Jo joined the Guardians in April 2024, after spending 8 years as Chief Executive Officer at Funds SA in South Australia. She has more than 30 years experience within investment management working in various technical and general management roles within a range of organisations in Australia including REST Industry Super, NGS Super, Retirement Benefits Fund, Value Capital Management, and Rothschild Australia Asset Management. Jo has a Bachelor of Mathematics and Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney and is a certified Investment Management Analyst from the Investment Management Consultants Association.

Prior to joining the Guardians in 2009 Alex worked for Goldman Sachs JBWere (NZ) Ltd as Director of Derivatives for two years. Before this he worked at Merrill Lynch for seven years in London as Vice President. In this role he was a structured credit derivatives trader, managing a large trading book and market-making on tranches, bespoke CDOs, default swap options and other derivatives.

Brad joined the Guardians in September 2013 as Head of Portfolio Completion. Prior to joining the Guardians Brad had worked for Cannacord Genuity in London as Co-Head of European Equity Derivatives. Brad Spent  11 Years working in London for various investment banks including Bear Stearns and JP Morgan. Brad holds an BCom from the University of Canterbury and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management. Brad is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and is currently the chair of the Kohimarama School Board of Trustees.

Cristina is the Chair of the Risk Committee, she joined the Guardians in 2009 following roles in both law firms and as in house counsel in the financial services industry. Prior to going inhouse, Cristina spent several years as a senior legal associate at Herbert Smith Freehills in Australia and worked at law firm Bell Gully. Cristina has substantial experience in financial services with expertise across various facets of law including mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial law, health and safety, public law and governance.

David Sara joined the Guardians in 2009. He has substantial experience in financial services, including as Head of Strategy with UK-based Platform Home Loans, Head of Venture Development for Lloyds Banking Group and Manager of Strategic Planning for the National Bank of New Zealand.

Michael joined the Fund in 2005 to establish the Fund’s Responsible Investment processes. Since then, he has switched his focus to the Guardians’ risk requirements and has been instrumental in establishing the Risk Record framework, the development of the in-house trading for liquidity and reference portfolio completion. Prior to starting at the Guardians, Michael worked for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in Wellington before moving on to Morgan Stanley, Westpac Investment Management and ABN Amro.

Prior to joining the Fund as Head of Human Resources in 2012, Ms Austin was a Senior Associate with Russell McVeagh, specialising in commercial litigation. She has also worked for the Financial Services Authority in London. Ms Austin has a LLB/BA from the University of Auckland.

Paula joined the Guardians in July 2021, from ASB Bank where she was the Chief Internal Auditor. Paula has 25 years experience in financial services and banking, starting her career as an auditor with professional services firm Deloitte and holding various executive finance and general management roles with AMP, ANZ and ASB. Paula is a Chartered Accountant, and has a BCA majoring in Accounting and Commercial Law from Victoria University.