Our Team
We’re a highly experienced team who’ve worked on both sides of the table, as executives, business leaders and trusted advisers. We bring deep expertise and genuine commitment to every client relationship.
Team members
Executive team
Paul Spottiswood
Group Managing Director
Paul Spottiswood is the founder and Group Managing Director of Harding Private, established to provide private company owners, boards, management teams and investors with a trusted, long-term advisory partner for transformations, transactions and capital. Paul brings more than 25 years’ experience across corporate advisory, investment banking, capital raising, and senior executive roles, including at Macquarie, Credit Suisse, Silk Logistics, Transurban, ISPT/IFM, and 333 Capital.
Paul founded Harding Private to address a clear gap in the market: an integrated service partner for critical transactions, offering a single point of accountability to reduce demands on clients, and delivered by advisers who understand what it is like to sit on the client side of the table. Having served as a CFO and senior corporate development executive in private and ASX-listed businesses, Paul brings an operator’s mindset to every engagement, grounded in strategy, risk mitigation, stakeholder alignment and long-term value creation.
Paul has originated and delivered over $3 billion in transactions globally, including company sales, shareholder exits, acquisitions, management buyouts, investment fund launches and complex capital raisings. He is known for solving complex commercial problems and partnering with clients to build value, improve readiness, and create strategic optionality ahead of pivotal decisions.
Paul maintains deep relationships with institutional investors, private offices, high-net-worth families and debt providers across Australia, and is actively involved in leadership development, mentoring and community initiatives.
Michelle Cao
Director, Corporate Advisory
Head of Finance Function Solutions
Michelle Cao is a Director at Harding Private and Head of Finance Function Solutions. Michelle is an experienced CFO and corporate development executive with deep expertise across mergers and acquisitions, integration, capital structuring and finance function leadership. She brings more than 20 years’ experience working with complex private, ASX-listed and global organisations, most notably at Silk Logistics, where she worked closely with Paul Spottiswood on acquisitions, integrations and strategic growth initiatives.
Michelle has held senior roles spanning ASX-listed CFO, General Manager of Finance/Commercial and General Manager of Corporate Development, leading IPO preparation and execution, in-house M&A, post-acquisition integration, privatisation processes, debt and equity raisings, and Board-level reporting. Michelle also has decades of experience in building and mentoring a successful finance team. She is known for her professional, honest, and highly commercial approach, and for her ability to bridge strategy, transactions, execution, and sustainable business growth.
At Harding Private, Michelle leads the Victorian team, manages transactions end-to-end, and leads a dedicated capability to support clients’ finance functions, improving reporting, financial discipline, systems, and decision-making to drive growth, transactions, and long-term value creation. Michelle is CPA-qualified and a trusted adviser to management teams navigating growth, change and transition.
Murray Parker
Chief Operating Officer
Head of Social Purpose & Governance Solutions
Murray Parker is Chief Operating Officer of Harding Private and leads the firm’s Social Purpose & Governance Solutions practices.
Murray is an experienced executive leader whose career spans senior roles with ANZ Bank, EnergyAustralia, Royal Bank of Scotland and IBM across Australia, the United Kingdom, Asia and New Zealand. His experience encompasses financial services, utilities, telecommunications and government, with a strong focus on operational performance, governance and organisational transformation.
Murray’s strengths lie in driving practical operational change, implementing robust processes, policies and reporting structures, optimising board and governance effectiveness and stabilising and improving complex or underperforming functions and programs. He brings deep commercial and financial acumen, combined with a disciplined, detail-oriented approach to risk management, governance and execution.
In his role leading Harding Private’s Social Purpose practice, Murray works closely with not-for-profits and charities to strengthen governance frameworks, implement effective operating structures and position organisations for sustainable growth and long-term impact.
Benjamin Kendall
Chief Communications Officer
Head of Marketing & Communication Solutions
Benjamin Kendall is the Chief Communications Officer and Head of Marketing & Communications at Harding Private, working closely with the firm and its clients to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling messages that connect with the right audiences.
