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About thrive

Who are we?

Thrive is a not-for-profit organisation established with the vital financial backing of Westpac, private donors and the generous support of leading companies such as Allianz, Deloitte, Gilbert & Tobin, KPMG, Korn Ferry, LOUD, Newgate and Equifax.

Thrive is registered as a charity with tax-deductible status for donations.

What do we do?

Our primary role is to provide business and financial support for refugees, which can help them start and grow viable new businesses.

We are able to provide these refugees support because of the generous aid from our strategic partners, volunteers and private donors. Their pro bono and financial support for refugees have enabled Thrive to create a system which lets us assist these entrepreneurs as they navigate through the complex and challenging path of starting, managing and sustaining a business.

In our last two years of operations, we have given out over 170 loans to our refugee entrepreneurs and have had over 1000 expressions of interest. Supporting our refugees are a group of about 100 dedicated volunteers, over 30 corporate partners as well as many other kind donors.

Why do we do it?

We do what we do because we believe that refugees and asylum seekers are eager for a fresh start. At Thrive, we want to help by giving them a leg up in society, as they can experience certain disadvantages that can make it more difficult for them to be financially independent.

By providing these refugees support for their business enterprises, Thrive enables them to become financially independent. We help them actively contribute to our economy and society by creating jobs, so that they may integrate faster and more successfully as active contributors to our economy and society.

Our focus areas
Education

Providing information about the Australian business market and the knowledge and steps required to start or expand a business.

Loan

Providing financial support for refugees and asylum seekers in the form of microfinance loans for new or existing businesses.

Post loan

Providing post-loan mentoring to guide refugee entrepreneurs towards business success.

Our Vision

We want to positively transform the lives of refugees and asylum seekers by helping them build successful businesses and fulfilling lives, so they can make meaningful contributions to the Australian economy and society.

Our Team
Huy Truong

Our Executive Chairman of Thrive came to Australia as a Vietnamese refugee in 1978. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he has a diverse operating, entrepreneurial and advisory background and is an advocate for a progressive Australia. His success is one of the inspirations behind the establishment of Thrive. He currently serves as the CEO of Australian Life Insurance Group.

Previously held positions:
  • Various founding and executive roles with Yarra Capital Partners, Carter Holt Harvey, Jurlique International, Boston Consulting Group and Wishlist Holdings
  • Director, Asialink
Gus Nehme

Gus Nehme has held an array of jobs in various countries. He’s been the NSW Multicultural Senior Business Advisor (Department of Industry, CMRC).

Previously held positions:
  • General Manager ATI where he provided sales training, mentoring and coaching.
  • Director of Sales for Al-Futtaim Group and Qatari Diar. There he worked on several projects which were in different countries. The value of these projects varied from half billion to several billions dollars each.  
  • An executive board member of Sotheby’s Real Estate (Qatar, Morocco, UAE and Egypt), a joint venture between Qatari Diar and the Wyndham Group.
Arie Moses

Arie has over 25 years' experience in working with small businesses, specially start-ups. Arie has also advised and supported the start-up of small businesses by recently arrived migrants and refugees. Arie has over 20 years workshop delivery experience in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Business Development. Arie has got over 20 years’ experience working with people assisting them into self- employment and served as the Chairperson of the National NEIS Association for 7 years. Arie established and ran two successful businesses for a period of 12 years – one in Serviced Offices and Co-Working space and a Cheese/Dairy export business to Canada, Brazil and Chile. Arie is currently the State Manager for Thrive Refugee Enterprise, an organisation that provides micro finance loans to Refugee and Asylum Seekers Industry specific experience: Food Export, Business Development, Strategic Planning. Arie has Business and Mediation qualifications.

Jane Carnegie

Jane has been working with small business start-ups for almost a decade, delivering and managing the New Enterprise Incentive Scheme (NEIS) in Adelaide. Earlier on, a career with Austrade in Adelaide, Melbourne, Beijing, and Shanghai, assisting small and medium sized businesses to find viable export markets for their goods and services. Jane has also worked in the skilled migration area, and together with Regency College set up Chef Testing facilities throughout China and helped secure permanent residency in Australia for Chefs and Cooks under the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme. Jane is now South Australia's representative for Thrive and she is passionate about providing opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers to start their own business.

