Ross Youngman

Milford is delighted to announce the appointment of Ross Youngman to the Board of Directors of Milford Australia Pty Ltd, effective 19 January 2026.

Ross joins us with an outstanding career spanning corporate leadership, and the philanthropic and education sectors. Ross is currently the CEO of the General Sir John Monash Foundation, Australia’s most prestigious post-graduate scholarship program. Prior to this role, Ross served as the CEO and a Board Director of Ausbil Investment Management, which manages approximately A$20 billion in assets.

His impressive leadership journey also includes roles as CEO of Deutsche Asset Management Australia, Managing Director of Deutsche Bank New York, and co-founder, CEO and Executive Chairman of Five Oceans Asset Management. Across these positions, Ross has built deep expertise in global funds management, corporate strategy, and international financial services.

Philanthropic and Governance Contributions

Ross has a long-standing dedication to giving back and supporting governance excellence. He has been a Board Trustee of International House in New York for over 25 years, fostering global student communities, and serves as an Ambassador for the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. His work reflects a strong commitment to education, cultural exchange, and environmental responsibility.

Ross holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Tasmania, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a Master of Science in Coaching Psychology from the University of Sydney. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. “We are delighted to welcome Ross,” said Anthony Quirk, Chair, Milford Australia Board of Directors. “His global leadership experience, combined with his philanthropic and governance contributions, will be invaluable as Milford pursues its strategic goals.”

Ross added, “I’m honoured to join the Board of Milford, Australia. Throughout my career, I’ve believed in the power of governance, innovation, and purpose-driven leadership. I look forward to contributing to the company’s vision and growth.”

Ross Youngman

Ross Youngman will retire in the third quarter of 2023, succeeded by Mark Knight.

Youngman has served as Ausbil’s CEO since 2017 after joining the firm in 2015. During his time, the firm has successfully introduced new global strategies, business systems and he has overseen the growth in funds under management.

During his career, Youngman has held a variety of senior management roles including CEO of both Five Oceans Asset Management and Deutsche Asset Management in Australia.

Mark Knight, Director and Head of Distribution has been appointed CEO designate and will assume full responsibilities effective 1 April 2023. Knight has 30 years’ experience and has held senior positions at Ausbil since 2004.

Ausbil will initiate a search for a Head of Global Distribution capable of implementing Ausbil’s domestic and international distribution strategy. In addition to its well-regarded Australian equity products, Ausbil has a track record in global asset classes including infrastructure, small cap and resources. It’s continuing ambition is to build the Ausbil profile both within Australia and internationally, including jurisdictions such as the USA and Europe.

Paul Xiradis, Executive Chairman and CIO, said, “We’re totally committed to our clients and the investment performance we’re creating for them. No change there. These developments are consistent with that as well as allowing for the careful growth of our global products.”

“On behalf of our executive team and staff at Ausbil, I would like to thank Ross for his leadership and wish him all the best for his well-earned retirement,” Xiradis added.

In announcing his retirement, Ross Youngman said, “It has been very satisfying to work closely with our clients, both domestically and internationally, and the talented group of executives during my time at Ausbil. I wish the firm and my colleagues all the very best for the future.”

John Grace

Ausbil Investment Management is proud to announce that it has achieved the milestone of 25 years in investment management. Founded in April 1997, Ausbil now manages over $16.9 billion (as at 31 March 2022) in active Australian and global equity investments. Ausbil’s investment team comprises 33 investment professionals including a chief economist who directs Ausbil’s macro view, a leading ESG research team, and a strategic partnership with Fortune 100 company, New York Life.

Deploying its ‘core’ investment style and headed by Paul Xiradis, Chairman and Head of Equities, Ausbil has built an outstanding track record in large cap Australian Equities delivering +11.5% p.a with an excess return of +3.0% p.a (gross of fees) since inception in 1997. Capitalising on this strength, in more recent years, Ausbil has successfully introduced Concentrated, 130/30 Active Extension, Dividend Income, Active Sustainable and Long Short investment strategies.

Ausbil has also developed an outstanding Australian Mid and Small Cap business headed by John Grace, Co-Head of Equities. It includes ‘Emerging Leaders’ (ex 50) established in 2002, ‘MicroCap’ (ex 200) established in 2010 and ‘SmallCap’ (ex 100) established in 2020.

“We have invested through many ups and downs and the consistent application of our earnings and earnings revision process has served us well. Probably though, the most significant trend we have seen is the shift to responsible investing and ESG,” says Xiradis. “Now, more than any time in the past, sustainable factors are forefront in the minds of investors”.

