🤔 Lloyd Bunting is the founder of TechInvestment.com which invests in listed technology companies.
As the son of a USAAF B-24 crewman in the Pacific War, who had been awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross by the Governor of New York State, Lloyd was keen to fly. He joined the RAAF as soon as he was eligible, after renouncing his US citizenship (he was born at Yale University) and becoming an Australian citizen at age 18.
Lloyd did about 30 hours of flying, about half of which was solo, but did not demonstrate sufficient interest in officer training. There was a degree of risk involved: in 1968 Lloyd's instructor was killed along with his Army student pilot when a wing failed at an estimated 10G.
⚔️ Lloyd completed the remainder of his 2 years of National Service with the Australian Army's air dispatch function, which involved air drops and aerial delivery by Caribou, C-130 and Iriquois aircraft. The work included parachuting from (jumping out of) C-130 Hercules and DHC-4 Caribou aircraft.
There was a degree of risk involved: the Defence Minister's son was killed in a C-130 parachuting accident. 🎶. George HW Bush discovered the risks in bailing out of a Navy fighter.
⚔️ 1 Army Air Supply Organisation (1AASO) (176 Air Dispatch Squadron now part of the 9th Force Support Battalion (9FSB)). [Air dispatch in action]. 176 ADPL also provides civilian support - - even to Antarctica!.
Civvy Career
🤔 Lloyd's civilian career has been focused on defence, public and private sector strategy, including project evaluation, project scheduling, planning and management, quantitative modelling, decision-support tools and investment in leading edge technologies.
Lloyd was selected to attend the first Defence Systems Management Course for Lt Colonel/Colonel level officers and equivalent civilians involved in Foreign Affairs and Defence strategy. The course was closely aligned with the major reorganisation of Australian defence management in the early 1980s. It was intended to professionalise Australian defence capability management by combining:
The course was a response to the conclusions and recommendations of the Final Report of the Defence Review Committee (October 1982). It included:
🔺 DSMC 1/82: The first Defence Systems Management Course
Academic and Professional Qualifications
🎓 Lloyd holds degrees (BBus, MBA) and diplomas in business, directorship, technology and investment, finance and accounting.
Financial Modelling and Risk Assessment
🤔 During his work with Australian Government programs, Lloyd contributed to the evaluation and administration of major funding initiatives, including programs with combined allocations approaching AUD 1 billion. His responsibilities included financial modelling, risk assessment, and risk analysis of complex projects.
Commercial Accounting
🤔 Lloyd has worked in operational environments including:
🔺 Garden Island Dockyard, Sydney.
Project Modelling and Risk Assessment
🤔 During his work with Australian Government programs, Lloyd contributed to the evaluation and administration of major funding initiatives, including programs with combined allocations approaching AUD 1 billion. His responsibilities included financial modelling, risk assessment, and risk analysis of complex projects.
🔺 Radar Sensor Procurement Project management team. The model is of a PSR+SSR radar station
🔺 Jindalee Over The Horizon Radar Network
For Telstra's bid for the Jindalee Over The Horizon Project, Lloyd produced a risk evaluation, using the Lockheed Missiles and Space methodology, earning top score in this area of the tender evaluation.
🎲 Lloyd developed and applied Monte Carlo simulation modelling techniques to improve forecasting and decision-making for major defence technology-related projects characterised by uncertainty and long time horizons. The demonstration project was the construction of a fleet of mine hunters for the Australian Navy. Proof of concept was developed on UTS ICL 1904, and Prime Computer provided unlimited access to their Canberra computer laboratory, and Execucom provided use of their IFPS financial modelling product, which included advanced simulation capability. The technology was presented to the RADM in charge of Naval projects, and also to a large public seminar in Sydney.
Lloyd's last civilian public service work was in:
By this time, Lloyd considered he'd spent enough time in the public service and joined a major bank as a Chief Manager with responsibility for advice on about 500 capital expenditure projects (including property leases). After several years in banking Lloyd went back to contract work.
⚔️ For the Australian Department of Defence Lloyd built a capacity planning model for supply (logistics) systems infrastructure (SDSS): it estimated the whole of Defence capacity requirement for networks, depots and management systems, and the cost of that infrastructure. This was run on an IBM PC, and took about an hour for each assumption iteration.
Software as a Service
😊 Lloyd designed and provided software solutions integrating financial modelling and analytical tools, including an early SaaS-style implementation for government. Lloyd visited a Federal grant management project that was overwhelmed with applications. Lloyd asked "do you have a spare desk and computer?" and there and then eGrants was founded and bootstrapped.
Egrants automated most functions in grant management, including:
eGrants.com achieved a 99.5% user compliance rate and a 95% satisfied or very satisfied rating by users, and the grant program (our client) received a Minister's Achievement Award.
🔺 Minister's Achievement Award Presentations
eGrants' business model evolved to become a Software as a Service (SaaS) product for distribution of $1 billion of government funding for drought recovery and local government infrastructure projects during the Global Financial Crisis. This was the Federal Government's first SaaS contract (worth $1 million). Australia's Treasurer, Wayne Swan, received Euromoney's Finance Minister of the Year while attending the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) with fellow finance ministers from the Group of 20 (G20) nations. [Euromoney 20 Sep 2011]
🤔 Lloyd's current interest is TechInvestment.com, which is focused on investable advanced technologies such as:
✋ Lloyd Bunting does not offer investment advice or investment services to the public.
✋ TechInvestment.com does not offer investment advice or investment services to the public.