Brian Wyborn On Developing Inclusive Capital Funding For First Nations Businesses

Brian Wyborn is a highly accomplished individual with a passion for Indigenous self-determination and economic empowerment. Hailing from Torres Strait Islands and Papua New Guinean heritage, Brian has dedicated his career to making a positive impact for Indigenous Australians.

As the recently appointed Managing Partner of First Australians Capital, Brian is steadfast on achieving organisation’s mission of supporting Indigenous entrepreneurship and economic growth. Additionally, Brian's is a non-executive director for one of largest services providers in aged care in remote and rural Northern Territory and an Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity with the University of Melbourne.

With a profound belief in empowering marginalised communities, Brian is a fervent advocate for equity. With his multi-faceted background, Brian hopes to make an indelible mark in the realms of Indigenous advancement and economic resilience. Brian is also a long-term member of the Australian Army Reserve spending his first 12 years as an infantry soldier and recently transitioning to become a commissioned officer.

Brian discusses building inclusive capital frameworks to support Indigenous entrepreneurs and lessons learned from his career spanning healthcare, policy and investment portfolio management.

Highlights from the interview (listen to the podcast for full details)

[Tom Allen] - To start off, could you please share a bit about your background and what led to your passion in finance and leadership?

[Brian Wyborn] - Initially I started my career in the Department of Human Services. Back then it was called Medicare, and that period was when the Australian Government was rolling out Closing the Gap. A lot of my role back then was to speak with medical practices (particularly in areas which had a high-density Indigenous population) about what health determinants we're seeing within Indigenous communities. This was particularly within their geographic regions, to assist them to try and identify Indigenous patients but also play a role in closing the gap. That was a phenomenal part of my career, coming out as a young university graduate trying to tell a doctor how to run their business, particularly regarding how they engage Indigenous patients. It built a lot of resilience and understanding around how to help influence for positive change. As part of that role, I spent a bit of time with the Department of Health and Aging, where we funded Aboriginal controlled medical services, particularly up North. I'm talking about Pormparaaw, Arakun and Mapoon, that top part of Northern Queensland. Again, the groundings there were profound in helping me to think about Indigenous affairs and how we support them. This was with a policy lens back then as a government employee.

I took some time away from working within Indigenous affairs and I moved into financial services for a period leading to where I am today. My last 10 years have been in financial services. Mainly, I started my career in financial planning and investment management, but then I spent the last five years solely focusing on investment management.

There were several key learnings around what trends are in the market and how do you build sustainable portfolios when you're thinking about the long term? This led me into working, very fortunately actually, to working with our people again. For me that was a big part in bringing me back to our people. This was working with Traditional Owners, particularly Traditional Owners that had rights to their lands and where they've derived capital and corpuses from mining royalties particularly. We are sitting down with them and helping them think about what the future needs to look like and asking how we play a small role in helping them achieve that future particularly around investing their capital.

That's a long-winded way of saying I started my career in Indigenous Affairs, took a small stint out of that in financial services, but even through financial services and investment markets came back to being close to our people again and hoping to make a change!

That's a quick snippet of my career thus far, but I'll point out two or three key moments. I've been with the Army Reserves, and a key moment for me came up at the end of my time with the Federal Government where I took a contract with the Army Reserves to be part of the regional assistance missions to the Solomon Islands (when they were experiencing civil unrest). That was effectively a second-tier response to any civil unrest, so we were there to support the local police and community, it wasn't an active confrontational role. It was fantastic, it was an eight-month contract and one of those pivotal moments where I took a snapshot of society through a very different lens. That brought me back to thinking about what is my purpose and how am I helping society?

Becoming a father and what I want to see for the future of my kids has been pivotal, particularly in the last seven years. I think I can influence the future for them on a broader stage, but also on a micro stage where between the ages six and eight I want to be present at home. Then in the broader sense, the narrative change of Indigenous Australians is also front of my mind. How do I change that for the future?

As Managing Partner of First Australians Capital (FAC), what is their purpose and what are you looking to achieve in your role?

I’m working with communities and helping them articulate and think through how they think of themselves as well as how do they lift themselves up through that? A key part is we live and work in a capitalist environment, and the role business and commerce plays are significant. I've known First Australians Capital (FAC) for some time, actually a very long time. I’ve come to understand its journey, where it is right now, and the pivotal path it's taken. For me, all those incremental things across my career thus far have led to this point where I want to take an active role. I have often felt, particularly in wealth management, that I was supporting one element for communities; unpacking what their economic resilience looks like. I’ve now come into a role at FAC, where I can have a broader impact across Australia through multiple businesses, we support to do that work around economic resilience.

