disc: Held (and bought more recently)

Thought I would use my claude pro subscription for something useful and share it here.

XRG - A highly experienced board and management team with skin in the game

Board · Management · Key Investor · Insider Activity

Board of Directors

Wayne Jones — CEO & Executive Director (Co-founder, 14 yrs)

Former Commander, Special Air Service Regiment (SASR), highly decorated. Co-founded XRG in 2011 with Danny Hogan, both from SAS — the product was literally built by the people it trains. Owns 6.45% (~$1.9M). Salary $300K, below-market, aligns him to equity upside. Consistent open-market buyer. Also advises Steve Baxter's Beaten Zone Venture Partners defence fund. Key-person risk is real — he is the company's credibility with US DoD and SOCOM adjacent customers.

Kim Hopwood — COO, Chief Product & Technology Officer & Executive Director

CCIE-certified network engineer (Cisco). Co-founded digital agency Pusher in 2004, sold to Publicis (global comms giant) in 2014. MD of Digital at Publicis Australia until 2017. Joined XRG 2019. Owns 6.35% (~$1.2M). Responsible for product, platform and operations — the person who makes Operator XR actually work. Led the ALERRT Center academic collaboration (Texas State University — US national standard for active threat response training). One flag: sold $100K of stock in March 2025 on the same day five other directors were buying. Retains a large position so hasn't abandoned the thesis.

Philip Copeland — Non-Executive Director (Chair, International Expansion Committee)

CEO and co-founder of Avoka Technologies — built an Australian enterprise SaaS business focused on government and financial services, scaled it to ~US$50M revenue, sold to Temenos for US$245M in 2018. Lives in Colorado, USA. Specifically appointed to break XRG into US government markets. Most active director buyer — purchased ~$128K in shares in the 12 months to November 2025, plus a further $26K in March 2025. Owns 1.84% (~$337K). He has already done exactly what XRG is trying to do: Australian-founded government SaaS → US scale → $245M exit. His buying is the most informed signal on the register.

Mark Smethurst DSC, AM — Non-Executive Director

Brigadier (Ret.), 35 years Australian Army, 27 as Senior Special Forces Officer. Commanded NATO Special Forces in Afghanistan. Deputy Chief of Operations, US Special Operations Command (SOCOM). DSC = Distinguished Service Cross; AM = Member of the Order of Australia. Also NED of ASX-listed XTEK (defence manufacturing) and advisory board member of multiple defence organisations. His personal network inside US SOCOM and NATO special operations is irreplaceable for a company winning US military contracts. Bought $12,500 in March 2025 alongside fellow directors.

Daniel Hogan MG — Non-Executive Director (Co-founder)

Major General (Ret.), Australian Army. Co-founded XRG with Wayne Jones in 2011 — both from the SAS. Another senior ADF officer at the founding table, providing defence credibility that civilian-led competitors simply cannot replicate. Consistent buyer — $12,500 in March 2025, $9,474 in December 2024.

John Diddams — Chairman

Bought $22,274 in March 2025 as part of the coordinated director buy cluster. Limited additional public profile.

Executive Management

Benjamin Smith — Chief Commercial Officer (appointed December 2025)

The most strategically important hire XRG has made. 17+ years in defence commercial roles: Director Business Winning at Thales Australia (designed enterprise-wide BD systems, AI-powered pipeline capture); senior roles at QinetiQ Group PLC (UK), L3 Technologies (now L3Harris, top-10 US defence contractor), Babcock International, Ventia/Broadspectrum; 8 years in Australian Government leading major services outsourcing programs. Knows exactly how large defence procurement works from the inside. His specific experience building AI-powered capture systems to improve pipeline conversion at Thales is directly applicable to XRG's $74M pipeline. Creating this role was itself a maturity signal — XRG moved from founder-led sales to a professional commercial organisation.

Stephen Tofler — CFO & Company Secretary (6.8 yrs tenure)

Long-tenured CFO for a company this size — 6.8 years is meaningful continuity. Limited public profile beyond the role, which is fairly normal for a micro-cap CFO. Owns ~$217K in shares — not a huge stake relative to others but he's in the game. The Causeway debt facility management and the clean transition to operating cashflow positive suggests sound financial management. No red flags in public record.

