Speaker faculty
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Ben Alexander Ben co-founded Ardea Investment Management. Prior to forming Ardea Investment Management, Ben was a Managing Director and Head of Fixed Interest in Credit Suisse's Asset Management division where he was responsible for a team managing an aggregate portfolio of more than A$13bn. Ben has been actively involved in the Australian inflation linked bond market since 1994. |
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Andrew Arthur Since 2009 Andrew has been the Asia-Pacific Regional Market and Liquidity Risk Manager at Schroder Investment Management, providing independent oversight and reporting of material sources of market, liquidity, investment and credit risk for Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia. Prior to that role, he spent 2 years in Schroders' Sydney office as a compliance and risk specialist. That followed 2 years in London working for Morgan Stanley and Northern Trust. Arthur graduated from the Australian National University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Actuarial Studies with Honours, and then spent 3 years working as an Actuarial Analyst for Towers Perrin in Sydney. In September 2012 he will be relocating to New York to take up the role of Americas Regional Head of Market, Investment and Liquidity Risk. |
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Michael Blayney Michael Blayney is Head of Diversified Funds at Perpetual and leads the ongoing management and development of the funds. He is a qualified actuary with 14 years of industry experience. Prior to joining Perpetual in 2008, he worked as an investment consultant specialising in investment strategy for Towers Watson, advising some of the largest and most sophisticated institutional investors in Australia on portfolio strategy. |
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Joshua Bloom Joshua Bloom is the Portfolio Manager for International Shares at Sunsuper, a $19 billion superannuation fund. Included in international shares are large caps, small caps and emerging markets. His responsibilities include portfolio construction, manager research and selection and risk management. He was previously the Australian Shares Portfolio Manager at Sunsuper. Joshua joined Sunsuper in 2004 from Mercer Investment Consulting, where he was an analyst for the Master Trust and several large superannuation clients. |
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Paul Bloxham Paul Bloxham has been Chief Economist for HSBC in Australia and New Zealand since September 2010. In this role, he is chief spokesperson for HSBC on forecasts and trends for the Australian and New Zealand economies and their interaction with global financial markets and international economies. He is also a critical member of the HSBC Global Research team, working with 500 analysts across 87 markets to help formulate HSBC’s unique global view of the world’s economy. Prior to joining HSBC, Paul Bloxham spent almost 12 years as an economist within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Economic Analysis Department where he headed up the overseas economies and financial conditions sections, as well as working on domestic forecasting and prices. Bloxham has published a number of papers, including on housing and household finances, as well as on asset prices and monetary policy. He holds a Master’s degree in public financial policy from the London School of Economics. |
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Edmund Bosworth Edmund is the Head of Risk Reward, Group Finance at Wespac Bank in Australia. The Risk Reward team manages Westpac's Pillar 3 market disclosures and the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process (ICAAP). ICAAP includes reviewing the Board Risk Appetite Statement and economic capital framework and conducting enterprise-wide stress testing. He has a Bachelor of Science (Hons), University of Western Australia and Master of Statistics, University of New South Wales |
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Lindesay Brine Lindesay Brine is Head of Controls and Reporting, Trading, Institutional Sales and Research in Wholesale Banking, National Australia Bank Ltd, and has over 25 years experience in Risk Management, Financial Markets, Training, Corporate Lending, Commercial/Business Lending and Administration. Prior to joining National Australia Bank in 1994 Lindesay commenced his finance career with Westpac, and also worked for R & I Bank of WA / BankWest. At National Australia Bank he has worked in Business Banking, Derivative Sales, Middle Markets Sales (Interest Rates & Foreign Exchange), Accreditation & Training, Risk Management, and Business Management. Lindesay holds a Bachelor of Economics, Diploma in Education and Master of Applied Finance. Lindesay is a member of the AFMA OTC Derivates Working Group, a member of the Finance & Treasury Association NSW Technical Committee and a member of PRMIA and Finsia. |
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Colleen Cassidy Ms. Cassidy joined Promontory in August 2009 to establish the Group's Sydney office. Promontory is a specialist regulatory and strategic risk consulting firm - with 14 offices in 10 countries and comprising largely former senior regulators, chief risk officers and other risk specialists. Ms. Cassidy began her career with the Reserve Bank of Australia and later moved to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Her roles at APRA included Head of Risk Models and Head of Balance Sheet and Market Risk. In these roles, Ms. Cassidy led prudential reviews, to large and small banking and insurance organisations to assess compliance with APRA's capital and qualitative risk management requirements and advise on good practice risk management and modelling. Ms. Cassidy has a Bachelor of Economics (Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Masters in Finance from the University of Technology. |
