Could you provide a brief journey of how you arrived where you are today?
After earning a degree in banking and finance from Monash University in Melbourne, I began my financial services career in Australia with State Street Corporation, followed by Princeton Financial Systems – first in Sydney and then in London. I spent several years working in funds management and brokering. In 2000, I joined Charles River Development, where I was charged with establishing and growing the firm’s European sales and marketing operations. In 2004, I moved back to Australia to establish a regional headquarters for Charles River Asia-Pacific and build a strong regional presence for the firm – a role I continue to play.
What does your role involve?
As managing director of a provider of technology systems and services for investment firms, I oversee the firm’s Asia-Pacific operations, business development, sales, marketing, technical support and product implementation services in the region.
What is your greatest achievement to date?
Since opening the Melbourne office in 2004, Charles River has expanded its Asia-Pacific employee base to more than 40 service and sales professionals and tripled its local client service personnel. Charles River currently has over 45 Asia-Pacific region clients in countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Korea.
Which of your products/services deliver the best results?
Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) is an award-winning software suite that is used by firms for portfolio management and modeling, order management and electronic trading, real-time pre-trade and end-of-day compliance and for the centralized management of trade matching, confirmation and settlement workflow. Our clients use our system for both domestic and cross-border activity for all security types, receiving 24-hour support.
What are the strengths of your business?
Charles River has maintained its leadership position in the investment management systems market for many reasons. A key differentiator is the firm’s continued investment in research and development. This allows Charles River to deliver products and services that meet our clients’ changing needs. Continuous development is crucial to our clients’ overall success, particularly as asset managers take more control of their trade executions. For example, many systems require Islamic investment professionals to create a rule for each restriction list specific to each account. This is a manual process that can be time-consuming and subject to error. Charles River IMS automates this process and ensures compliance to Islamic guidelines by allowing clients to maintain restriction lists specific to each portfolio and create a single rule which can, in real time, address numerous restrictions across multiple portfolios.
What are the factors contributing to the success of your company?
There are several. First, we offer a broad array of functionalities and are continually developing the product to adapt quickly to market needs. Secondly, we have a very diverse client base, which ensures a secure business as no one client represents more than 2.5% of revenue. Our clients represent all segments of the investment community, and are located in over 30 countries across six continents. This diversity also benefits our clients, as we have designed our products to meet any country-specific language, regulation or investment requirement. Finally, Charles River is a truly global company, with regional offices in Melbourne, Singapore, London, Paris, Boston, and a local presence in many other major metropolitan areas around the globe. Charles River has long recognized that local knowledge and experience is critical to success, and this recognition is part of our winning strategy to serve the needs of customers in both local and global markets.
What are the obstacles faced in running your business today?
My challenge is to make Asia-Pacific firms aware of the value our company provides at all product and service levels. The Asia-Pacific region is made up of a diverse group of countries and cultures – each having its own set of languages, regulations, legal and trading requirements. All of these factors make my job of building awareness for Charles River throughout the region challenging. Charles River’s deep knowledge of regional and local nuances and its products’ ability to meet clients’ unique needs helps me to succeed.
Where do you see the Islamic finance industry, maybe in the next five years?
More and more investors are seeking to have their portfolios reflect their personal lifestyle and ethics. As one of the fastest growing finance industries in the world, acceptance of Islamic funds will undoubtedly spread and become more widely accepted.
Name one thing you would like to see change in the world of Islamic finance?
Technology should be a major part of an investment manager’s Islamic fund strategy. It eliminates the time-intensive aspects of portfolio development and management by automating the process and ensuring portfolio compliance to Shariah guidelines.
Charles River Development is a provider of software and services to investment managers in the global institutional asset management, mutual fund, banking, pension, hedge fund, wealth management and insurance industries.
|