Our Double-Helix Team
Domain expertise + AI engineering
Anthea Roberts
Founder, Director and CEO
Anthea is an interdisciplinary professor who has worked at the ANU, the LSE, Columbia and Harvard. She focuses on new ways of thinking about complex and evolving fields and she is the AI prompt engineer behind Dragonfly’s AI tools. The League of Scholars has ranked Anthea as the world’s leading international law scholar (2019) and Australia’s leading international law scholar (2022, 2023). Her first book ‘Is International Law International?’ won the American Society of International Law’s top book prize, and her second book ‘Six Faces of Globalization’ (with Nicolas Lamp) was selected as one of the Best Books of 2021 by The Financial Times and Fortune Magazine. She engages extensively with governments and businesses and previously worked at law firms in New York and London.
Miranda Forsyth
Co-Founder and Director
Miranda is an interdisciplinary socio-legal professor, with extensive experience in law and society, the Pacific islands justice and governance systems and legal pluralism. She has worked at the ANU and the University of the South Pacific. Miranda’s expertise includes law, anthropology, restorative justice, criminology and complexity theory. A natural collaborator, Miranda is part of research and practitioner networks locally and across the world, fostering dialogue and learning around her areas of expertise. Miranda is leading Dragonfly’s approach to executive education through Dragonfly Learning.
Sue Brake
Chair of the Board and Investment Vertical Lead
Sue Brake is globally recognised as one of the pioneers of the Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) to investing and for leading two of the world’s most sophisticated sovereign wealth users of it. As the former Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s A$300 billion Future Fund Management Agency and a senior executive at New Zealand Super, Sue brings two decades of experience leading some of the world’s most sophisticated institutional investors.
As Chair of Dragonfly Thinking, Sue guides the firm’s strategic direction during a period of accelerated growth and innovation. She also leads Dragonfly Investing, a new vertical that integrates TPA discipline with Dragonfly’s human-plus-AI platform to help sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, endowments and family offices navigate geopolitical, climate, and technological disruption. Sue’s leadership combines deep institutional knowledge with a commitment to building systems that align mission with markets. Her work bridges investment strategy, risk, and resilience—turning complex insight into repeatable, system-level performance.
Elizabeth McPherson
Chief Operating Officer
Elizabeth is an experienced executive and strategic operator, with a career spanning high-impact leadership roles across investment, insurance, banking, and government. As Chief Operating Officer at Dragonfly, she brings a sharp focus on operational excellence, culture, and deliveryensuring the organisation’s systems, structures, and people are aligned to support innovation and sustainable growth.
Elizabeth served for over a decade as Chief People & Culture Officer at Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund Management Agency, during a period of rapid expansion—from $70B to $240B in funds under management and a fivefold increase in headcount. Her leadership has also been central to large-scale transformations, including the $7.9B merger between Suncorp and Promina (17,000+ staff). With a passion for creating high-performing, values-driven workplaces, and supporting executive teams through growth, complexity, and change, Elizabeth brings a human-centred approach to strategy execution.
Hugh Edwards
Lead Software Engineer
Hugh is a seasoned software engineer with over a decade of experience spanning SaaS development, computer vision, and big data processing. His technical versatility is matched by a proven ability to architect and scale robust digital systems — from building new platforms from the ground up to navigating complex, data-intensive environments. Driven by a passion for clarity, quality, and reliability, Hugh is committed to creating software that’s not only powerful but also elegant and maintainable. He brings a thoughtful, systems-oriented approach to every project, designing solutions that are both resilient and user-friendly.
Linda Phompak
Product Manager & Designer
Linda is an interdisciplinary designer, her career spans product roles in enterprise technology, digital agencies, early-stage start-ups and government. She was a founding designer and product lead hybrid in launching award-winning applications across various sectors in accessible way-finding, fintech, climate data and home energy efficiency technology. Linda has a track record for navigating ambiguity to drive impactful outcomes. Drawing references from her studies in architecture and interaction design, she is driven by combining visionary innovative thinking into practical execution. Linda exemplifies problem-solving through a multi-faceted design lens and collaborative ingenuity across diverse industries.
Sam Barton
AI Operations & Development
Sam is an AI operations lead with over a decade of experience working across startups and scale-ups in roles spanning marketing, product management, operations, and strategy. His career has been defined by a hands-on, cross-functional approach to building and scaling teams, products, and systems in fast-moving environments. With a background in complex systems science and philosophy, Sam brings a distinctive lens to his work — one that sees organizations as interconnected, adaptive systems where people, processes, and technology must align to thrive in times of change. This perspective informs his approach to AI: not just as a set of tools, but as a transformative capability that, when integrated thoughtfully, can create lasting value.
Aishwarya
Project Manager & Finance Lead
Aishwarya is a dynamic self starter with over a decade of experience across start-ups and small-to-medium enterprises. With her background in finance and entrepreneurship, she brings strong capabilities in project management, operational strategy, and creative problem-solving. Aish has led across wide-ranging functions — from membership and operations to marketing and sales — where she has built and championed processes for sustainable growth. At Dragonfly Thinking, she plays a key role in pilot engagement and business development, offering expertise in project administration, stakeholder liaison, and financial and operational management. Aish’s versatility and executional focus make her a vital connector across teams and initiatives.