Wealth Symposium
2026 | NSW

Grace is a portfolio manager and member of the Global Value Equity investment team at ClearBridge Investments. She co-manages numerous global and international value strategies. She is also responsible for covering the media, technology and telecom sectors for international and global value portfolios. She joined the firm in 2005 and the investment industry in 2001. Grace began her tenure as a senior research analyst at Global Currents Investment Management, which became part of ClearBridge in 2013. She joined ClearBridge as a senior portfolio analyst supporting International Value strategies and became a portfolio manager on those same strategies in 2017. Prior to joining the firm she was a research analyst at Brandywine Global, equity research assistant at Bear Stearns and a business analyst at Mitchell Madison Group. Grace received an M.B.A. in finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in business administration from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. 

Matt is a highly experienced portfolio manager with more than two decades in systematic equity investing. He began his career in Sydney as a quantitative analyst at Bankers Trust, before moving to JP Morgan and later joining Fidelity in London, where he spent over a decade managing and developing systematic equity strategies across global markets. Matt specialises in integrating disciplined, rules-based portfolio construction with forward-looking research insights to deliver transparent, repeatable outcomes. Over the course of his career, he has successfully navigated major market dislocations – from the Global Financial Crisis to recent macroeconomic shocks – and brings a deep understanding of how systematic strategies can adapt, scale, and create value for investors through changing market cycles.

Gabriel Ng is a Managing Director of Neuberger. Prior to joining Neuberger Private Equity in 2018, Gabriel was part of the GIC Private Equity Funds and Co-investments Group, where he focused on global secondary transactions. Previously, he worked at Providence Equity Partners in Hong Kong, where he focused on buyout and growth transactions in the Asia Pacific region. Gabriel also worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in the Asia M&A group. Gabriel received a BS in Economics, with honors (Magna Cum Laude), from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

David joined MLC in 2009 as Head of Asia, MLC Private Equity. His extensive industry experience, spanning over 20 years, includes corporate strategy, strategic due diligence, M&A, IT strategy, operational implementation, product design, financial modelling and process improvement. During his tenure at MLC, David has led coverage of Asian and EM companies and, while currently based in Sydney, he has also worked out of NY and London covering investments in Nth America and the UK.

He has worked closely with the many of the largest banks in Australia and Europe to implement their Asia and China entry strategies, including both M&A and greenfield branch expansion, where he was operationally involved in recruitment, process design and key governance aspects. David started his career as a software engineer and system architect, working several high-profile organisations (e.g. Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, NRMA) on pioneering web applications and search engine technology. David has also gained a particular knowledge of the Asian financial services, being one of the most qualified experts in that sector.

David was placed first in both his Master of Commerce (Finance) and Bachelor of Software Engineering (First Class Honours and University Medal) degrees from the University of New South Wales. He achieved a UAI of 100, ranking first in the State. He is also a CFA charterholder and sits on the Infrastructure Investment Committee for MLC.

Rachael is a senior vice president and portfolio manager in the Sydney office. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2025, she managed a global macro book at Aware Super with a focus on developed market rates. Previously, she was a senior portfolio manager at Macquarie Asset Management in the Australian fixed income team. She has 14 years of investment experience and holds a Bachelor of Business (Finance) and a Bachelor of Mathematics from Queensland University of Technology. She is a CFA charterholder.

Lydia Kav (nee Serafim) is an experienced investment leader and capital steward with 30 years in financial markets, including two decades supporting Boards and Investment Committees. Lydia is currently a Non-Executive Director for BilaEmpower, member of the St Joseph’s College Foundation Board, and on the Economic Council of the De La Salle Brothers ANZPPNG District.

Her career spans senior leadership roles at AMP Capital Investors and Perpetual Ltd, as a Head of teams focusing on portfolio management and manager research across diversified and single-sector portfolios. She has deep expertise in multi-asset, multi-manager investing across public and private markets, including traditional and responsible (ESG) strategies, serving clients in superannuation, philanthropy, insurance, and wealth management. Lydia is recognised for her empowering leadership, and rigorous approach to asset allocation, risk oversight, and valuation governance.

She has been a standing and voting member of multiple Investment Committees and fund manager LPACs — Multi-Asset, Equities, Fixed Income, Unlisted Assets Valuations, and chairing Alternatives committees — and regularly reports to Boards on strategy, asset allocation, performance, and risk. Lydia also has been instrumental in improving the quality of governance reporting and excels at stakeholder management.

Lydia is a First-Class Honours Economics graduate and member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Overall, Lydia combines strong contemporary and practical commercial acumen, independent ethical judgement, rigorous curiosity, broad strategic insight, and a commitment to long-term value creation in governance or advisory roles.

Simon  is also Co-founder of The Demographics Group and he presents on demographic and global trends that are shaping Australia today and into the future.

​Simon is a columnist for The New Daily newspaper, a monthly columnist for The Australian newspaper; and he is a media commentator on demographic and data matters.​

In his spare time Simon has authored three books on maps and runs what is by now the world’s largest Twitter account dedicated to maps and data. His social media posts reach over 25 million people every month. Simon ranks as one of the world’s top 10 influencers in data.