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Dr Christopher Caton Chris Caton is the Chief Economist for BT Financial Group. He was Chief Economist at Bankers Trust from 1991 until July 1999. From 1994 to 1997, he was also Chairman of the Indicative Planning Council, which advised the Government on matters relating to the housing industry. Previously he worked in the Treasury, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and for an economic consulting firm in the United States. Chris was educated at the University of Adelaide and the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Mark Chambers Mark Chambers is a Senior Manager in the Payments Policy Department of the Reserve Bank of Australia, where he covers issues relating to clearing and settlement in interbank and financial markets. Over the past 13 years he has worked across a number of financial markets and financial stability roles at the RBA, as well as a period at ASIC. |
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Lyn Cobley Lyn Cobley is the Group Treasurer, with responsibility for the Group’s balance sheet management encompassing all funding and liquidity operations, capital management and asset-liability management activities. Lyn has spent over 20 years working in the Australian financial markets giving her extensive market experience in investment banking, structured finance and treasury operations. During this time, Lyn has held a variety of leadership positions including as Head of Financial Institutions at Barclays Capital, Sydney; Head of Securitisation at Commonwealth Bank and Head of Securitisation at Citibank, Sydney. Lyn has a Bachelor of Economics, is a Senior Associate of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. |
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Besa Deda Besa Deda is the Chief Economist of St.George Bank. She was appointed to this role in early 2008. Besa in her role as Chief Economist is the Bank's economic spokesperson and is responsible for all of the Bank's economic and capital markets research. This includes forecasts for the economic outlook, interest rates and currencies. Prior to joining St.George, Besa was a Senior Strategist and Economist with the Commonwealth Bank. Besa was with the CBA for 7½ years and before that was an economist with the Colonial Group. Collectively, Besa has more than 13 years experience in Financial Markets. Besa holds an honours degree in economics from the University of Sydney and is completing her masters in applied finance from Macquarie University. Besa is also a lecturer for Kaplan, sits on the executive committee of the Australian Business Economists Association and is a regular finance columnist for ninemsn. |
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Ram Doss Ram, as General Manager, Risk, is responsible for risk management, performance measurement and compliance in TCV. He has extensive experience in all key aspects of financial risk management including market, credit and operational risks, ALM and risk based capital and performance measurement practices, gained over 20 years of hands-on experience in financial institutions and as a financial risk management consultant. Prior to joining TCV in December 2004. Ram held various positions in risk management, as a consultant to the Asian Development Bank and with Ernst & Young, Australia to their Financial Risk Management Group, and over 14 years with the ANZ Banking Group in senior risk management positions in both policy development and operational roles. |
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William H. Evans William (Bill) Evans is a graduate of Sydney University (BEc. Hons I and University Medal) and the London School of Economics (M.Sc.). He has worked as a Research Manager for the Reserve Bank of Australia, Treasurer at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and prior to joining Westpac in 1991, was Director and Head of Financial Markets at Schroders Australia Limited for 8 years. Bill joined Westpac in 1991 in the position of Chief Economist and Head of Research. During his time at Westpac he has also spent 2 years in New Zealand as Head of the Institutional Bank with responsibility for Westpac's corporate and financial markets businesses. He is currently Managing Director Economics. He is the Bank's economic spokesman and is responsible for all of the Bank's economic and capital markets research, in addition to advising the Board on economic issues. Bill travels frequently, advising Westpac's customers on the Australian economy and financial markets. He has developed many important contacts in the U.S, Europe and Asia. Bill is a life member of the Australian Business Economists. He was a delegate at the Rudd Government's 2020 summit. |
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Scott Farrell Scott Farrell is a Partner and the Practice Team Leader of the Banking and Finance group at Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Scott specialises in helping clients with:
Scott leads the Mallesons team which advises the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and the Australian Financial Markets Association on netting, collateral, regulatory and other derivatives matters. Scott also advises other international financial market industry bodies and markets and clearing systems on related matters. Scott works closely with market participants, industry bodies and regulators on reforms in the financial markets and derivatives industry, including central clearing of over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives and carbon emissions trading. |
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Thomas Gillespie Tom is responsible for ARIA's risk process, covering the total fund by implementing RiskMetrics at the position level over all investments. Additionally Tom contributes to the asset allocation process as part of the Risk & Strategy Team. Risk at ARIA also includes non-quantitative drivers of risk such as climate change & ESG (environmental, social and governance). Tom joined ARIA in 2009. Prior to joining ARIA, Tom was Managing Director and Regional Head of Equity Derivatives Research for Citi Markets & Banking Australia/Asia/Japan, and was responsible for equity derivative, absolute return and index research for Australia, Asia and Japan. Prior to returning to Australia in 1994 and joining County NatWest Australia while studying part time, Tom was Head of Research for Harbour Capital Limited, a hedge fund associated with James Capel & Co., London. He joined the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking group in 1989 working for the Sydney office of James Capel Australia focusing on equity derivative valuation and arbitrage. From this post he was transferred to the Tokyo and London offices of James Capel as well as spending time in the Sydney office of HonkongBank of Australia specialising in interest rate derivative and automated trading algorithms. Prior to joining James Capel, he worked for Bankers Trust Australia in the foreign exchange, interest rate and debt derivatives departments as a financial analyst. |