In more recent years, under the leadership of Ross Youngman, CEO, Ausbil has set up global investment strategies so as to better fulfil client portfolio requirements and to enable the organisation to capture client interest in global regions such as the US, UK, Europe and the Middle East.

“Investment management is a global business and although we have offshore clients in Australian equities, we wanted to extend the brand further. Ausbil’s inherent stability and investment platform has been the perfect launching board for our global teams. Now that we’re through the initial 3 years, momentum is impressive, and the New York Life distribution footprint is kicking in for us.”

Ausbil now has over a 3-year track record in Global Essential Listed Infrastructure, Global SmallCap and Global Resources Long Short. Each strategy is managed by a dedicated, stand-alone investment team.

“If I shared one insight from my last 25 years in investment management, I would say that, first and foremost, it is the people that matter most to investing successfully,” says Xiradis. “I am proud of the track record produced by our investment team alongside the ever-reliable support of our business services and distribution teams. It’s a team effort, no doubt about it”.

Tobias Bucks

Ausbil Investment Management (Ausbil) is bringing together select global investment funds that offer investors an edge in global equity markets.

“Clients are looking for opportunities to diversify their portfolios, globally,” said Ross Youngman, CEO of Ausbil. “We are well positioned to do this from Australia given our relationship with New York Life and affiliates MacKay Shields and Candriam.

“We have brought together four global strategies that are designed to provide an edge in each of their markets, infrastructure, global small caps, natural resources and global fixed income.”

Ausbil is a recognised leader in core Australian equities with a long industry track record of performance dating back to 1997 – and it retains a focus on that.

As clients’ needs and the market itself has expanded to include greater allocations to global equities, Ausbil has drawn together global opportunities that benefit specifically from Ausbil’s top-down, bottom-up investment process, focused on earnings and earnings revisions as the key driver of stock prices.

An edge in global listed infrastructure

“Ausbil’s global listed infrastructure team focuses on the edge that comes from a very tightly focused definition of essential infrastructure that delivers superior upside and downside capture of returns across the cycle,” says Mr Youngman.

In contrast to a marketplace increasingly relaxing definitions of infrastructure, Ausbil defines essential infrastructure as a tight subset of core infrastructure, specifically just the assets that are regulated and contracted essential infrastructure for society.

“Our definition of essential infrastructure gives our portfolio an edge over the cycle in capturing some 89% of positive global equity returns in up markets, but just 50% of negative global equity returns^[1],” says Tim Humphreys, Portfolio Manager of Global Listed Infrastructure.

“Through the cycle, we have found that our definition of essential infrastructure demonstrates asymmetric returns skewed to the upside, meaning that it loses far less in falling markets than it is able to capture in rising markets. Over time, this generates positive compound outperformance for the essential infrastructure universe.”

Deploying global listed infrastructure equities that focus only on essential infrastructure companies brings the underlying benefits of these long, stable and essential assets through to the performance of their listed owners. Listed infrastructure equities add liquidity and genuine global diversity benefits that are not available in direct infrastructure and unlisted approaches.

An edge in global small caps

“In global small caps, Ausbil is focusing on the edge that comes from identifying unrecognised growth,” says Mr Youngman. “Our global small caps team applies both fundamental and quantitative approaches to finding companies with a growing earnings outlook that are either poorly covered by analysts, or are yet to be recognised for their earnings growth potential.”

The Ausbil Global SmallCap Fund has an investment universe that captures 23 global developed markets with over 4,000 securities.

“The beauty and potential in small-cap investing is the pool of opportunities, and the potential to catch the next Google or Facebook ahead of the global investment community,” says Tobias Bucks, Co-Portfolio Manager, Global Small Caps.

“We believe the true value is in finding this unrecognised growth, in companies that are also taking ESG considerations seriously,” says Simon Wood, Co-Portfolio Manager, Global Small Caps. “This means unrecognised future earnings growth, and unrecognised technology shifts which are yet-to-be-recognised by the institutional investment community. This is where the significant value potential lies.”

An edge in natural resources

 “In global natural resources, we see the edge coming through an absolute return approach, and in the deployment of long and short strategies to invest through the cycle, expanding both the opportunity set and ability to manage risk,” says James Stewart, Co-Portfolio Manager, Ausbil Global Resources Fund.

“Resources markets are unique and require highly experienced, dedicated investment teams with detailed technical knowledge and expertise,” says Luke Smith, Co-Portfolio Manager, Ausbil Global Resources Fund. “Natural resources are cyclical, with material alpha opportunities arising from volatility within the sector. If you want to reduce volatility and generate returns through the cycle, we believe an absolute return approach gives us an advantage.”

