Few have David Antaw’s breadth of experience across multiple sectors that cover national and international business, from management in metal distribution, building products, oil refining, electricity retailing and distribution, cement manufacture, concrete, quarrying, all the way to tourism, food and beverage – and the performing arts.

He is a natural leader. David drives performance improvement, business growth and value-adding transactions and restructuring through his background in heavy-hitting and complex businesses on both the international and domestic stage. David is a founding partner of Sandwalk Partners and is a highly experienced Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and consultant.

David’s business background and commercial know-how bridging three decades is further supported by his qualifications as a CPA and Fellow of CPA Australia, a Bachelor of Business degree from UTS and a Master of Commerce from UNSW.

Where it began
For a significant part of his career, David was an executive at Pioneer International Limited, a publicly listed Australian multinational conglomerate with operations spread across 19 countries covering building materials, building products, mining and oil.

Through a variety of positions as Corporate Development Manager, Head of Corporate Planning and Head of Treasury Operations, David has led or participated in many high profile acquisitions, growth strategies, performance improvement and financing transactions. Under his management gross merger and acquisition transaction value exceeded $7 billion, while financing transaction value exceeded $10 billion.

David also held a number of Directorships including Australian Cement and Melcann and oversaw cement strategy for Australia and Asia.

After Pioneer, David held roles as Chief Financial Officer for Energy Australia and then the Sydney Opera House Trust. Both these organisations, while very different, employ balance sheets in the billons and extensive consumer bases. While at Sydney Opera House, he was responsible for innovation, not the usual domain of a Chief Financial Officer, and was also appointed Chief Operating Officer.

David drove both organisations to pursue new business growth, business improvement and facilitated a number of asset restructuring opportunities. His legacy is a clear focus on executing value adding strategy and a sustainable increase in operating cashflow.