Joel Phillips, Director & Principal Consultant

Joel’s background as a process engineer and designer of water treatment plants gives him the ability to link the technical, commercial, and contractual objectives related to water, process, and energy across a range of industries including minerals, municipal, oil & gas, food and beverage, and power. He has an ability to identify and manage commercial and technical risks, with an understanding of multidisciplinary engineering relationships. Joel’s experience in applying process technologies across many industries enables him to effectively communicate client requirements to project teams, ensuring the success of projects. Joel’s international experience in design and consulting will benefit growing businesses looking to optimise and improve their production processes.

Dr Chris Colby, Managing Director & Principal Consultant

With 25 years of experience, Chris delivers trusted advice on infrastructure delivery, process improvement, innovation and sustainability. He has worked across all sectors of government, business, industry, and with the not-for-profit sector. This includes with major consulting firms GHD and Arup, delivering infrastructure, sustainability and climate adaption projects, as well 9 years providing applied product/process research and development for industry. Chris has also co-developed and co-managed a successful new consulting firm, specializing in waste management and recycling. His experience bridges all Australia’s major industry sectors, including food and wine, renewable fuels, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, petrochemicals, water, energy, waste & recycling, and defence. His engineering qualifications, real-life business experience, and industry knowledge, enable him to provide balanced, practical, technically informed but commercially-insightful advice. Chris thrives on a personal approach that ensures client expectations are met and often exceeded. He specializes in helping clients scope the problem to be solved and building them an expert team of people to deliver a solution. Chris retains a formal affiliation with Arup and continues to work with them in waste and recycling and water fields.

Tony Shi, Director and Principal Investment / Commercial Advisor

As the founder and Project Director of HBC Group (Honest Building Constructions Pty Ltd), Tony leads the planning and delivery of a diverse portfolio of residential and commercial developments across South Australia. With deep expertise spanning every phase of the development lifecycle, Tony has built a strong track record of delivering landmark projects across some of Adelaide’s most sought-after locations.

Beyond his construction and development credentials, Tony has spent over 15 years cultivating an extensive international business network across the Asia-Pacific region. Throughout his career, he has facilitated large-scale international trade deals and high-value business transactions, acting as a trusted intermediary between Australian enterprises and their Asian counterparts. Tony has successfully guided numerous overseas investors — predominantly from China, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong — through the process of investing in Australian property and business, navigating regulatory frameworks, FIRB requirements, and market entry strategies with precision.

Equally, Tony has supported Australian and local business owners seeking to expand into Asian markets. Leveraging deep cultural intelligence, language proficiency, and longstanding relationships across China, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong, Tony provides strategic consulting on market entry, partnership development, trade facilitation, and business structuring. His bilingual capability in English and Chinese has proven invaluable in bridging communication, fostering trust, and closing deals across cultural boundaries.

Tony holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Flinders University and is currently enrolled in a Juris Doctor (Law) at Flinders University, reflecting his commitment to continuous professional development. He holds both a South Australia and Queensland Building Supervisor’s Licence, as well as a White Card (General Construction Induction) — underscoring his hands-on industry credentials and cross-state operational capability.

Bronwyn Colby, Finance and Administration

With a background in marketing, governance, project management and more recently energy market policy and regulation Bronwyn brings to Colby Phillips Advisory a wealth of diverse knowledge and skills. She has worked with a multitude of stakeholders from government, private business and the not-for-profit sector to deliver local and nationally based projects. These include a Better Practice Guideline for Energy Retailers (endorsed by the Energy Retailers of Australia Association) - a collaborative approach in supporting vulnerable energy consumers; a national Hardship and Affordability Annual Conference for energy retailers and consumer advocates; an intranet redevelopment and business process mapping project for the largest NFP in SA; and the development and implementation of a SharePoint software project to over 100 employees.

Bronwyn’s social science qualifications enable her to plan, implement and execute all projects with a people orientated approach – ensuring client needs and expectations are met and often exceeded. She thrives on delivering exceptional project planning and execution, research analysis focused on client need and outcomes and high-level analytical and problem solving methodologies. Bronwyn’s passion to deliver high quality outcomes for all clients is supported by her natural ability to think laterally and creatively and her capacity to communicate across all stakeholder groups.