MinterEllison's strategy is to be our clients' best partner – this applies in the not-for-profit sector as it does in the corporate world. Adara Group is an organisation that spans both worlds and uses the power of business to improve lives.
The Adara Group consists of two Australian corporate advisory businesses, the B-Corp, Adara Advisors, and the globally unique, corporate advisory panel, Adara Partners, whose sole purpose is to support the non-profit international development organisation – Adara Development.
The fee income generated by the placement and advisory businesses is used by Adara Developments to improve health and education for women, children and communities in need. This includes world-leading infant health projects in Uganda and education projects for girls in remote Nepal.
MinterEllison's relationship with Adara Developments spans many years. Former partner Richard West has been on the board of the organisation for close to a decade. When Adara approached us in 2015 with a compelling and innovative proposition, we were delighted to assist.
In a global first, Audette Exel, the CEO and driving force behind Adara, has corralled 16 of Australia's premier investment bankers, Non-Executive Directors, and corporate advisors onto a panel – a "panel for purpose" – and created Adara Partners. The talent brought together is astounding, with names like Gonski, Atlas, Brenner, Hunt, Skala, Grounds and so-on.
Adara Partners is a top-tier corporate advisory firm, providing independent financial and strategic advice and complex commercial problem solving services to leading Australian companies, governments and families. Its sole purpose is to deliver financial services expertise at the highest levels to clients, with fees generated on transactions going to directly benefit people living in extreme poverty.
MinterEllison partner Richard Batten and the firm's Financial Institutions team worked with Adara to modify its Australian Financial Services Licence to address conflicts of interest and other issues to enable Australia's top investment bankers and advisors to work for Adara Partners, without impacting their ability to continue to work for their home firms. This required some lateral thinking and interesting discussions with ASIC and other regulators.
Eighteen months later, the model has been proved on a number of high profile mandates – with more than A$3 million in advisory fees donated to Adara Developments' world leading health and education programs in Uganda and Nepal. It really is a unique and innovative approach to fund raising – to create from scratch a leading, independent boutique advisory business with Australia's leading corporate talent.
Another key plank in MinterEllison's Adara relationship – and our firm's Community Investment Program – is the support we provide to Adara through our Adara Ambassador Program. This program allows our talented lawyers to enhance their skills in a unique environment – working with wise counsel and a small, dedicated corporate team on:
- a range of corporate and commercial matters that apply to the Adara business
- global development aid projects with foreign governments, international NGOs and companies
- supporting Australia's leading corporate advisors on challenging corporate advisory mandates in the Adara Partners business.
This is a truly unique opportunity and one that gives the Ambassadors an array of client-side skills and networking opportunities that they can't get anywhere else.
To be part of the team that was able to work with Adara to build sustainable business models to fund and deliver on its mission – through the Ambassador program and other initiatives – was extremely rewarding and our involvement is of great pride to our firm as the centre piece of what we can do in the community investment space.
We continue to work with Adara on new ways to build sustainable fundraising platforms for the great work they are doing.
“MinterEllison’s partnership with the Adara Group has a huge impact, and is a shining example of the power of a business non-profit partnership. The brilliant legal work MinterEllison did for us to establish our ground-breaking new corporate advisory business for purpose, Adara Partners, was critical to our successful launch. On top of that, the MinterEllison Ambassador is a key member of our senior global team, working with our development and business teams hand in hand. We are so grateful to MinterEllison for this amazing partnership”
Audette Excel, Adara CEO
Watch Adara founder, Audette Exel's interview on ABC's The Business (April 2017) where she explains the Adara model and makes some interesting comments around the growth of social enterprise and philanthropy, the move to shared value and wider responsibility of corporates to broader stakeholder groups.