Work with me

About Me

Hi, I’m Andrew!

Founder of Ironclad Advisory, you’ll find me providing expert technical advice to Australia and the world’s best in R&D, innovation & business expansion, in parallel with managing complex multi-party stakeholder engagement, project management & BD needs. But most importantly, I am dedicated to looking after the people around me, inside and out of the workplace.

Post graduating from the University of Adelaide in 2010 (BSc. majoring in Geology, Geophysics and Spatial Information), I moved to Perth, Western Australia, where I cut my teeth in the mining industry at Rio Tinto. I was blissfully unaware of the significance these early days would have in shaping my workplace passions, career pathway and professional operating style. Surrounded by the world’s first autonomous haul trucks, drill rigs, big data and other incredible technologies, I was fortunate to achieve outcomes that I can reflect on proudly. These include:

  • Co-inventor and project development partner of patented machine learning technology, allowing semi-automated analysis and validation of geometallurgical logging data.
  • Co-authored papers:
    • “Geometallurgy at Rio Tinto Iron Ore – a New Angle on an Old Concept”, GeoMet 2016 Conference.
    • “Machine Assisted Validation of Drillhole Logging Data in Iron Ore Exploration”, Target17 Conference, Centre for Exploration Targeting, University of WA.
  • Contributing team member and finalist of the Rio Tinto Terry Palmer Innovation Award for “Integration of material type models into mine plans”.
  • Mine development study representative, accountable for outlining geological & geometallurgical risk/opportunity within projects (>$100m).
  • Leveraging deep iron ore geological expertise and end-to-end commodity value chain knowledge (exploration –> technical marketing for steel manufacture), I acted as company representative liaising with external vendors exploring new avenues for Research and Development, process improvement and integration, forming close relationships with a wide range of leading academic and commercial institutions.

In 2017, I returned to Adelaide, South Australia, joining the PwC Incentives & Innovation team, diversifying my professional experience in many areas.

This role and environment allowed me to continue following my passion for technical and innovative activities, whilst vastly broadening my exposure to many industry sectors, financial and business acumen at warp speed. As a previous colleague once told me, ‘you haven’t experienced business scrutiny until you’ve worked in a consultancy.’ Boy was he right (thanks Bruce)! A number of highlights come to mind:

  • Mining, METS, Energy & Resources sector engagements:
    • Supporting establishment of PwC’s national Critical Minerals working group, providing cross-value chain holistic advisory services to private & public sectors.
    • Sector SME supporting delivery of global IP search & classification project for tier-1 mining house.
    • SME advisory to Federal Government, providing services short-listing suitable grant applicants in line with policy and merit criteria.
    • Sector SME advising numerous R&D Tax Incentive (R&DTI) & government grant submissions.
  • Space sector:
    • Supporting delivery of $xxM complex multinational, multi-party (10+) grant application, leading stakeholder management & content authoring, including detailed business case, project plan and financial models.
    • Detailed understanding of South Australia’s Space sector ecosystem and its interaction with State and Federal Government policies.
  • Grant/incentive program application management & delivery of multiple $xxxK – $xM grant submissions, across sectors including Renewable Energy/Battery Tech., Space/IoT tech & Aged Care.
  • R&DTI:
    • Responsible for end to end management of a large portfolio of clients, including leading engagement negotiations, discovery workshops, content review, invoicing & driving engagement efficiency.
    • SME leading delivery of Advance & Overseas Findings.
    • SME leading delivery of R&DTI advice to Debt Financiers.
  • Account Management and Business Development:
  • Provision of R&DTI and grants/incentives technical advise to external accounting advisors, including delivery of external workshops.
  • BD and relationship management focused, exploring and executing on targeting strategies for new/differentiated sectors such as co-working and innovation hubs and sector specific communities such as resources/METS, space, defence, renewables and creative industries.
  • Export Market Development Grants (EMDG):
    • Firm/nationwide lead, responsible for marketing & efficient delivery of application submission and milestone reporting services. Responsibilities included providing training to national team covering changes in legislation, & sharing new approaches to engaging clients, capturing information & submission processes.

In-between all that, life is devoted to my two adorable young children and loving wife, creating memorable memories, striving to live the life we want to live. 🤗❤️