PHiQ's principals
John Marinos
John is a uniquely skilled executive, with the proven ability to
think laterally and develop simple practical solutions to resolve
complex situations.
He has a strong multidisciplinary background, built on extensive
hands on experience in business commercialisation, R&D, engineering,
systems, IT, logistics and technical operations.
In 2007, John founded Shazam Consulting Pty Ltd, delivering
organisational restructures to a broad client base, including
publicly funded educational environments.
From 2003 to 2007 he was the Managing Director of Faiveley Transport
Australia Ltd, a subsidiary of Faiveley Transport S.A.,
Paris,
France. Faiveley
is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and service of on
board systems for railway locomotives and rolling stock.
In this capacity, John headed up all Australasian operations, where
he built a strong service organisation, as well as winning and
delivering major infrastructure contracts.
Prior to joining Faiveley, John held executive operational roles in
many manufacturing and engineering firms, where he streamlined
production and logistical processes, and significantly improved
product quality due to his uncompromising attention to detail.
As a technical manager, John’s engineering background enabled him to
design highly specialised industrial equipment in the printing and
motion picture industry for some of the world’s foremost
multinational corporations. His highly analytical nature also
affords him the ability to design specifically tailored IT solutions
for any size business.
George McElroy
George has 30 years executive level experience as a US
attorney, senior banker, and trusted advisor, and is highly regarded by both
international peers and clients for his professional, pragmatic and hands-on approach
to business.
A proven visionary, George boasts a wealth of multi-tasking experience and a diversity of skills, highlighted by his
leadership, communication, marketing, negotiating, execution and project management capabilities. These professional
attributes underpin his ability to consistently originate and deliver innovative and insightful financial, commercial
and legal strategies and solutions for his clients.
Prior to founding The Gotham Group (a New York based financial advisory firm) in 2006, George was Managing Director of
and ran PwC’s US national structured finance/corporate finance practice for 6 years, and was Managing Director of and
operated Bank of America’s national structured finance team for 5 years before that.
George has also occupied leadership roles in corporate and financial advisory groups at a variety of financial
institutions including Citibank, Société Générale and Merrill Lynch, where he operated a health care fund.
Outside of banking and finance, George has practiced as a US tax attorney for Spengler Carlson Gubar Brodsky &
Frischling, and has a depth of experience in health care and other related fields. In terms of the latter, he was
a partner/advisor to The First Hill Imaging Center (a Seattle based stand-alone, full service multi-modality centre
with a focus on detection and monitoring of cancer) from 1993 until its successful sale in 2007.
George completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Princeton University and a Juris Doctor degree at St. John's
University School of Law. He has also completed post graduate education programs at Queens College (science)
and New York University (legal/tax).
Michael Vardavas
Michael has extensive credentials in capital
structuring, financial engineering and the marketing and
distribution of financial products and services, gained during a 14
year banking career traversing corporate and structured finance,
financial and capital markets, risk management and relationship
banking.
Prior to founding The Structured Products Group (a
licenced Australian financial services company) in 2003, Michael was
a Director of Corporate Financial Engineering at Société Générale,
having been a Director of Structured Products at
PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a Manager in Structured Products at
Commonwealth Bank of Australia before that.
This experience, together with a multidisciplinary
background in finance, accounting, taxation and law, affords him an
innate ability to develop, implement and critically evaluate highly
complex financial and legal arrangements spanning any number of
jurisdictions, industries and market sectors.
Before embarking on a
banking and finance career, Michael was a major
contributor to building a fledgling real estate business into a
successful going concern by: advising on the acquisition of the
business; leasing, selling and developing residential and commercial
properties; effecting efficient administrative processes; and
actively driving the strategic management of the business.
Michael holds a Bachelor of Economics degree,
majoring in finance, accounting and business, and a Bachelor of Laws
degree from Macquarie University.
He is a Senior Associate of the Financial Services
Institute of Australia.
PHiQ's consultants
Dianne Holmes
- Senior Consultant
Dianne is a strategic
partner of, and senior consultant to PHiQ. She has extensive
experience, and specialises in organisational development, adaption
and change transition, coaching and mentoring, as well as a suite of
Human Capital solutions and services.
Dianne is and has successfully consulted with a
number of government and private organisations which includes
Railcorp, Department of Defence, University of Western Sydney, Kent
Moving and Storage, Coles Group Limited and Woolworth’s along with a
select group of small business clients.
Prior to opening her own consultancy, Dianne was
the Managing Director for Kelly Services Australasia, (one of the top 3
global providers of human capital resources and services) previous
to Kelly Services her roles included Managing Director of Dunhill
Management Services, Associate Director of Smalls Recruiting and
Branch Manager of Centacom (one of Australia’s first recruiters).
With over 25 years in the Human Capital arena,
Dianne is a proven performer and uniquely qualified to understand,
recommend and customise solutions for your organisation.
Working with the team at PHiQ she builds the
people solutions to ensure that PHiQ have provided you with the
complete holistic solution for your business.
Steve Thomson
- Senior Consultant
Steve is a strategic
partner of, and senior consultant to PHiQ. He has more than 30 years
design experience, and specialises in electronics research and development,
covering a diverse range of appliations and industries, including
military, transport, telecommunications, industrial, peripheral PC,
scientific, medical an consumer goods.
Steve has successfully consulted for more than 20
years with a
number of government and private organisations, has authored three
(3) commercially successful patents and several of his designs have
attracted Australian Design Awards.
Prior to opening his own consultancy, Steve was
a principal, and the research director for Electronique Pty Ltd
(1989-2000), where he designed, patented and won an Australian
Design Award for the "ClassMaster" computer classroom equipment
range.
From 1981 to 1989 Steve was the design principal
and project manager for TYTEL Pty Ltd, where he was responsible for
the design, development, and patenting of the Tytel LANX 5th
generation digital networked PABX which also won an Australian
Design Award.
Steve has also held design engineering roles with
companies such as Plessey Australia, where he developed mobile radio
and data systems for use by clients such as Queensland Rail and NRMA. He
has also held international postings where he helped to develop
military telecommunications systems.
Steve holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree,
majoring in electronics and computers, from the University of New
South Wales.