The Team

Mark is a founding Director of Omba and has been instrumental in developing Omba’s investment strategy and managing their portfolios since 2017. Previously he spent nearly 12 years at Goldman Sachs, most of which were in the Investment Management Division in London where he gained experience in asset allocation, equities, fixed income, alternative investments and derivatives. Preceding Goldman Sachs he was a Manager at KPMG in the Consumer Markets Audit and Assurance division. Mark qualified as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa following a Bachelor of Accountancy degree at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mark is also a CFA Charterholder and has been investing in financial markets since 1998.

David is a founding Director of Omba and is responsible for all Operations and Technology functions with a particular focus on building a modern, scalable and efficient operating model.
He was previously a Programme Manager at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and preceding that spent 5 years at Barclays Wealth where he was responsible for numerous IT and change related projects including integrations and migrations of software systems.

David has a wealth of experience in Technology and Change roles which includes managing global projects and development teams within both financial institutions and startups, running a national Archiving business and has hands-on experience in software development and architecture. David holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Witwatersrand where he majored in Information Systems and Management Accounting and he also holds a Prince Practitioner Certification.

Since joining Omba in September 2017, Andrew has played an integral role in Omba’s portfolio management process contributing to its robustness and strong track record and was promoted to the Board in 2023. In addition, Andrew’s in-depth knowledge of ETFs has seen him regularly being quoted in the press.
Preceding his time at Omba he worked at EY, in London, in the Banking and Capital Markets division. Andrew also worked in the Johannesburg and New York offices of EY where he audited asset managers, hedge funds and other financial services firms. Preceding his time at EY he was an Associate Lecturer in Management Accounting and Finance at the University of the Witwatersrand where he obtained his Master of Commerce (Accountancy) and was awarded the top student prize.

Andrew is a CFA charterholder and scored above the 90% percentile of all global candidates for the CFA Level III exam. Andrew is also a South African qualified Chartered Accountant and member of SAICA.

Michael previously worked at Commerzbank and their Equity Research team focusing on European Real Estate and Autos. He subsequently moved to Debt Capital Markets before joining Omba. He has also done internships at Scott Partners, a long-only fund, and National Bank of Greece Securities, while studying for his M.Sc and B.Sc.

Michael holds a Master in Investment Management with distinction from Bayes Business School (ex-Cass) and a Bachelor in Banking and Financial Management from the University of Piraeus. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Kirsty is involved in building out the South African business of Omba. She started her career at Deloitte in the financial services department. She subsequently worked in the finance department at Aerobotics, a South African based agri-tech startup, and co-founded a boutique corporate tax advisory business specialising in assisting startups with their tax compliance. Her recent work has also included advising on the tax, structuring and financial affairs of a wealthy family with involvement in managing a property portfolio and a number of other investments. Kirsty completed her Bachelors of Business Science degree at the University of Cape Town where she was placed on the Dean’s Merit List in each of her academic years. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant in South Africa and member of SAICA. Kirsty has also completed her Master of Commerce degree specialising in international tax law and is a registered tax practitioner in South Africa.

Graeme spent 10 years at Alexander Forbes Financial Services in Johannesburg where he headed up Alexander Forbes Financial Planning Consultants in Johannesburg before moving into an Executive role in Retail Sales and Distribution. In 2018 Graeme relocated to the UK with his family and joined Vitality UK as a Franchise Director and then opened his own financial advisory business.

Preceding Alexander Forbes, Graeme was a Sales and Marketing manager at Glenrand MIB where he spent 5 years and before that was with Morgan Stanley in London for 4 years. Graeme has a BComm (Economics) from the University of South Africa, a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning from the University of the Free State, is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and is registered with both the Financial Planning Institute (the FPI) in South Africa and the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (the CISI) in the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining Omba Advisory & Investments, Kiana worked as a Private Client Service Associate for a specialized team of Senior Portfolio Managers at TD Wealth Private Investment Counsel (PIC) in Victoria, BC, Canada. She provided complex and holistic administrative, operational and client service for a diverse group of private clients including Ultra High Net Worth Families, Corporations, Trusts, Non-profits and Registered Charities.

In addition, Kiana held a position on the national council to create, review, implement and improve policies and procedures across the TD Wealth PIC business, with a focus on modernization, efficiency and simplification of processes.

Before entering the Private Client and Wealth Management sector, Kiana’s experience includes over five years in retail banking in Canada, including Management and Financial Services.

Sean is involved in portfolio management and the investment research process at Omba. Prior to joining Omba, Sean advised an UHNW family on its global investments, as well as managing a global flexible fund at Prime Asset Managers. He was previously the Chief Investment Officer of Anchor Capital in South Africa from 2013 to 2018, responsible for the global and South African investment process covering equities and balanced mandates. Under his management, the Anchor BCI Equity fund delivered an annualized return of 13.5% from its April 2013 launch until mid-2018 and was the number 1 performing fund in its category (SA general equity) in 2015. Sean commenced his career in financial markets in 2003 as a sell-side analyst at Nedcor Securities, earning a number 1 rating in the FM Analyst of the Year survey in his first two years of coverage for the Hotels & Leisure sector. Sean’s experience also included coverage of the SA Healthcare sector at Deutsche Bank, as well as a senior analyst and portfolio manager at Investec Wealth & Investment. Sean holds a B.Com (Honours) from the University of South Africa, and is a CFA charterholder.

