Audette Exel is the Founder of the Adara Group. The Adara Group is a global leader in bridging the worlds of financial services at the highest levels with the world of international development.

Audette is the CEO of Adara’s two businesses, Adara Advisors and Adara Partners. The Adara businesses were established to help fund Adara’s health and education work with women and children in extreme poverty in some of the world’s remotest places. This work has been ongoing for more than two decades. To date, the Adara Group has had a profound impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in poverty.

Adara Advisors is a private placement business. It represents global investment managers and raises capital from the Australian markets. Adara Partners is a boutique corporate advisory firm, providing independent and conflict free advice to Australian companies. Advisory services are provided by a Panel of the most well-known financial service advisors in Australia.

Audette is a Non-Executive Director of Westpac, Australia's first and oldest bank. From 2012 to September 2020 Audette was a Non-Executive Director of Suncorp Group Limited. From 1999 - 2017 Audette was the Vice Chairman of the Board of Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association Trustee (Bermuda) Limited.

Before establishing Adara, Audette was Managing Director of one of Bermuda’s three Banks, Bermuda Commercial Bank. She is one of the youngest women in the world to have run a publicly traded bank. During 1995 and 1996, Audette was also Chairman of the Bermuda Stock Exchange. From 1999 to 2005, Audette was on the Board of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Bermuda’s central financial services regulator, and was Chair of its Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Bermuda Commercial Bank, Audette practised as a lawyer specialising in international finance. She began her career with Allen, Allen and Hemsley in Sydney, Australia before joining the English firm of Linklaters & Paines, in their Hong Kong office. She is called to the Bars of New South Wales, Australia, England and Wales, and Bermuda.

In 1995, Audette was elected a Global Leader for Tomorrow by The World Economic Forum. In 2012, Audette won the Telstra NSW Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award, and was the winner of the NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award. She was also one of The Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence in Australia in 2012. In 2013, Audette was awarded an honorary Order of Australia and was recognised by Forbes as a "Hero of Philanthropy" in 2014. In 2015, Audette was inducted into the Australian Businesswomen’s Businesswomen’s Hall of Fame. She was a recipient of a World Class New Zealander Award in 2015. Audette was named Australia’s 2016 ‘Leading Philanthropist’ by Philanthropy Australia, and in 2017, was admitted to the New Zealand Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs. In 2019 she received the YPO Global Impact Legacy Honour.

Areas of Expertise