Alternative approaches to investing in resources such as passive ETFs and traditional long only funds mean investors need to ride significant volatility and the overall resources cycles. An absolute return approach solves for this with the ability to protect in volatile and down times, which contributes to overall long-term compound returns.

“As we are absolute return in focus, our resources team does not need to track an index or sectors that they would rather avoid, which helps in downside protection and investing across different markets,” says Mr Youngman.

Australia is one of the world’s leaders in resources, mining and related sectors. This global leadership has developed from a home market that is one of the dominant resources markets, with expertise that can be deployed to true advantage in global markets.

An edge in global fixed income

“In fixed income, we see a crucial edge as being the ability to invest in an unconstrained manner,” says Neil Moriarty, Senior Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at MacKay Shields. “A long cycle of global monetary easing and a multi- decade bull run in bonds means that a nimble, unconstrained approach can make the most of fixed income markets.”

The MacKay Shields Unconstrained Bond Fund gives flexibility to negotiate changes in rate outlooks and build exposures across the credit and issuer spectrum, while avoiding unattractive risk.

“These four strategies each deploy an edge by design to make the most of what is on offer in global equity markets,” says Mr Youngman. “As a firm, we would add ESG integration in our investment decisions in all funds, and the expertise and experience of our people as sharpening the edge we offer investors.”

The Ausbil Global Investment Forum saw each of these four investment teams present on their edge in global markets. For advisers, this was an excellent opportunity to gather intelligence for their key client groups including high net worth, SMSF and retirement clients. The Forum was not presented to retail clients.

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[1] Based on performance of the Ausbil essential infrastructure universe using data from Bloomberg from 31 December 2005 to 31 December 2018. Capture ratios of the Ausbil essential infrastructure universe vs MSCI World Index equities performance, total return in USD

Vicki Gemisis

Ausbil Investment Management has announced the appointment of Vicki Gemisis to the role of Chief Financial Officer.

Ms Gemisis was previously Head of Group Finance Operations at Pendal Group and prior to that was Head of Business Management and Financial Controller at Fidante/ Challenger.

She is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of experience at Pendal Group, Challenger, Macquarie, ABN AMRO and HLB Mann Judd.

Commenting on the appointment, Ross Youngman, Chief Executive Officer of Ausbil, said: “Vicki brings deep experience in investment management from senior roles in leading funds management and financial services companies, and we are very pleased to have such a high calibre executive joining Ausbil.”

Vicki spent 11 years at Challenger Limited working with a range of local and international boutique investment managers and brings a deep understanding of finance in investment management, coupled  with  sophisticated knowledge of how investment managers operate.

Apart from having a detailed accounting and finance background, she also brings additional cross-border and multi-boutique knowledge to Ausbil.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) from the University of New South Wales, made the merit list for taxation at the Institute for Chartered Accountants, holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investments from FINSIA, and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Over the past year, Ausbil has launched a global small cap fund, a global listed infrastructure fund, and an active dividend income fund as it expands beyond its core focus on Australian equities in response to client demand for active income, and global investment opportunities.

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Vicki Gemisis

Ausbil Investment Management has announced the appointment of Vicki Gemisis to the role of Chief Financial Officer.

Ms Gemisis was previously Head of Group Finance Operations at Pendal Group and prior to that was Head of Business Management and Financial Controller at Fidante/ Challenger.

She is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years of experience at Pendal Group, Challenger, Macquarie, ABN AMRO and HLB Mann Judd.

Commenting on the appointment, Ross Youngman, Chief Executive Officer of Ausbil, said: “Vicki brings deep experience in investment management from senior roles in leading funds management and financial services companies, and we are very pleased to have such a high calibre executive joining Ausbil.”

Vicki spent 11 years at Challenger Limited working with a range of local and international boutique investment managers and brings a deep understanding of finance in investment management, coupled  with  sophisticated knowledge of how investment managers operate.

Apart from having a detailed accounting and finance background, she also brings additional cross-border and multi-boutique knowledge to Ausbil.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) from the University of New South Wales, made the merit list for taxation at the Institute for Chartered Accountants, holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance & Investments from FINSIA, and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors

Over the past year, Ausbil has launched a global small cap fund, a global listed infrastructure fund, and an active dividend income fund as it expands beyond its core focus on Australian equities in response to client demand for active income, and global investment opportunities.

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