OAFIT Team

Mr Thomas has been involved in banking, finance, and funds management activities for over 40 years. After initial training with a major bank, a building society and then a credit union, JT joined the Howard Group in 1987, where he began managing the Howard Mortgage Trust. By the time JT left Howard’s 17 years later, the fund had grown to a little under $3Billion to be the largest and best performing fund in its category.

Mr Weinberg has over 25 years’ experience in financial technology as a Senior Partner and Head of Corporate Strategy for Optiver APAC, a global proprietary trading company utilising systems and technology developed entirely in-house. Currently Mr Weinberg is a member of the Optiver Global Foundation board.

Mr Weinberg is a member of the Derivatives advisory committee for the Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korean Exchanges and an advisor to Oceana in the promotion of the Trust.

A structured finance specialist, Mr Lewis has spent more than two decades in the industry, launching Oceana Investments (Asia) Limited in 2014, he has overseen the growth of Oceana Funds’ flagship Oceana Australian Fixed Income Trust (“OAFIT”), creating one of Australia’s best performing fixed-income investment vehicles since 2016.

Since inception OAFIT has placed more than $1.5bn of medium-term Notes with wholesale and sophisticated investors. Mr Lewis also co-founded Oceana Property Partners in 2021 and has since completed the funding and acquisition of its founder assets.

Mr Lewis believes in structuring, partnership, risk management, and takes a ‘best-of-breed’ approach to all Oceana's strategic endeavours. Previously he was Executive Director of Oceana Investments (Asia) Limited, responsible for the management of a structured credit and direct equity investment portfolio focused on the consumer and technology sectors. Mr Lewis spent five years at Investec Bank in the UK within the structured finance division and earned an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain. He has a Finance and Operations Management (minoring in Economics) Degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (cum laude) and is a Non-Executive Director of FC Capital Holdings Pty Ltd. He is also an observer to the board of Finstro Holdings LLC.

Sydney-based banking and finance specialist Gary Segal is Oceana Funds' Chief Commercial Officer and General Counsel bringing more than 20 years of industry experience to the role. Prior to joining Oceana he was formerly Head of Wholesale Legal at HSBC Bank Australia Limited covering its global banking, commercial banking and global markets businesses.

A specialist in corporate finance, Mr Segal has extensive experience in cross border (syndicated, club and bilateral) acquisition and general corporate facilities, distressed debt transactions as well as corporate and real estate acquisition financing. He also has broad M&A and structuring/company secretarial experience including setting up structures for investment syndicates.
Mr Segal will be primarily responsible for overseeing, managing and developing the legal function at Oceana Funds as well as driving the Australian distribution strategy.

A graduate of the University of NSW, Mr Segal holds a Bachelor of Laws (graduating with a distinction average) and Bachelor of Commerce majoring in finance and IT.

Mr Segal was recognised as one of Australia’s rising stars on the Legal 500 GC Powerlist in 2019.

Mr Wong joined Oceana in 2016 and has held the role of CFO since 2019. In the role of Chief Financial Officer, Mr Wong is responsible for all the accounting and financial work for the business and underlying funds, working closely with our audit partners for the relevant entities. Previous roles include working for PwC in Australia and Malaysia with over six years of experience in providing audit services to clients in the property and asset management industry.

Mr Wong is a Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA).

Mr Goodhardt is an experienced Data and Analytics professional. Prior to joining Oceana, Mr Goodhardt was Lead Commercial Analyst at I-Med Radiology, where he over saw the implementation of sales and marketing KPIs and measurements to drive revenue, a patient focused NPS solution leading to patient led decision making, and an AI modelled product (HVD) to reduce churn. Prior to this, he worked for one of OAFIT's originators, Finstro, where he developed the sales KPI model, assisted in the implementation of salesforce CRM system, and created a range of monthly board reports for decision makers. He now serves as a thought partner and data expert for the Trust, offering insights to influence strategic decisions, and developing new data strategies as well as looking to implement machine learning and AI to empower the leadership team. He has a Master’s Degree in Information Systems from Victoria University in New Zealand.

Mr Robertson was a partner and head of the financial services team at McCullough Robertson for 14 years prior to joining Oceana.
With over 25 years' experience as a financial services lawyer, Mr Robertson's focus is on managed investments and financial services.

Co-authoring 'A Practical Guide to Managed Investments' published by the Law Book Company (now in its third edition), Mr Robertson regularly lectures on compliance with the Corporations Act 2001 and financial services.

Mr Brehm brings over 12 years of experience within financial advisory, infrastructure, real estate funds management, investment banking, and structured finance. In the role of CEO - FC Capital, Mr Brehm is responsible for executing a range of large-scale cross border transactions in different asset classes including property, infrastructure, derivatives, and private equity.

Mr Brehm previously held roles at KPMG, SMBC, and Deutsche Bank.

Mr Sharma has over 18 years of experience as a Business Technology Executive, with demonstrated leadership success in mergers and acquisitions integration, identifying capability-enhancement opportunities, developing corporate-aligned strategies, orchestrating business growth and cost savings through metrics-integrated strategic transformation (business and technology) programs.

Ms Vuong has over eight years’ experience in debt and equity investments, funds management and corporate finance with a focus on private markets and real assets. She is a CFA charterholder and holds a master’s degree in analytics. Prior to joining FC Capital, she worked at Deloitte modelling, Qualitas and Healthscope.

Mr Cheng joined FC Capital in 2012 and had more than 8 years experience in corporate finance, extensively involved with numerous mergers and acquisition transactions, corporate finance projects, financial modeling, statistical data analysis and risk management. Currently Mr Cheng is involved in the management of FC’s corporate investment portfolio and involved in the company’s corporate finance transactions.

Mr Swinton has over 20 years of small business credit risk management experience, ranging from vendor programs to major banks.

As Head of Lending Operations - Finstro, Mr Swinton is responsible for FCFM’s credit and lending operations team and a member of the Credit Committee of FC Funds Management.

Mr Tharme is a senior manager with over 20 years of experience in the finance and stockbroking industry. He has a proven track record of leading high-performing teams, improving operational efficiency, implementing new systems and processes, and managing relationships with clients and service providers. He has worked for various Australian and global firms, including Stockspot, Macquarie Group, TradingScreen, Gleneagle Securities, Arnott Capital, and Fortis Clearing. He holds a Diploma of Financial Markets from the Securities Institute of Australia.

Mathew is a strong believer in structure and process, and a champion of continuous improvement and innovation. He has been involved in several projects, such as migrating service providers, implementing a new global Middle Office platform, and coordinating connectivity to various services such as Omgeo CTM.