Meet the team

Paul commenced his role as Executive Director for Business Sydney in September 2021. Prior to Business Sydney, Paul was Director for the Business Leaders Council, Membership and Events for the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) for seven years.

Paul sits on the Board of The Gut Foundation, The Estia Foundation, Australian Marketing Institute and as a Non-Executive Board Member of Group Colleges Australia. In addition, Paul is an ambassador of Start Up Australia and is a Member of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW Institute. Further Paul is a Non-Executive Director of Dymocks Children’s Charities.

Paul is an Adjunct Professor at UBSS Australia and was awarded the Centenary Medal of Australia in 2001.

Paul was the former Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Hotels Association of NSW (AHA). The AHA is one of the largest industry associations in Australia representing 1,700 pubs and 100 accommodation hotels in NSW.

Prior to the AHA, Paul was the Executive Chairman of the Millennium Forum, which was the fundraising and business engagement arm of the Liberal Party of Australia NSW Division.

Paul was also the former NSW President of the Marketing Institute of Australia for 4 years, a member of the Council for ten years and is currently an Associate Fellow and Certified Practicing Marketer of the Marketing Institute of Australia.

In the early years, Paul was the former Chief Executive Officer of the UNSW Foundation. At the same time he was the Director of Public Affairs & Development at the University. Paul served as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs and Development at UNSW as well.

Prior to his senior roles at the University, Paul was Marketing Manager at the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife and Manager of Fundraising at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Camperdown. 

David commenced his role as Public Affairs Manager for Business Sydney in January 2023. 

David is a Walkley Award-winning journalist with a distinguished career spanning more than half a century in print, television and radio journalism, political and corporate affairs and high-level media relations including incident and issues management.

He began his career in 1964 as a Saturday copy boy and then cadet shipping reporter at the Sydney Sun newspaper. During his media career, David was The Sun’s North America correspondent based in New York where he covered everything from the death of Elvis Presley in Memphis to the signing of the Middle East peace treaty at the White House in 1978, and later as London correspondent for Australia’s Seven Network. He worked as a political reporter in Canberra and in Macquarie Street before becoming press secretary to NSW Premier Nick Greiner in 1990.

Since then, David has specialised in corporate affairs at Austrade, private health insurer Medical Benefits Fund of Australia (MBF), and, most recently, corporate communications manager for 13 years at Australia’s largest cruise organisation, Carnival Australia. He was closely involved in the campaign for the resumption of cruising in Australia.

David has a keen interest in Australian history including Sydney’s maritime heritage. He is married to Anne with whom he has three children and two grandchildren. 

Jason commenced his role as Business Manager - Partnerships and Programs in May 2022 and joins Business Sydney with a strong background in Relationship, Membership and Stakeholder management.

Having worked in the retail and mutual banking sector for several years, Jason commenced at Bridges Financial Services (Part of the IOOF Group) as a Senior Alliance Manager where he developed referral partner relationships for the provision of financial advice services via a national network of member-based organisations and professional service firms for over a decade.

In 2016, Jason commenced at the Financial Planning Association of Australia as the Head of Advice Partnerships and Membership. This leadership role spanned across several key areas of critical responsibility, including membership growth, renewal & retention, the FPA’s Professional Partner & Professional Practice programs and referral partnerships.

Following his time in financial services, Jason shifted to Isuzu Ute Australia as Regional Fleet Sales Manager which then led to a role at the McMillan Shakespeare Group as a Relationship Manager for Maxxia where he was responsible for corporate relationship management and strategic support for the provision of salary packaging and novated leasing services to Tier 1 Corporates and Mining Sector partners in NSW, QLD, & NT.

Jason is Business Sydney’s key conduit to our valued members - leading corporations, government agencies and not for profit organisations who have a commitment to the economic prosperity of the Sydney region.

Nerida has extensive experience and a broad array of professional skills in providing extensive executive and organisational support, stakeholder engagement, financial analysis, event management and fundraising.

Having begun her career as a Financial Accountant, Nerida extended her financial skills into event management, stakeholder engagement and fundraising during her years working for the Liberal Party of Australia (NSW Division). During this time Nerida was responsible for the successful staging of many major, high profile corporate and political events, including major corporate fundraising dinners, the Federal Election night receptions for Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott and the Premier of NSW.

Nerida commenced working for the Chamber of Commerce group in 2015, as Executive Support for the Business Leaders Council, Membership and Events at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In recent years, Nerida has also coordinated the Western Sydney Women Awards ceremonies and assisted the fundraising events for the Gut Foundation.

In October 2021 Nerida commenced in the position of Executive Officer for Business Sydney. This role provides support for the Executive Director and the Business Sydney team to ensure valuable and meaningful engagement with our members and stakeholders at all levels.

Peter’s role with the CBD Business Chamber is to develop the business plan to launch the Chamber and develop the customer and marketing strategy that will ensure its ongoing success.

Peter’s business background spans nearly 30 years developing and managing businesses in the marketing and communications space.

Formerly managing director and senior executive of the global communications giants Grey Group and RAPP businesses across Sydney and Melbourne he has worked with major brands across the banking & finance, FMCG, health, tertiary education, membership organisations, Not-For-Profits as well as retail State and Federal Government.

Just prior to 2014, he has been responsible for providing strategic insight for Clients as well as business development expertise to Sydney-based design & communications business, Neon Creative prior to establishing his own communications consultancy PMC in 2014, specialising in providing strategic communications advice and creative integrated communications.

Peter has also acted as a Tutor within the University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences in the School of Communications since 2014.

In May 2016, Peter was appointed as founding Executive Officer of the CBD Sydney Chamber in May 2016 by the NSW Business Chamber – responsible for its development, Membership strategy, Member relations and financial management.

Outside of his professional activities he is a keen sportsperson, sailing keel boats competitively out of Greenwich Flying Squadron and skiffs from Lane Cove 12ft Sailing Skiff Club where he also serves as Commodore in a volunteer capacity.

Goals for the chamber

The CBD Sydney Chamber provides a valuable link between businesses in and around the CBD.

My passion for this role revolves around connecting people and creating links that bind businesses around a common interest – that ultimately can benefit their business.

That link might be geography (eg CBD, The Rocks or Barangaroo After 5 Networking), an industry - our Creative Community group, a CBD Women in Business network or those looking for Business Improvement opportunities.

The CBD needs groups like these. My conversations with businesses reinforce this everyday. So my role is to listen and to create genuine opportunities that add value to potentially hundreds of businesses, every day. It’s an exciting challenge – and there’s a lot to do.