Contact Us

Our directors

Corporate Business Strategy &
Successful Succession Planning

learn more

Michael Givoni

Director

Michael Givoni Head shot board approach
Linkedin Envelope

Michael’s career sweet spot is establishing and chairing boards for large private and family-owned businesses. He works with owners to clarify their ultimate objectives and then ensures their business Board helps them navigate their way to those goals.

Michael brings extensive senior executive and public company experience, including Managing Director, Business Development, M&A, and general counsel roles, with a track record of driving profitable growth.

Working as a young man with his father in Givoni Mills, the clothing manufacturer, as well as his mother as she franchised her successful salon business, gave Michael the hands-on practical and ethical foundation he brings to boards today.

As a young commercial lawyer, Michael became a Partner at 30 and then moved into management roles after his MBA studies. During his 15 years with the listed company, Spotless, Michael held a variety of management roles, including GM of Spotless Catering.

Michael’s full-time Board career began in 2011 and includes time in industries such as civil construction, food manufacturing, facility management, contract catering, real estate, retail and professional services.

Leading with informal formality around the board table, Michael is best known as a big-picture thinker who can unite people to solve problems and work towards clear end goals.

As a result of applying Michael’s board expertise, sales increase, investors are secured, companies usher children into the business, good people are attracted into the business, and values increase. The board is the vehicle that gets the results they want – it might take 1 to 3 to 5 years but the team always get there.

Michael’s greatest satisfaction comes from seeing the positive results of the changes that were needed. “I feel privileged to help others improve their lives and call them friends”.

See below some sample case studies from Boards chaired by one of the founders, Michael Givoni using the methodology outlined in his recently published book: Uncommon Sense

The board identified that a staged exit or sell down of the families equity was the best option to allow the business to continue to grow beyond its family business heritage. We recruited a seasoned CEO, who had a solid reputation within the investment community, to navigate the business through an inevitable transaction.

In 2015, two PE firms (Square Peg and Five V) invested in the business, and the business continues to go from strength to strength to this day.

Although Dutt is a well led and managed business, the transport industry is not necessarily seen as a priority market for the investment community. Therefore, in Michael’s role as Chairman, he identified that the best way of achieving the family objectives of a seamless exit was a leveraged management buyout, backed by a PE firm or family office.


Once the Board addressed the executive bench strength issues, we were then able to focus on business growth objectives and store rollout. By 2021, RSEA had built a network of over 70 stores and acquired a business to fast track entry into New Zealand. The business continues to go from strength to strength.

Maltra Foods

The Board set an objective of having 50% of revenue from branded products within 5 years with less reliance on contract manufacturing (at the time in 2019, branded products were less than 20%). 

The business is on track to achieving this branded target which will underpin sustainability of the business for many years to come.

Start making better
business decisions.

With Boarder Approach

Ask How

Contact

[email protected]

About Us

Board Approach is an advisory firm providing a unique combination of commercial advice for private and family companies when they are ready to discuss and explore their business future. We bring our networks, wisdom, and our proven Board leadership methodology to each successful partnership. 

Site Map

Socials

Linkedin

Twitter

Case Study

In 2002 The Board was approached to mentor the founders.  At this stage, their business had one major client – Crown Casino. The founder had taken over management of his father’s medical practice in Prahran, Victoria, and he had a vision of selling medical support services to major corporate businesses.

These services would include pre-employment medical examinations, offering a preferred network of doctors for the workplace, injury management and on-site vaccination services.  Our meetings started casual, as mere coffee meetings and then the strategy evolved from there.

As the business grew, a strong focus of our discussions was on the founder strengths, which were in business and product development.  This triggered a broader discussion around how to recruit a team for him that would complement these strengths. A breakthrough the business experienced, in a product development sense, was an outsourced product that UHG developed for the insurance market, known as independent expert reports (effectively medical reports prior to placing life insurance policies).

The IT systems developed by the founder’s team dramatically fast-tracked the previously slow in-house processes used by the major insurance companies.

Over the next decade, the business saw exponential growth. The founder supported by the Board, then identified that the development of the IT platform was the critical key competency that enabled UHG to develop a platform that built a bridge between the large corporates and medical professionals.

Over time, the Board evolved with the business model and attracted highly credentialed members, such as David Thodey (ex-Telstra CEO) and Andrew Basset (ex-Seek founder and CEO).  Additionally, the founder talented wife and business partner took on more management responsibilities, given her legal and project management expertise.

The Board identified that a staged exit or sell down of the founder’s equity was the best option to allow the business to continue to grow beyond its family business heritage. We recruited a seasoned CEO, who had a solid reputation within the investment community, to navigate the business through an inevitable transaction.

In 2015, two PE firms (Square Peg and Five V) invested in the business, and the business continues to go from strength to strength to this day.

Contact Us
Case Study

Dutt was a family-owned business by the Thomas family. Graham Thomas funded the establishment of the business back in 1988, albeit for most of the last 20 years the business had been led by its dynamic CEO Peter Davies. Given the strong capabilities of the CEO, by the time Michael was invited onto the Board in 2016, Graham Thomas no longer had any day-to-day responsibilities. Michael was invited onto the Board with a view to assisting the Thomas family sell the business, given Graham’s ailing health. Tragically Graham passed away, and the trustees were keen to fast track the objective of securing a transaction.

