Advisory Board

Dr Martin Blake

A sustainability expert and visionary leader with over 25 years practical experience, Martin recently deployed one of the most successful carbon management programmes in the world with Royal Mail in the UK. Adept at blending both the practical and the theoretical, Martin has been awarded two adjunct professorships and numerous international keynote speaking engagements. He has expertise in developing strategic plans and influencing high profile stakeholders within a variety of sectors, and has a proven track record in developing and driving sustainability business cases through organisations. Martin’s dynamic and results-driven approach to sustainability, and his experience at the highest levels of business, academia and public life makes him a most welcome and valued addition to CarbonSystems’ Advisory Board.
 

Neill Miller

Neill has been building and selling successful businesses for over 40 years. With his first company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), Neill also facilitated several mergers and acquisitions, including companies such as Bell and Howell, Micrographix and Business Land. Neill was directly involved in the listing of 5 public companies on the JSE. After immigrating to Australia, he formed a start up computer software company System Builder Development Inc (SBD) and over the next 8 years built this into an international group consisting of several companies in multiple countries. In November 1995 SBD merged with a USA based Database Company (Unidata Inc). Neill was also the principal architect behind the merger of Unidata and a Nasdaq listed company (Vmark), which became Ardent Software - one of the top 100 computer companies in the world at that time. Ardent subsequently merged with Informix to create one of the top 5 largest database supply companies in the world and was ultimately acquired by IBM for over $2.5 billion. Since 1999, Neill has been involved with his own venture capital enterprise as well as residential and commercial property development. Neill also holds Director and Chairman roles with various organisations and is actively involved with a number of not for profit organisations.
 

Ralph Breslauer – President (Americas)

Ralph Breslauer is an accomplished high tech executive with significant global experience in managing fast growing early stage companies all the way to large enterprises. He is a member of four boards, and a frequent speaker at industry events as well as a co-author of a book on sales and marketing strategy. He has been instrumental in completing over a dozen M&A transactions including both a purchase and a sale of over $1 billion, as well as raising in excess of $1.1 billion of debt and equity funding. Ralph brings more than 25 years of enterprise software and hardware experience to his position as President of CarbonSystems’ US operations. His experience includes roles as CEO of Vertica Systems inc, Executive VP of global sales and marketing at Aspect Software, Senior VP of worldwide field operations for eRoom Technology, a leading provider of Web-based collaboration software, and VP of marketing and business development for Informix Software's $700 million Database Group, now part of IBM.
 

Richard Barlow

Richard Barlow (B.L., LL.B., MBA, H Dip Tax) worked in Southern Africa as a lawyer for the first twenty years of his business life. Initially a barrister, he eventually became chief in-house counsel for a large, listed group where he specialized in conceiving, negotiating and delivering value from joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. The group included listed subsidiaries in the IT industry and in the power generation and transmission arenas. For the last fifteen years he has been involved in entrepreneurial endeavour in Australia and South Africa, during which time he has gained extensive experience in the conception and operation of start-up businesses. He also advises and directs successful young businesses to reach the next levels of their corporate ascendency. Projects in this phase have included building and bringing to the stock exchange one of the companies he co-founded. A co-founder of the Carbon Systems Group, he currently serves as a director.