About Us

Simon Kitson     is a co-founder of Investment Science and is the company's Chief Executive Officer and Group Economist.  Simon is also a member of Investment Science's discretionary strategies team where his research and analysis of global markets is used to develop strategies for the portfolios.

Simon has 22 years of financial markets experience including 11 years with Deutsche Bank as a market and economic analyst and a combined 8 years as a portfolio manager at the Treasury Corporation of Victoria and subsequently the South Australian Government Financing Authority.  At both organisations Simon had discretionary active management mandates for AUD17 billion and AUD10 billion debt portfolios respectively. 

Simon worked for Westpac Corporation as a distributor of fixed interest products before joining the Treasury Corporation of Victoria and was a visiting lecturer in derivative products at Adelaide University.  Simon holds a Masters of Business Administration from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

David Toohey        is Chief Investment Officer with responsibility for investment policy, portfolio risk management, investment performance analysis and the fund selection process.  Prior to co-founding Investment Science, David was an Investment Manager at Funds SA, with responsibility for the debt sector asset classes, and as a shadow asset consultant covering new opportunities, financial markets, portfolio optimisation and analysis of asset allocation policy decisions.  With AUD9 billion of South Australian public sector superannuation funds, Funds SA was a pioneer of the active manager-of-managers approach to superannuation investment.  Funds SA recorded 7 consecutive years (that spanned David's tenure) of delivering above benchmark returns from manager selection in each of its 4 multi-asset class funds. 

Prior to joining Funds SA, David was employed as a Quantitative Analyst by the South Australian Government Financing Authority and as an Actuarial Analyst by Mercer.  David holds a Bachelors Degree with First Class Honours in Applied Mathematics from the University of Adelaide.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and holds a Graduate Diploma in Finance and Investments (Finsia). 

Simon McKean is the Portfolio Manager responsible for the day to day management of Investment Science's multimanager portfolios, including researching underlying managers, overlaying hedges and working with clients on optimising their portfolios.  Simon has over 16 years of financial services experience including running multi manager hedge fund portfolios, developing bespoke products for retail and high net worth clients and executing hedge fund trading strategies.  Simon began his career auditing financial services clients with Ernst & Young in Adelaide before continuing his career in San Francisco, London and Sydney where he continued to specialise in hedge fund related strategis within investment banking and funds management.  Simon holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics, and a Bachelors Degree in Commerce, both from the University of Adelaide.  He is a Chartered Accountant and also holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investments.

Quantitative systems

Chris Howland is Head of Strategy and leads the discretionary strategies team, with responsibility for the management of the SRA-16 portfolio, quantitative systems development and the management of Investment Science's IT infrastructure.  Prior to joining Investment Science in December 2007, Chris traded global markets and shares successfully for 4 years before which he was employed by Bell Laboratories and its successor organisations in the United States performing mathematical modelling and designing computer chips.  Chris holds a Doctorate in Electronic Engineering, a Masters of Business Administration, a Bachelor of Enginering (Hons) and a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Mathematical and Computer Science. 

Huan Tran is the Senior Quantitative Analyst, with responsibility for undertaking research and analysis into quantitative trading systems and integrating selected systems into the company's trading system.  Before joining Investment Science, Huan was employed by IBM for 11 years as a Software Engineer, where he was involved in the design and development of a number of IT Applications for clients ranging from Telstra through to the NAB.  Huan holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) in Computer Systems from the University of Adelaide.

Wei Lu is the Quantitative Analyst, with responsibility for undertaking research and analysis into quantitative trading systems and operational administration.  Wei holds a Bachelors Degree in Finance (Quantitative) and First Class Honours (Commerce) from the University of Adelaide.

 Operations

Zdravka Stepic is the Office Manager at Investment Science with responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the business covering finance and administration, human resources, service provider relationships and performance reporting. Before joining Investment Science in September 2007 Zdravka was employed by Mercer for thirteen years in their Retirement Practice Group.  She has managed her own business and has many years organisational and office administration experience.

 Adelaide

354 King William Street  Adelaide  SA  5000

Tel  +61 (0) 8 8410 7311

Fax +61 (0) 8 8410 7355

Photos by Aaron Schuppan