Fortlake Sigma Opportunities Fund

Fortlake Asset Management is an experienced fixed income manager offering institutional capabilities in a boutique structure, with a focus on generating returns above inflation. Fortlake takes an holistic view to fixed income investments by incorporating a variety of specialised techniques and strategies such as overlays, arbitrage strategies, credit opportunities and high-grade bonds investment, to deliver diversified returns.

Christian is a highly regarded Australian-based manager with broad experience across global fixed income and derivatives strategies, having worked previously at UBS Asset Management and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). 

Christian managed in excess of $8 billion AUM and was the lead Portfolio Manager in the UBS Australian Fixed Income team for the UBS Cash Plus Fund, the Insurance and Asset Liability Management book of business and ran a complex suite of overlay strategies for large cross-border liability clients. Christian was also a member of the Global Multi Strategy Committee and was appointed as the Australian representative for the Global Dynamic Fund, the core global unconstrained Fixed Income offering for UBS Asset Management.

Prior to this, he was a Senior Analyst at the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), managing the Bank’s investment portfolio, liquidity, and liability profile. Prior to his role at the RBA, Christian worked for Standard and Poor’s, as a Rating Specialist conducting rating assessments and research.

Christian has a PhD in Econometrics from Monash University and was a recipient of the distinguished Exceed First Class Honours award, receiving a perfect GPA. Christian won the Australian Postgraduate Scholar Award at both University of New South Wales (UNSW) and the University of Sydney (USYD) for his work in the Econometrics field and was a visiting scholar at Monash University in the Econometrics faculty. Christian was also the recipient of the prestigious Capital Markets CRC PhD Scholarship where his work focused on alternative methods of inflation modelling, probability density functions and option implied distributions. Christian will spend approximately 90% of the time executing the investment strategy.

Tiffany Heath is the Chief Strategy Officer at Fortlake, responsible for the overall strategic direction of the business, including functional synergies across the various trade-related offices of Fortlake, investment and implementation solutions, managing Fortlake’s domestic and international footprint, domestic and international stakeholder engagement, counterparty risk and relationships. Tiffany is a member of the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee (ARCC). A highly regarded financial markets professional, Tiffany is recognised for her expertise in technical trading solutions across large global pools of capital and commercial strategy.

With over 17 years of extensive experience in top-tier global financial institutions, Tiffany has held senior leadership positions at Goldman Sachs and UBS, overseeing diverse global markets businesses. During her 13-year tenure at Goldman Sachs, Tiffany served as Head of Cleared Derivatives for Australia and New Zealand, led the Australian-based Global Financing Sales & Distribution effort, and excelled as a lead project manager within the Global Portfolio Solutions, Pension Services, and Transition Management business. Her contributions were marked by strategic insights leading to business expansion, effective risk management, and a steadfast commitment to delivering client-centric solutions.

Tiffany holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics from the University of Sydney, graduating with First-Class Honors and awarded the G.W. Walker Memorial Prize for Agricultural Economics. Her academic achievements were complemented by the University of Sydney Senate Sports Scholarship, recognizing her excellence in both academics and sporting achievements.

Cathie serves as a Portfolio Manager at Fortlake. She is a current PhD (Engineering) candidate and scholarship recipient at the University of Sydney (USYD), where she is leveraging artificial intelligence for fixed income portfolio optimisation. Catherine has been conducting research alongside Dr Christian Baylis and Dr Kylie-Anne Richards since September 2023. She holds a Master of Data Science from USYD, where her thesis examined the role of Quantitative Easing and price bifurcations in the Australian Commonwealth Government Bond market. 

Having worked previously at ANZ and Dimensional Find Advisors (DFA), Catherine has experience in domestic and global fixed income markets. DFA is a global investment firm with over $1 trillion AUM, with a board that has featured numerous Nobel laureates and esteemed academics including Eugene Fama, Ken French, Merton Miller, Myron Scholes and Robert Merton. At DFA she worked in a trading and portfolio management capacity where she applied quantitative problem-solving and analytic skills to design fixed income strategies. Catherine was also responsible for overseeing the incorporation of sustainability principles into the investment process. In her time at ANZ, she produced market communications and facilitated trades in fixed income and derivative products.

Catherine's experience in finance is preceded by a career in economics and business studies education, where she served as a teacher for several years. Outside her time at Fortlake, she continues her work as an educator for postgraduate students in the Faculty of Computer Science at USYD.