Mr. Smaré has been the President for the PNG Chamber of Resources & Energy (PNG CORE) since late 2021, overseeing its re-branding from PNG Chamber of Mines & Petroleum and its reorganisation to PNG CORE during that period.
Mr. Smaré Anthony presently spends his time as a full-time private equity and venture capital investor, and is Executive Chair of wholly-owned private equity firm TrueNorth Capital, actively acquiring and operating businesses in a range of growth sectors in PNG, and investing in venture capital internationally, with a portfolio that includes PNG’s largest security services and technology provider Black Swan, logistics solutions provider Expedient, and estate and precinct developer TrueNorth Developments, providing employment to over 2600 Papua New Guineans in 20 locations around PNG.
He is presently the non-executive chair of the board of Paradise Foods Limited and is a non-executive director and Investment Committee chair for PNG Sustainable Development Company and a Director for Tisa Community Finance Ltd. Mr Smaré is also Chairman of non-profit Kumul Foundation Inc and founder of the Kumul Game Changers Entrepreneurship Initiative which develops young Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs and startups, and pursuant to that role Anthony is also the official ambassador for the Global Entrepreneurship Network in PNG.
He holds a Bachelor of Law and Bachelor of Applied Science (Geology) from the Queensland University of Technology, and has undertaken executive programs in leadership at Harvard, Oxford, Princeton and Cambridge Universities, sustainability at Stanford University, racial equality at University of Virginia and artificial intelligence at HKUST. Anthony is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Mr. Smaré is a former partner of Allens Arthur Robinson lawyers specializing in mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and natural resources law, practicing in Papua New Guinea and Australia and was a senior executive with Barrick Gold in PNG for a number of years. He also served a short stint before his legal career as a petroleum geologist with Santos on exploration work including the Stanley discovery.
He has served as a director and chair of boards of a number of large PNG companies over the last 20 years in a variety of sectors, including as chair of PNG’s largest superannuation fund, Nambawan Super, from 2012 to 2019 overseeing its growth from approximately K3 billion to K9 billion in total assets under management.
In 2010, Queensland University of Technology named Anthony its Outstanding Young Alumnus of the Year, and in 2014 the World Economic Forum appointed Mr Smaré a member of its Forum of Young Global Leaders for a term of 6 years.