Daniel Segura

Daniel is an experienced professional with a background in business banking and economic development. Over the last 15 years, Daniel has been passionate in supporting start-up and established businesses achieve their potential, with a demonstrated history in delivering business finance, business planning and mentoring, credit analysis and educational workshops. Daniel has held senior positions in government agencies and banking with most recent roles including State Manager Business Development and Operations Manager assisting customers in both metro and remote Australia. Daniel is a strong advocate for business enterprise and the positive contribution it creates by social and economic inclusion, and financial freedom. Daniel is very excited to support the Queensland refugee community to start and grow their businesses.

Eymie Prieto

Eymie is a marketing professional with a Bachelor’s specialising in business, communications, and marketing. She has worked in various places, starting off her career as an Executive Assistant for managers at Commander, has gained sales experience working at Apple, and marketing experience working at Toshiba Australia. Thrive has been her home for two years as she has always been passionate about helping others in the non-for profit sector.

Adrian Ruggerio

Prior to joining Thrive, Adrian has a held number of executive roles including with BP AMERICA as General Manager Operations, Strategy and Performance, as well as holding senior executive roles within the mobile telecommunications and construction industries. Adrian will be responsible for developing and maintaining corporate partnerships and business relationships nationally to ensure that our clients have the full benefit of a broad range of new business opportunities which emanate from these partnerships.

Leigh Coleman

Leigh has spent most of his working life helping people address inequalities and challenges experienced when starting up and growing micro and small enterprises. Leigh has established successful enterprise development and finance organisations in several countries including Australia.

Access to contracts, capacity building and capital continues to be an impediment to many businesses. In his early years Leigh started and ran a number of successful micro and small businesses. From 1976-2001 Leigh worked closely with a small team who established Opportunity International.

Leigh was a Founding Director and CEO of Many Rivers Microfinance (Many Rivers). Many Rivers now has a National presence in Urban, Regional and Remote Australia with a strong emphasis on Aboriginal business development.

Leigh, along with two other founding Directors, established ServeGate Australia as an Aboriginal collaborative gateway and facilitator of Small and Medium Enterprises. Leigh was also Acting CEO of Thrive Refugee Enterprise in early 2019 and also conducted the research that has informed the Thrive Regional Development rollout.

Paul Schwarze

Paul Schwarze is a Head of Credit.

Jessica Vuong

Jessica is currently studying for a Bachelor of Commerce and Law and has a marketing background. She has started her career as a Marketing Intern and worked her way up to a Marketing Coordinator at The Social Media Network (TSMN). She has gained more experience as a Marketing Executive at the VIP Sydney, and gained customer service experience at Datacom. She has always been passionate about working in a non-profit organization!

Hilary Prieto

Hilary was first working as a volunteer at Thrive Refugee Enterprise for about 6 months when she first arrived in Australia from New York. She has now been promoted and working as an Enterprise Assistant, aiding in day-to-day tasks while continuing to study a Bachelor in Zoology at Western Sydney University.

Previously held positions:
  • Volunteer at Thrive Refugee Enterprise
Bell Purevdorj

Bell Purevdorj has been working for TRE as a Business Development Intern since September 2019. Bell undertook an internship with Thrive for 6 months, then continued working as a business volunteer until the end of August 2019.

Previously held positions:
  • Worked as an assistant lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer, head of Economics Department for the University of Finance and Economics, Mongolia for almost 10 years.
  • Used to teach economics and finance units.
Karthik Banala

Karthik Banala is the Business Development Officer for Thrive. His role is to meet new and existing clients to have discussions about their business endeavours and to create a viable Business Plan and Cashflow which helps them to start and expand their businesses in Australia. Prior to Joining the team in 2019, Karthik holds an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Western Sydney University. You can contact him on kbanala@tre.org.au

Lindsay Jones

Lindsay started as a cabinetmaker by trade and owned and operated his own successful kitchen and bathroom company for over 15 years and holding multiple design awards whilst managing 20 staff on a daily basis. Lindsay also worked in micro enterprises for 15 years. Originally, Lindsay specialised in Indigenous programs and built extensive networks with philanthropic sponsors and stakeholder relationships which included government and private enterprises at senior level. Now, Lindsay has an extensive background in small to medium micro enterprise development as well as training and coordinating employment opportunities for Indigenous in the role of a Community Development Officer.

