Our Team
Our leadership team has extensive corporate advisory experience, honed over many years of working as advisors across a range of sectors.
Ben Smith
– Managing Partner and Chair
Ben is a co-founder and Chair of Ad Astra with over 30 years of corporate advisory experience. Over his career, Ben has acted as a corporate adviser providing independent strategic and financial advice to listed and private companies, governments and individuals in relation to a wide range of corporate matters including public takeovers and schemes, takeover responses, private acquisitions and divestments, Government asset sales and scoping studies, capital management and capital raisings. Ben has experience across a broad range of sectors including consumer, retail, property, leisure, gaming, financial services and technology.
Prior to founding Ad Astra, Ben was the Head of Corporate Advisory for Investec Australia. Previously he worked at Wentworth Associates, Macquarie Bank and Hill Samuel in London.
He is a fellow of FINSIA and has a BSc (Econ) (Honours) majoring in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.
Peng Ly
– Managing Partner
Peng is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Ad Astra with over 20 years of corporate advisory experience. Peng has extensive experience advising on mergers and acquisitions for both private and public companies, as well as private equity and infrastructure funds. In addition, he leads our Government Advisory practice, specialising in scoping studies, privatisations and commercialisations. Peng has covered a broad range of sectors including gaming, registries, infrastructure, healthcare, telecom, media and technology.
Prior to founding Ad Astra, Peng was a Managing Director in the corporate advisory team of Investec Australia. Previously he worked at Goldman Sachs and Citi in Sydney and London.
Peng has a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance, First Class Honours) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales.
James Ye
– Partner
James is a co-founder and Partner of Ad Astra with over 13 years of corporate advisory experience. James has advised governments, private equity and corporate clients on strategy and M&A across a wide range of sectors including gaming, infrastructure, regulated services and technology. However, more recently his coverage has focused on the property technology, services and data space as well as impact investments.
Prior to founding Ad Astra, James was a Director in the corporate advisory team of Investec Australia. Previously he worked at RBS.
James graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) / Bachelor of Laws.
Ze Hu
– Partner
Ze is a co-founder and Partner of Ad Astra with over 13 years of corporate advisory experience. He has worked on a range of public market and private M&A transactions, with a particular industry focus on the technology, media and telecommunications sector. In addition, he leads our Capital Markets Advisory business, typically advising high growth companies to identify and access the best pools of capital to suit their requirements and life cycle.
Prior to founding Ad Astra, Ze was a Director in the corporate advisory team of Investec Australia. Previously he worked at HSBC and Barclays.
Ze has a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia.
Priyanka Garg
– Director
Priyanka is a Director of Ad Astra with over 10 years of corporate advisory experience. She has extensive experience in financial analysis, valuations and commercial strategic reviews. She has advised both governments and corporate clients across a wide range of sectors including registries, property technology, data and services, healthcare, gaming and retail.
Prior to Ad Astra, Priyanka was a Vice President in the corporate advisory team of Investec Australia. Previously she worked at Goldman Sachs in New York, London and India, as well as at Hyundai Capital Services in South Korea.
Priyanka has graduated from the University of Delhi with Bachelor of Engineering (BE) and has MBA degree from University of Delhi.
Shane Scantlebury
– Director
Shane is a Director of Ad Astra with over 10 years of corporate advisory experience. Shane has advised private equity and corporate clients on a range mid-market and large-cap transactions across the UK, Europe, the US and Australia.
Shane has experience across a broad range of sectors including technology, healthcare, consumer products, industrials and core+ infrastructure. More recently, his coverage has focused on the property technology, data, services and impact sectors.
Prior to Ad Astra, Shane was an Associate Director in the corporate advisory team of Investec UK. Previously he worked at Deloitte in London and McGrathNicol Advisory in Sydney.
Shane graduated from the University of Wollongong with a Bachelor of Commerce (Dean’s Scholar), majoring in Finance and Accounting. Shane is a Chartered Accountant.
Melanie Trezise
– Head of Operations
Melanie is the Head of Operations for Ad Astra and is responsible for managing and co-ordinating all day-to-day operational activities for our business, including across finance, IT, HR and compliance.
Melanie has over 15 years of business administration experience and has worked both in Australia and overseas and across a wide range of professional services industries, including in finance and law. Prior to Ad Astra, Melanie held various administrative roles within the Corporate Advisory team at Investec Australia, including as Executive Assistant, Events Coordinator and Business Unit Manager. She has also previously worked at Ernst & Young and Ashurst.