on the ASX and $160 million project financing of longwall development at Newpac Colliery, and arranging $20 million coal stockpile facilities;
Kingsgate Consolidated on the debt financing of the expansion of the Chatree gold processing plant.

Government Advisory:

NSW Treasury on the management and structure of its electricity and coal businesses.
Sydney Water in relation to the renegotiation of three major water purchase agreements.
NSW Department of Environment and Heritage in relation to the financial support of solar power project which also sought support under the Solar Flagships Program.
Sydney Water on several water recycling projects in the greater Sydney area.
Queensland Treasury on a detailed review of the bulk water Authorities in south-east Queensland.
Aurora Energy on the development of a gas distribution and retail business in Tasmania.

Energy and infrastructure:

Energy Resources Australia on the procurement of a new power generation facility (and gas supply).
Tomago Aluminium Company Limited (owned by Rio Tinto, CSR and Hydro) in respect to its strategies for its power supply arrangements.
Sydney Water for the procurement of long-term, renewable electricity supply for the Sydney Desalination Project.
Western Power Corporation on its power procurement process for 220MW of peaking generation (Stage One) and 300MW+ of base load generation capacity (Stage Two).

June 1998 – Aug 1999 Bankers Trust Australia Limited, Head of Energy and Power, Executive VP, Sydney

Responsible for BT's Energy and Power Sector Group delivering the full range of financial products to the Energy and Power Sector in Australia and Asia. Products provided were debt (bank and capital markets), equity, research, M&A, sales and trading and risk management. The plan developed for the sector covers privatisations, Governments wishing to release capital from energy assets and restructuring in the sector (particularly in the oil and gas E&P sector and energy distribution business). Over twenty five professionals across the product range are focused on the sector. Major transactions included:

advising Hamersley Iron on the sale of its power assets;
advising AEP/CLP on bid to construct Basslink;
advising Boral Energy and Canadian Utilities on bid to construct Pelican Point power plant in South Australia;
advising the NSW Government on several confidential assignments related to the energy and power sector;
advising InterOil on the development of an oil refinery in PNG; and
provision of innovative financial products to Texas Utilities in its bid for a Victorian gas distribution business.

Mar 1997 – June 1998 Bankers Trust Australia Limited, Head of Project Finance and Executive VP, Sydney

Responsible for BT's project finance team comprising 15 professionals. The focus of the business was on the resources sector (including oil and gas) and green field infrastructure projects. Major transactions:

advising the International Generating Coy - Normandy consortium developing a greenfields coal-fired power plant in South-East Queensland;
advising the Nova Gas International - Williams Group consortium bidding on the PNG - Gladstone natural gas pipeline;
advising the Gladstone Power Station Joint Venturers (Comalco 42%, NRG 37.5% and a group of Japanese investors in the Boyne Island aluminium smelter 20.5%) on
restructuring their commercial arrangements to allow the station to operate in the emerging Queensland electricity market; and
arranging project debt financings for several resource transactions.

July 1994 - Mar 1997 UBS Australia Limited , Sydney

Sept 1995 - Mar 1997 Deputy Managing Director, Sydney

Senior management duties with respect to long-term strategic direction of the Australian division.
As of 1 July 1996, Head of Corporate Finance including local responsibility for project finance, corporate banking and structured finance.

July 1994 - Sept 1995 Executive Director - Advisory and Project Finance, Sydney

Led the Project Advisory and Project finance team in a range of major mandates involving the provision of advice to major blue chip Australian and international corporations in the resource and power sectors seeking to purchase or sell assets in Australia and in Asia or to develop greenfield projects. Among the activities undertaken were the development of the financial structures to underpin the projects, the development of the major commercial arrangements to deliver the risk allocation outcome agreed with the client, the development and negotiation of major input and output agreements and the arrangement of finance.

The mandates included the provision of advisory and project finance services to:

A confidential client seeking to develop a major resource processing facility in Queensland. The mandate involved the development of the energy supply options and the associated financial structure including the negotiation of the gas supply and transport arrangements
A confidential client seeking to develop and project finance a major resource project in Queensland.
CRA Limited bidding on a Thai power project which in turn would underpin the development of a coal resource in Australia. Major issues were to integrate the financing plans and the associated commercial linkages to allow both the power station and the coal mine to be funded on a limited recourse basis.
the NRG/CMS consortium bidding on the Yallourn Power Station.
Mt Isa Mines to select an independent power producer to take equity and operate the Mica Creek Power Station at Mt Isa, Queensland.
two confidential clients each separately seeking to secure energy to underpin the development of major metal processing facilities in Australia.
a confidential client bidding for a Victorian distribution company.
Fletcher Challenge Limited and TransAlta bidding on the Taranaki power project in New Zealand.

Mar 1982 - July 1994 CRA Limited

Nov 1992 - July 1994 General Manager - Commercial, Gladstone Power Station (GPS) Project, Brisbane

Led the negotiation with the Queensland Electricity Commission (QEC) and the Queensland Government of all the major commercial contracts underpinning the purchase of the $750 million purchase of the GPS to give effect to the structure, especially the interconnection arrangements.
Developed the commercial and operating structure to allow for the operation of the privatised 1680MW GPS as part of the interconnected QEC grid.
Responsible for developing and negotiating the commercial terms of the power supply arrangements with the Japanese participants of the Boyne Island smelter and the equity participation of those participants in the GPS.
Co-ordinated the involvement of international legal and financial advisers.
Major project contact point with the lenders involved with the $625 million project financing.

Nov 1988 - Oct 1992 Chief Power Consultant - Comalco Smelting, Melbourne

Managed the power supply arrangements and other energy related matters at Comalco's Australian aluminium smelters.
Led negotiations with the Queensland Electricity Commission and the Queensland Government for the conditional purchase of the GPS including the conditional power, coal and rail agreements.
Led negotiations with the Hydro-Electric Commission of Tasmania for the new power supply arrangements to underpin the redevelopment of the Bell Bay smelter.
Led Comalco’s participation in a consortium involving the Tasmanian Government to bring natural gas to Tasmania.
Negotiated the gas supply contract for the Boyne Island smelter.

Mar 1986 - Oct 1988 Commonwealth Aluminum, Maryland, USA

In the marketing department of US-based Commonwealth Aluminum (100% owned subsidiary of Comalco);

developed product costing models for the painted sheet products;
fully participated in the development of a marketing campaign for the painted aluminium sheet products;
developed the presentation and the management of the promotional campaign at major trade shows in Houston, Toronto and Washington, DC.

Mar 1985 - Mar 1986 Economist RTZ PLC, London UK

In the Economics Department of RTZ (49% owner of CRA Limited) conducted extensive investigations of the markets for the major commodities produced by the RTZ group.

Mar 1982 - Feb 1985 Economist, CRA Limited, Melbourne

Advised the CRA Group of companies on the full range of microeconomic and macroeconomic issues that impacted on the mining and resource processing sectors.
Responsible for the development and provision of advice to the managing directors of the major business units on strategic and economic issues relevant to the various mineral products produced by their units.

Sept 1978 - Feb 1982 Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Canberra

Undertook several major economic research projects at the Australian Government's rural economics research unit.
Responsible for research and the preparation of Ministerial advice upon major microeconomic, inter-sectoral, trade and energy issues as they affected the rural sector and presented the outlook for Farm Inputs to the nationally televised Outlook Conference.

Aug 1977 - Sept 1978 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra

Member of the development team of the Government's National Income Forecasting Model of the Australian Economy.