Speaker alumni

Cecile King’s research focus over the past 15 years has been in the field of autoimmune disease and T cell immunobiology. Cecile completed her PhD in Immunology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health/University of Western Australia (1999). At completion of the PhD, she was appointed as a Research Associate in the Department of Immunology, Scripps Research Institute in the Laboratory of Nora Sarvetnick.

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Cecile returned to Australia in 2005 and has since established her own independent research group at the Garvan Institute. Her Lab has produced highly cited studies on T helper cell differentiation and autoimmune disease. These studies opened up the field of research on the cytokine interleukin-21 in autoimmune disease and the development of T follicular helper cells.

Gavin Baker is the Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Atreides Management, LP.  Prior to founding Atreides in 2019, Gavin was at Fidelity Investments from 1999 – 2017, most recently as the portfolio manager of the Fidelity OTC Fund from 2009 – 2017.  The $17 billion Fidelity OTC Fund outperformed 100% of its Morningstar peers and won 6 Lipper awards over Gavin’s 8-year tenure as portfolio manager.  

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Gavin was the Boston Globe’s Fund Manager of the Year in 2014 and his performance was recognized by articles in Barron’s, the New York Times, Investors Business Daily and the Wall Street Journal.  He helped spearhead Fidelity’s venture capital investing and was a board observer at Nutanix, 23andME, Jet.com, AppNexus, Dataminr and Roku, among others.  Gavin earned an AB in economics and history from Dartmouth College.

Joyce is the Founder of FACT Capital (FACT stands for Fairness, Alignment, Compounding, and Transparency), which innovates on the hedge fund model and applies ‘first principles’ thinking to investment framework, portfolio/research transparency, technology use, and incentive alignment for long term compounding. Prior to FACT, Joyce was Partner at Vernier Capital and Research Analyst at MSD Capital and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners. Joyce graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Huntsman Program of the University of Pennsylvania, receiving a BA in International Studies and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School.

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Joyce received the Rhodes Scholarship and graduated with Distinction from Oxford University with an MSc in Financial Economics and an MSc in Economics for Development.

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Joyce was also recognized as Forbes 30 under 30 (2014) and Wharton 40 under 40 (2015). She speaks Mandarin and Spanish fluently. As hobbies, she volunteers with Givology - a 100% volunteer-driven non-profit she co-founded in 2008, enjoys reading, and plays ice hockey.

Seth H. Fischer is the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Oasis Management, an international investment manager headquartered in Hong Kong that invests globally across capital structures. Mr. Fischer founded Oasis in 2002 following a successful seven-year career at Highbridge Capital Management, where he managed the firm’s Asian investment portfolio.

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A proponent of corporate governance reforms across Asia, he is a frequent speaker on economic and investment panels. Oasis is a signatory to Stewardship Codes in Japan, Korea and Hong Kong, and a Sustaining Donor to the Board Director Training Institute of Japan, as well as a member of the Japan Corporate Governance Network and the Asia Corporate Governance Association.

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Prior to joining Highbridge, Mr. Fischer served in the Israel Defense Forces.  He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yeshiva University in 1993.  He is a Board Member of the Karen Leung Foundation and the Carmel School in Hong Kong, and Vice Chairman of the Ohel Leah Synagogue Management Committee in Hong Kong.

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Kit Huckvale is a Research Fellow in eHealth at the Block Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales, developing and evaluating novel technologies for mental health in youth. A medically-qualified doctor and informatics specialist, Kit joined the Black Dog Institute in November 2016 from Imperial College London where he was Research Principal for Imperial Tech Foresight, providing technology foresight and horizon scanning for major corporates. He completed his PhD at the eHealth Unit of Imperial College London and holds degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Manchester. Kit is the recipient of a Black Puppy Foundation postdoctoral fellowship.

Blake Henricks is the Deputy Managing Director at Firetrail Investments and co-manages the Firetrail Australian High Conviction Fund.

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Prior to establishing Firetrail, Blake worked at Macquarie for over a decade and was responsible for managing the highly successful Macquarie High Conviction Fund, which delivered 10.6% p.a. (after fees) since inception in 2005. The Macquarie High Conviction Fund was one of the top performing Australian equity funds over the medium and long term.

