Wealth
Chris Smith
General Manager – Healthcare Property Trust
Ryan Banting
General Manager – Social Infrastructure
Ryan joined Australian Unity in 2011, initially as its Head of Portfolio Management. Today, Ryan is responsible for Australian Unity’s significant social infrastructure portfolio of investments, including the $1.1 billion redevelopment of the Herston Quarter healthcare precinct in Brisbane, as well as multiple retirement village development funds.
Prior to joining Australian Unity, Ryan worked as an investment strategist in NAB’s global markets division and as Head of Strategy at listed telecommunications firm, M2. Ryan has also held roles with CBA and Macquarie group.
Ryan has a Bachelor of Economics from University of New South Wales, holds AFMA and ASX derivative accreditation and a Masters of Applied Finance degree.
Victor Windeyer
Portfolio Manager – Future of Healthcare Fund
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0409 808 110
Victor Windeyer joined Australian Unity from an advisory role at QIC Private Capital where he originated and completed QIC Global Infrastructure’s first major investment in the healthcare sector, Nexus Day Hospitals.
Prior to this he spent eight years at Citigroup where he led the Australian healthcare equities research team.
Victor brings extensive technical knowledge after holding roles in the industry. He was general manager and Chief Operating Officer at listed medical device company Sunshine Heart (now CHF Solutions), as well as senior roles at Ventracor, Vision Systems and Cochlear.
At Vision Systems Victor invented and commercialised a novel tissue processing method resulting in reduced time to diagnosis and improved safety by removing carcinogenic xylene from the laboratory. This Australian export award winning tissue processor was key to the product suite that attracted Danaher’s takeover bid of Visions Systems.
Victor holds a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics), and is a Director of Austral Bionics Limited, and BronchoDx.
William Bovingdon
Chief Investment Officer - Altius
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Email
02 9093 9937
Chief Investment Officer - Cash & fixed interest fund
Bill is a well-known and highly regarded investment professional, having 35+ years fixed interest asset management experience.
Bill’s career in investment and financial services began in 1984 with the Treasury Corporation of Victoria as a fixed income portfolio manager.
Prior to co-founding Altius in 2011, a joint venture between Australian Unity and Altius Asset Management, Bill was with Aberdeen Asset Management where he was head of Australian fixed income and chief executive officer. He also has worked as head of fixed income for Schroder Investment Management and Deutsche Asset Management. In his many investment roles, Bill has built successful fixed income businesses by developing proven investment processes and assembling strong investment teams.
Altius is now fully owned by the Australian Unity group and forms part of our in-house cash and fixed interest capability since 2017.
Bill holds a Bachelor of Economics from Monash University.
Damian Diamantopoulos
Portfolio Manager REITs, Head of Research
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Damian joined Australian Unity in 2016 as Portfolio Manager and Head of Research Property. He has over 15 years’ experience in investment management and research of both listed and unlisted property securities as well as direct property.
Prior to joining Australian Unity, Damian managed various property securities funds during his time at Karara Capital and 360 Capital Group. Damian also has experience in managing several hybrid and direct property funds having concluded an extensive 12-year career at APN Property Group. At APN, Damian also presided over its original flagship property securities fund.
Damian graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Monash University, has completed the FINSIA Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and holds a Diploma in Property Investment and Finance from the Property Council of Australia.
Nikki Panagopoulos
Fund Manager – Property
Nikki joined Australian Unity in 2004 and has held a number of roles in property portfolio management. She is currently the Fund Manager for Australian Unity’s Diversified Property Fund and Retail Property Fund.
Nikki has more than 25 years’ experience in the property industry in the unlisted and listed property markets with a key focus on investor relations, setting and implementing strategy, including but not limited to acquisitions, disposals, new and existing lease negotiations, project and development management as well as people management. Prior to joining Australian Unity, Nikki was an Investment Analyst for Deutsche Bank’s $1.5 billion listed Deutsche Diversified Trust. She also had 12 years in Property Funds Management at National Mutual (AXA/AMP).
Nikki holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) from RMIT. She is also an Associate of the Australian Property Institute with Fund Manager Certification, a member of Australian Institute of Management and a Licensed Real Estate Agent.
