GEM Consulting

GEM Consulting, a business started in the 1990s by three of Azure Capital’s founders Geoff Rasmussen, Errol Levitt and Mark Barnaba.

In 2003, the founders sold GEM and their allied investment banking business to South African-based AST, which installed Robert Radley and Darren Smith as joint managing directors of the management consultancy. Mr Barnaba and Mr Rasmussen stepped away from consulting completely when they formed Azure Capital. Mr Levitt has moved away from Perth.

GEM remained the powerhouse of the local market during the next few years. Its WA management bought a 70 per cent stake in the business and eventually the business was sold to PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC), which was looking to return to management consulting space after selling out to IBM several years earlier. It no longer exists as a stand-alone brand.