Jay Kahn founded Flight Deck Capital in April 2020. Flight Deck is a fundamental long/short TMT hybrid fund that invests in disruptive public and private companies across the U.S., Japan, Korea, SE Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The firm makes concentrated, long-term investments by leveraging relationships with entrepreneurs, VCs, and growth investors globally to identify secular change.

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Prior to launching Flight Deck, Jay was a Partner at Light Street Capital from 2011-2020 where he ran the firm’s internet, media, and consumer investments globally. In addition to managing Light Street’s public investments in these sectors, Jay also spearheaded the firm’s investments in private companies, leading or co-leading 14 private deals across Light Street’s side pockets, SPVs, and later stage growth fund including: Unity, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Pinterest, Everlane, Harry’s, Boxed, Toast, EzCater, Madeira Madeira, SmartHR, Slack, and Blackbuck. From 2006-2008, Jay was an Associate at Elevation Partners, where he evaluated late stage growth and buyout investments in internet, media, music, gaming, and sports.

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Jay earned an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, and a B.A. magna cum laude in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University in 2002.

Dawn Kanelleas is Senior Portfolio Manager, Small Companies for Colonial First State Global Asset Management (‘CFSGAM’).

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In her role, Dawn manages a range of Small Companies portfolios as well as researching and analysing of a range of Australian listed stocks in the Small Companies and MidCap sectors. Dawn has more than 20 years of investment industry experience as a broker and fund manager.

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Prior to joining CFSGAM in January 2008, Dawn was a Portfolio Manager in Deutsche Asset Management’s highly-rated Small Companies Team for four years. Prior to this Dawn was with ABN AMRO Stockbroking as a marketing analyst for small companies. She was promoted to Director after four months and turned around a formerly unrated Small Companies franchise.

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Dawn has completed a Bachelor of Science with first class honours and a PhD in chemistry. She also has a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance.

Markus Bihler is co-founder of Builders Union. Prior to Builders Union, Markus was founding CEO of HappyFresh Group which he built into Southeast Asia's leading grocery delivery and consumer analytics platform, and venture partner at Temasek / Vertex, one of the lead investors in HappyFresh. He joined HappyFresh from automotive e-commerce retailer Tirendo (Germany), where he served as CEO and led its strategic sale to SDAX-listed Delticom. Markus started his career as a generalist private equity investor with The Blackstone Group (London) and EQT Partners (Munich/Warsaw). Markus graduated from the University of Oxford, Balliol College.

Steven Krein is the CEO, co-founder and managing partner of StartUp Health, which is investing in a global army of entrepreneurs, called Health Transformers, committed to achieving health moonshots. StartUp Health has the world’s largest health innovation portfolio with more than 290 companies from 24 countries and six continents. In addition, StartUp Health has assembled a curated worldwide network of 200,000 innovators, industry leaders and investors committed to supporting the entrepreneurs reinventing the future of health.

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Steven is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, investor, advisor and entrepreneurial coach. Prior to StartUp Health, Steven co-founded and led several technology companies including OrganizedWisdom, Promotions.com and Webstakes, a company he took public on Nasdaq in 1999. Steven received his JD degree from Delaware Law School and BA degree from the University of Maryland, College Park. Steven is a member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) and lives in New York City with his wife and three daughters.

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Joe Lonsdale is a serial entrepreneur and founding partner of 8VC.  He serves on several boards including Wish, Addepar, OpenGov, Affinity, Illumio, Radius and Hyperloop-One.  Joe is a co-founder of Palantir, a multi-billion dollar global software company best known for its work in defense and finance.  Most recently, he was a founding partner at Formation 8, the precursor fund to 8VC, which is one of the top performing private funds.  Before that, he founded Addepar, a leading wealth management technology platform, and OpenGov.  Previously, Joe was an early executive at Peter Thiel’s Clarium Capital, which they grew into a large global macro hedge fund.  He also worked with the financial arm of PayPal while he was at Stanford.  Joe received a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford in 2003 and often lectures and writes on entrepreneurship and technology.

Kerr Neilson has over 40 years of experience in financial markets both in broking and funds management. This has involved a stint in London, followed by managing the research department for a stockbroker in South Africa. Upon migrating to Australia he joined Bankers Trust, where he made important contributions to the development of that company’s highly successful retail funds management division.

