Our Team

As a former Senior Partner and head of the Global Real Estate practice at Baker & McKenzie,Edwin has over 30 years experience specialising in all aspects of commercial property law advising both local and international clients on a wide range of significant and complex market leading transactions. This experience has seen Edwin retained by leading Australian and International clients including Real Estate Investment Trusts,Property Funds and Asset Managers as a “Trusted Advisor” on significant multi-practice and multi-jurisdictional client mandates.

Edwin is an experienced Public and Private company Director having held non- executive Directorships across a wide range of Property and Resources Industries as well as serving on the Board of a large and diversified Australian Family Office.

Edwin is also a Fellow of the Australian Property Institute.

Ray has over 45 years experience in property related activities including funds management, development, investment banking and corporate finance. Ray is the founder of Fortius and has been involved in every direct property investment of the funds under Fortius’ stewardship since inception.

Ray was an Executive Director at Wardley Australia Limited and was Joint Managing Director of the Project Finance and Property Services division. While at Wardley he was responsible for establishing one of Australia’s earliest professionally managed property trusts, the HSBC (then Wardley) Australian Private Property Trust in 1984. Fortius continued to be the direct property fund manager for this Australian fund until 2005, after which Fortius established their own wholesale property platform and funds.

Katherine is a financial services professional with over 25 years experience in sales and marketing. Katherine is a shareholder and Executive with Vinva Investment Management Limited, and a Non-Executive Director with the UCA Funds Management Limited Board and Fortius Funds Management Limited. Prior to joining Vinva in July 2010 she was with Barclays Global Investors (BGI) for 11 years. At BGI, Katherine was a Managing Director and Head of Distribution, with accountability for approximately 35 sales and client service staff, over 300 institutional clients and retail intermediary platforms. Katherine also had responsibility for functional reporting areas such as: Corporate Governance, Marketing & Communications and Performance & Reporting. Katherine was a member of the BGI Australia Executive Committee for over 10 years, founder of the BGI Women’s Initiative, and a Responsible Officer. Katherine and her team were highly rated by clients in independent surveys such as Greenwich and Mirador.

Prior to joining BGI, Katherine worked for three years as Communications Executive with Legal & General – Financial Services Division. Katherine commenced her career in financial services on the retail side, with Pembroke Financial Planners, and then had six years as Marketing Executive with Bain & Company/Deutsche Bank. Katherine commenced her working career with IBM Australia as a Sales Executive in Queensland.

Katherine has a Bachelor of Business (BBus) and is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and ASFA. Katherine has also completed the RG 146 Compliance certificate.

Nicholas retired as Chief Executive Officer in June 2019 and now sits as a Non-Executive Director on the Fortius Board and various Investment and Governance Committees.

Nicholas was the CEO at Fortius for seven years between 2012 and 2019. Nicholas and the senior leadership team successfully delivered on Fortius’ strategy during this period, tripling Assets Under Management to approximately $1.3 billion.

During Nicholas’ tenure, Fortius’ client base was significantly expanded and a number of new business lines were introduced including Private Syndications, Institutional Separate Accounts, International Real Estate and Real Estate Debt Investment.

Nicholas now runs his private investment and advisory firm NS Capital Partners.

Sam is Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director of Fortius, having transitioned from the Chief Operating Officer role and having held many senior executive and leadership roles within Fortius for many years.

Sam provides extensive experience in real estate funds management, asset management, project delivery and execution of all real estate strategies at Fortius. Sam is responsible for the business including people management, and has been involved in every project Fortius (previously known as Sproats & Partners) has participated in since joining in 1998. Sam is across all parts of the Fortius business.

Sam shares a passion for value add strategies and sustainable outcomes, having gained experience in over 45 projects across many asset classes, totalling in excess of $870 million of capital works. Sam plays a strategic role in the execution of refurbishments, improving cash flows and the repositioning of assets, with the objective of optimising investment performance.

Kevin is an accomplished finance professional with 20 years of distinguished performance in the property and funds management industry. He previously held senior finance roles with Nikko Asset Management, Grosvenor Fund Management, Balmain Commercial and DEXUS.

Kevin is responsible for the overall finance and operation of the firm, including compliance, reporting, strategic planning, information technology, and any funding requirements (debt and equity).

Kevin is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of the Tax Institute.

Philip has over 40 years experience in law, property funds management and professional trusteeship. He has had various roles with professional Trustee companies (Trust Company and Permanent Trustee company). Prior to that he was Managing Director of Equitable Group Ltd, the wholly owned funds management subsidiary of QBE Limited. He was the Chairman of Metlife Trustee Pty Limited. He was a non practising solicitor.

Philip is a Responsible Manager and Chairman of the Compliance, Risk Management and Conflicts Committees and has overseen the establishment of the Corporate Governance structure of Fortius since 2006.