Dutt is a unique niche transport and logistics business. Its core market is the retail sector, servicing businesses with large store networks. Dutt provided a one-stop managed service, that fast tracks the store fit out and relocation process for these retail chains. Clients such as Coles, Cotton On, Louisa and Seven11 see Dutt as an extension of their store design and project management team due to Dutt’s successful business operations.

Although Dutt is a well led and managed business, the transport industry is not necessarily seen as a priority market for the investment community. Therefore, in Michael’s role as Chairman, he identified that the best way of achieving the family objectives of a seamless exit was a leveraged management buyout, backed by a PE firm or family office.

The Thomas family and the estate trustees worked proactively with Michael and the Board to execute Michael’s recommendations. As chairman, Michael’s role was to lead the sale process and after speaking to several parties, he identified the appropriate equity partner Cape Ventures, who in turn backed 4 members of the management team to purchase the business.

A key skill of the new equity partner was securing the current debt structure, which was skilfully achieved via the tier one bank, CBA.

The Dutt business can now continue with a change of ownership being affected seamlessly with no negative impact on customers or staff. The Board and chair as a trusted adviser to the family has a key role to play in ensuring all stakeholders are fully informed and treated ethically and fairly.

Contact Us
Case Study

RSEA is a chain of stores and B2B business in the safety sector. It’s core business is safety clothing and PPE (gloves, goggles, hard hats). The business founder, Brandon Chizik, was the driving force and key entrepreneur, his vision was to be the market leader in the safety gear space in Australia.

When Michael was invited onto the Board in 2013, the business had 20 stores and the majority owner was Champ. Brandon had a large stake, but the deal structure was not the best, and his motivation was waning. To the credit of Champ ventures, they added Greg Smith to the Board, who together with Michael, provided the support and consistent messaging necessary for Brandon to focus back on building the business and away from shareholder ownership distractions.

Michael built a relationship of trust with Brandon and helped him identify his overarching objectives, one of which was to be a long-term business owner and business builder. This was a 15 year not a 5-year plan. Given Brandon’s objectives, they were somewhat at odds with traditional private equity horizons of 5 to 7 years. In order to transform the business, the store network needed to grow from 20 stores to well over 100, and the safety clothing brands needed to be developed and owned by RSEA, rather than RSEA being purely a wholesaler of other well-known brands. The development of in-house brands which RSEA have done excellently takes time and working capital. To Brandon’s credit and some strong encouragement from the Board, we needed to refresh and upskill the team around Brandon. This has been a critical success factor.

We call it over recruiting rather than under recruiting. Entrepreneurs can sometimes struggle with this, given the short-term costs involved. The other key requirement was to allow Brandon and the new management team to be locked in for the long term and to address the need to move from minority to majority ownership. With the support of Champ, who had been invested for over 5 years, we were able to secure the best fit for RSEA going forward, in the form of ICG, a UK owned group led by Ryan Shelswell. ICG were uniquely placed to provide both a debt and equity package that allowed Brandon and the team to move to majority ownership.

Once the Board addressed the executive bench strength issues, we were then able to focus on business growth objectives and store rollout. By 2021, RSEA had built a network of over 80 stores and acquired a business to fast track entry into New Zealand. The business continues to go from strength to strength.

Contact Us
Maltra Foods
Case Study

Maltra Foods is a family-owned contract manufacturer. It’s core products are dry processed food items such as hot chocolate mix, chai latte, cake mix and sports supplements. The founder Greg English and his tax adviser Steve Shadur met with Michael in 2016 to discuss the establishment of a Board.

The key objective was to surround Greg’s two sons, Jack and Roman with the appropriate resources to ensure the sustainability of the business from one generation to the next. Fortunately, the two lads had different but complimentary skill sets. Jack in sales and marketing, whereas Roman was in production and associated systems.

The tax adviser Steve, founder Greg and the two sons were the Board. Michael chaired the meetings as the true and sole independent. The first and often fundamental appointment to assist any Board to evolve professionally is a CFO. To the credit of the Maltra team, we recruited externally and found an excellent candidate Ian, who is still on the Board today. The CFO also becomes the company secretary more often than not. This ensures minutes and actions of Board meetings are properly tabled. Additionally, the CFO was responsible for the timely tabulation and distribution of Board papers.

One of the critical goals that Michael set for the business related to the core business model of contract manufacturing. The contract manufacturer is producing more often than not the formula developed by the end customer, so in many respects, you are a price taker and if the end customer is a conglomerate or multinational, there is inequality of bargaining power. Therefore, the Board set a goal in 2016, that Maltra needed to build its own suite of brands. The cornerstone brand was Arcadia, known for its range of chai lattes. The Board set an objective of having 50% of revenue from branded products within 5 years with less reliance on contract manufacturing (at the time in 2019, branded products were less than 20%).

The business is on track to achieving this branded target which will underpin sustainability of the business for many years to come.

Contact Us