Private Wealth Adviser Forum

Jason Chequer

Managing Partner, Linara Group

Jason has over 30 years of experience advising families and family offices, blending technical expertise in investments and wealth planning with practical, family-centred guidance. He specialises in helping families manage existing wealth effectively and prepares those new to wealth or about to inherit it. Jason collaborates with families, their members, and advisers to design and implement comprehensive wealth management strategies that integrate both financial and family dynamics, ensuring holistic and successful wealth management.

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Christopher Davitt

Fund Manager, Dexus Wholesale Australian Property Fund

Christopher joined Dexus in 2022 as part of Dexus’s wider acquisition AMP Capital. Prior to joining AMP Capital, Christopher was Vice President at a real estate private equity firm based in London.
Christopher has held research, transactions and funds management roles at Multiplex and Lend Lease and has contributed to three editions of a seminal text on investing in residential property. From 2001 to 2005 Christopher served as the Deputy Chairman of the Property Council of Australia's Capital Markets Committee and from 2003-2005 he was an adjunct lecturer at the University of NSW running both undergraduate and postgraduate Real Estate Finance and Investment courses.

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Nim de Swardt

Narrative Practitioner, Adviser & Non-Executive Director

Nim de Swardt chairs the PWN Family Wealth Peer Group (QLD) and is Australia’s leading family storyteller. For 17 years, Nim has been cultivating Narrative Capital™ within significant families. Formerly the world’s first Chief Next Generation Officer at a US$16B, seventh-generation family enterprise and Guest Faculty at the Modern Elder Academy, teaching ‘Intergenerational Wisdom Sharing’. Nim draws on two decades in communications, narrative psychology, narrative therapy, storytelling science, and human-centred design. She is currently completing her Master’s research on how narrative practices can build legacy capital in significant families.

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Lee Eaton

Group Head of Business Development, Independent Reserve

Lee Eaton is the Group Head of Business Development at Independent Reserve, one of Australia’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges. He brings over 15 years of experience in financial services and wealth management, having previously worked at KPMG Australia, E&P Financial Group, and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Lee holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Asian Studies from the Australian National University, and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). At Independent Reserve, he leads new business initiatives and strategic commercial partnerships, helping bridge traditional wealth management with digital asset opportunity.

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Scott Fitzpatrick

Founder & CEO, SAN (Significant Adviser Network) 

Scott Fitzpatrick is a pioneer of client-first advice and founder of the Significant Adviser Network (SAN), Australia’s leading multi-disciplinary professional network of advisers at the forefront of advice. 

After beginning his career as a high-school teacher, Scott co-founded Fitzpatricks Private Wealth and helped lead the industry’s shift to fee-for-service advice - growing the firm to 25 offices, 110 advisers and $5B under care.

Today, through SAN, he equips advisers with the frameworks, strategies, and peer network to thrive in an era of disruption, shifting client expectations, and the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. 

When Scott isn’t mentoring, teaching and coaching, he is on his foil board surfing the Tweed Coast. A former Australian hockey player, he and his wife now travel the world cheering on their adult children, who compete on the hockey world stage.

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Emily Hammon

PWN Member, Family Business & Wealth Advisor

Emily is a certified Family Business & Wealth Advisor with the Family Business Association (AU) and the Family Firm Institute (USA).

Emily’s lived experience as a third generation family business member has inspired her to work with other enterprising families to help them plan, protect and prosper for generations through governance, legacy building and family learning programs.

Emily has 20 years of experience in the fields of marketing, events, sponsorship and international trade in both the public and private sectors.

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Mark Papendieck

Chief Operations Officer, DASH Technology Group

Mark Papendieck is a seasoned executive in Australia’s financial services industry, with over two decades of experience driving innovation across wealth management, advisory, platforms and fintech. Currently serving as Chief Operating Officer at DASH Technology Group, he leads the firm’s operational strategy and commercial alignment as the organisation helps advice firms thrive in a digital-first world.

Throughout his career, Mark has held C-suite roles including as founding CEO of Australia’s first online-only wrap platform, and executive leadership across advisory groups, technology providers and wealth platforms. His deep cross-industry experience positions him uniquely at the convergence of advice, technology and client experience.

In recent years, Mark has emerged as a thought-leader on the impact of AI and emerging advice-technology within financial services. He argues that AI is not merely the next wave of digitisation but a fundamentally different force: one that changes “who does things and how things get done”. Through his speaking and writing, he emphasises that advice firms must build secure strategic foundations, define what AI should replace vs what humans must preserve, and adopt governance and policies appropriate for the regulatory and fiduciary environment.

With a lens firmly on the future, Mark also addresses the evolving demands of high‐net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients including the integration of off-platform assets and alternative investments and how platforms and AI must evolve to serve them seamlessly.

Mark holds a strong belief that while technology will accelerate, the human elements of trust, judgment, ethics, and meaningful advice remain the enduring differentiators in wealth and advice businesses.

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David Werdiger

Managing Director, Nathanson Pearson

David is the youngest child of Nathan Werdiger, a Holocaust survivor with an amazing life story, who ended his days as the single largest private real estate owner in Melbourne CBD and with a family of 128 living descendants. 

After 30+ years as a tech entrepreneur, and 20+ years in the non-profit world, David has developed a rare blend of expertise in entrepreneurship, technology, governance, strategy, and a healthy dose of common-sense. He is now a family enterprise advisor, family office principal (for his own branch of the family), and a thought leader. As a published best-selling author of Transition he has assisted many HNW families to navigate the complexities of succession planning, intergenerational wealth transition, and family governance.

David also writes case studies and teaches family in business at Harvard Business School, is an Adjunct Industry Fellow (entrepreneurship) at Swinburne University, and a regular speaker at HNW conferences and events around the world. He is able to distil complex issues and present them simply and succinctly, and is a powerhouse at the board table. David is married with five children and deeply engaged with his local community through a number of non-profits. He’s writing his second book – about the challenges of the modern always-connected digital world. In between all that, he is passionate about sport – particularly AFL, cricket and NFL.