Darren has over 30 years of experience in the Australian and international financial markets, with a particular focus on fixed income and credit markets. He started his career as a portfolio manager with the Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC) and was responsible for the portfolio management of domestic asset and liability management of the States’ short term funds, domestic and offshore capital market raising and risk management of short term and fixed income securities, both asset and liability roles in managing the fixed income portfolios and foreign exchange asset and liability management in managing the State’s foreign currency exposures.
His career includes 12 years at NAB where he held numerous roles including rates, derivative and credit distribution, established their listed debt/equity business including being responsible for the sales, research and trading functions and a Director of Debt/Equity Capital markets. Darren’s accolades at NAB included being voted by Insto magazine for best Research Sales coverage for Listed Securities between 2003 to 2005, Insto magazine Hybrid deal of the year for the Nab Capital Trust Security multi-currency issue in 2006 and been involved either originating, syndicating or structuring more than thirty deals in the listed security markets.
After leaving NAB, he worked as a portfolio manager for hedge fund Fortitude Capital. Its Market Neutral absolute return focus sought to achieve an income return, whilst seeking to preserve capital in either rising or falling markets. Darren was involved in managing its Yield strategy, but then expanded into Long/Short, M&A, Derivative Overlay, Small Caps and Convergence strategies with a strong focus on preserving capital with stringent risk management. Over the period of the GFC and in his time there they won in 2008 and 2009 the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Hedge Fund of the Year beating more than 200+ plus funds examined. Darren also has had roles at FIIG Securities, CBA and multi award winning and Australia’s first marketplace lender SocietyOne. He holds a Bachelor of Business majoring in Economics and Finance from the Queensland University of Technology, a diploma in Export Management from the Australian Institute of Export and a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from FINSIA.
