Ian Hales
Fractional Growth Advisor - Businss Development and Strategic Partnerships - 30+ years commercial experience - Sydney
Expertise: Growth, Revenue and sales
About
Ian Hales | Fractional Growth & Commercial Advisor
Founder of Positive Advisory Partners, Ian Hales is a senior commercial and growth leader with 30+ years’ experience across Australia and the UK, helping founders, startups, scaleups and established businesses navigate transformation, build strategic partnerships and accelerate growth.
Ian has held senior commercial roles across technology, SaaS, digital transformation, AI and data, and has built and scaled businesses from the ground up. His experience spans enterprise sales, go-to-market strategy, strategic partnerships, commercial transformation and founder advisory, including working with ecosystems such as AWS and Tech Data.
Ian brings an energetic, practical and highly networked approach to helping businesses turn opportunity into action—whether that means resetting a commercial strategy, opening enterprise doors, building a sales engine or preparing for the next stage of growth.
His philosophy: 100% Positivity. No Compromise.
Big wins
- Founder - Built Australia's first and largest network of Public Internet Kiosks forming strategic partnerships with Telstra plus others including all major Australian airports & shopping centres and developing interactive kiosk solutions for Qantas, Australia Post and many others.
- First BDM hire promoted to CEO, led a mobile first business, from zero customers to transform into the APAC regional distributor for a Customer Journey Orchestration Platform and it's successful takeover.
- Most recently guiding a wellbeing and mindfulness startup to GTM Rythm and execution, including strategic partnerships, includes AWS within 2 weeks and pilot customers and pipeline development.
Skills: Growth, Sales, GTM, Partnerships, People & Culture, Strategy, Business Development, Board & Governance
Additional skills: Strategic Growth, Commercial Strategy, Fractional Leadership, Enterprise Sales, Business Development, Go-to-Market Strategy, Revenue Growth, Strategic Partnerships, Channel Development, Ecosystem Partnerships, Founder Advisory, Startup & Scaleup Growth, Sales Strategy, Pipeline Development, Enterprise Account Management, Customer Acquisition, Commercial Transformation, Digital Transformation, Technology Strategy, SaaS, AI & Emerging Technology, Data & Analytics, Cloud, Stakeholder Management, Negotiation, Relationship Building, Networking, Strategic Planning, Market Entry, Business Transformation, Leadership, Mentoring, Revenue Strategy, Partnership Strategy, Australian & UK Markets
Works with: Idea stage, Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Scaleup, Established business
Industries: SaaS, Marketplaces, FinTech, HealthTech, B2B, AI, E-Commerce