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Kerr left Bankers Trust Australia as an Executive Vice President to form Platinum Asset Management in February 1994. In addition to managing Platinum’s global mandates, Kerr held the position of Chief Investment Officer until May 2013. Kerr remains Chief Executive Officer and as portfolio manager for the global mandates at Platinum and is the principal shareholder.

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BCom (UCT).

Dr O’Dea’s research areas include online interventions for depression and anxiety, adolescent mental health and wellbeing, social networking sites and cyber-bullying. Dr O’Dea is interested in improving access to evidence-based care through technology supported through her involvement with the Digital Dog research program.

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Dr O’Dea has been involved in the development of multiple e-mental health apps and was also responsible for co-leading the investigations into social media and suicide, including the Twitter studies and the Ground Truth Project, and contributing to the collaborations with CSIRO, Amazon Web Services, and PRADA at Deakin University, established by Prof. Christensen. She currently holds an Early Career Fellowship from the Society for Mental Health Research. Dr O’Dea is leading the development of the Online Clinic for Adolescents and the development of the mobile app for youth relationships.

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Andrew Macken founded Montaka Global Investments in Sydney in 2014 after spending nearly four years as a senior member of the research team at Kynikos Associates in New York. Montaka Global Investments has grown to $600 million with offices in Sydney and New York; and manages the Montaka global equity long/short funds and the Montgomery Global long-only funds.

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During his time at Kynikos, Andrew developed particular expertise in short portfolio management that represents an important part of Montaka’s investment approach and has become increasingly valuable in today’s global equity market environment.  He began his career as a management consultant advising corporates based in Australia and abroad.

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Andrew holds a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School in New York.  While at Columbia, Andrew was a member of the Applied Value Investing program through the prestigious Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing.  Andrew graduated with a Master of Commerce, focusing on Finance; and First Class Honours with a Bachelor of Engineering under a Co-Op Scholarship from the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

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Paul Mason is a Portfolio Manager and Senior Analyst on the Paradice Global Small Cap Fund.

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Paul started his career with KPMG 13 years ago in a Corporate Advisory and Taxation role before joining Paradice Investment Management in 2009. Over the past 9 years, Paul has worked  in both the Sydney and Denver offices of Paradice, with a dedicated focus on global small cap opportunities.

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Paul holds degrees in Commerce and Business Law from the University of Wollongong.

Tim is a founder of Auscap Asset Management, which has been running successfully since inception 10 years ago.

He has 18 years’ experience in the financial services industry. He has managed the Auscap Long Short Australian Equities Fund since 2012. From 2007 to 2011 he was an executive director at Goldman Sachs where he was responsible for managing an Australian equities long short portfolio using proprietary funds. Prior to 2007 he worked at Macquarie Bank within the investment banking group.

Tim is a CFA charterholder, a CMT charterholder, a Senior Associate of FINSIA, a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney.

Yen Liow is the Managing Partner at Aravt Global LLC. Mr. Liow directs the firm’s research process and actively researches many of the investments in the portfolio. Mr. Liow was previously a Principal of Ziff Brothers Investments (“ZBI”) and a Managing Director at ZBI Equities, ZBI’s equity market-neutral fund in New York. Mr. Liow joined ZBI in 2001 and ran a team that oversaw ZBI Equities’ investments in the media, telecom, energy and agriculture sectors. Prior to ZBI, Mr. Liow was a Consultant at Bain & Company in its San Francisco, Sydney, Singapore and Beijing offices.

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Mr. Liow earned a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne in 1994 and a Masters of Business Administration (George F. Baker Scholar) from Harvard Business School in 2001. Mr. Liow lives in Manhattan, New York with his wife and two children.

Dr. Eliana Marino is the head of the Immunology and Diabetes Research Group at Monash University. She completed her PhD from New South Wales University in 2010, and worked for five years as a research officer and group leader between The Garvan Institute for Medical Research in Sydney and Monash University in Melbourne. She has been awarded with a Career Development Award from JDRF and with the distinguished Type 1 Millenium Award from Diabetes Australia – the largest allocated funding in Victoria. Her latest work has recently been published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Immunology, showing her research is at the cutting edge of the field. Dr. Marino’s lab is one of the leading groups worldwide studying the role of diet and the gut microbiota on the development of type 1 diabetes and associated inflammatory complications. She is a contributor to the Athena Swan at Monash University and an enthusiastic South American soccer fan. She is currently investigating innovative dietary technology that boost the good gut microbiota and modulate the immune system to tackle type 1 diabetes. She can be contacted at eliana.marino@monash.edu or on Twitter at @ElianaMarino.

