WA State Summit: Private Wealth Adviser Forum

Arun Abey AM

Executive Chairman, Walsh Bay Partners

Mike Bennett

Private Wealth & Business Advisor to Successful Families, Bennett Wealth Group

Mike Bennett is the founder of Bennett Wealth Group, a Perth-based private wealth and business advisory firm that helps successful families navigate the complexity that success brings.  Mike and the BWG team work with a small number of successful families get really clear on where they are going and bringing the skills and capability to take them on the journey. The role they play is like sitting on the family board to provide long-term strategic advice across private wealth, financial planning, business and family succession, intergenerational wealth and the coordination of specialist professional advisers. Mike is also the WA Chair and Coach for the Significant Advice Network, a national community helping experienced financial advisers, accountants, lawyers and other professionals develop the broader advisory, facilitation and coaching skills required to support significant families. SAN focuses on helping advisers move beyond technical solutions to better understand a family’s context, navigate complex personal and business issues, and become trusted sense-makers for their clients.

Increasingly, Mike is spending his time advising and coaching professionals from across the professions on how to build deeper relationships with ultra-high-net-worth families, facilitate important family and succession conversations, collaborate effectively across professional disciplines, and deliver meaningful family board and stewardship-style advice. His practical experience gives advisers a clear view of how these services can complement their existing expertise, strengthen their client relationships and create a valuable next stage in their professional careers.

Tom Hill

Hill Tribe Family Office

Tom Hill is a committed advocate for values-driven investment and community development in Western Australia. Drawing on a rich heritage shaped by a family business that prioritised people and principles in conjunction with executive hospitality experience, Tom brings a grounded and purpose-led approach to impact investing.

As a founding member of the Hill Tribe Family Office, established in 2024, Tom is dedicated to advancing the well-being of Western Australia and contributing to global progress for future generations. The Family Office is guided by a clear mission: to foster a vibrant community where integrity informs decision-making, empowerment drives opportunity, and happiness remains central to sustainable growth.

Tom currently works to position the family office investment portfolio to achieve long term systemic change, using the philanthropic principles of Time, Talent, Testimony, Ties and Treasure to achieve sustainable returns while eliciting an excess for impact.

Stuart Wesley

Peer Group Chair, PWN

Stuart Wesley is a highly experienced leadership coach and organizational development consultant who specializes in empowering family enterprises to achieve both commercial success and rich, harmonious family relationships. With deep expertise in culture development, leadership coaching, and conflict resolution, Stuart operates on the foundational philosophy that "human interaction is a core business process." He is particularly adept at cultivating relational maturity and refining human dynamics within complex business structures.

Stuart’s understanding of the unique highs and lows of family enterprises began early in his life while working in his family’s glass and aluminum window business. Driven by a passion for supporting the growth and development of others, he initially pursued a successful vocation in pastoral ministry. In this capacity, his natural talents for public speaking, coaching, and leadership flourished, leading to active roles in the national leadership of his denomination and the establishment of new faith communities. Driven by a desire to bring his expertise to the broader commercial landscape, Stuart transitioned into corporate consulting, bringing together his lived experience in the family business with his profound understanding of human dynamics.

To support his consulting practice, Stuart undertook rigorous university-level education and specialized training in coaching and organizational development. He holds a Bachelor of Theology from the Sydney College of Divinity, alongside a Diploma of Professional Coaching and a Graduate Diploma of Ontological Coaching. Furthermore, he is a Human Change Management Certified Professional (HCMBOK) and an accredited practitioner in several advanced behavioral and vocational frameworks, including the Integrative9 Enneagram, Pro-d Vocational Assessment, and DISC Personality Assessment.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Stuart and his wife, Carolyn, enjoy a rich and fulfilling family life with their four adult children and a growing band of grandchildren.