Providence Formal Investment Committee

Providence’s Formal Investment Committee is one of the most experienced in Australia. Every member has at least 20 years hands on money management experience across the various asset classes, both here and in the financial capitals of the world. At any time, but particularly during unstable or challenging times, these are without doubt the people you want to entrust with protecting your wealth.

Steven Crane

Steven has over 40 years of investment experience having started in financial markets in the early 1970’s. He has held such positions as Senior Portfolio Manager and member of the Asset Allocation Committee at AMP. For seven years he was the Chief Executive of ABN Amro. His current directorships include APA Group, Bank of Queensland and Shopping Centres Australia (SCP).

Chris Grubb

Chris has held senior fund management and broking positions within the Jardine Fleming Group in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. He was also a Director of Jardine Fleming Ord Minnett, Chairman of Investor’s Mutual and Investor Web, and is currently a Director of several Asian-focused investment funds. He also chairs Boardroom Australia. 

Stephen Roberts

Stephen has over 50 years of experience as an economist and financial markets strategist in banking, broking, and funds management. He has worked as Chief Economist with Equitilink and UBS. He worked on the Secretariat of the Australian Financial System Inquiry (Campbell Committee) in 1980, helping draft recommendations that led to the deregulation of the Australian financial system. He is an honours graduate in Monetary Economics from the London School of Economics.

Peter Hooker

Peter has over 30 years experience in investment markets including Industrial Analyst at BZW, and Director reporting to Head of Research.  He was on the Equities Executive Committee, and Director and Head of Industrial Research.  Peter has served as Treasurer of Medecins sans Frontieres Australia and as a member of  the Psychology Board of Australia.  He has a B.Sc. in Chemistry, B.E. (Honours) in Chemical and Materials Engineering, and a Graduate Diploma in Finance and Investment.  

Jonathan Pain

Jonathan has over 30 years of international investment experience. He has held such positions as Chief Investment Strategist of HFA Asset Management, Chief Investment Officer of Rothschild Australia Asset Management, Head of Investments at Gulf International Bank in Bahrain, and Chair of the International Asset Allocation Committee at Paribas Asset Management in London. He holds a joint honours degree in Economics and Politics from Keele University, and a Masters degree in the Economics of Finance and Investment from Exeter University.

Ian Wenham

Ian has over 30 years of experience in equity research, investment strategy, and portfolio management. He has held such positions as Equity Analyst with Meares and Philips, Research Director of BZW Australia: covering equity strategy and industrial research. He was also Regional Research Director with BZW Asia, and Director of Asian Research at Lehman Brothers Asia: where he chaired the Investment Policy Committee and was the firm’s supervisory Analyst for the Asia Pacific Region. He has also managed the strategic global equity investments for the Lowy Family Private Fund. He currently heads his own investment firm.

Richard Nicholas

Richard has over 30 years of experience in private client portfolio management in London, Hong Kong, and Australia. Richard started his career with Deloittes in London, before cutting his investment teeth with The Rothschild family. He was the founding research director at S&P Fund Research UK, and Investment Director at Hill Samuel Pacific in Hong Kong. He has also held senior positions with Hambros Pacific in Hong Kong, Alliance Capital in Asia, and ANZ Private Bank. He is currently director at Peak Investment Partners.

Marc Wait

Marc has over twenty-five years of investment experience across multiple asset classes in London, Abu Dhabi, and Sydney. He began his career in Sydney with HSBC and Citigroup Global Asset Management (CGAM) managing Fixed Income, Currency, and Money Market portfolios. Marc moved to London in 1999 with CGAM as a Portfolio Manager managing fixed income and asset allocation funds. At Fidelity International in London, Marc was the Group Leader, Short Dated Bonds, chaired the firm’s Fixed Income Asset Allocation meetings and contributed to the firm’s asset allocation process. Marc moved to Abu Dhabi to become the Head of Treasury at the Emirates’ Sovereign Wealth Fund, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). The Treasurer role involved directly running portfolios, manager selection, involvement across all the asset classes and being a member of ADIA’s Chief Investment Officers’ forum. Marc is the Head of Investment Strategy for Providence and has been a member of the Investment Committee since 2019. Marc has a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics (Hons) from the University of Sydney, is a CFA, a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, and a GAICD.

James Smith

James has over 20 years of investment market experience (cash equities). Prior to joining Providence, he held the position of Deputy Head of Domestic Sales at CIMB Securities (Australia) and was a member of the CIMB Equities (Australia) Management Committee. He has also held positions as Director – Sales at RBS, ABN AMRO and Sales at Deutsche Bank. James was responsible for Melbourne Sales/Account management in his previous roles over the last decade and in the last two years, was also responsible for New Zealand.  James also sits on the Benetas Investment Committee as an external adviser. 

Michael Ogg

Michael has over 30 years of experience in investments, starting his career at JPMorgan Investment Management in London in the early 90’s. In Australia, Michael worked for AMP Asset Management holding senior roles in institutional equities, and for Deutsche Bank as a Client Advisor in Private Banking. Michael has an MA(Honours) Economics from Aberdeen University.

Grant Patterson

Grant has over 35 years of experience in equity markets. Prior to forming Providence he was a Director of ABN Amro, and Head of Retail Broking. He has also held other senior positions such as Senior Institutional Dealer, Head of the Sydney Institutional Dealing Desk, and also Head of Corporate Liaison. Grant is currently an Ambassador of the ASX Refinitiv Charity Foundation.

Justine Morton

Justine has 25 years of investment and finance experience both in Australia and internationally. Prior to joining Providence she was a Relationship Manager at Credit Suisse Private Banking. Justine started her career in Perth at First State Fund Managers (Colonial) then Hartley Poynton before moving to London. At Lehman Brothers and then Cargill Investor Services she focused on event arbitrage and special situations before returning to Australia, to start and run Finsbury Capital Advisors. She has a Bachelor of Commerce from UWA.

David Croll

David has over 25 years of experience in stock broking and funds management. He has held such positions as a dealer on the options trading floor, the manager of the branch office network for stockbroker Rivkin Croll Smith: based in Melbourne. Since 1998 he has managed several private companies involved in options trading and investments in listed and unlisted equities. He is currently the Managing Director of Noontide Investments Ltd. He has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Politics from Macquarie University.

Damien Hennessy

Damien has over 30 years of experience in funds management, economics and finance and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University of Melbourne and Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University.  In 2003, he co-founded Heuristic Investment Systems (Heuristics) which provided investment strategy, economic analysis and asset allocation research and advice to fund managers, industry funds, wealth managers, asset consultants and financial planning groups. In March 2021, Heuristics became part of the Zenith Group, where Damien heads up Asset Allocation. 

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