the company

Evan Thornley was appointed Chief Executive of Better Place Australia in January 2009. Evan is a successful technology entrepreneur who has also served in public office.

Before joining Better Place, Evan served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier of Victoria and in the Victorian Parliament. He was elected from the Southern Metropolitan Region to the Legislative Council.

Prior to that, Evan had co-founded and served as chairman and CEO of LookSmart Ltd. (NASD: LOOK), an Internet search advertising company that remains one of the few Australian technology companies to be taken public on the NASDAQ Stock Market and to have delivered a 100x return to venture capital investors. Previously, Evan worked as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, a leading global management-consulting firm, in Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur and New York.

Evan was also the founding Chair of the Board of Per Capita, a public policy think tank and served on the board of the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, a leading faith-based welfare agency in Melbourne, and was a Founding Director of www.getup.org.au an online activist network with 400,000 members.

Evan holds degrees in Law and Commerce from The University of Melbourne, where he served as student body President.