The Rismark funds management team comprises of a number of senior financial services executives from the principal investment, equity capital markets, asset management and mortgage markets arenas. This core executive is supplemented by an outstanding analytical and research capacity in the financial economics and residential real estate domains.
While the Rismark funds management team continues to grow, foundation members include:
Rowan Ross, Non-Executive Chairman (Macquarie executive)
Peter Lucas, Non-Executive Director (Macquarie executive)
Adrian Weller, Non-Executive Director
Christopher Joye, Managing Director
Ben Skilbeck, Executive Director (Capital Markets)
Gervaise Heddle, Non-Executive Director (Macquarie executive)
John Janik, Operations Advisor (Macquarie executive)
Harri Rossi, General Manager (Mortgage Markets)
Matthew Hardman, Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research
Vito Mollica, Portfolio Manager (Portfolio Management & Research)
Alun Pope, Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research
Tony Vassallo, Research Manager (Portfolio Management & Research)
John Powell, Executive Director
Damien Everest, Senior Mortgage Operations Manager (Mortgage Markets)
Betsy Shaik, Technical Business Analyst (Portfolio Management & Research)
Rowan Ross, Non-Executive Chairman (Macquarie executive)
Rowan is Rismark's Chairman. Rowan is an Executive Director of Macquarie Group, Chairman of Sydney IVF Limited and the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra. He is the former Chairman of Bankers Trust Investment Bank, former National President of the Securities Institute of Australia and former Chairman of the Sydney Dance Company and the Australian Major Performing Arts Group. Mr Ross has more than 35 years experience in investment banking.
Peter Lucas, Non-Executive Director (Macquarie executive)
Peter is a Non-Executive Director of Rismark. Peter is Head of the Investment Solutions and Sales division which provides investors with a range of capital protected investment solutions, alternative fund investments (including agriculture and commodities) as well as wholesale fund derivatives solutions (including both volatility and gap risk/leverage based solutions).
Peter joined Macquarie in 1996 as an Associate Director responsible for Cross Border Equipment Leasing to clients in the aviation industry. After three years and a number of successful transactions, Peter commenced the business that has now become the Investment Solutions and Sales division with a retail offer of three regional turbo prop aircraft to retail investors in Australia. The division is now represented in Australia, Europe, Asia, and North America and is providing services and investment solutions to both wholesale and retail investors.
Adrian Weller, Non-Executive Director
Adrian graduated in 1991 with first class honours in mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge. He moved to New York, ran Goldman Sachs' US Treasury options trading desk and then joined the fixed income arbitrage trading group at Salomon Brothers. He went on to run US and European interest rate trading at the Citadel Investment Group, which is one of the largest hedge funds in the world, in Chicago and London. Recently, Adrian has been traveling, studying and managing private investments.
Christopher Joye, Managing Director
Christopher is the founder and Managing Director of the award-winning research and investment group, Rismark International, having established the business in 2003 on the basis of a landmark report he produced on affordable housing for the Australian Prime Minister's Home Ownership Task Force (read his blog here). Rismark has pioneered the development of the world’s first mass market, private sector shared equity finance program in which the lender participates in both the capital gains and wears the losses associated with home ownership without charging any interest. Since that time the initiative has won numerous industry awards and served as the basis for government-sponsored programs in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In February 2009, Christopher was invited by the Rockefeller and MacArthur Foundations to present innovative policy solutions to America’s housing market woes based on Rismark’s experience at the private Transforming America’s Housing Policy summit for Obama Administration officials in New York. In 2009 The Australian newspaper selected Christopher as one of Australia’s top 10 “Emerging Leaders” in its economic/wealth category. In 2007 Christopher was selected by The Bulletin magazine as one of Australia's "10 Smartest CEOs" and by BRW Magazine as one of "Australia's Top 10 Innovators". He previously worked with Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking Division in Europe and Australasia. Christopher was formerly a member of the Special Projects team within the Reserve Bank of Australia's Domestic Markets Division. In 2008, the Australian Government embraced a radical policy proposal developed by Christopher and Professor Joshua Gans of Melbourne University to provide liquidity to the Australian securitisation market to mitigate the adverse effects of the 2007-2008 credit crisis. This idea was also endorsed by the Government’s 2020 Summit. Christopher served as a Director of The Menzies Research Centre, which is a leading Australian think-tank, from 2003 to 2007. He is an experienced financial economist with expertise in investments and the dynamics of the residential real estate market. He has published widely on policy matters relating to housing and financial economics. Christopher received Joint 1st Class Honours (Economics & Finance) and the University Medal in Economics & Finance from the University of Sydney, where he was a Credit Suisse First Boston Scholar, SIRCA and University Honours Scholar. He studied for a PhD at Cambridge University in 2002 and 2003, where he was a Commonwealth Trust scholarship recipient. Christopher is also a Research Affiliate with the Centre for Ideas and The Economy (CITE) at Melbourne University.
