After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ), I moved from Melbourne to Sydney to join PwC’s Transaction Services team, focusing on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Over almost five years I learned a great deal and had the chance to travel domestically and internationally; a highlight was four months in New York working on IBM’s sale of its PC business to Lenovo. I then joined a boutique investment bank to continue working on M&A deals.

With the travel bug well and truly caught, I moved to Tokyo, where I lived for almost a decade. I spent six years at KPMG in M&A before joining Rakuten Group, a Japanese public tech company. Working directly with the CEO and founder, I established and led Rakuten’s global M&A integration function, which took me to Israel, Cyprus, Europe and the US. Many of our acquisitions were US-based, which ultimately led me to relocate to San Francisco.

For the past decade I’ve been based in the United States, first in San Francisco and now in San Diego, where I joined the CEO’s private biotech company, Rakuten Medical, as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer (CFO/COO). Our mission was to cure cancer through a drug-device therapy called photoimmunotherapy. Most recently, I served as CFO/COO at Full Harvest, an ag-tech company focused on reducing on-farm food waste. I now live in San Diego with my wife, two children and our dog, Coco.

Across these roles I’ve helped raise more than US$500M, managed sizeable budgets and teams, and led change in fast‑growing organisations. The common thread has been using finance as a strategic tool to build great teams and scale meaningful products, whether that’s reducing food waste, advancing cancer therapies, or accelerating scientific discovery.

How ASC shaped me – ASC prepared me in ways I only fully appreciated later:

• Breadth and opportunity in a small school. In a regional setting you’re encouraged to “have a go”. That habit of stepping up, learning fast, and being comfortable outside my comfort zone, skills essential for leadership and cross-cultural work.
• Teachers who knew us well. Individual attention and encouragement made a lasting difference. Rob Hine (my Accounting teacher at the time) suggested I consider a career in finance, guidance that set my trajectory.
• Subject foundations. Accounting, Maths, English and Information Technology gave me the analytical and communication skills I still rely on every day.
• Camps and excursions. Mount Buffalo and Canberra were highlights that grew my independence and curiosity about the wider world.
• Community values. Alexandra taught me to show up, pitch in, and look after people. That directly shapes how I build teams and culture today.

A fond memory:

One of my fondest memories is the year I was the Sports Captain for Long House and we won the swimming carnival. I couldn’t have been prouder of our team that day. What stays with me most is how the whole school—and often the whole town—celebrated each other’s efforts. That sense of belonging endures.

Strengths of ASC (from my time):

• Supportive staff and a close‑knit community that notice potential and gently nudge you forward.
• Real room to lead: Through House captaincy and sport, opportunities that can be harder to access in larger schools.
• Practical learning: Work experience and hands‑on subjects that connect school to real jobs.
• Resilience and resourcefulness: Making a lot happen with modest resources is excellent preparation for the real world.

Advice to current students:

Be curious and say “yes” to stretch opportunities. Build strong fundamentals in communication, organisation and numeracy as they open doors in any field. Learn to work well with people who are different from you. And remember, coming from a small town is a superpower. You’ll bring humility, initiative and grit wherever you go.

Brenton Keath (2025)