ASX-listed Spenda Limited have announced changes to the structure of its Board of Directors as detailed below.
Appointment of James Matthews as Non-Executive Director
James Matthews has been appointed an Independent Non-Executive Director of the company. James is a technology, marketing and growth-focused business leader with a decade of experience founding, scaling and exiting multi-million-dollar businesses across Australia and Asia. He has a strong track record of driving commercial growth through strategy, disciplined execution and technology-enabled capability across complex and regulated markets.
James founded and led a mass-participation registration and data platform that scaled from zero revenue to over $20 million in annual registration revenue within three years, without external funding. The platform supported more than 4,500 events and 1,500 clients, processed hundreds of millions of dollars in participant payments, and operated across nine countries, multiple currencies and five languages. During this period, James built and led distributed teams of 90+ staff, gaining deep, hands-on experience across payments flows, ledger structures, marketplace models, reconciliation, localisation and the scaling of technology platforms across diverse markets.
Beyond this business, James has successfully founded and scaled a portfolio of four technology-led companies within less than a decade, each built from inception to multi-million-dollar outcomes without external capital and expanded across multiple markets. Across these ventures, his focus has consistently been on commercial scalability, marketing-led growth, governance readiness and sustainable expansion.
James is currently the Founder and Managing Director of MNO Ventures, a privately held growth, marketing and AI-focused firm operating for more than five years and supporting a highly selective portfolio of 25+ Australian and global businesses. MNO operates with a team of 50+ staff across five cities globally and works with organisations ranging from some of the world’s largest multinational companies through to early-stage and high-growth businesses generating multi-million-dollar annual revenues. Through MNO, James works closely with CEOs, boards and product teams on go-to-market strategy, payments optimisation, AI-driven automation and scalable growth.
James brings direct, practical industry knowledge and relationships highly relevant to Spenda. He maintains long-standing relationships with senior executives across SaaS and platform businesses processing $15 million to $250 million-plus annually and believes Spenda is well positioned to win in this segment through its pricing, flexibility, white-labelling capability, localisation and service model.
Resignation of Stephen Dale as Non-Executive Director
Stephen Dale has resigned as a Non-Executive Director after approximately 12 years of service on the Board.
Dale was appointed to the Board in 2014 after making a substantial investment in the company and later served as Non-Executive Chairman. The Board thanks Stephen for his many years of service and wish him well in his future endeavors.
Appointment of Karim Razak as Executive Chair
The Board has appointed Karim Razak as its Executive Chair. Karim has played a highly active role in all areas of the business since his appointment in November.
Peter Richards to remain on the Board
Previous Non-Executive Chair Peter Richards will remain on the Board as a Non-Executive Director of the company.
