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Ned Montarello
Director, Executive Chairman and Founder of Tuscan Equity and ThinkSmart
Ned founded ThinkSmart in 1996 and through this vehicle has been credited with elevating the Nano-Ticket rental market sector in Australia, receiving the EY and Telstra Australian Government’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998. Ned continued to drive the business to maintain its sector leading IP in point of sale finance with the introduction of e-sign to its process ensuring that it maintained its relevance to the fast moving retail environment. In 2007 Ned successfully listed, via $204m IPO, the business in Australia and subsequently migrated the listing to the UK AIM in 2016.
He led the development of the Group’s Australian distribution network, led the business expansion into Europe in 2003 and in 2017 launched Clearpay in the UK. In 2018, he successfully negotiated the sale of 90% of Clearpay to the emerging, global, industry leading Afterpay Ltd and in 2021 he successfully negotiated the exchange of ThinkSmart’s remaining 10% holding in Clearpay for shares in Afterpay which were subsequently exchanged for shares in NYSE listed Block Inc following the acquisition of Afterpay by Block.
In 2022 Ned established Tuscan Equity Pty Ltd as the buy-out vehicle to acquire ThinkSmart through a Scheme of Arrangement which was implemented in December 2022.
Adam Montarello
Non-Executive Director of Tuscan Equity and ThinkSmart
Adam is an advisor to Tuscan Equity. Adam was an Associate Director at KPMG Australia, specialising in debt advisory for clients in the Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure sectors, with a focus on project finance. Adam’s 6 years’ experience with KPMG ranged across Audit, Restructuring and Corporate Finance service lines. He is a Chartered Accountant, and holds bachelor’s degrees in Law and Commerce from the University of Western Australia.
Scott Montarello
Non-Executive Director of Tuscan Equity and ThinkSmart
Scott is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Driva, a digital financing platform that matches consumers with their best loan option in market. He co-founded Driva in 2019, seeking to re-shape how consumers obtain access to financing in Australia, starting with vehicle loans and more recently expanding into personal loans.
Driva has since grown to become one of the fastest growing start-ups in Australia, as recognised in the AFR Fast Starters list for 2022, achieving number 3 in the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 and winning the consumer lending category at the Australian Fintech Awards (Finnies). Prior to Driva, Scott was a Management Consultant at McKinsey & Company, spending most of his time in the private equity and financial services industries.
Gary Halton
Chief Financial Officer of Tuscan Equity and ThinkSmart, and Director of ThinkSmart Europe Ltd
Gary has been Chief Financial Officer of the Group since 2008 when he joined the Group. Between October 2012 and January 2014, Gary acted as interim Managing Director of the Group.
Prior to joining the Group, Gary held several senior positions, including Head of Finance Services and Head of Group Taxation, with De Vere Group plc. Gary is a qualified chartered accountant and a chartered tax advisor, with over 20 years post-qualification experience, having qualified with Ernst & Young, and then a subsequent senior manager role with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Keith Jones
Consultant adviser to Tuscan Equity and ThinkSmart
Keith was a Non-Executive Director on the ThinkSmart Europe Board from 1 November 2020 to 30 June 2023. Keith was previously Chief Executive Officer of ThinkSmart from 1 February 2014 through to 31 December 2014, Group Strategy and Development Director from 1 January 2015 to 2 December 2016 and a Non-Executive Director of the main ThinkSmart Group Board from 2 December 2016 to 27 June 2019.
Keith has over 35 years of retail experience across the UK, Europe and USA including roles as Chief Executive Officer of JJB Sports plc, Chief Operating Officer of Halfords and Group Retail Director of Dixons Retail plc, one of Europe’s largest electrical retailers. Previously he was Managing Director of PC World Stores Group with responsibility for stores in the UK, Spain, France, Italy and Nordics in addition to Group Service Operations. Keith has a MBA from the Manchester Business School.