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Dr Jon Gregory Dr Jon Gregory is a partner at Solum Financial and specialises in counterparty risk and CVA related consulting and advisory projects. He has worked on many aspects of credit risk in his career, being previously with Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas and Citigroup. He is author of the book “Counterparty Credit Risk: The new challenge for global financial markets”. Jon holds a PhD from Cambridge University. |
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Dr Don Hamson Don has seventeen years investment management experience most recently as Head of Active Equities, Asia Pacific and a member of the global Senior Management Group at State Street Global Advisors. Whilst at State Street Don was responsible for leading a team of portfolio managers running long and long/short active and enhanced Australian equity portfolios and successfully launching the first 130/30 long short strategy within State Street. As Chief Investment Officer at Westpac Investment Management he was instrumentally involved in the mergers of BT and Rothschild with Westpac's financial services division to form the new BT Financial Group. He held a number of other senior investment roles with BT and was also a member of their Investment Committee. He started his career with Arthur Andersen before becoming a Lecturer in Finance at University of Queensland and subsequently a senior analyst and member of the Investment Committee at Queensland Investment Corporation. |
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Tim Harcourt Tim Harcourt is the chief economist of the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade). As chief economist Tim analyses the global economy to help Australian exporters and helps Austrade devise its own international business strategies. A prolific author and globetrotter, Tim has visited over 50 countries in the past 5 years alone. Before joining Austrade, Tim was an economist and industrial advocate with the ACTU, and Tim has also worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and has overseas experience in the corporate sector in the UK the USA and Israel. |
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John Honan John holds a Masters Degree in Economics and has extensive economic analysis experience. His early career was as an Economist in Canberra with the Industry Commission, the Federal Treasury and the Department of Industry and Commerce. John has also held the position of Chief Economist for the NSW Treasury Corp. In 1989 John joined the NRMA as Senior Manager Fixed Interest where for seven years he developed a strong track record managing fixed interest portfolios. John is actively involved as a lecturer and examiner in economics, fixed interest and asset management for Finsia. His experience, economic and fixed interest skills have provided sound input to the sector and asset allocation process and significantly assisted Ausbil’s successful equity and bond management process |
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Paul Jones In his role as General Manager of Clearing Risk Policy at ASX, Paul is responsible for the development of policy in respect of ASX's two central counterparties - ASX Clear and ASX Clear (Futures). In particular his role focuses on the CCP's risk management approach in respect of exchange-traded products and new OTC initiatives. Paul has worked in the international financial markets for over 20 years. He began his career examining derivatives market structure at the Bank of England, before working for over 7 years at LCH.Clearnet Ltd where as Director of Risk Management he was responsible for the development of the risk management solutions for exchange-traded and OTC clearing projects, including SwapClear and Repoclear. Paul has worked at ASX for over eight years. Paul is also a member of the Executive Committee of CCP12 - the Global Association of Central Counterparties. In that capacity, Paul is currently Chair of the Working Group charged with forming the CCP industry's response to the CPSS-IOSCO Principles for Financial Intermediaries. |
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Paul Kennedy Paul Kennedy is the General Manager Risk Frameworks and Portfolio Analytics covering the commercial and investment banking businesses of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Prior to taking this role in September 2009, Paul spent 4 years with National Australia Bank (NAB), most recently as the Group Head of Strategic Risk Management. Paul's responsibilities include the development of credit policy and limit frameworks, quantitative models, portfolio reporting and analysis, and the closer integration of risk and stress testing into strategic planning. As well as credit-related responsibilities, Paul’s role within CBA’s commercial banking business has also recently expanded to include responsibilities for regulatory compliance, anti money laundering, and operational risk. Paul has also previously served as a director of a captive insurance entity, dealing with the design and renewal of insurance programs and their alignment to risk profile, as well as the investment policy applied to the insurers financial reserves. Paul has also championed the development of new risk financing products and transactions, and has accepted invitations to present this work at various forums across the world, including to regulators from the USA, UK, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Paul's career also included forming and running a Research and Risk Analysis unit for the Australian corporate regulator, ASIC, as well as ten years spent in Zurich, Switzerland, in various investment banking roles. Paul holds a PhD from Cambridge University in the UK. |
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Paul Lichtenstein Paul Lichtenstein is a Partner in KPMG’s Financial Risk Management group and leads the firm’s Credit Risk Advisory practice in Australia. Paul is also KPMG’s Global Network Leader for Credit Risk and the Asia Pacific representative on KPMG’s International Basel advisory team.
