Market Insight - September 2026

Summer, Sand, Super Intelligence & Return of Rate Hikes

From our vantage point at JMES, Q3 delivered encouraging signals. Many clients have entered the market with renewed conviction, accelerating hiring plans and seeking to complete key mandates ahead of year-end. Unlike 2025, when activity remained subdued through much of the Q3 before a frenetic Q4 surge, 2026 feels markedly more proactive, deliberate, and forward-looking. Importantly, a significant proportion of hiring demand continues to be driven by growth rather than replacement. We are seeing Investment Firms and Banks invest across new strategies, product lines, sectors and geographies, reflecting an ongoing willingness to deploy capital behind long-term opportunities despite an increasingly complex macroeconomic backdrop. Market themes are rarely uniform, yet the resilience of hiring activity has been notable. Banking, Financing, Global Markets, Private Capital and Corporate functions continue to generate demand in varying degrees. Capital remains available across the system; the central challenge for many investors and institutions is identifying where risk-adjusted returns can be most effectively realised.

Artificial (Super) Intelligence remains the constant topic in virtually every boardroom, client meeting, and strategic discussion. The range of perspectives is remarkably broad, with few organisations adopting identical approaches. From candidate assessment and CV screening to workflow automation and decision support, AI is reshaping how firms operate. Yet one principle remains constant: the quality of outcomes is ultimately determined by the quality of the questions being asked. Prompt engineering may be the new discipline, but meaningful conversations, judgement and human relationships remain irreplaceable. What is becoming increasingly clear is that AI will not replace expertise; rather, it will amplify it. The most immediate benefit we are observing is the ability to reclaim time, allowing greater focus on client engagement, candidate relationships and higher-value advisory work.

Alongside the AI conversation, monetary policy has re-entered the spotlight. Speculation surrounding further rate increases has intensified and the first move has now arrived. The key question for markets is how tighter financial conditions may influence hiring intentions, investment activity and broader business confidence as organisations finalise plans for Q4 and position themselves for 2027. The months ahead will provide valuable signals on both economic sentiment and corporate confidence.

The JMES team look forward to continuing to partner with our Clients and Candidates as you navigate evolving markets, pursue growth opportunities and execute on critical mandates.

“Movers & Shakers”

BANKING & MARKETS

Investment Banking / Advisory

• Barrenjoey sees the appointments of former Jarden NZ Co-CEO Daniel Reynolds & Co-Head of Investment Banking Silvana Schenone to lead the New Zealand business.  

• Peter Plakidis has been appointed as Head of Metals & Mining with E&P Financial Group. Peter has earlier experience with Partners in Performance & Fortescue.  

• Li Wynn Tan will be relocating to Melbourne with Bank of America to be Co-Head of the firm’s Australian power, utilities & infrastructure advisory group in December. He joins from Lazard New York.  

• Leigh Golombick & Alvina Galstian have launched advisory firm G&G Advisory Partners. Both Leigh & Alvina were most recently Directors with Morgan Shaw Advisory.  

• Andrew Stace has been appointed as Corporate Finance Advisory Partner for Queensland with Deloitte. Andrew has prior experience with Luminis Partners as Managing Director.  

• Erol Sertbas of JP Morgan, has joined UBS as Director, Investment Banking, ECM.  

• David Wickstrom Division Director of the infrastructure, utilities & renewables team with Macquarie, will be joining Jefferies as Head of Power, Utilities & Infrastructure, ANZ in November.  

• Tim Ashton, previously COO with Marsh, has joined KPMG as Director, Real Estate Valuations.  

• Louis Baker has joined Nomura as Vice President from Allier Capital where he was Vice President, Investment Banking.

• Cristina Mascanzoni previously of Goldman Sachs, has been appointed to Director, Technology Coverage Lead with Citi’s capital markets & advisory team.

• Alexander Klimt most recently with MA Financial Group as Vice President, has joined Barrenjoey as Principal, Real Estate. Michaela Sorrenti has also joined the firm’s technology team from Tribeca Investment Partners. Whilst Hugo Klimt from Macquarie has joined the Financial Services & Technology (FST) team.  

• Maya Mishra most recently with Macquarie Group’s infrastructure & energy team, has joined UBS as an Associate Director. Abbey Smith previously an Associate with Privatus Capital Partners has also joined the firm.  

• JP Morgan has seen the additions of William Tymms (ex Macquarie) as Vice President, Real Estate, George Vlahos (ex OX2) as an Investment Banking Associate & Matthew Choi (ex Macquarie) as an Investment Banking Analyst in Sydney. Whilst Rebecca Lu has joined the Melbourne team as an Investment Banking Analyst from Barrenjoey’s infrastructure team.  

• Matthew Waugh most recently with UBS, has joined Jarden Melbourne as Vice President, Corporate Finance.  

• Juliet McBurney (ex RBCCM) & Rohan Bhatt (ex Craigs Investment Partners) have joined Lazard as Analysts.  