Prof. Samuel Harvey is a leading academic psychiatrist with international standing in clinical and population mental health research. He is committed to addressing the human cost of mental illness and suicide and has a passionate determination to create positive change on a global scale. Originally from Adelaide, Sam initially trained and worked as a GP, before pursuing his passion for mental health and training as a psychiatrist at the internationally renowned Maudsley Hospital and Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience in London. He completed his PhD at the University of London in 2011, and in the decade since has continued to practice as both a clinical psychiatrist and researcher.

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Since returning to Australia in 2012, Sam has established new programs of research focused on workplace mental health, models of care for depression, and the overlap between physical and mental health. His research is internationally recognised, with agencies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) looking to him for advice on how to create more mentally healthy workplaces.

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Most recently, he led the development, delivery, and evaluation of mental health services for Emergency Service workers who responded to the 2019/2020 Black Summer Bush Fires (the Bush Fire Support Service).

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Sam commenced in the role of Executive Director and Chief Scientist with the Institute on 1 November 2021. 

Professor Patrick McGorry (MD, PhD, FRCP, FRANZCP) is the Executive Director of Orygen, Professor of Youth Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and a Founding Director of the National Youth Mental Health Foundation (headspace). He is a world-leading researcher in the area of early psychosis and youth mental health, and has been directly involved in research and clinical care for homeless people, refugees and asylum seekers.

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His work has played a critical role in the development of safe, effective treatments for and innovative research into the needs of young people with emerging mental disorders, notably psychotic and severe mood disorders. He has also played a major part in the transformational reform of mental health services to better serve the needs of young people with mental ill-health.

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Professor McGorry was a key architect of the headspace model and has been successful in advocating with colleagues for its national expansion. He has successfully advocated for the establishment of a national early psychosis programme based on the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre model. He is frequently asked to advise on early intervention and youth mental health policy both nationally and internationally.

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Professor McGorry has published extensively in the specialist literature and serves as Editor-in-Chief of Early Intervention in Psychiatry. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science. He is current President of the International Association of Youth Mental Health and past President of the Society for Mental Health Research (2013-2017) and the Schizophrenia International Research Society (2016-2018).

John Pearce joined UniSuper as Chief Investment Officer in July 2009. UniSuper is the superannuation fund dedicated to people working in Australia’s higher education and research sector. With more than 410,000 members and $50 billion in net funds under management, is one of Australia’s largest super funds. UniSuper has about 35 investment professionals involved in allocating funds and investing directly across all asset classes both domestically and globally.

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John has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry both in Australia and Asia. He has held several senior positions including Chief Executive Officer and General Manager, Investments of Australia’s largest asset management company, Colonial First State, from 2000 to 2006. From 2006 to 2008 John was the Head of Global Asset Management for Ping An, which is China’s second largest insurance company.

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Tim is Portfolio Manager and Head of Mining Investments at Regal. Prior to joining Regal in January 2018 he spent almost 8 years at Glencore, where as Executive General Manager - Business Development & Strategy, he was Global Head of M&A for the largest division and led a series of landmark transactions. Prior to this Tim spent almost 5 years as an investment banker specialising in mining takeovers & acquisitions as well as capital raisings.

Tim holds a triple degree in Commerce (Finance), Engineering and Laws from the University of Melbourne. He is a CFA Charterholder and completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2016.

Ajay Rajadhyaksha is Global Chairman of Research at Barclays, based in New York. He drives the global macro research and strategy effort including economics, rates, FX, commodities, emerging markets, and asset allocation.

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Since joining Barclays in 2005, Ajay has held various positions, including Head of Macro Research, Co-Head of FICC Research and, before that, Head of US Fixed Income Research and US and European Securitised Research.

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Until recently, he was a member of the US Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, advising the Chairperson of the Federal Reserve as well as the US Treasury Secretary on macroeconomic and market issues.

