Evan Thornley

[3] Based on his own childhood without secure housing, he is a passionate advocate for renters[4] as well as bridging the affordability gap for Australian's who don't come from money, and lack the bank of mum and dad.

[10] Thornley made an attempt to buy LookSmart's search engine competitor Google during its early days[11] but founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rejected the offer.

[13][14] Thornley served in public office for two years as the Labor member of the Victorian Legislative Council for the Southern Metropolitan Region, and as Parliamentary Secretary to Premiers Bracks and Brumby.

[21] After his departure he announced he had been appointed as the CEO of Australian operations for Better Place, a company promoting electric cars,[22] which he said he thought was a "once-in-a-generation transformational project".

[25] Having served as the Australian head of Better Place since his resignation from parliament, Thornley was elevated to global CEO of the company following the sacking, in October 2012, of its founder and major spokesperson Shai Agassi.

[27] Thornley first went to Israel on a Young Political Leaders' Tour while at University and was part of a pro-Israel group humorously dubbed "the Mossad faction".

Thornley began a formal process of converting to Judaism in 2012 under Rabbi Adam Stein at Kehilat Nitzan, Melbourne's only Conservative synagogue.