At Barrenjoey, all ideas are celebrated equally. We work and celebrate success as a team.
Brian Benari
CEO
Our people
We believe that behind every successful organisation is a great team. And while our people may not be on our balance sheet, they are our most valuable asset. Our teams have diverse skills and backgrounds and we value and respect their unique differences and views. Everyone contributes to our success – from the client-facing teams that deliver exceptional advice and services to our support teams that keep Barrenjoey running safely every day.
Our experience
Meet some of our highly experienced team
Our experience
Meet some of our highly experienced team
Louise Boreham
Head of Operations
Louise has extensive operational expertise in capital markets across product, process, regulation and control. As Head of Operations, Louise has leadership and product responsibilities across all aspects of equities, fixed income, derivatives and client onboarding.
Dyson Bowditch
Co-Head of ECM
As Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets (ECM), Dyson provides advice to our clients across multiple sectors on raising capital, structuring and distribution.
Prior to joining Barrenjoey in 2021, Dyson spent four years at JP Morgan where he was most recently Head of ECM for Australia and New Zealand.
Anthony Brasher
Corporate Finance
Anthony is an experienced investment banker with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. As Head of the Financial Services & Technology Group (FST), he provides strategic advice to global financial institutions and technology clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and corporate restructuring.
Gavin Buchanan
Group CFO and Group Treasurer
Gavin has over 25 years of broad investment banking, wealth management, treasury and finance experience gained in large global investment banks and prudentially regulated institutions. Before joining Barrenjoey, Gavin was Deputy CFO and Group Treasurer at Challenger where he spent almost 14 years.
Jacqui Byrnes
Chief Operating Officer, Fixed Income
Jacqui has over 25 years of financial services experience working in Australia and Asia. Prior to joining Barrenjoey in 2020, Jacqui spent 16 years at UBS Australia as FX, Rates and Credit Senior Business Manager/COO, focusing on Australia and also the global Flow Rates business.
Lisa Carroll
Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Finance and Head of Group Strategy Execution
Lisa has almost 30 years’ experience working in various roles in the financial services industry. As Head of Strategy Execution, she is responsible for strategy implementation including the design, establishment and execution of change management initiatives across all Barrenjoey businesses.
Matthew Grounds AM
Co-Executive Chair
Matthew has been involved in investment banking for over 30 years. He is one of Australia’s most experienced corporate advisers and has been responsible for a number of landmark transactions for Australian and global organisations.
Duncan Haig
Head of Fixed Income
Duncan has worked in financial markets for 35 years. He spent 28 years at UBS and was most recently the Global Co-Head of Flow Rates. Prior to that, he led UBS’s Australian Foreign Exchange, Rates and Credit business.
Matt Hanning
Chair of Corporate Finance
Matt has over 28 years’ broad experience across investment banking, private equity and law, with roles in Australia, London and Hong Kong. He spent 10 years at UBS where he was Head of the Asia Pacific investment banking operations.
Jabe Jerram
Co-Head of ECM
Jabe has over 15 years of investment banking experience. As Co-Head of Equity Capital Markets (ECM), Jabe provides advice to our clients across multiple sectors on raising equity capital, structuring and distribution.
Paul Early
Corporate Finance - Perth
Paul has over 28 years of experience in legal and banking and finance roles working in Sydney, Hong Kong and Perth. Prior to joining Barrenjoey was Co Head of Barclays Australia and responsible for providing advice and capital solutions to Natural Resource companies in the APAC region.
George Kanaan
Head of Cash Equities
George has worked in financial markets for over 30 years. He joined Barrenjoey from UBS Australia where he ran the consistently-ranked number one Institutional Cash Equities business for 15 years.
Jarrod Key
Head of Corporate Finance
Jarrod has over 20 years’ experience in investment banking. At Barrenjoey, he is responsible for providing strategic advice to clients in the infrastructure, power and utilities sectors on mergers and acquisitions, capital raisings and corporate restructurings.
Li-Enn Koo
Head of People and Culture
Li-Enn has extensive experience helping shape and influence the people and culture strategy of a number of global firms. Before joining Barrenjoey, she held regional Asia HR leadership roles, based in Hong Kong and Sydney, for QBE Insurance, Barclays Bank, Morgan Stanley and law firm, Mallesons.
Maria Milis
Fixed Income Sales
Maria has more than 20 years’ experience in the fixed income markets. Her expertise is in providing senior sales coverage to clients on Australian Dollar / New Zealand Dollar credit and rates products, with a recent focus on credit and securitisation markets.
Lee Newton
Head of Compliance and Anti-Financial Crime
Lee has significant regulatory, investigative and analytical experience and extensive working knowledge and understanding of the Australian financial services sector regulatory framework.
Erin Tinker
Corporate Finance
Erin works in our Corporate Finance team advising clients in the general industrials sector and providing expertise on mergers and acquisitions to support large and complex transactions.
Chris Williams
Head of Equities
Chris has been involved in financial markets for over 22 years and for the past 6 years led the No.1 equities franchise in Australia at UBS. Previously, he oversaw UBS’s leading Company Research business (and was a lead ranked Financial Institutions Sector Head).