• Oscar May most recently with Allunga Advisory, has joined Macquarie’s FIG team as an Investment Banking Analyst.  

• Isaac Kim has joined E&P Financial Group as an Analyst. Isaac was most recently with Grant Samuel.  

• Anthony Evensen, ex PwC, has joined Rothschild & Co. as an Investment Banking Analyst.  

• William Crook prior with Deloitte, has joined MA Financial Group in Brisbane as an Investment Banking Analyst.  

• Jack Hammond (ex EY) & Lachlan Miller (ex Deloitte) have joined Grant Samuel as Analysts.  

• Joel Spence Thomas previously with EY-Parthenon, has joined Flagstaff Partners as an Investment Banking Analyst.  

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Corporate Banking / Debt Products / Risk Management

• David Hardy & Ian Sutherland both from KPMG’s turnaround & restructuring team are departing for Alvarez & Marsal.  

• Simon Wilkinson most recently with SMBC has joined MUFG as Director Real Estate.  

• Tim Glick of NAB, has joined RBCCM as Director, Capital Structuring Advisory.

• Jan Gabrynowicz who was Head of New Energy & Resources with SMBC, has joined Natixis CIB as Executive Director, Infrastructure & Energy Finance.  

• Nick Towart, ex SMBC has joined Mizuho Bank as Director, Energy Materials Infrastructure. Whilst Stephen Lau has joined the bank as Director, Financial Institutions from Westpac.  

• Dushant Narula previously with UOB, has joined Credit Agricole as Vice President, International Transaction Banking.  

• Lachlan Filipovic has joined ING as Associate, Acquisition Finance from Arrowpoint Capital.  

• Kirby Patterson has joined Bank of America’s leveraged finance team from Neu Capital where he was an Associate in the debt advisory team.  

• Connor Gibson previously with Westpac NZ’s project finance team, has joined RBCCM Sydney as an Analyst within the infrastructure debt advisory team.
• Scott Jindrich has been appointed to the role of Country Head with CIC, most recently having been Australia Country Head with Scotiabank

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Global Markets (FICC & Equities) / Treasury

• Preethi Visweswara has been appointed to lead structured finance with HSBC. She was most recently with Deutsche Bank’s global markets securitisation group.  

• Luke Collins of ANZ, has been appointed as Director, Commodity Risk Solutions with RBCCM.  

• Akbar Shah has been appointed as Head of Treasury & Operations at FinCap. Prior he held roles with Hume Bank and NAB.

• Samuel Rodgers previously with Rabobank, has joined CIC as Treasurer.  

• Luke McQueen is joining Wesfarmers as Head of Funding, Markets & Projects. Luke was previously with JP Morgan (US) as Global Head of Cross Border Finance.  

• Natan Eskin previously Morgan Stanley Singapore, has joined Societe Generale in Sydney as Vice President, Fixed Income Rates Sales.  

• Olivia Sun has joined AirTrunk as Manager, Capital Markets from CPP Investments London.  

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ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS

Private Equity / Family Office / Venture Capital

• Michael Sterry has joined Gandel Group as a Portfolio Manager. Michael has prior experience with Potentum Partners.  

• Vi Duong has been appointed as CIO with the Gance Family Office from Future Fund.  

• Craig Dandurand formerly CIO with Tuckwell Family Office, has joined The Spotlight Group as CIO.  

• US based Millenium Management has seen the addition of BofA’s Shaurya Visen & Perpetual’s Anthony Aboud locally.  

• Lucinda Abood previously of Five V Capital, has joined Black Kite Partners as Managing Director, Portfolio Value Creation.  

• Terry Miu Neeland, ex Pacific Equity Partners, has joined TPG as a Business Unit Partner.  

• Bill Maiden has joined ABGF as a Portfolio Director. Bill was most recently CEO of My Emergency Doctor, GP2U & PSYCH2U.  

• Manasvi Narula has joined Allegro Funds as Associate Director from Macquarie’s TMET team.  

• Oscar Steward has been appointed as Operating Partner with Genesis Capital. Oscar joins from Virtus Health where he was Chief Commercial Officer.  

• Matt Turner previously of Metrics Credit Partners, has joined BGH Capital as a Principal.  

• Luke Tregurtha has joined AGR Partners as Vice President from Jarden.
  

• Charlie Maude previously with Stanton Road Partners, has joined Affinity Equity Partners as an Analyst.  
• Jason Howe has departed Grant Samuel where he was an Analyst, to join AgTech startup – Octopusbot.  
• Tom Morton most recently with UBS has joined TPG as a Private Equity Analyst.  
• Edward Lyons has joined Pemba Capital Partners as a Senior Analyst, Originate from EY-Parthenon.  
• Lachlan Dring has joined Potentia Capital as an Investment Associate from Morgan Stanley’s energy & resources team.  
• Thomas Sukkar, ex Morgan Stanley & PEP, has joined EQT Group as an Associate.
• Thomas Elkovich, ex Goldman Sachs’ FIG team, has joined Partners Group as an Investment Associate.  
• Chirag Mani previously with Flagstaff Partners, has joined Northleaf Capital Partners as an Associate.  
• Joanna Yue, ex OneVentures, has joined King River Capital as an Investment Associate.  

