A leading hub for innovation, incubation, investment and inspiration in Australian business.
SODA is paving the way for Australia’s tech future, driving the growth of new business and innovation across the country. We have a strong track record of building highly successful businesses in the digital infrastructure and technology arena and providing support to entrepreneurs on a journey to build sustainable, forward-thinking companies who can leverage our experience to turn their idea into a global innovation.
Our focus is long term, as we strive to help build businesses that will have a lasting positive impact on Australia’s people, environment and future. Leaving a legacy is the ultimate goal for us and our partners.
SODA is constantly on the lookout for companies with high growth potential to partner with and help reach their potential. Our hub of leading industry executives and thought leaders and our broader corporate infrastructure can help collaboratively secure funding and execute both domestic and global growth strategies needed to take entrepreneurs’ projects to the next level.
Key team members
Bevan Slattery
Serial entrepreneur
A serial entrepreneur, Bevan Slattery has been successfully building IT and telecommunications businesses in Australia for nearly 20 years. He has since expanded his innovations to Singapore and Hong Kong, followed by the USA and Europe.
In 2015, Bevan successfully led two of his private investments to ASX‐listed status. Superloop Limited (ASX:SLC) was listed in June 2015, after an IPO that raised $17.5 million for approximately 19.4% of the company. Megaport Limited (ASX:MP1) was listed in December, raising $25 million for approximately 28.5% of the company.
Celia Pheasant
General Counsel
Celia Pheasant is General Counsel of SODA and company secretary for Megaport Limited, with responsibility for the corporate governance of its subsidiaries in 24 countries globally. Ms. Pheasant is an experienced in-house technology, telecommunications and digital infrastructure lawyer with more than 25 years of legal experience. A member of SODA’s executive team, Ms. Pheasant has extensive experience assisting early-stage technology and digital infrastructure companies grow from seed investment to IPO and post-IPO. She has advised on a broad range of domestic and international matters, including corporate acquisitions, capital raising activities in private and public markets, product innovation, development and scaling activities for digital platforms, and geographic expansion initiatives for software-as-a-service ecosystems. She also has expertise in the construction and operation of international high-capacity fiber optic cable systems.
Evan Kilpatrick
Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Evan Kilpatrick is the Chief Investment Officer of SODA. He is responsible for overseeing investment, project development and portfolio management and providing broader oversight on operational functions of the group. Mr. Kilpatrick has over 15 years’ experience in investment banking and private equity, having worked across opportunities in Australia, Asia, North America and Europe. Mr. Kilpatrick has extensive advisory and principal investment experience, having advised and invested with some of the most prominent corporations and investment firms globally.
Prior to SODA, Mr. Kilpatrick was an Investment Director in the Global Private Capital department of QIC, where he was primarily responsible for the firm’s private equity program in the Asia Pacific Region. In this capacity, Mr. Kilpatrick oversaw the firm’s investment strategy across direct and fund investments across venture capital, growth capital and buyout opportunities. He was also actively involved across the firm’s global private equity portfolio, principally in the United States and Europe.
Prior to QIC, Mr. Kilpatrick was Head of Private Equity & Financial Sponsors with Credit Suisse in Australia. He was with the firm for almost a decade, and shared his time between Sydney and New York, covering clients in Asia, North America and Europe. During his time Mr. Kilpatrick gained extensive experience advising a broad range of clients on over $60 billion of high profile public and private transactions.
Prior to Credit Suisse, Mr. Kilpatrick commenced his career in corporate finance with Ernst & Young where he was responsible for managing and executing a broad range of mergers and acquisitions, buy and sell side due diligence and capital raisings, valuations and business modelling and project finance assignments.
Adrian Martin
Group Chief Revenue Officer
Adrian Martin is the Group Chief Revenue Officer at Soda Infrastructure and is responsible for all Sales and Marketing activity for the group, including HyperOne and SUBCO.
Adrian has spent a twenty five year career building and leading high performing teams across functional groups, businesses and geographic regions. He has cultivated a reputation in the Global Telecommunications industry as an executive who consistently delivers outstanding and repeatable results.
Adrian has a Bachelor’s degree in Business from his native Ireland and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management (UNSW) in Sydney.
Hon Kate Jones
Strategic Advisor
Kate Jones has more than 20 years’ experience in senior government and leadership positions. Kate served as a Minister in the Queensland Government for more than eight years in a range of portfolios including State Development, Education, Innovation, Tourism and Environment.
Kate was also the Minister for the Commonwealth Games working with all levels of government and industry partners to successfully deliver Queensland’s largest-ever event, the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Throughout her ministerial career, Kate was responsible for implementing significant policy reforms including the whole-of-government’s innovation agenda, Advance Queensland and Queensland’s first climate change strategy.
Kate is currently an Executive Director for the Tech Council of Australia and serves on a number of other national and state boards. Kate is a passionate advocate for sustainability and strongly believes that by investing in tech and Australian talent, we can deliver better environmental solutions.
