Advanced Navigation for Extremes

Advanced Navigation builds assured positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) for the world’s most extreme environments.

We make sure autonomous platforms know exactly where they are and which way they’re pointing when GNSS/GPS is degraded, jammed, or unavailable. Proven across land, air and sea – from the deepest mines and seas to heavily contested battlefields.

Meet our Leadership & Board of Directors

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Dependency on any single PNT technology, no matter how powerful, is an invitation for failure

At Advanced Navigation, we build true resilience by fusing high-precision inertial navigation with intelligent sensors. This ensures autonomous systems adapt in real time where other systems struggle.

We didn’t achieve this level of resilience by designing for comfortable conditions and stress-testing at the end. We built it by starting at the extreme and working backwards – backed by end-to-end R&D, rigorous field validation, and complete control over our manufacturing.

We specialize in inertial navigation, robotics, photonics, quantum sensing, artificial intelligence, underwater acoustics, and GNSS/GPS technologies.

Ready for when and where you are

Vertically Integrated Manufacturing

We design and build high-precision hardware in-house to deliver quality and bypass reliance on fragile global supply networks.

Rapid Production and Delivery Timelines

We deliver navigation solutions globally, often in weeks not years, facilitating short lead times for customers requiring faster outcomes.

Responsive In-Field Support Maximizes Success

Our forward-deployed engineers work directly with clients to ensure seamless hardware integration and continuous reliability in the world’s most extreme environments.

Global Operations

Advanced Navigation operates a network of global offices to manufacture, distribute, and support industries worldwide. Advanced Navigation maintains dedicated offices across three primary regions: America, EMEA, and APAC.

Learn more about our local operations, specific manufacturing capabilities, and regional support teams by exploring our global offices below:

America

EMEA

APAC

Expansion & Growth

Backed by leading international technology and defense investors. The company secured a US$110 million Series C funding round led by Airtree Ventures, Quadrant Private Equity, and the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC). The company is also backed by world-class strategic investors, including KKR, In-Q-Tel, and Main Sequence. This capital accelerates Advanced Navigation’s global expansion, specifically the development of regional PNT (Positioning, Navigation, and Timing) Centers of Excellence in America and Europe.

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Global Quality, Security & Compliance Standards

Advanced Navigation delivers supply-chain assurance and highly reliable product deployment for the defense and industrial sectors by operating a tightly regulated manufacturing supply-chain.

To ensure enterprise-grade resilience, the company strictly adheres to the following global standards:

Certified Quality & Agility

Operations are certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. Manufacturing agility is maintained through simulation-driven design, FMEA frameworks, and PPAP readiness.

Product & Cyber Compliance

Hardware is engineered to meet rigorous MIL-STD, IEC, and EMC/EMI operational standards. The company complies with RoHS and REACH safety obligations, and maintains robust cyber-security through NIST frameworks.

Supply Chain Integrity

Advanced Navigation mitigates risk through transparent sourcing, country-of-origin traceability, and trusted network checks via ERAI, while strictly adhering to international trade controls and ethical governance.

Research and Academic Partnerships

Advanced Navigation actively collaborates with leading global research and academic institutions to drive breakthroughs in navigation and autonomy. Advanced Navigation partners with CSIRO to develop photonic-based integrated circuits. This partnership advances autonomy capabilities across artificial intelligence, big data, quantum exploration, defense, and commercial sectors.

Additionally, Advanced Navigation has partnered with RMIT University on the development of its Fiber Optic Gyroscope. Together with these research partners, Advanced Navigation is discovering and enabling transformative autonomous technologies.

Industry Recognition

Advanced Navigation is globally recognized for its breakthroughs in autonomous systems, robotics, and deep-tech manufacturing. The company has earned prestigious accolades for rapid innovation, engineering excellence, and corporate growth.

Forbes – 100 to Watch

Highlighted as a leading high-growth technology company driving rapid innovation, scale, and disruption in the global autonomous systems market.

Defence Industry Awards – Manufacturer of the Year

Awarded for excellence in advanced manufacturing and delivering dual-use, sovereign defense capabilities and securing resilient supply chains for the defense sector.

Time – Best Inventions

Recognized for engineering breakthroughs in autonomous robotics, delivering accessible, precise, and highly reliable solutions for complex environments.

Fast Company – 
World Changing Ideas

Recognized for developing transformative autonomous solutions that address complex global challenges and advance next-generation navigation capabilities.

Global Career Opportunities

We employ engineering, manufacturing, and technology professionals to build its navigation systems and autonomous technologies. The company offers global career opportunities across R&D, Product, Operations, Manufacturing & Supply Chain, Go-To-Market and Finance – for people who want to work on problems that don’t have off-the-shelf answers.

