Scaling up in New York City

GEELONG’S David Collard received high praise from Australia’s two main political parties when they joined him for the opening of his new US headquarters for Scale Facilitation on the 82nd floor of the One World Trade Centre in New York City earlier this month.

Standing beside Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles, and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Mr Collard was thanked for his work in furthering technological ties between his native country and adopted homeland, and his company’s plans to revolutionise global innovation and sovereign resilience.

“Dave Collard is a force of nature…is innately entrepreneurial… Dave is a person who is values-driven and who is passionate,” Mr Marles said.

“He is also now very passionate about the two countries he now calls home: Australia and the United States and the alliance that binds us together. And about those who have served our nation, particularly passionate about those who have served in our militaries, and you can see that in the people now working for Scale Facilitation.”

Dutton, a former defence minister, was equally effusive, describing Mr Collard as a person with the “ability to see around corners and over the horizon.”

“That is an incredible quality… thank you very much for what you have done in deepening the relationship between our two countries,” he said.

The chief executive officer and managing partner of Scale Facilitation is literally making international power moves, with the company planning to open one of the Southern Hemisphere’s largest lithium-ion battery producing factories at Avalon and partnering with US organisations that are developing artificial intelligence technologies, microchips and magnetic superconductors.

With several other notable US and Australian defence force figures attending the opening of his new headquarters, including former ADF chief Angus Houston, Mr Collard acknowledged many of the technologies the company was involved in had strong military applications.

Recharge Industries scale officer David Hay spent years with the Australian Defence Force including serving under former defence chief Peter Cosgrove, one of many military veterans who work for – and with – his various business ventures.

“We are trying to do something big, and long term,” Mr Collard said.

The Avalon battery facility has strong bipartisan backing in Australian and the US, as it is seen as way of weaning the west off a reliance on the 80 per cent of lithium-ion batteries that are produced by China.

“This isn’t a short-term thing, trying to get a grant or get a project off the ground and leave,” he said.

Mr Collard said having the backing of both sides of politics at home and abroad was crucial.

“Most likely there’s a future prime minister in one of those two (Marles and Dutton), so for us that’s really long term,” he said.