ASHLEY OWEN, CFA_

I have had the privilege of living through, participating in, and learning first-hand from, the best and worst of financial markets over the past 40 years, including:

• the early 1980s recession (as a lender refinancing the fallout from the late 1970s property boom) (Citibank)
• the 1980s bank deregulation – building financial models & systems for finance company & merchant bank (Midland Bank, now HSBC)
• the mid-1980s take-over boom – adviser and co-principal/founder in 4 IPOs, plus VC investments
• the 1987 crash and early 1990s recession – buying & restructuring companies, realizing distressed assets
• the 1990s bank crisis, recovery, and boom – running several divisions and national functions in ANZ
• the late 1990s ‘dot-com’ boom – co-founder/CEO of one of the few surviving IPOs, sold to a global group
• the 2001-2 tech wreck – adviser in restructures, business sales, corporate finance/funding
• the post-2000 China/mining boom – as early-stage investor in several mining companies
• the ‘GFC’ – guiding investors through asset allocation, portfolio construction – retail investors to family offices
• the post-GFC turmoil (QE, sovereign debt crisis, Covid, inflation/rate hikes) as Chief Investment Officer of two leading boutique advisory groups (Centric Wealth, then Stanford Brown), guiding investors and advisers via portfolio construction, risk management, asset allocation, and client communications.

These experiences – plus degrees in law, economic history, finance, and a CFA charter along the way – have enabled me to develop a unique, multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional view of financial markets, booms & busts, crashes & rebounds – what drives them, and how to navigate them, from macro vision to micro execution as a hands-on practitioner, investor, adviser, and portfolio manager.

Financial markets, boom & bust cycles have always been driven by the same old basic human instincts – fear & greed, the tendency to lurch from over-optimism to over-pessimism and back, the fear of missing out, the tendency to follow the herd, and fear of being different. While these are constants throughout history, it is fascinating to watch how humans have always managed to come up with new and different things to be the subject of booms and busts – new and different ways to make and lose money. Bring on the next cycle!