ShiftDeparture000°Begin a conversation

Private family office · Perth

Stewardship through every weather

A private family office shaped by operators and guided by patience.

Leg II · Bearing

We allocate capital the way a good vessel is sailed: respect for conditions, a clear course, and no wasted motion.

The capital we steward was earned building real businesses under real constraints. That history is present in every decision.

Leg III · Approach

Four conditions govern how the office sails.

Set before departure, held in every sea. These are the conditions a decision must survive before capital moves.

Clarity before velocity

We take opportunities we can understand at the operational level, and decline the ones we cannot.

Time as an ally

Holding periods are measured in years and decades, not quarters. Nothing we own needs to be sold on a schedule.

III

Resilience over optimisation

We favour structures and businesses that endure stress over those that maximise theoretical return.

Partners, not positions

We back people we would trust in difficult weather, and expect to be held to the same standard.

Leg IV · Origin

Built first, stewarded second.

Shift Capital was formed from the proceeds of businesses that were built, operated and sold, across manufacturing, industrial systems and software.

The work began in South Africa and continues from Australia. The discipline that once turned ideas into operating companies now stewards the capital those companies created.

The office is led by Cecile Verburg, whose legal training and long-view judgement give the office the structural continuity that multi-generational capital requires.

Governance · Structure · Continuity

Leg V · Team

Three hands on the same helm.

The founding partnership has been tested across two continents and more than fifteen years.

N · 000°

Arno Verburg

Executive chairOperator and builder

An engineering background across manufacturing and industrial automation, designing systems that replace manual process with reliable machines. Based in Perth.

Focus

Physical AI and robotics. Assessing machines at the operational level: uptime, integration, and the economics of an hour of work.

Operational improvement. Data, automation and AI applied inside the companies the office backs and acquires.

E · 090°

Cecile Verburg

Chief executive officerLawyer and steward of the office

Responsible for governance, structure, and the continuity of the capital across generations.

Focus

Structure and governance. Ownership and decision rights designed for decades: the legal architecture of a long hold.

Continuity. Succession and stewardship across generations, kept in good order and good records.

S · 180°

Rob Benkovic

Chief operating officerInvestor and operator

An investor and business operator across the energy and life sciences sectors: production, capital markets and due diligence.

Focus

Natural resources and energy. Commercial solutions for the global energy transition, unlocking value through operational and commercial innovation.

M&A. Private companies and assets that benefit from added data analytics, automation and AI.

Leg VI · Focus

Where operational insight still compounds.

Three charts, one lens: operations, machines and data.

These domains reward what built the original capital: operational insight, patience, and the willingness to understand a system deeply before committing to it.

Physical AI and robotics.

Early-stage companies giving software a working body: the office’s core attention.

Physical AI

Software that has learned to touch the world: perception, planning and control for machines that do real work.

Robotics

The machines themselves: arms, vehicles and cells engineered for uptime, not demonstration.

Industrial autonomy

Whole processes that run without supervision: sites, lines and fleets working through the night.

III

Robotic manipulation

The hardest problem: hands. Grasping, assembly, and the tasks industry still does manually.

Durable data advantages

Operating data that compounds: every hour a machine works makes the next machine better.

Leg VII · Landfall

Conversations begin by introduction or direct enquiry.

Every enquiry is read by a principal. We reply where there is genuine mutual interest.

An introduction from someone we have sailed with carries the most weight. A direct note is read all the same.

Directoffice@shiftcapital.com.au