Fiona is responsible for the compliance monitoring and reporting for the Fortius Group, and has been with Fortius since 2005.

Fiona has over 40 years’ experience in the Funds Management industry, having held positions with Deutsche Bank and Colonial First State Investments. In the past 6 years Fiona has been responsible for acting as an independent compliance consultant, providing compliance consultancy, external compliance committee membership and acting as a Responsible Manager for a number of companies within the Funds Management industry.

Fiona holds a Graduate Diploma in Management from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Ragavan is responsible for the Fortius’ listed real estate strategy and is CEO and Director of Fortius Global Real Estate Securities. Ragavan is based in Singapore.

Ragavan was previously Co-Head of Asian Equities and Senior Portfolio Manager with AMP Capital and also held investment roles with Maple-Brown Abbott, BT Funds Management and Commonwealth Investment Management. During the completion of his Master of Business Administration from Macquarie Graduate School of Management in 2014, Ragavan undertook a research paper on the persistence of value in real estate equities. Ragavan has been a CFA charter holder since 2001.

David is a co portfolio manager for the Fortius’ listed real estate strategy based in Singapore with Fortius Global Real Estate Securities. He has over 25 years of investment experience having begun his career with BT Funds management in Sydney, where he spent 10 years with the Asian Equity team through 2002.

Prior to joining Fortius David has held senior investment roles in Singapore since 2003. Initially with Alliance Capital NY managing a global equity fund followed by Spinnaker Capital Group, a global emerging market multi strategy fund, where he managed Spinnakers’ Asia Pacific listed equities exposure. David has been a CFA charter holder since 2001.

Andrew has a twenty-year career in senior executive positions within global financial services businesses including Deutsche Bank, Schroders Investment Management, Cheyne Capital Management, ABN Amro and CIMB.

In these roles Andrew was focused on absolute return hedge fund strategies investing in public and private markets in real assets, as well as listed equities both in Australia and offshore. Having managed the Pan European capital markets program at Cheyne Capital Management, Andrew brings deep knowledge of investing and capital raising across the capital structure including property debt, corporate credit, structured credit, and equity.

In 2015, Andrew founded Stornoway Capital Partners, a specialist real estate debt arrangement, advisory, and fund management firm. Since 2015, Andrew has originated, advised and arranged over $200m of private real estate debt. Since 2017, Stornoway Capital has partnered with Fortius in arranging real estate secured private debt solutions.

As Managing Director of Fortius Debt Capital, Andrew is responsible for strategic direction, transaction origination and execution, and capital raising.

Andrew has a Bachelor or Arts and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Adelaide.

Catherine is responsible for overseeing the delivery of key investor communication, capital raising, marketing and branding for the Fortius Group. In her role, Catherine works as a key adviser to the leadership team engaging with multiple stakeholders.

Joining Fortius in 2013, Catherine has been involved in the strategic development and marketing of investment products across the Fortius business divisions, including the launch of the Fortius Global Real Estate Securities Fund and capital raising for Fortius Syndicates and Joint Venture mandates representing over $200 million of equity.

Catherine holds a Bachelor of Arts and Education from University of New South Wales and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Technology Sydney.

Ingrid joined the Fortius Group in 2016. Ingrid oversees the day to day operations and finance matters, including financial reporting, budgeting and forecast preparation for the Fortius Group and subsidiary operations. Ingrid has over 10 years’ experience within the Finance Industry. More recently, Ingrid held a finance role within a boutique institutional investment management and advisory business focused exclusively on institutional capital in the real estate sector.

Phoi is a finance professional of 20 years with substantial experience across the financial services industry including fund managers, corporate lenders, investment banks, insurance and corporate trustees. He previously held senior roles with Perpetual, Nikko Asset Management, TAL, and Lloyds International. He is a member of the finance and operations team with responsibilities in compliance, reporting, and commercial & operations assistance across various areas of the business. Phoi is a Chartered Accountant.

Dani has recently joined Fortius and assists the Finance team with the monthly management, accounting and reconciliations for the Fortius Group and subsidiary operations. Prior to Fortius, Dani worked in tax and business services. Dani is also currently undertaking her Chartered Accountant qualification.

Ashley is responsible for the management of the Fortius office and provides communications and administrative support to Fortius staff. In addition, Ashley is responsible for planning, coordinating and overseeing a variety of tasks that assist with the core operations of the Fortius business.

Marc has been associated with Fortius since its inception and his role involves all aspects of the company’s real estate activities including deal origination, pre purchase due diligence, financial structuring, and the implementation of value adding strategies. Marc is integral to the investment and divestment strategies for the Funds’ assets and he also provides acquisition and strategic advice to the firm’s advisory clients.

