Richard Burrows

Chairman

Australia

Richard joined Wolseley in 2006 with over 12 years private equity and corporate advisory experience in Sydney and London. Richard is responsible for deal origination, negotiation and execution; portfolio company monitoring; exit planning and implementation.

Richard began his career with Ernst & Young in the UK working with entrepreneurs and owner managed businesses. He moved to Sydney in 1996 where he spent 8 years with Ernst & Young Mergers & Acquisitions focusing on the mid-market. He has advised on public and private transactions and a number of private equity led MBO's and exits.

Richard is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc (Hons) Chemistry from Imperial College, University of London. He is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England
and Wales.

Mark Richardson

Director

Australia

Mark Richardson co-founded Wolseley Private Equity in 1999 and has served as a Managing Director of Wolseley since that time.  Mark has many years of operating, advisory and investment experience in Europe, the United States and Australia.

Prior to founding Wolseley Private Equity, Mark was a senior Partner at Bain & Company, the international strategy consultancy firm, and was responsible for Bain's consulting operations in Australia and New Zealand.  Mark was one of six professionals to open Bain's Sydney office in 1989. During his 11 year tenure at Bain & Company, he advised a variety of public and private companies operating in the telecommunications, manufacturing, defense, distribution and service industries. Mark specializes in strategy development, alliance negotiation, CEO coaching and organizational effectiveness.

Mark holds a BSc (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Leeds University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and The Executive Connection.

Peter White

Alternate Director

Australia

Peter was appointed as Wolseley's Commercial Director in January 2009, after working with Wolseley in a portfolio capacity for most of 2008. Prior to Wolseley Peter spent 20 years at KPMG, where he was a Partner in their Corporate Recovery Practice. After leaving KPMG, he was CFO of Nylex Limited between 2004 and 2007.

Peter has co-ordinated corporate restructures, equity and debt raisings, due diligence assignments, divestments and debt restructures. He has worked in Australia, NZ, the USA and the UK across manufacturing, retail, banking and finance and professional services.

Peter brings all of his experience to bear across the whole portfolio in areas of performance and value maximization.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Business and is a Chartered Accountant. He is also a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Tony Combe

Director and Chief Executive Officer

Australia

Tony joined the company in July 2010 and prior to that had a long and successful career in international industrial companies. His last role was Executive GM of OneSteel Distribution, Australia’s largest metals distributor, where he managed a $2 Billion portfolio of 5 business units and 120 branches. The business processed and sold over 1 million tones pa of carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum products .Prior to that Tony led the Asia Pacific division of a European consumer packaging company, Huhtamaki, where he was responsible for 4000 employees across 12 countries. 

Tony started his career in sales and marketing but for the last 16 years has been growing industrial businesses as a Chief Executive, and has strong operational skills and experience in sales, supply chain, manufacturing, safety, finance and strategic planning. He has lived and managed businesses in Europe for 8 years and throughout Asia for 7 years.

Tony has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from the University of South Australia and is a graduate (order of merit) from the Australian Institute of Company Directors.