Ash Crick — Chief AI Advisor

Described as a globally recognised AI expert. Australian Government awarded XRG a competitive $2.1M Industry Growth Program grant specifically to fund AI development under his leadership — an independent validation of the roadmap's credibility. Focus: automated scenario generation, AI-powered decision support, real-time trainee feedback, adaptive learning. These capabilities would move Operator XR from a training tool to a performance analytics platform, supporting higher ARR per customer and better retention.

Landon Curry — Managing Director, Red Cartel

Runs XRG's in-house XR production studio acquired in 2021. Red Cartel builds the proprietary software behind Operator XR — meaning all IP development is fully internalised, not outsourced. Every platform improvement stays within XRG.

Key Investor

Steve Baxter — Largest individual shareholder, ~25% (Beaten Zone Venture Partners / TEN13)

Co-founded PIPE Networks, sold to TPG for $373M in 2009. Former Shark on Shark Tank Australia. Ex-ADF (Army technician, electronics, telecoms, guided weapon systems). Founder of Beaten Zone Venture Partners — Australia's only structured fund dedicated to sovereign defence technology. In March 2025, converted $4.6M of debt into equity at a 39% premium — voluntarily gave up a senior creditor position to become a shareholder, paying above-market to increase his exposure. This is the single most bullish informed-insider signal in the entire register. His quote: "I'm backing Aussie vets with a market leading product winning in the US, proven product-market fit and a level of innovation and adaptation drawn from the unique nexus of hands-on Special Forces experience and leading immersive tech capabilities."

Overall People Assessment

Unusually strong for a $50M market cap company. The combination of:

— Two SAS co-founders who built the product they used to train for (Wayne Jones, Danny Hogan)

— A $245M SaaS exit founder on the board buying stock and running US expansion (Philip Copeland)

— A former NATO Special Forces commander with a SOCOM network (Mark Smethurst)

— A CCO from Thales/L3/QinetiQ who knows how to convert a defence pipeline (Benjamin Smith)

— A $373M exit entrepreneur who converted debt to equity at a premium as the largest shareholder (Steve Baxter)

— 38 staff total, lean but growing, with in-house IP development via Red Cartel

...is not what you expect at this market cap. The key risks are Wayne Jones key-person concentration, the 38-person team potentially undersized for accelerating growth, and Kim Hopwood's single sell transaction warranting ongoing monitoring.

Sources: XRG board/management pages (xrgroup.com.au) · MarketScreener ASX announcement (B. Smith appointment) · Asia Pacific Defence Reporter (Steve Baxter debt conversion) · Simply Wall St ownership data · Proactive Investors (Smethurst/XTEK) · Finovate/iTnews (Avoka/Temenos acquisition) 

A few things that stand out as genuinely significant:

The founding story matters more than it looks. XRG was co-founded in 2011 by Wayne Jones and Danny Hogan, both former operators of the Australian Special Air Service Regiment. The product wasn't designed by civilians trying to sell to the military — it was built by people who lived the problem they're solving. That's why the US DoD trusted them with an R&D contract, and why agencies who get a demo tend to buy. xReality Group Ltd

Benjamin Smith's hire from Thales is a genuine inflection point. He designed enterprise-wide business development systems and pioneered AI-powered capture at Thales Australia to improve pipeline qualification and win rates — that's directly applicable to converting XRG's $74M pipeline. Before this hire, XRG was essentially running founder-led sales on a product that had outgrown that model. A professional commercial organisation built by someone who knows how Thales, L3, Babcock and QinetiQ win large government contracts is what you need to convert a $74M pipeline systematically rather than opportunistically. MarketScreener

The Steve Baxter debt-to-equity conversion is the single most compelling data point in this entire analysis. He converted $4.6M of debt into equity at a 39% premium — giving up a senior creditor position to become a shareholder, paying above market to do it. He runs Australia's only structured fund dedicated to sovereign defence technology, co-founded PIPE Networks which sold for $373M, and was in the ADF himself. This is not a passive fund manager averaging down — it's someone with every relevant credential choosing to dramatically increase his exposure at a premium. That kind of action from that kind of person is as clear a signal as you'll find in public markets. Asia Pacific Defence ReporterAsia Pacific Defence Reporter

The one genuine concern worth naming: 38 employees for a company with 104 customers across four continents, a $74M pipeline, three distinct product lines (OP-2, MR-1, Interceptor), and active expansion into Europe, APAC and US military is tight. If the bull case converts and they need to service 200+ customers across NATO and APAC simultaneously, the team will need to scale faster than has been publicly signalled. That's not a thesis-breaker — it's a hiring execution risk to monitor in quarterly reports.