Ben brings more than 20 years’ experience across energy, government, technology, education, telecommunications and professional services. He has delivered communication strategy, change and transformation communications, employee engagement programs and leadership messaging across a wide range of organisational contexts.
Ben is known for his collaborative, hands-on approach and for building internal capability so that strong communication endures well beyond a single engagement. At Harding Private, he leads the firm’s marketing and communications and supports clients where clarity of narrative, stakeholder alignment and message discipline are critical.
Ben’s philosophy is simple: communication should be clear, bold and human.
Operating partners
Dean Saunders
Operating Partner – Sales Leadership & Growth
Dean Saunders is a senior sales and go-to-market leader who works with Harding Private clients to turn commercial ambition into repeatable execution.
With more than 20 years’ experience across APAC in growing software, services, and B2B businesses, Dean specialises in improving underperforming sales functions, building effective commercial structures, and developing the leadership rhythms that drive consistent results. He has held senior roles, including APAC Channel and Alliances Director at Cyara, where he led regional GTM strategy, partner ecosystems and revenue acceleration.
Dean is known for a practical, hands-on approach that creates clearer pipeline visibility, stronger accountability and sustainable growth that does not rely solely on the founder. At Harding Private, he supports clients with sales leadership, commercial strategy, go-to-market execution and interim leadership during periods of transformation, growth or transition. His work enhances the firm’s broader strategic and transactional capabilities by strengthening commercial performance and execution discipline.
Amanda Loftus
Operating Partner – Organisational Design & Leadership Coaching
Amanda is an organisational design expert and leadership coach, focused on supporting Harding Private clients through complex organisational design and human resource change, leadership transitions and capability uplift.
A Prosci-certified transformation leader, Amanda brings more than 20 years’ executive-level experience across organisational design, change management and leadership development. She has led large-scale transformation programs across complex matrix organisations, small and medium enterprises and government departments, designing operating models, driving culture change and building leadership capability to support long-term performance.
Amanda is known as a strong connector of people and ideas and has worked as a coach and mentor to C-suite executives and senior leaders throughout her career. At Harding Private, she is engaged on select assignments where organisational and HR readiness, leadership alignment and change embedment are critical, ensuring transformation initiatives are practical, sustainable and endure well beyond the project lifecycle.
Jean-Marc Barbeau
Operating Partner – Strategic Planning
Jean-Marc is a leader in strategy and executive coaching, focused on Harding Private engagements requiring structured strategic planning, clarity of direction and alignment across leadership teams.
Jean-Marc brings deep experience in strategy development, business planning and performance improvement, underpinned by his background as a trained accountant and senior roles within large, complex organisations, including GlaxoSmithKline. He works closely with founders, executives and boards to define priorities, test assumptions and translate ambition into clear, actionable plans, helping management teams’ step back from day-to-day execution to make better long-term decisions.
At Harding Private, Jean-Marc is engaged on select assignments where strategic thinking and facilitation are critical, complementing the firm’s transaction and capital capability. He plays a key role in shaping strategy, stress-testing options and ensuring plans are robust, coherent and aligned. His experience in business and executive coaching supports this work by strengthening leadership clarity, accountability and focus.
Advisory board
Nick Carrigan
Advisory Board Member
Nick brings more than 25 years’ experience across investment banking, corporate finance and strategic advisory, having worked with private and institutional clients in Australia and internationally. He has held senior roles at leading global financial institutions, including UBS in Australia and Japan, and at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in Tokyo.
Nick is known for his calm, highly commercial approach and his ability to simplify complexity for clients navigating critical transactions. He works closely with shareholders and management teams to align strategy, capital, and execution, with a strong focus on disciplined process, value optimisation, and outcome certainty. Clients value his judgement, discretion and hands-on involvement throughout a transaction.
His approach reflects the firm’s core values of connection, impact, ingenuity, judgment, and trust, as well as a deep commitment to trusted relationships and client outcomes.
Third-party experts
Beyond our partner network, we regularly coordinate lawyers, accountants, due diligence providers and other specialists. We manage these relationships on your behalf, ensuring quality, competitive pricing, and alignment with your objectives.