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Tony Mackenzie Tony MacKenzie is Head of Portfolio Design for QIC Strategy, a leading provider of innovative multi-asset class and sector specific asset class solutions. QIC Strategy currently manages over $50 billion in global asset and liability exposures for its institutional clients. By using a proprietary risk management and portfolio construction framework, QIC is able to analyse the impact of changing market conditions on its clients' multiple (and sometimes competing) objectives and respond appropriately in real time to dynamically adjust asset allocations as asset class risk premiums change. Tony drives the top down portfolio directions including stress testing of portfolio decisions to ensure a consistent framework for risk management and modelling is implemented across all asset classes for QIC's multi-asset class portfolios. This modelling is focused on understanding the drivers of asset class returns and building robust portfolios to achieve client objectives. Tony has previously held senior roles in portfolio management and quantitative analysis at both QIC and Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) and has PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Southern Queensland |
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Aaron Minney Aaron has over 16 years experience as an investment strategist and has worked across a range of asset classes. In his latest role as Head of Investment Research and Development, Aaron was responsible for the evaluation and strategic development of investment capability across the Colonial First State Global Asset Management business. His focus was to ensure the maximum integrity of the offer and the best outcomes for our clients through continuous innovation and provision of research and advice into portfolio management issues. Aaron was previously the head of Australian Fixed Interest at Macquarie Funds Management where he was responsible for the investment performance of more than $5.5bn of funds under management. He began his career at Macquarie as an economist and diversified fund portfolio manager and also spent time at IAG Asset Management where in addition to contributing to the investment strategies for the insurance asset pools he developed a method of strategic tilting for some of the significant insurance investment funds. Aaron has been a Chartered Financial Analyst since 2003 and is a Senior Associate of FINSIA. He is also a member of the advisory committee to the FTSE ASFE Australia index which has been responsible for the publication of the first after tax returns for an equity market index in Australia. |
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Marco Montanari Marco Montanari joined Deutsche Bank in 2006 and he is the Head of Deutsche Bank's ETFs, branded as db X-trackers, in Asia. Marco brings a wealth of European ETFs experience to Asia. Prior to his appointment in this region, Marco was responsible for developing the European Fixed Income db X-trackers ETFs platform structuring money market, bond, credit, inflation and volatility ETFs and structuring quantitative funds for Deutsche Bank's European clients. Before joining Deutsche Bank, Marco spent six years at Société Généralein in Paris where he was responsible for the ETFs structuring in Lyxor Asset Management financial engineers team and for the products listed in the Italian Stock Exchange. |
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Dr. Stephen J. Nash Stephen joined FIIG Securities in March 2009 and is responsible for developing strategic relationships with a variety of market participants, including consultants, governments, and institutional fund managers, as well as providing strategic advice for the FIIG client base. Prior to FIIG, Stephen held the following positions: (i) Head of Fixed Income and Cash for State Street Global Advisors, Australia, Limited (SSgA), (ii) Chief - Provident Fund Secretariat - United Nations (UNRWA) in Amman Jordan, (iii) Senior Portfolio Manager AMP Investments. Dr. Nash also held positions with State Super Authorities in Sydney, and National Australia Bank in Melbourne. |
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Kevin Nixon Kevin Nixon is Executive Director, Head of Regulatory Reform for The Westpac Group. Kevin’s focus is on the international regulatory agenda, engaging in the debate with regulators, associations, and other stakeholders, assessing the implications and ensuring the Westpac Group is positioned to respond. Kevin joined Westpac March 2010. Prior to joining Westpac Kevin worked as Director Markets for the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), engaging with regulators, particularly on OTC derivatives reform on behalf of the industry. He was also responsible for managing the AFMA market technical committees which set market conventions and resolved issues across a broad range of OTC markets. His association with AFMA followed a twenty year career as a derivatives dealer, running derivatives businesses, and as a proprietary trader, for major international banks both in Australia and the US. His market experience covers interest rates, equities, currencies, and commodities. |
