Mike Ganon became an independent corporate development advisor before the model had a name and remains one by design, not default. After a career in institutional corporate finance and investment banking that included some of Western Australia's most consequential corporate transactions, he concluded that the conflict-ridden structure of mainstream investment banking was incompatible with giving clients the impartial advice they actually need.

He founded NextLevelCorporate in 2001 to prove the alternative: that senior expertise, delivered without institutional conflict, produces better outcomes for clients.

The decade that preceded NLC, working on landmark privatisations and billion-dollar financings including the Alinta Gas, Bankwest and Telstra 2 IPOs and the US$720m Burrup Fertilisers project financing, formed the macro-first discipline that defines the studio's approach today. In the quarter century since managing hundreds of equity underwriting, M&A and structured finance transactions for Allied Capital, Porter Western Capital Markets and Macquarie Bank's Investment Banking Group in WA, he has built a several hundred deal track record across macro-aligned mergers, acquisitions, capital raisings, takeover responses and innovation financings. These have spanned Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe & UK, India, and the United States.

Selected Transaction Experience

• Alinta Gas privatisation IPO, Western Australia
• Bankwest privatisation IPO, Western Australia
• Burrup Fertilisers US$720m project financing (now Yara International)
• Three of the largest IPOs ever undertaken in Western Australia
• Federal Airports Corporation privatisation of Perth Airport
• 50+ announced M&A transactions across six continents (private and public)
• 470+ equity underwritings, IPO/2POs, debt and structured finance transactions (private and public)
• Multiple takeover response, scheme of arrangement and restructure mandates
• Indigenous corporation and native title body corporate advisory

What Clients Say

"Having worked with Mike on several projects over the past 10 years I have been continuously impressed by his ability to work through complex business situations, identify and summarise critical points in a project and then propose realistic solutions and outcomes compatible with my requirements. However, it is his willingness to advise when not to proceed as much as his ability to provide potential outcomes that is one of his greatest strengths and which sets him apart from other advisors I have worked with."

Grant Smith

Executive Chairman, Less Common Metals
(acquired by USA Rare Earth, November 2025)

"NextLevelCorporate provided advice to the Board of Midas Resources Limited while I was CEO. The services involved M&A strategy and general corporate advice and strategic planning. At all times I found working with Mike Ganon to be rewarding and valuable to the company. Mike is a strategic thinker and a thoroughly organised planner who presents a commercial strategy in a logical and readily understood format. I have no hesitation in recommending NextLevelCorporate."

Geoff Balfe

MD, Midas Resources, Director, Global Geo Management Pty Ltd

"Once in a while you engage a provider who can not only walk the talk, but one who can see the issues before others and deal with these in advance which made my job all the easier. He is without doubt a true business partner that is not afraid to forego the deal when he senses it is simply not right for your business, which is rare. Not only did we solicit the best advice and complete the right deal for us, but he also took the time to share some skills and experience which I found very humbling and altruistic. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the use of Mike and Next Level Corporate."

Andy Ibbitson

EGM Strategy, BGC Contracting