Marc originally joined Fortius in 2001 with a proven track record in sourcing and implementing value add transactions within Australia and overseas. Having left Fortius in 2007 to establishing an independent investment and advisory company has now rejoined Fortius on a full time basis.

Marc has an extensive knowledge of the key markets, and a wide network of industry contacts to draw upon for the companies ongoing acquisition and divestment program.

Tim is Head of Capital Transactions at Fortius and is responsible for managing deal origination, investment strategy, feasibility analysis, pre purchase due diligence and contract negotiation. Tim also plays a key role in the procurement of debt and capital structuring, with a focus on institutional clients and offshore mandates. During his time at Fortius, Tim has transacted over $1bn of office, retail and mixed use assets.

Prior to joining Fortius, Tim worked at CBRE within the Brisbane Capital Markets team, gaining direct exposure to over $2bn of institutional grade transactions.

Tim has over 10 years of experience in commercial real estate, capital transactions and advisory having previously worked within acquisition and disposal strategy for the Queensland State Government. Tim holds a Bachelor of Science (Property Economics) and a Master of Business (Applied Finance).

James works with the Capital Transactions team at Fortius. His key responsibilities are identifying and analysing opportunities whilst also managing the acquisition due diligence process. James also handles sophisticated and institutional investor queries and assists with investor reporting and asset management.

Prior to joining Fortius in 2016, he most recently worked at Newington College and managed his own coaching business. James holds a holds a Bachelor of Property Economics from the University of Technology, Sydney and has notably represented Australia in water polo at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

In the role of Special Projects, Bryan is responsible to assist Asset Management in contract & standard documentation, workplace health & safety, procurement and insurance together with being available for temporary assignments that arise . Bryan joined Fortius in January 2003.

Bryan has over 35 years of real estate experience, having commenced his real estate career with Westpac in 1980 where he quickly took responsibility for managing in excess of 50 properties. Following Westpac, Bryan held senior roles with Colliers International, Stantons and Investa Property Group.

Bryan has managed over $3bn worth of Australian office, retail and industrial real estate. Bryan leverages this experience to execute portfolio efficiency and cost saving initiatives to ensure our assets are optimised for performance, directly contributing to higher returns for our investors.

Renaud joined the Fortius team in 2015 and has 9 years’ experience in commercial and retail property.

With expertise in retail asset management, his primary job function is within Fortius separate accounts and syndication businesses.

These funds require maximisation of additional income opportunities and superior leasing outcomes for Investors.

Prior to Fortius, Renaud held roles most recently within Westfield, and the Asset Management Services team (AMS) at Knight Frank.

Renaud holds a Bachelor of Business and Masters in Property.

David joined Fortius in 2018 following 11 years working in agency roles, most recently as Director, Asset Management Services, for Knight Frank Australia. During his time in the property industry David has been responsible for management of A and B grade properties throughout the Sydney Market.

Utilising the experience gained increasing asset value through building refurbishment/ repositioning, plant upgrades and lease renewals, David’s focus is the asset management of buildings within the Fortius separate accounts and syndication businesses to maximise return for investors.

Melissa recently joined Fortius as a Senior Asset Manager, and her role involves driving all aspects of asset performance to deliver returns in line with investment strategy.

Melissa has 20 years-experience in the retail property industry having worked for four (4) major AREIT’s being Scentre Group, AMP Capital Shopping Centres, QIC and Mirvac during that time. Her extensive experience in the retail property sector extends across retail marketing, centre management, project delivery and most recently development management on a diverse range of retail properties in NSW and VIC, including; Westfield Miranda, Warringah Mall, Harbourside, Marrickville Metro, Westpoint, Rhodes Waterside and Moonee Ponds Central.

Melissa has extensive knowledge of, and a wide network of industry contacts in the retail property sector and is passionate about the key role the retail sector plays in connecting communities and as Australia’s second largest employer.

Peter joined the Fortius team in December 2017 with 5 years’ experience in commercial real estate. Peter’s most recent role was within the Asset Management Services (AMS) Team at Knight Frank where he managed a portfolio of commercial and industrial assets across greater Sydney.

Supported by his expertise in property management, Peter’s primary job function is the active management of Fortius separate accounts and syndications.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Property Economics and a Masters in Real Estate Investment from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

Nick has a 20 year track record of property development with prestigious firms including Mirvac, Cornerstone, TMG Developments, Ashington Property Group and Fortius. Nick has worked extensively in the major sectors including residential, retail and office and he has an exceptional track record of development problem solving.
 
Nick’s know-how in construction, complex refurbishments, sales and marketing, change of use and leasing, is particularly valuable to Fortius and its clients. Nick is a sought after specialist in the development industry and comes with an enviable reputation.