Ben Skilbeck, Executive Director (Capital Markets)
Ben is Executive Director of Rismark's Capital Markets team and helps lead the strategic fund raising processes across the wholesale and retail spaces. Ben has 11 years of investment banking and M&A experience with Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch in Australia and the United States. In joining Rismark, Ben resigned from CSFB where he was a Director in the Australian M&A team. Prior to CSFB, Ben was a Vice President in M&A with Merrill Lynch in California (US) and Melbourne, Australia. Ben also served as Secretary of Merrill Lynch's Australasian Equity Strategy Board and Equity Commitment Committee. In terms of executed deal experience, Ben has led or worked on 15 announced M&A transactions with an aggregate value of US$14 billion. He has also worked on a broad range of common equity, secondary, equity-linked, debt, and Yankee capital raisings. In total, he has executed 21 announced financings with US$12 billion of proceeds. Ben holds a Bachelor of Engineering (with Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce (Dean's List) from the University of Melbourne where he was awarded the Economics Society of Australia Prize.
Gervaise Heddle, Non-Executive Director (Macquarie executive)
Gervaise is a Director of Rismark and assists with the capital markets execution. He is also a Division Director of the ISS Division of Macquarie Funds Group. Prior to joining ISS Division, Gervaise spent 2 years in Equity Markets Group (now part of "Macquarie Securities") in various senior roles in MQ Asset Management, the hedge fund strategies group within Equity Markets Group. Prior to joining Macquarie, Gervaise spent six years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in London and Princeton in various roles including Fund Manager for the US Core Equities team and Senior Analyst for the Merrill Lynch Growth Fund and Merrill Lynch Global Value Fund. Gervaise began his career with BT Funds Management working for four years with the International Equity team based in Sydney.
John Janik, Operations Advisor (Macquarie executive)
John is an Operations Advisor to Rismark and assists with the execution of the funds management infrastructure. He is also an Associate Director of Macquarie Funds Group. Prior to joining this group, John spent 5 years in the Equity Markets Group (now part of "Macquarie Securities") predominantly in a business management capacity in MQ Asset Management, the hedge fund strategies group within Equity Markets Group. Before joining Macquarie, John spent 3 years working with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley in Sydney and London, both as a risk analyst and in product accounting. John began his career as an accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers during which time he completed his professional year as a Chartered Accountant of Australia.
Harri Rossi, General Manager (Mortgage Markets)
Harri Rossi is Rismark's General Manager of Mortgage Markets. He has over 20 years of operating and senior management experience with leading participants in the banking, mortgage and securitisation industries. Before joining Rismark, Harri was National Australia Bank Limited's Head of Business and Financial Services (NSW & ACT) where he had responsibility for balance sheet assets and liabilities worth $5.7 billion. Prior to being recruited by NAB, Harri was National Sales Manager and National Manager of Customer Services at ING Bank, which is Australia' sixth largest lender. In this capacity, Harri had responsibility for sales, marketing, management of third-party distribution, staff training and coaching, and third-party training. Harri began his career in the mortgage market with the pioneering securitiser AMS Limited where he was Head of Marketing and Sales and Head of Business and Information Services. All told, Harri has extensive experience in mortgage marketing, sales, distribution, back-office reengineering, IT implementation and management, product design, and executive training, amongst other things. Harri received a Masters of Commerce from the University of New South Wales, a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University, and a Graduate Diploma and Advanced Securitisation Certificate from the Securities Institute of Australia. He is currently completing his Doctorate in Business Studies.
Matthew Hardman, Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research
Matthew Hardman is Rismark's Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research. Matthew has extensive quantitative research experience in the areas of derivatives pricing, credit risk modeling, mortgage portfolio construction and cash flow modeling, and the modeling of equities, bonds, commodities, cash, property and electricity market pricing dynamics. Matthew previously served as senior quantitative analyst within St George Bank's Portfolio Management team and at one of Australia's largest derivatives market markers. He received a PhD in probability and financial mathematics from the School of Mathematics at the University of Sydney, and has subsequently produced several research papers in these areas. Some time ago, Matthew was also the youngest ever Australian to win a medal at International Maths Olympiad.