Alexander started his finance career working for C. Hoare & Co during his university placement year, focusing on launching a new online platform and working with the Landed Estates team. More recently he worked in Canary Wharf for Fisher Investments UK specifically on the UK High Net Worth prospect side of the business, engaging in analytics and prospect funding.

Alexander holds a degree in Business Management from Newcastle University and is currently studying for his Investment Management Certificate. He joins OMBA to develop the High Net Worth & Ultra High Net Worth channel of the business.

Tony is a Strategic Advisor to Omba. He is the Executive Chairman and Managing Partner of Star Capital which he founded in 1999. STAR is a leading Private Equity firm focussed on building and developing businesses around strategic assets in Western Europe. Prior to this, Tony spent 20 years at Hambros Bank (most recently as Vice Chairman of the Bank, and Chairman of the credit committee) establishing various new business lines including: Private Equity, operating leasing and privatisations. He was also Chairman of the Finance & Leasing Association and of Leaseurope and has been engaged in financial services throughout Europe, North America and Asia. Tony chairs STAR’s Investment Committee. He is also founder and Chairman of Youth Experience in Sport. This is a charity focused on rehabilitating wayward youth in London through the medium of sport for which he was recognised in the New Year’s honours list with an MBE.

Alex focuses on the development of Omba’s UK business. Previously he spent over 7 years at Dimensional Fund Advisors, a global asset management firm. As a regional director he led initiatives across distribution, messaging and practice management functions, focusing on financial adviser communities in the UK and Ireland.

Alex holds a Master of Science in Sustainable Resources: Economics, Policies and Transitions with distinction from University College London (UCL) and a Bachelor of Science in Management from Leeds University Business School. He is a holder of the CFA Investment Management Diploma.

Ben is responsible for marketing and distributing OMBA’s solutions to UK clients. Having completed an internship at Investec Bank, he started his career at Peel Hunt on the investment trust sales desk before moving to Ellora Partners where he helped raise capital for investment companies across various asset classes. His clients included wealth managers, IFAs, family offices and multi-asset funds, and he also looked after the firm’s intermediary platform business.

Ben graduated from the University of Leeds with an Economics degree and has passed CFA level 1.

Camilla is involved in the growth and expansion of Omba’s South African business. She started her career in law, working at a cross border Intellectual Property law firm. Throughout her legal career, Camilla was involved in numerous business development initiatives and held a keen interest in the markets and investments. She intends to blend her legal skills and interest in finance to promulgate Omba’s presence in South Africa. 

Camilla achieved her Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, and intends to study further. She will be admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa and a fellow of the South African Institute of Intellectual Property Law later this year. 

Thomas has seen pretty much every corner of the FX market. Starting in 1999 he spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs, mostly as Global Head of Currency Research, advising central banks, hedge funds and multinationals. A special focus of his team was on quantitative modelling and global capital flows. In 2020-22, Thomas was FX Specialist at Rokos Capital Management.
He studied Economics and Statistics in Hamburg and holds a Master in Economic Policy Analysis from Paris School of Economics. Thomas joined Omba as a Macroeconomic Advisor in 2023.

Joseph focuses on developing Omba’s technology functions across portfolio management and client reporting. He began his career in technology by creating a cloud-based data management system for the local government of London, which he delivered whilst studying and teaching about software architecture and design. He went on to do an internship at ION Analytics, where he specialised in delivering cutting-edge solutions for the finance industry. His work focused on developing AI and machine learning models aimed at enhancing operational efficiency within capital markets.

Joseph achieved his Integrated Masters at King’s College London in Computer Science, where he was awarded first place at the AWS Impact Accelerator.

Rozhin is an Investment Analyst, preparing research and more broadly contributing to the investment process at Omba. She is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and began her career at PwC, auditing a variety of Retail and Banking clients. She later specialised in their Structured Finance Team, with a focus on securitisation transaction deals.

Rozhin completed her Bachelor of Accountancy degree with a First Class Honours at the University of Nottingham. She was awarded the PwC prize for Best Accountancy Student for two consecutive years. She also obtained the KPMG Second Peat Prize in Corporate Finance. 

Natalie is an Investment Analyst, preparing research and more broadly contributing to the investment process at Omba. Natalie is a SAICA Chartered Accountant and began her career at Deloitte LLP auditing one of the UK’s largest banks and a variety of payment processing clients. She further specialised in becoming the ESG specialist for banking clients, completing the ICAEW ESG Certificate.

Natalie graduated with distinction from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Science in Finance with Accounting, and Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting and has passed CFA level 1. She was awarded The Dean’s Merit list each year in recognition of consistent academic excellence and is a Golden Key member.