Patrick Ibbett
Head of Risk
Patrick has over 15 years’ experience in financial services, predominantly in market risk roles. He has deep experience in optimising and analysing market risk across all asset classes with a focus on foreign exchange, interest rates, credit and equities.
Linda Carroll
Chief Operating Officer, Research
Linda has more than 25 years’ experience in investment banking, equity research, investor relations, corporate affairs and media. Before joining Barrenjoey, she enjoyed roles with Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Macquarie Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Four Corners, ABC TV.
Melanie Shummen
Head of Corporate Access
As Head of Corporate Access, Melanie works in our Equities business to connect institutional investors and corporate clients. She is responsible for managing sector-specific conferences, roadshows and industry expert events.
Michael Vardanega
Head of Private Capital
Michael has over 20 years of asset management, banking and finance experience gained in large global and domestic financial institutions. Before joining Barrenjoey, Michael was Chief Executive of Group Strategy at Challenger where he spent over 16 years. During his time at Challenger, Michael was instrumental to the build out of Challenger’s asset management capabilities.
Klaudia Szargawinska
Chief Operating Officer, Equities
Klaudia has over 10 years’ experience in the financial industry in London and Sydney. She has extensive Equities product knowledge with a strong skillset in project management, business planning, implementation and risk management.
Peter Watson
Corporate Finance - Perth
Peter has over 25 years of natural resources investment banking experience having worked in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. He provides strategic advice to clients both in Australia and internationally on domestic and cross border mergers and acquisitions, takeover defence and equity and debt capital raisings.
Matt Ryan
Co-Head of Research
Matt has more than 18 years’ experience as an Equity Research Analyst. In addition to his role as Co-Head of Research, Matt is Head of Gaming, Transport and Infrastructure Research. Matt has consistently been top rated across multiple sectors in investor surveys, including Peter Lee. Prior to Barrenjoey, he worked at UBS, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.
Nick McGarrigle
Co-Head of Research
Nick has extensive experience covering small and mid-cap companies and is Co-Head of Emerging Companies Research. Nick and his team rank #1 for Small Cap research in Australia (Peter Lee). He was previously Head of Institutional Research at Ord Minnett.
Adam Julian
Chief Technology Officer
Adam Julian joined Barrenjoey in 2020 and become Chief Technology Officer in 2024. His team is responsible for all facets of technology including applications, infrastructure, architecture, site reliability and information security, ensuring and enabling Barrenjoey’s day-to-day operations.
Our Board
Our Board is diverse and highly credentialed combining the leadership and functional expertise of independent and executive directors. They are responsible for the supervision and effective governance of Barrenjoey.
David Gonski AC
Independent Non-Executive Chairman
David is Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, Chairman of the UNSW Foundation Ltd and President of the Art Gallery of NSW Trust. He is also Chairman of Sydney Airport and Chairman of Levande Living, a member of the Board of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, a non-executive Member of LeapFrog Investment’s Global Leadership Council, a Patron of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and Raise Foundation and a Founding Panel Member of Adara Partners.
Dr. Philip Lowe
Non-Executive Director
Philip worked at the Reserve Bank of Australia for more than four decades, serving as Governor from 2016 to 2023. Philip is Chair of Future Generation Australia and was also chair of the Committee on the Global Financial System at the Bank for International Settlements from 2018 to 2023.
Paul Compton
Non-Executive Director | Chairman of Investment Banking, Barclays
Paul Compton is Chairman of Investment Banking, based in New York. Previously, Paul served as the Global Head of Corporate & Investment Bank, and President of Barclays Bank PLC, leading the
provision of funding, financing, strategic advice and risk management for financial institutions, money
managers, governments, supranationals and corporate clients.
Andrew Formica
Non-Executive Director | Executive Chairman, Magellan Financial Group
Andrew has 30 years’ experience in leading and growing investment businesses within the funds management industry globally, 14 years of which were as CEO. Most recently, Andrew was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of Jupiter Asset Management plc.
Annette Spencer
General Counsel
Annette has over 25 years of financial services experience working in Singapore, the US and Australia. Prior to joining Barrenjoey in 2020, Annette spent 23 years at UBS most recently as General Counsel.
Brian Benari
Chief Executive Officer
Brian has been involved in financial services for over 30 years, most recently as CEO of Challenger Limited, a role he held for seven years. Prior to that he was CFO/COO for four years and Chief Executive of their debt financing and securitisation division for five years.
Guy Fowler, OAM
Co-Executive Chair
Guy has been involved in financial markets for over 30 years. He spent 27 years at UBS Australia in various roles including Head of Corporate Finance and prior to that Head of Equity Capital Markets. He was instrumental in building and running the most successful investment banking franchise in Australia for over three decades.
Strategic Advisor
Ken MacKenzie
Strategic Advisor
Ken has been a Director of BHP Group Limited and BHP Group Plc since September 2016. He was appointed BHP Chair with effect from 1 September 2017. Ken has extensive global and executive experience, and a deeply strategic approach.