Roy Prasad
General Manager - Mortgages
Roy Prasad joined Australian Unity Investments (AUI) in 1998 and has responsibility for the management of all mortgage investments. He started Australian Unity’s Mortgage Income Trust in 1999 and the High Yield Mortgage Trust in 2005.
Before joining AUI, Roy worked for Colonial Investment Management Limited for over 10 years, where he was responsible for the management of various mortgage portfolios, including credit risk management, portfolio construction and managing originator relationships.
Roy is a member of the Australian Unity Investment Committee.
Gareth Hurst
Quantitative Portfolio Manager – Platypus Asset Management
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Gareth joined Platypus in April 2019 adding to the in-house research and portfolio management capabilities of the quantitative team. Gareth previously held the position of Investment Analyst at First State Super working on developing in-house quantitative models and the research process. Gareth holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree and a PhD in Finance, both from the University of Newcastle. Gareth’s research is published in top academic journals, such as the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and Pacific Basin Finance Journal.
Jelena Stevanovic
Portfolio Manager – Platypus Asset Management
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Jelena joined Platypus in October 2008 from Deloitte where she worked in Corporate Finance as a Valuations Senior Analyst; Jelena had been with Deloitte since 2005. In this role Jelena was involved in various industry and company valuation projects and the provision of supporting research reports. Prior to this Jelena worked in Deloitte’s Pricing and Economics Group, where she was involved in assessing international related party transactions, debt pricing, and the preparation of supporting research reports. Jelena holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma of Tax Law the University of Sydney.
Peter Brooke
Quantitative Portfolio Manager – Platypus Asset Management
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Peter joined Platypus in January 2008, and in addition to managing the quantitative portfolios, is responsible for all aspects of quantitative research. From May 2006, Peter worked as a Quantitative Analyst with MIR Investment Management. During this period, he worked on various research projects and in quantitative portfolio management. Peter holds an MSc degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Durham, UK and has a PhD in Physics from Macquarie University, Sydney.
Chris Dickman
Senior Portfolio Manager – Altius Asset Management
Gavin Goodhand
Senior Portfolio Manager – Altius Asset Management
Yen Wong
Head of Credit Research – Altius Asset Management
Alex Fisher
Portfolio Manager – Diversified Funds
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Email
03 8682 7063
Alex Fisher joined Australian Unity in 2001. In 2005 he was appointed Portfolio Manager for Australian Unity's range of diversified products, across various risk profiles and legal/tax structures, after four years as an Investment Analyst.
Alex has ultimate responsibility for investment performance across the range of diversified products, and his primary duties relate to strategic asset allocation, dynamic allocation and investment selection.
Previously Alex worked for Treasury Funds Management. He has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters of Applied Finance.
Chad Padowitz CFA
Chief Investment Officer
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Chad is the Chief Investment Officer and founder of Talaria Asset Management (previously Wingate Asset Management). He has over 20 years’ experience in the financial services industry in the UK, South Africa and Australia.
His experience includes working as an analyst in the treasury department at HSBC Bank in London, in derivative reporting and analysis, and as an equities research analyst at First National Bank in South Africa.
In 1998 Chad co-founded Aurica Financial Services in South Africa, a private client asset management company. In 2001, this was sold to Anglorand and Chad moved to Melbourne where he joined AXA Asia Pacific in 2003 in the role of investment specialist in equities and fixed income.
Chad’s views are regularly sought by the financial media with his comments appearing in The Australian Financial Review, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Chad has also made several appearances on ABC television’s The Business.
Chad holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa), is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder.
Hugh Selby-Smith
Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Head of Research
Hugh is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Talaria.
Hugh began working in international equity markets in London in 1999 covering a range of global industries and sectors at Kleinwort Benson and Goldman Sachs, where he was consistently recognized by the likes of Institutional Investor, Greenwich Associates and Thomson Extel for his work.
He subsequently joined the international equities specialist TT International where he was part of the six-person team responsible for managing the firms long only Institutional Funds.
Hugh joined Talaria Asset Management as Head of Research in 2016 and has subsequently assumed the role of deputy CIO.
Hugh holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Letters from Melbourne University.