Towards the end of Oliver Curtis’ time at Sydney’s Riverview in the 2000s, the teenager sought unpaid work experience. The school, which is perched on the city’s north shore, had strong old boys networks. Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce are former students. Curtis was also the year below Dan Roberts, who’d go on to found rival neocloud Iren .
Curtis had his own connections. His father, Nick Curtis, was a prominent financier and mining dealmaker, who’d come through Macquarie. After one call to Nick’s associates at stockbroker Southern Cross Equities, Oliver was soon walking through the firm’s doors at Aurora Place on Phillip Street.
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