FAC is an organisation building the Indigenous economy and economic resilience of Indigenous people. We do that through several ways; we provide support to businesses to understand what success needs to look like for them. At the same time, we provide them with the right source of capital to do their work.

FAC is now at a second horizon where we'll be launching a catalytic debt fund later this year. It's a super exciting period for us as an organisation, and that's what's brought me to FAC.

The driving principles behind FAC is how are we building the economic self-determination for Indigenous Australians? How are we contributing to intergenerational wealth creation, and how are we going to build a thriving Indigenous economy?

Our role is to answer those three questions, and there are two elements to how we do that. It’s about bringing the right support to organisations and bringing the right form of capital to them. That's our how, why, and what we hope to achieve.

Where do you see opportunities to improve access to capital for First Nations Australians?

It's a pivotal time, right? I'll talk broadly about the responsible investment movement we're seeing, but then highlight where I think we lie (particularly in the impact space). If you pick up a buy sell recommendation from any research house, one of the critical things they talk to which has just become a mainstay is ESG. I think that's been a phenomenal theme and change within the investment landscape. Then we've got the ability for individuals to personalise how they approach investment opportunities, with both positive and negative screening of the investment market. The market has matured to allow individuals to apply their own ethical frameworks, both around positive and negative approaches to investing. The other movement I'll highlight quickly is the advocacy piece. Organisations like RIAA (Responsible Investment Association Australia) for example, who have $9 trillion in membership, work across different member organisations to influence how investment markets work. They then come to our space, which is that impact station, and have the ability for measurable social and environmental change. I see those tailwinds as an amazing opportunity for First Australians Capital and Indigenous entrepreneurs. The groundswell is there, and I hope we are one of many organisations that can garner support, but also be an intermediary between capital and purpose.

In my 10 years of working in wealth management, capital is looking for purpose. Capital is looking for a home, and I guess what I'll say to the network is I hope we're not the only ones doing that work, particularly for First Nations businesses.

I hope we're one of many, and we've been openly saying we are keen to share our experience, particularly with other intermediaries who are keen to unlock capital for the Indigenous business sector.

What advice would you give to First Nations entrepreneurs looking to start or grow their enterprise?

I've found networks and mentors have been phenomenal. I'm only going to draw on my career as an example, but I think the application of this is crucial, particularly for a First Nations business thinking about growing and scaling. I hate to say this, but I think networks play a critical role in that.

We all know access to capital is based on who your network is. Your ability to harness and get capital into your business is based on that.

It's also about asking how you mature as a business owner or individual in general. I've found mentorship to be something that has allowed me to grow professionally. Personally, I'll call out one of my mentors. He took me on as a graduate back in Medicare. He's an Irishman, he calls himself Brian and says, "we're the blacks of Europe!" He's got that real soul to earth sort of personality. I catch up with him every couple of months at a coffee shop around the corner, and we've maintained that relationship over different periods of my career path and trajectory. It's helped me inform my thinking. Find mentorship early, build networks and hopefully it goes beyond a commercial transaction. It's something that Indigenous business owners can grow with.

What do you believe needs to happen globally to help mainstream this business for good movement?

I really like this question. I’ve been thinking through how to take my background and experience to answer this question while at the same time looking forward to a more positive future. I'm going to turn it back on you Tom, I think it's organisations like yours that create a platform for organisations like ours to have a greater voice. It comes back to two points; before I was talking about mentorship and networks. For me, business for good depends on its networks to have that greater groundswell of support. That for me is based on vulnerable conversations for both sides of any relationship and having a common commitment, but also having common purpose and values.

For me, it's having those networks and relationships that allow platforms to show the good of what the Indigenous business sector does or show the good of what business for good means.

We've seen some of the highest global temperatures in only the last few weeks, which is just ridiculous. The more we promote business for good, the more I hope we get to influence a broader audience.

To finish off, what books or resources would you recommend to our listeners?

Coming from an investment background, one I like to dabble with and listen to is the Chanticleer team at The Financial Review. They've got a weekly podcast, it's a nice little conversational piece where the two columnists talk about what's in the markets and do a deep dive into some of the things that are more prominent than others. I enjoy listening to the Chanticleer Podcast. From a book's perspective, one I'm enjoying right now is a book by Frantz Fanon; he was quite prominent in the 60s particularly around this idea of decolonisation. He writes on his own experiences; I'm enjoying reading Frantz Fanon's book called The Wretched of the Earth.

The other book I've gone back to several times is The Alchemist. I know it's common, but I really like reading The Alchemist. I'm probably up to my fourth time reading it more recently. The other last book I love from a point of escape to delve into someone else's life is Shantaram. As I said, I'm enjoying reading Frantz Fanon's work now, he's got another book called Black Skin, White Masks which I am resolved to read next. My two classic recommendations are Shantaram and The Alchemist.