Investment Committee

Mugunthan Siva

Chairman

Mugunthan spent three years in India as CIO of a boutique asset management business. In this period Mugunthan set up a foreign access vehicle to allow global investors to access India’s equity markets. Mugunthan previously worked as Head of Portfolio Management for ANZ Wealth in Australia and has over 20 years of experience in portfolio construction, manager selection as well as credit and equity research at companies such as Macquarie Bank and Westpac. Mugunthan has also managed multi- asset, alternatives and global/emerging market share portfolios.
He has an MBA in Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney, Graduate Diploma in Investment & Finance from the Financial Services Institute of Australia and holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) from the University of NSW, Sydney.

Aran Nagendra

Member

Aran has worked in the Australian investment and superannuation industry for over 10 years. His experience covers capital markets research, asset allocation, multi-asset portfolio management, quantitative analysis and investment manager research. Aran previously worked at MLC, one of Australia’s largest multi-asset funds and prior to this held roles at ING Investment Management and ANZ Wealth where he researched and assisted in the management of alternatives and global/emerging share market portfolios.
He is a CFA charterholder and holds a Bachelor of Commerce & Bachelor of Science majoring in Finance and Mathematics from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Martin Duncan

Member

Martin currently undertakes advisory, consulting and investment committee roles for the funds management industry, based on his 31 years’ experience in stockbroking, investment banking, and funds management. He was previously Analyst/Portfolio Manager at Arnhem Investment Management and Senior Analyst at Colonial First State responsible for research coverage of Retail, Property, and Wealth Management /Life Insurance sectors of the Australian stock market. Prior to this he served as Executive Director in the Macquarie Equities division covering the Retail sector and was rated No.1 Retail analyst in the Greenwich analyst survey in 2001. He has also worked at various other investment banks such as J.P Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (B.C.A.), Accounting and Finance from the Victoria University of Wellington and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Peter Pontikis

Member

Peter is a Treasury and Investment Management professional based in Brisbane. He has more than three decades of investment, corporate dealing, trading and research experience in currencies and global money markets. Peter also has also consulted for the Australian Financial Markets Association (AFMA) and CPA Australia in the area of treasury and treasury derivative accounting where he currently sits on their Financial Risk Management advisory committee.
Prior to his recent consulting roles with KPMG, Peter also bore senior responsibility as Wealth Director at Westpac and St George Private banks (2013-14) in Queensland as well serving at ANZ Trustees (2008-2013) as their Investment Specialist for WA/NT and QLD. He was also the Group Treasury Strategist for Suncorp Banking, Head of Trading & Research for a boutique Australian hedge fund and Senior Financial Markets Strategist for Westpac Investment Bank. Until 2005 he also ran a consultancy advising Asian central banks and fund managers. A Fellow of CPA Australia, Peter has served on FINSIA’s International Advisory Committee where he is a senior Fellow and remains on their Financial Advisory council. Peter has authored several books on foreign exchange and trading in financial markets as well as producing a training CD on Chinese Financial Markets.