Our Founders

Steve Douglas

As co-founder of Empire Software, Steve brings over 30 years of experience in taxation, business accounting, property & financial services.

Steve began his career with Ernst Young in 1984 and established a private taxation practice in 1988 specialising in small business taxation and management. He is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia and a Registered Tax Agent.

A regular presenter on Taxation matters affecting property investors, expatriates and intended migrants, Steve has delivered seminars on behalf of many industry organisations and developers including the Real Estate Institute of Western Australia and Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong. In addition he has been active in submissions to the Government on tax issues affecting property investors and expatriates.

Steve has been featured in articles by the Singapore Business Times, South China Morning Post, Australian Entrepreneur Magazine, Benchmark, Western Australian Property & Investment and Property Link magazine. In 2009, Steve was recognised as one of the leading 50 Australians in Asia by Advance and invited to participate in the Advance Asia 50 Summit and in 2010 was awarded the Singapore Austcham Entrepreneur Award and in 2017 Steve was The Finders “Expatreneur Awardee 2017”.

Taki Xaftellis

Taki is co-founder and Director of Empire Software and brings 30 years of experience within the Information Technology industry and is the driving force behind the strategic technical direction for the company.

Taki has held a range of executive positions and has a proven track record in successfully delivering projects in the public and private sector over a diverse range of industries.

Taki holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Information Science.