James Black

James grew up as the 4th generation on a cropping and livestock operation in South Australia. He spent 5 years in the military whilst completing his university studies, before embarking on a career in finance, banking and agribusiness.

James started his career in the wine industry in South Australia with Pernod Ricard, before moving to London to work in global commodity markets with Bear Stearns and Standard Chartered Bank.

After returning to Australia, James took up a role for Elders where he developed their eCommerce strategy and in particular managed their online sales channel concept ‘Agsure’. This was the equivalent of a ‘start up’ within Elders and James went on to be the General Manager of this business unit for 3 years.

Following this, James seized the opportunity to invest in and join Figured Ltd, a New Zealand company responsible for the development and marketing of the cloud-based software ‘Figured’ which has close alliances with Xero Accounting Software. James was the General Manager for this business in Australia, responsible for it’s strategic vision and strategy, capital raising, performance and all operations.