Are you looking to join a global team driving the autonomy revolution? View open roles, learn about our workplace culture, and apply for your next role:

View Available Jobs

Leadership and Board of Directors

Advanced Navigation is led by a team of industry experts and a highly experienced Board of Directors who guide the company’s strategic vision in navigation technology.

Meet our Leadership Team

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Chris Shaw

CEO & Co-Founder

Chris Shaw is the CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation, a global force in PNT and autonomous technology.

Upon discovering a gap in the market for small robust high performance autonomous navigation solutions, Chris co-founded Advanced Navigation. Since 2012, the company has experienced great success and has progressed into several deep technology fields, including advancements in AI, robotics, photonics, and quantum sensing.

Chris holds First Class Honours degrees in business and electronic engineering from the University of Western Australia. During this time, he was a research and development engineer at Entecho, a company focused on developing air taxis and aerial vehicles. Following this, he joined Cyber Technology, a company specialising in autonomous vehicles.

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Doug Abdiel

Chief Growth Officer

Doug Abdiel is Chief Growth Officer at Advanced Navigation, a global leader in autonomous systems and PNT technology. His mission is simple: make high-performance PNT capability easier for customers to find, evaluate, and field at scale. Doug joined the US Marine Corps in 2003, and has served on active duty and in the reserves, where he is currently a Lieutenant Colonel. He leads Advanced Navigation's commercial operations, revenue, demand gen, strategic accounts, and channel enablement into a single growth engine for customers across APAC, the Americas, and EMEA. Beyond business, Doug is a community-minded founder, director, and chair of a multimillion-dollar social enterprise that provided over 50 people their first, and most importantly a pathway to their second, jobs in Australia.

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Tom Pereira

Chief Financial Officer

Tom Pereira is the Chief Financial Officer at Advanced Navigation. He is a seasoned finance executive with over 15 years of experience driving financial strategy across tech-enabled industries, operating comfortably in environments ranging from fast-growing startups to large, publicly listed multinationals.

Tom began his career in Deloitte Consulting before spending a decade in Amsterdam, including an eight-year tenure with Just Eat Takeaway.com. As the right hand to the CFO, he played a pivotal role in transitioning the company from a small, VC-backed Western European business into one of the world’s largest online food delivery marketplaces, ultimately listing on three exchanges, operating across 20 countries, and generating over $AU9b in annual revenue. His executive leadership experience also includes serving as CFO of MILKRUN, one of Australia's fastest-growing startups, as well as deputy CFO at Freelancer.com.

Throughout his career, Tom has established a proven track record of building and leading high-performing, diverse, and highly engaged teams. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies) in Finance and Accounting from the University of Sydney, and a Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting from Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

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Pawel Michalak

Chief Technology Officer

Pawel Michalak is Chief Technology Officer at Advanced Navigation, where he leads the company’s technology vision for resilient PNT in the world’s most demanding environments.

With senior leadership experience across Europe, the Middle East, the US and Australia, Pawel has driven technology strategy and large-scale digital transformation for industries dependent on spatial intelligence, including energy transition, resilient infrastructure and climate change. He is a strong advocate for high-performance, alternative PNT technologies that enable autonomy in contested and GPS-denied environments.

Prior to Advanced Navigation, Pawel led Digital Transformation at Fugro, directing global teams across engineering, AI and robotics to advance next-generation spatial mapping, modelling and monitoring in close partnership with clients, partners, suppliers, and academic institutions.

Pawel holds a PhD in Satellite Geodesy, an MBA, and multiple executive postgraduate qualifications from universities in Poland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the US.

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Shane Albances

Chief Supply Chain Officer

Shane Albances is the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Advanced Navigation, where he leads the company’s end-to-end global operational functions across manufacturing, production engineering, procurement, logistics, and supply planning.

An experienced operational executive and qualified engineer, Shane has spent more than two decades specialising in advanced manufacturing at deep tech companies such as Cook Medical, Cochlear, Nanosonics, and Space Machines Company. Throughout his career, he has focused on building the resilient, agile, and commercially optimised supply chain capabilities necessary to enable rapidly growing businesses to scale and become undisputed global leaders in their fields.

Shane holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Medical/Mechanical Engineering (Honours) from the Queensland University of Technology and holds executive postgraduate certifications in operational excellence from MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Adrian West

Chief People Officer

Adrian West is the Chief People Officer at Advanced Navigation. He is an accomplished Human Resources executive with extensive experience driving business results within complex, global organizations. As Chief People Officer at Advanced Navigation, Adrian leads the company’s global people and talent strategy, fostering a high-performance culture that supports organizational growth and excellence.

A collaborative leader and diversity champion, Adrian specialises in partnering with executive teams to transform business objectives into actionable workforce strategies. His career includes senior leadership roles at global organisations such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Cisco. Notably, Adrian spearheaded the strategy that led Cisco Australia to be named the number one employer in the country, and he has been recognized as one of the top 20 HR leaders in Australia by HRD Magazine.

