Stephen Pitt-Walker

STEPHEN PITT-WALKER is a global technology and business leader, board director, business lawyer, entrepreneur, business strategist, and board governance and performance expert.

Stephen is a passionate governance specialist and advocate for ethical business practices, ensuring that people, the planet, and prosperity are balanced in the business stakeholder equation.

He is the CEO and Founder of Optima Board Services Group, an interdisciplinary board advisory firm that offers corporate governance, board performance, legal and regulatory, risk management, decision support and advisory services. Optima serves the mid-market, private equity, family offices and venture capital backed start-up sectors.

Stephen has led Fortune 500 businesses for brands such as Gartner, HP, and Honeywell (as well as more than sixty premium brand clients during his career), where he led global or regional P&L, business growth, business transformation, M&A, post-merger integrations, in managed and professional services businesses, managing significant business risk and opportunities.

He is an Independent Non-Executive Director at Circular Unity (Portugal), a technology business that has developed software that measures and reports on environmental impact and sustainability. He serves as the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Westgate Executive Branding (Canada), retained General Counsel and Board Advisor for Orenda Learning (Singapore), and Country Chair (Australia) for the global Virtual Advisory Board. He is a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia and Fellow of the Strategic Management Institute.

In addition to his extensive business experience, he serves as a director on several not-for-profit boards; he is a human rights advocate and has addressed both the British and Australian parliaments on human rights issues.

Stephen is a veteran of the Australian Defence Force, a graduate of the Royal Military College of Australia, and former Military Intelligence Officer. He holds a Juris Doctor, Master of International Studies (International Relations), Master of Arts (International Economics & Finance), and Post-Graduate Honours (1st Class) in Political Science.

He is headquartered in Sydney but splits his time between global clients and his firm (Optima Board Services Group) which has presence in New York, Dubai, and Sydney.