Mr Ben Harrison
Chairman of the Board

Mr Harrison has 15 years of experience in advising and investing in companies. He commenced his career as a Project Manager for a large international engineering consulting firm working on a number of infrastructure projects in Australia and South East Asia.

Mr. Harrison later moved into investment banking, working for a leading corporate advisory house where he executed over $2.0 billion in capital market transactions and $5.5 billion of public M&A transactions. He is a partner and Chief Investment Officer of Altor Capital and is active in the private equity and private credit sectors in Australia.

Mr Harrison currently holds board and advisory roles with several private and public companies. Mr Harrison’s extensive investment, financial background and board experience will provide key leadership to the HighCom Board.

Hon. Christopher Pyne

Non-Executive Director

Christopher Pyne brings a wealth of commercial, political and global defence experience to HighCom, having served as a Member for Parliament (MP) for over 25 years. Christopher served as the 54th Australian Defence Minister and was responsible for delivering the $200 billion build‑up of Australia’s military capability, the largest in Australia’s peacetime history.

Christopher was elected to Parliament in 1993 and served as the Member for Sturt for 26 years. During this time, he was in the Liberal Party Leadership Group for ten years, Leader of the House of Representatives for six years, and served in Cabinet for six years. Christopher has worked to ensure the growth and sustainment of Australia’s Defence Industry.

Christopher is the current Chairman of Pyne and Partners and Principal of GC Advisory, consulting to business in the domain of government and political engagement. Both are headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia but operate nationally and globally. He is an Industry Professor in the University of South Australia Business School specialising in Defence and Space.

Before entering Parliament, Christopher practised as a solicitor at Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Thomson Geer.

Mr Mark Smethurst DSC, AM (Ret’d)

Non-Executive Director

Mr Smethurst’s significant Defence experience spans over 35 years in Australian Army, with 27 years as a Senior Special Forces Officer and was the Deputy Commander of the Australian Special Forces. He commanded all the NATO Special Forces in Afghanistan and was the Deputy Chief of Operations for the US Special Operations Command.

Prior to leaving the Australian Defence Force in early 2017 after over 7 years as a Brigadier, he was the Head of Preparedness / Director General Joint Force Analysis, responsible for developing Futures Concepts, Experimentation, Lessons and Preparedness.

Mr Smethurst is a member of, and Advisor to the Global SOF Foundation and is the Chairman of the Commando Welfare Trust.

Through his other business interests, he is well positioned to support HighCom both within the Australian and international contexts.

Ms Adelaide McDonald
Non-Executive Director

Ms McDonald has over 15 years’ experience in corporate advisory and equity research. She is currently an Non‑Executive Director of VGI Partners Global Investments Ltd (ASX:VG1) and VGI Partners Asian Investments Ltd (ASX:VG8). In addition, Ms McDonald has held roles as a Director at KPMG in the Mergers and Acquisitions practice with previous roles at Wilson HTM and BDO Kendalls.

Ms McDonald graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Commerce, with majors in Accounting and Finance, and a Bachelor of Business Management, majoring in Business Economics. She has completed the CFA Program and has been awarded the CFA Charter.