Adrian holds a Master of Human Resource Management & Industrial Relations from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Business. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).

Meet our Board Members

Team member profile picture

Chris Shaw

CEO & Co-Founder

Chris Shaw is the CEO and co-founder of Advanced Navigation, a global force in PNT and autonomous technology.

Upon discovering a gap in the market for small robust high performance autonomous navigation solutions, Chris co-founded Advanced Navigation. Since 2012, the company has experienced great success and has progressed into several deep technology fields, including advancements in AI, robotics, photonics, and quantum sensing.

Chris holds First Class Honours degrees in business and electronic engineering from the University of Western Australia. During this time, he was a research and development engineer at Entecho, a company focused on developing air taxis and aerial vehicles. Following this, he joined Cyber Technology, a company specialising in autonomous vehicles.

Team member profile picture

Kell Reilly

Director

Kelland Reilly is a distinguished investment professional currently serving as a General Partner at Airtree since January 2024, focusing on partnering with leading entrepreneurs in Australia and New Zealand to create future generational companies. Prior to this, Kelland held the position of Managing Director at General Atlantic from October 2019 to December 2023, collaborating with technology entrepreneurs to shape future industries.

With experience as an Investment Partner and Co-Head of Technology at D1 Capital Partners and an Investor at Dragoneer Investment Group, Kelland contributed to significant investments in notable companies such as Airbnb and Slack. Previous roles include Associate at Pacific Equity Partners and Analyst at Merrill Lynch & Co.

Kelland holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) in Accounting and Finance from UNSW.

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Louis Casey

Director

Louis joined Quadrant in 2024 and is responsible for leading deal origination and portfolio management activity in the Strategic Equity Fund. Louis has over 10 years of private equity experience, most recently as a Director at KKR based in Singapore where he was responsible for leading minority growth equity investments into technology companies across the South Asia region.

Prior to this, Louis worked at Investec Bank in their Emerging Companies investment team, and also spent time in the energy sector having commenced his career as an energy trader.

Louis holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Tasmania and a Master of Finance from Monash University.

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The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull

Chairman, Director

Malcolm Turnbull was the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. Before entering politics, he had successful careers as a lawyer, investment banker, and journalist. He built a reputation as a leading advocate and established an investment banking firm, specialising in media and technology, working with prominent industry leaders and launching several ventures of his own.

Turnbull co-founded OzEmail Ltd, one of Australia’s first major internet companies, which listed on NASDAQ in 1996 and was sold to Worldcom in 1999. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1997, became a partner in 1998, and led its Australian operations until transitioning into politics. Elected to Parliament in 2004, he served as Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Minister for Communications, and Prime Minister from 2015 to 2018. His government drove economic growth, delivered tax reform, restructured school funding, and undertook the largest peacetime expansion of Australia’s defense industry.

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Martin Duursma

Director

Martin Duursma is a partner at Main Sequence with over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, technologist, and business leader. Since joining in 2017, he has led investments across frontier technology companies including Myriota, Advanced Navigation, Quasar, Endua, and MGA Thermal, driving initiatives in space and decarbonisation. A “full-stack” investor, Martin brings deep expertise in product development, manufacturing, and go-to-market strategy. Previously, Martin was a senior executive at Citrix, where he founded Citrix Labs, led the CTO Council and Citrix Accelerator, and oversaw global tech strategy. As VP of the Global Technology Office, he conducted due diligence on over 60 transactions worth $2.5B.

He is also an active angel investor and mentor, with roles spanning Macquarie University, INCUBATE, Global Access Partners, and the Computer History Museum. Martin continues to mentor in CSIRO's ON deep tech accelerator. He holds a BE and BSc in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the University of Sydney and is a passionate motorsport competitor.

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Vance Serchuk

Director

Vance Serchuk (New York) joined KKR in 2013 and is the Executive Director of the KKR Global Institute, responsible for geopolitical analysis, and a member of the KKR Industrials industry team, focused on defense, aerospace, and industrial technology. Mr. Serchuk has been involved in KKR's investments in Hensoldt AG, United Group (SBB/Telemach) and Novaria Group, where he serves on the Board of Directors. He is a member of the Advisory Board to Söderberg & Partners, the Swedish asset and wealth management firm.

Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Serchuk served as the senior national security advisor to Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut) and a professional staff member on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In this capacity, Mr. Serchuk worked on a range of international security issues, including Iran and Russia sanctions legislation, Indo-Pacific strategy, and the war on terror. A former monthly columnist for the Washington Post, Mr. Serchuk's writings have also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, and Politico.

Mr. Serchuk is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University, holds a JD from Yale Law School, and was a Fulbright scholar in the Russian Federation. A native of New York State, Mr. Serchuk is an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, DC. He is a trustee of the American University of Iraq Suleimani in Iraqi Kurdistan and serves on the board of the Afghan Future Fund and the Orianne Society. He is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

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