Short Term Investments team

As Head of Fixed Income, Short Term Investments & Global Credit, Tony oversees of a range of fixed income, credit, and cash investment capabilities. He provides investment leadership and strategy to deliver on a wide variety of client objectives.  He also has responsibility for investment outcomes, governance, team management, product development, client servicing, business development, and managing our counterparty relationships. Over his career spanning more than three decades, Tony has a proven track record of achieving success as an investor, engaging with clients, managing businesses, and nurturing talent. Tony joined First Sentier Investors in March 2002 as a result of the merger of Commonwealth Investment Management and (then) Colonial First State, where he had established the Cash business in April 1988. Prior to this, Tony was employed at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, in the Global Markets Treasury Division, in a variety of portfolio trading roles. In 2003, Tony was appointed as a Trustee Director of the Commonwealth Bank Officers Superannuation Corporation (CBA Group Super). In 2012, Tony was appointed to the Market Governance Committee of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA), where he currently acts as Deputy Chair.

Natasha is a Portfolio Manager on the Short Term Investments team, as well as a Structured Credit Analyst, providing important expertise for the global credit function. Natasha has over 30 years of experience including her previous role at CFSGAM as a Senior Credit Analyst focused on global (ex-Asia) banking credit. Prior to CFSGAM Natasha was a Senior Credit Analyst – Vice President at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) where she was responsible for analysing all fixed income and cash assets issued in Australia, and was actively involved in the marketing of SSgA funds to clients, rating agencies and asset consultants. Prior to SSgA, Natasha was an Associate Director of the Relationship Credit Group (Natural Resources) at ANZ. Natasha has extensive experience in corporate lending, project and structured finance, securitisation and credit analysis with several international banks including Credit Suisse and Toronto Dominion. In addition, Natasha has also worked with Merrill Lynch, and HSBC Securities as a sell-side equity analyst covering resource companies and bulk commodities.

Natasha holds a Bachelor of Science (Zoology) and a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Politics) from The University of Melbourne, a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia, and a Masters of Accounting Studies from the University of New England. Natasha is also a CPA and a Senior Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia.

As Portfolio Manager, Martin is responsible for the facilitation of both transactional activity and strategic / tactical analysis, incorporating these endeavours across all portfolios managed by the group. Martin has over 20 years' experience. Prior to joining the company, Martin worked at AMP Capital Investors as a Senior Portfolio Manager – Macro Markets – Fixed Interest. Martin also held roles at WBC as a Risk Manager, CSFB London as a Risk Analyst Fixed Income, Tokai Bank Europe as a Bond and Currency Analyst and Credit Union Services Corp Sydney as a Money Market Dealer. Martin holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Sydney University, Majoring in Mathematics and Statistics, and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia.

As Portfolio Manager, Liam is primarily responsible across all cash, cash enhanced and tailored credit portfolios. Liam is largely involved in research, asset identification, negotiation, execution and monitoring of securities that target alpha generation. Currently much of this is achieved via investment in residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) and index plus banking product. Strategic initiatives and industry development are also a focus. Liam has over 21 years' experience. Prior to joining the company, Liam was a derivative sales trader with Goldman Sachs JBWere in Sydney. Liam is currently a member of the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA) Negotiable and Transferable Instruments (NTI) Committee. He previously chaired AFMA’s BBSW Committee during recent reform. Liam holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University, Canberra. Liam is an AFMA Accredited Dealer and is ASIC RG146 compliant.

Ben joined First Sentier Investors in June 2015. His role in the Short Term Investments team encompasses investment strategy, portfolio construction and management, product development, and client servicing. Ben has extensive experience and proven success across all aspects of portfolio management including macro strategy, security selection, relative value analysis, portfolio construction, and overlay and derivative management.

Ben was previously responsible for First Sentier Investors' Global Credit suite of products, where he jointly oversaw a range of strategies across the risk spectrum, all of which delivered genuine peer-relative and benchmark-relative outperformance during his tenure.

Prior to joining First Sentier Investors, Ben spent five years at Queensland Treasury Corporation working in various analytical roles across the Risk and Markets businesses. Ben holds a Bachelor of Business and Master of Business (App. Fin.) from the Queensland University of Technology.

Ky Van is Head of Credit Research focused on overseeing credit research produced by the Short Term Investments team. She joined First Sentier Investors in January 2017 and retains active coverage on corporates. Ky Van is an experienced analyst in fundamental and relative value elements of research across a broad section of the credit market.  Furthermore, she champions the team’s ESG integration efforts.

Prior to joining First Sentier Investors, Ky Van was a Senior Credit Analyst at QIC and spent more than eight years in London as an analyst and manager of high yield credits for Aberdeen Asset Management and Canaccord. Ky Van commenced her career with Aberdeen Asset Management in Sydney covering Australian and Dollar Bloc IG credits.

She holds a double degree in Bachelor of Science (Adv)/Bachelor of Commerce and is a CFA Charter holder.

Ethan is a Structured Credit Analyst in the Short Term Investors team at First Sentier Investors. Ethan joined the team in May 2022 having previously worked at ANZ bank in the Institutional Division. Ethan began working at ANZ in 2013 as an intern rotating through Structured Trade Finance, Credit and Relationship Management. In 2017 he took a full-time position in the Structured Trade Finance team managing a range of Borrowing Base, Prepayment and Warehouse Repurchase facilities.  In 2020 he joined the Supply Chain Finance Product Team where he was responsible for managing and developing ANZ’s product offerings of Receivables Finance, Payables Finance and Asset Backed Notes programs. 

Ethan graduated from the University of Sydney in 2018 with a Bachelors of Agriculture and Economics. He also holds a Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University having graduated in 2021. 

Melissa is a Portfolio Analyst within the Short Term Investments team at First Sentier Investors, based in Sydney. Melissa is responsible for global credit portfolio construction and idea generation through quantitative analysis, modelling development and process automation using various programming languages. She is also involved in regular risk management and reporting. Melissa first joined First Sentier Investors as a Graduate in February 2022. Prior to this, she was a Banking Consultant at Suncorp.

Melissa holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majored in Economics and Finance) from the University of Melbourne and a Master of Data Science from Monash University. She holds the Certificate in Quantitative Finance (CQF) designation and she has completed level I and II exams of CFA and FRM programs.