Investment specialists, Italy
Simone Desmarchelier
Consul-General and Trade Commissioner, Milan
Tel: +39 02 7767 4226
Simone Desmarchelier is Austrade's Trade Commissioner and Consul-General in Milan with trade and investment responsibility for Italy and Cyprus.
Simone has extensive experience in assisting public and private companies to invest overseas. She has a particular focus on infrastructure investment having worked in the area in Europe and Australia as both an investment banker and corporate lawyer.
Simone is bilingual in Italian and English, speaks fluent French and Spanish and has a basic knowledge of Japanese.
Sheralyn Derrick
Investment Manager, Milan
Tel: +39 02 7767 4228
Sheralyn Derrick has been with Austrade in Milan since 2002. She is an Investment Manager with a focus on investment attraction in the biotech, chemical and industrial sectors.
Sheralyn is also responsible for the international marketing and promotion of Australian education in Italy has extensive experience in this area.
Prior to joining Austrade, Sheralyn worked in a wide variety of industry sectors with companies such as Alcoa, Adidas and National Australia Bank and has considerable experience in the areas of sourcing and contract management, planning and logistics and project implementation.
William Peasland
Investment Manager, Milan
Tel: +39 02 7767 4222
William Peasland joined Austrade in December 2011. In his role as Investment Manager he focuses on supporting Italian companies to invest Australia in the infrastructure, rail and green building sector.
Before joining Austrade, William worked for UKTI based in Milan focusing on Inward Investment and responsible for the energy and infrastructure sectors. Before that he worked for an Italian environmental engineering company (waste-to-energy).
William was born in Italy and is a dual national (British/Italian). He has a degree in environmental economics from the University of York and a Professional Diploma in Performance Management and Change from the Open University.
Deborah Ponzio
Investment Manager, Milan
Tel: +39 02 7767 4213
Deborah Ponzio commenced working for Austrade in 1998. She has been a Business Development Manager on trade promotion in the ICT, Food & Beverage, Agribusiness, and Creative Arts sectors, and has worked as an Investment Manager for Invest Australia. In July 2011, Deborah started working as an Investment Manager promoting investment opportunities to companies active in the clean energy and environment sector, as well as nanotechnologies and agribusiness and food technology. In August 2011, Deborah was appointed Leader of the WE Nanotech team.
Prior to Austrade, Deborah worked for a Korean trading company and a Greek textile agency.
She studied Political Science / International Relations at the LUISS University in Rome, Italy, and has a Masters of Foreign Trade by I.C.E. – Italian Trade Commission in Rome.