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Barry Rafe Barry is an actuary who has spent most of his career as a Management Consultant. Barry is currently President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and chair of the Institute's public policy committee. Barry has facilitated the Institutes professionalism course for new qualified actuaries. In 2005 Barry was appointed Managing Director of Mellon Human Resources & Investor solutions. Mellon had 400 staff in Australia and were looking to divest. Barry worked with Mellon for two years to restructure and divest the business. Prior to this Barry was a Strategy Partner with Accenture and was involved in developing their insurance and banking strategy. In this role Barry advised many of Australia's largest financial services businesses on distribution and product development. |
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Mike Ritchie Mike Ritchie is the partner in charge of KPMG’s Financial Risk Management practice. Mike has been a partner in the FRM team since 2005 and was appointed to the PIC role in July 2010. Mike is focussed on the design and implementation of effective and efficient Risk Management and Compliance frameworks for clients in such diverse industries as Banking and Finance, Government, Telecommunications and Mining. Mike has over sixteen years Risk Management experience both as a consultant and commercially and has been involved in creating or refining the design of Basel II Compliant Risk Management frameworks for major banks in Australia and internationally. He has worked in Australia, China, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, the UK and New Zealand. |
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Dennis Sams Dennis Sams is the Head of Fixed Interest and Cash at UniSuper Management Pty Ltd, the superannuation fund for the tertiary education sector in Australia with assets of approximately $26 billion. Dennis is responsible for managing the fixed income and cash portfolios, leading and coordinating the fixed income and cash investment manager research function and supervising incumbent fund managers across the fixed income and cash asset classes, both domestic and international. Previously from 2003 to 2006, Dennis was Director, Investment Consulting and Director of Investment Research for Russell Investment Group in Australia. In these roles, his principal focus was the development of effective investment strategies for clients, advising on risk management and the establishment of appropriate and effective investment practices. As head of research, Dennis was also responsible for directing the research program for the firm as well as undertaking capital markets research. Dennis’ industry experience includes economic research with the Impact Research Centre, as well as senior positions in the Victorian Department of Management and Budget, and the Victorian Department of Treasury. From 1994 to 2000, Dennis was an asset consultant with Towers Perrin. From 2000 to 2003, Dennis was an asset consultant and Head of Investment Research at InTech. Dennis has a B.Sc (Hons) and Ph.D in Theoretical Physics from the University of Sydney. |
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Alexander Sokol Alexander Sokol is founder of Numerix, a leading derivatives and risk analytics vendor, and CompatibL, a Numerix implementation and custom development partner. Alexander's research interests include CVA and wrong way risk modeling. He is the author of "A Practical Guide to Monte Carlo CVA", published in "Lessons from the Financial Crisis" edited by Arthur M. Berd (Risk Books, 2010). Alexander holds a PhD from the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics. |
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Kent Sutherland Kent joined VFMC in June 2004. He has 18 years experience in the financial markets, including alternative investments, Luxembourg multi-manager unit trusts and multinational pension fund management. Kent is a CFA charterholder and holds Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Science and Masters of Business Administration degrees. |
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George Vassos George's role as Managing Director includes responsibility for overall corporate strategy and business functions including sales and client relationship management, investment operations, corporate governance and finance. George has significant experience in funds management spanning 20 years, covering executive management, distribution and client relationship management, product development and operations. Prior to co-founding Omega, George spent over 9 years at Vanguard Investments where he built and spearheaded their distribution and relationship management to financial advisers, platforms and multi managers to over $5 billion in funds under management. George also spent 6 years with the Colonial Group focussing on investment operations, systems development and business development. |
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Michael Witts Michael has more than 20 years extensive experience across all aspects of money and debt capital markets including, market and liquidity risk management, trading, pricing and systems. This experience has been gained from a combination of domestic and international financial and corporate institutions, both in domestic and international markets. He was appointed Treasurer of ING Bank NV Sydney Branch in November 2009 and appointed to his combined current role in December 2010, when the treasuries of the two ING entities were combined to form the Australian Treasury for ING Bank. Michael holds a Bachelor and Masters degree in Commerce and Economics. |