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He received a bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a master’s degree in International Management from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management in Arizona.

Mike has held high ranking roles advising the leadership of the U.S. Government, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community as well as their international counterparts in the conduct of cyber and intelligence activity across the globe. He helped develop national and international policy with respect to cyber, intelligence, privacy and technology – including extensive work with corporate leadership in the finance, IT, telecommunications and technology –and national security more broadly.
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Mike’s 37 years of naval service culminated in his posting as Commander of U.S. Cyber Command and National Security Agency Director. Prior to his final duties, he also served as Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Indo-Pacific Command, focusing on issues associated with China and the broader set of global security challenges.
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As a Senior Advisor to Bondi Partners and a board member for multiple private sector companies, Mike leverages his experience for consulting and venture capital initiatives across the globe.

Vihari Ross has over two decades of experience in investment management working across large institutions and boutique investment managers. She is currently a portfolio manager with global coverage at Antipodes Partners, a specialist equities firm managing over $10 billion on behalf of Australian and international investors.

Prior to joining Antipodes, Vihari was a senior investment team member at Magellan Financial Group where she spent over 15 years. She was head of research, responsible for the management of the 30-person global research team prior to her departure, and during this time, she designed the Magellan Core Global strategy and was the Fund’s portfolio manager. Earlier in her career at Magellan, Vihari was sector head of franchises (consumer) and covered the financial and consumer sectors as an investment analyst.

From 2003-2007 Vihari was at Ausbil Dexia, responsible for coverage of the financial and consumer sectors as well as quantitative analysis. She commenced her investing career at Commonwealth Investment Management in a strategy and research role.
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Vihari holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Actuarial Studies and Finance) and a Master of Commerce (Finance) from the University of New South Wales and is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries.

David Paradice founded Paradice Investment Management in 1999. Paradice Investment Management invests in equities around the world with offices in Australia and the USA. It is a privately owned company with a team of 43 people, with approximately $16.5 billion funds under management.

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David currently sits on the board of The Future Generation Investment Fund a LIC that donates their management fees back to children’s charities.  He supports a number of charities across a number of fields including humanitarian, the arts, environmental, and education. He is Chairman of the Taronga Zoo Conservation Society because of its environmental work especially in the oceans.  He was also assisted in setting the Clean Energy Finance corporation.  In 2017 he  was awarded an AO for distinguished service to the community through philanthropic contributions and charitable support, and to business and commerce in the field of investment management.

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Christina is the founder and portfolio manager of Elephant Asset Management – an investment firm focused on publicly listed small-/mid-cap companies in emerging Asia and Africa. Before that, she was a founding partner and the Chief Investment Officer of Aperios Partners Investment Management, which had a similar investment strategy. Prior to founding Aperios, Christina was a Portfolio Manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (“GSAM”) specialising on international small-/mid-cap companies and China A-shares. In 2004, Christina was selected by the CIO of GSAM as the only non-Chinese national to help establish a Shanghai office and to set up the GSAM A-Share China Fund. She remained in Shanghai until 2008 when she took over GSAM’s International Small-/Mid-cap funds as a co-portfolio manager. Christina began her financial career in 2001, joining GSAM initially as a research analyst before taking on portfolio management responsibilities. She has been a CFA charterholder since 2004 and received her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2001.

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Christina started her career in the medical profession, received her Doctor of Medicine from the Technical University in Munich in 1997 and practiced in various emerging countries across Asia and Africa. Christina also obtained a Doctorate in Psychiatry from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. She is a member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds.

Dr Stewart read the Natural Sciences Tripos at the University of Cambridge (Girton College), obtaining his BA in 2007 and MA in 2009. Following this, he moved to Sydney to work as a research assistant at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute to gain more extensive research experience. He subsequently embarked on a PhD at the University of New South Wales, graduating in 2012. Since then he has built his own research team to tackle important biological questions and his research has provided novel insights into the function of molecules important to disease.

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Dr Stewart’s research is dedicated to explaining the fundamental mechanisms that govern essential biological processes involved in disease, such as energy conversion and protein folding. His team uses a combination of experimental methods, such as X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy and intact mass spectrometry. Only by seeing the machinery of life at the atomic scale can we begin to understand life and disease.

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Dr Stewart has received many prestigious awards for his research and science communication.