Vito Mollica, Portfolio Manager (Portfolio Management & Research)
Vito is a foundation member of Rismark's Portfolio Management & Research team. He is responsible for all day-to-day quantitative investment research and portfolio modeling. Vito was previously a senior research analyst with the Securities Industry Research Centre Asia Pacific Ltd and Capital Markets CRC Ltd. Prior to this, Vito was a Marie Curie Research Fellow in Quantitative Studies in Dynamic Economics at University of Aarhus (Denmark). He is an expert in financial portfolio construction and the modeling of residential real estate price dynamics. Vito received a PhD and Joint 1st Class Honours (Accounting & Finance) from the University of Sydney, where he was a Capital Markets CRC Scholar and Macquarie Bank Scholar, amongst other things.
Alun Pope, Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research
Alun is Rismark's Co-Head of Portfolio Management & Research. Alun has extensive experience in financial services and was previously Executive General Manager of Quantitative Research at St George Bank's captive insurer, SGIA. Whilst at St George, Alun was responsible for managing the investment risk of the insurance portfolio and undertaking detailed quantitative analysis relating to credit risk, market risk and insurance risk. Prior to joining St George in 2004, Alun held various positions with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Department of Defence and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Alun has extensive academic research experience having formerly served as the Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Newcastle. He has published over 20 refereed papers in academic journals and has served as a keynote speaker at several international conferences. Up until recently, Alun was President of the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia. Alun has a PhD in Mathematics from London University, an MSc in Mathematics from Sydney University, an MSc in Statistics from the Australian National University, and a BSc with 1st Class Honours in Mathematics from Sydney University.
Tony Vassallo, Research Manager (Portfolio Management & Research)
Tony Vassallo is a Research Manager in Rismark's Portfolio Management & Research team. He has quantitative research experience in credit derivative pricing and credit risk modeling. Before joining Rismark, Tony worked in the insurance industry where he has over 15 years of experience with Suncorp (direct insurer), Insurance and Superannuation Commission (federal government regulatory agency — now part of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority), MIRA (a general insurance consulting firm — taken over by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Tony has held various positions (e.g. analyst, consultant, and manager) in these companies where he has provided advice on actuarial matters in areas such as pricing, reserving, M&A and financial reporting. Tony is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia. He received a PhD in financial mathematics from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney, and a BSc with 1st Class Honours in mathematics from the University of Queensland.
John Powell, Executive Director
John is an Executive Director of Rismark and helps lead the compliance, corporate governance and risk management areas in addition to assisting with fund raising. John, who was formerly the General Manager of Strategic Development at Adelaide Bank, joined Rismark after 12 years of service with Adelaide Bank. John was a member of Adelaide Bank's Executive Committee for 6 years, reporting directly to CEO Barry Fitzpatrick. Whilst at Adelaide Bank, John fulfilled numerous roles including Treasurer, General Manager of Business Development, and General Manager of Strategic Development. Prior to joining Adelaide Bank, John spent 5 years in fixed interest trading with the Dominguez & Barry Group and BZW.
Damien Everest, Senior Mortgage Operations Manager (Mortgage Markets)
Damien is Rismark's Senior Mortgage Operations Manager. Damien previously served as Settlements Manager at Bluestone Equity Release and Bluestone Mortgages, having originally commenced his career at Bluestone as an Underwriter in 2002. Prior to Bluestone, Damien served as a Senior Lending Analyst and a Senior Loans Assessor at Capital Finance Australia and Suncorp Metway Bank, respectively. He has over 15 years of banking and mortgage markets experience.
Betsy Shaik, Technical Business Analyst (Portfolio Management & Research)
Betsy is the Portfolio Management & Research Team's Technical Business Analyst. Betsy previously worked with TSS (Towers Perrin) which is an actuarial and insurance solutions provider. She was responsible for providing innovative technical and consulting solutions in the financial products area. Before Towers Perrin she worked with Commonwealth Securities on financial projects in the mortgage markets and insurance areas that were undertaken for the Commonwealth Bank. Betsy initially commenced her career as a Programmer Analyst with Hutchison Telecommunications and moved on to work as a Technical Systems Analyst/Team Leader within various Hutchison projects. She has over 10 years experience in the IT industry.
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