Kevork Ishak

Kevork has extensive experience at several positions in the banking, finance, and risk management domains. Having started off as an accountant, he then became the head of operational risk management for over 10 years at the Bank Bemo Saudi Fransi and Qatar National Bank in Syria. In 2017, Kevork moved from Syria to Australia to deepen his experience in the business world and joined the Westpac Group as a credit assessor. He is fluent in French, Armenian and Arabic. With this, Kevork joins Thrive as the BDM from Western Sydney University MBA program having interned with us previously.

Our Board of Directors
Huy Truong

Our Executive Chairman of Thrive came to Australia as a Vietnamese refugee in 1978. An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he has a diverse operating, entrepreneurial and advisory background and is an advocate for a progressive Australia. His success is one of the inspirations behind the establishment of Thrive. He currently serves as the CEO of Australian Life Insurance Group.

Previously held positions:
  • Various founding and executive roles with Yarra Capital Partners, Carter Holt Harvey, Jurlique International, Boston Consulting Group and Wishlist Holdings
  • Director, Asialink
Anna Curtis

Our Deputy Chairman is also an alumna of Harvard Business School and. has been on the board of IAG and Country Road as a Director. Anna has also held various executive roles with American Express, JP Morgan, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever.

Paul Fegan

Paul has over 30 years of global experience in Financial Services, Telecommunications, Insurance, and Government, including senior appointments in Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Ireland and is a Senior Advisor at Gresham Partners. Paul is also Chairman of the Bosch Institute for Medical Research at the University of Sydney and holds an MBA from the University of Melbourne and is based in Sydney.

Previously held positions:
  • Chief Executive Officer of St George Bank Limited.
  • Group Managing Director at Telstra Limited.
  • An experienced Non-Executive Director having previously served on the Board of AMP Limited, as well as Chairman of AMP Bank Limited.
Catherine Scarth

Catherine Scarth’s career has focussed on the design and implementation of innovative social programs and enterprises in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has achieved this through the creation of partnerships with government, employers and the community sector to deliver programs designed to increase the economic and social participation for newly arrived migrants and refugees. Ms Scarth is the Chief Executive Officer of AMES Australia, an organisation providing a wide range of interconnected settlement, education, vocational training and employment services in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania. Ms Scarth is a Board Member of the Migration Council of Australia.

Finn Pratt

Finn has had a distinguished career as a leader in the Australian Public Service. Finn was CEO of Centerlink before becoming Secretary of a number of federal departments including: Department of Human Services (2009-11), Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (2011-13), Department of Social Services (2013-17) and Department of Environment and Energy (2017-19).

Our Advisory Council
John Curtis

is driven by a passion to give refugees a fresh new start and an opportunity to contribute to the Australian economy. A respected businessman and Member of the Order of Australia, he has held many senior positions and brings his unique expertise and vast experience to Thrive.

David Gonski

is an Australian public figure and businessman. A leading philanthropist, he holds several prestigious positions as Chairman of ANZ Banking Group and Coca-Cola Amatil Limited, and Patron of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. David was commissioned by the Australian government in 2010 to chair the committee that reviewed the funding for Australian schools.

Christine Holgate

joined Australia Post as Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director on 30 October 2017, after nearly 9 years as the Chief Executive Officer of Blackmores Ltd. Christine has more than 30 years of diverse international leadership experience in highly regulated industries, including healthcare, media, telecommunications and finance. She has more than 20 years of public board experience as either a non-executive director or CEO and has held senior management positions in Asia, the Americas and Australia. Christine is the inaugural Chair of the Board of the Australia-ASEAN Council (which supports the development of trade and cultural relations between Australia and the 10 member countries of the ASEAN region). She also serves on the board of the Collingwood Football Club. Christine’s past appointments include time as a non-executive director of Ten Network Holdings Limited.

Martin Parkinson

Dr. Martin Parkinson AC PSM, is Chancellor of Macquarie University, and a company director. He has previously served as Secretary of three Australian Government Departments: Prime Minister and Cabinet; the Treasury; and Climate Change.

Fondly known as the Chief 'Soul' Officer among members of the board, Sue Beecher has been an inspiration to us at Thrive. Although she is no more with us, her soul will live on in our hearts. A champion of the disadvantaged, Sue had used her considerable strategic and philanthropic expertise in supporting Thrive’s efforts with refugees and was indeed an integral part of our family. We will deeply miss you, Sue.

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