• Will Chryssafis has joined Cheviot as an Associate from PAG.  
• Joshua Sechi previously with Goldman Sachs, has joined Advent International as an Associate.

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Private Credit / Special Situations

• Stephen Allan of BlackRock has been appointed to lead the private credit ventures of Elham Credit Partners.  

• Linus Li who was Managing Director with Haitong International Securities Group Hong Kong, has joined Sun Hung Kai Sydney as Managing Director, Special Situations & Structured Credit.  

• Laurence Hart previously National Head of Commercial Property Finance with Macquarie, has been appointed as CEO of Corval Avenue.  

• Tim Nguyen previously with Pallas Capital has joined HMC Capital as Fund Manager, Private Credit.  

• Samantha Mcilwrick has been appointed as Chief of Staff with Centuria Bass Credit from Morgan Stanley where she was Vice President, Leveraged Finance.

• Rishi Madiraju, ex Roadnight Capital has joined Barings as Associate, Private Credit.  

• Ross Porter prior with Macquarie’s critical minerals & energy team, has joined PEP’s credit team as an Associate.  

• Christopher Hammett, ex Arrow Global Group has joined Bain Capital's special situations team in Sydney as an Associate.  

• Olivia Cameron has joined Rothesay Asset Management as an Analyst from RBCCM.  

• Jack Smith has joined PAG Brisbane as an Analyst, Real Estate Credit from BDO.  

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Real Assets - Infrastructure / Renewables / Energy / Real Estate

• Douglas Park, ex Palisade Investment Partners has joined Labassa Capital as an Investment Director.  

• Jack Huang has joined Capella Capital from Macquarie’s infrastructure & energy team as Associate Director, Energy.

• Joseph Bennett has joined QIC as Investment Manager, Global Infrastructure from Macquarie where he was Vice President in the infrastructure & energy team.

• Bradley Percival has joined Squadron Energy as an Investment Analyst, Investments from EY-Parthenon where he was Manager.  

• Adam Willis of Real Asset Management Group, has joined Cadence Property Group as Head of Capital.  

• Damir Bekbulat previously Investment Banking Associate with Jarden, has joined Macquarie Asset Management’s real estate team.  

• Claudia Huang has joined La Caisse as an Investment Associate in the infrastructure team from RBCCM’s power, utilities & infrastructure team.  

• Cameron Low, ex Jarden, has joined CPP Investments as an Associate.  

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FUNDS MANAGEMENT  

Investments & Distribution

• Jeff Peters, formerly of Platinum, has been appointed as CEO of Apostle Funds Management.

• Chris Grogan, ex Qantas Super, will join Legalsuper as their CIO.

• Jason Guthrie, ex Natixis, has been appointed as Head of Distribution, Australia & NZ at January Capital. 

• Jonas Daly, ex Bennelong, has joined Apostle Funds Management as Head of Distribution.

• Joel Rosen, formerly of Wingate Capital, has joined L1 Capital as Head of Private Clients.

• Charlie Wapshott, previously Claremont Global and E&P Financial Group, has joined JP Morgan Asset Management as Vice President, Head of Southern Region.

• Nathan Rhodes has joined CapPru as a Distribution Executive from Macquarie where he was Distribution Leader for VIC & TAS.  

• Matt Fegan has joined Aware Super as Associate Portfolio Manager, Macro Strategies from AustralianSuper.

• Charmayne Connelly of State Street Global Advisors, has joined Russell Investments as Director, Institutional Sales ANZ.

• Ben Mason who was Strategy Consultant with Monitor Deloitte, is joining First Sentier Investors business development team.  

• Andrew Fitzpatrick has joined Ophir Asset Management as a Senior Portfolio Analyst from Claremont Global.  

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CORPORATE / GOVERNMENT / C-SUITE

• Susie Sugden has been appointed as CEO of Temple & Webster, Susie joins from Genesis Capital.  

• Anuj Goel previously Head of Technology with Macquarie, has joined Sharon AI as CFO.  

• Michael Hasten has been appointed as Head of Growth at fintech company Briefcase. Prior he held roles at LBM Fleet Solutions & ANZ Bank. 

• Niv Fernando has been appointed as Executive General Manager, Corporate Development with Xero. Niv has prior experience with Hansen Technologies & REA Group.

• Nick Renshaw has joined Energy Security Corporation as Executive Director, Investments from Sosteneo Infrastructure Partners.

• Bob Chen of JP Morgan, has joined IREN as Director, Investor Relations, whilst Aaron Tan of KKR has also joined the firm in the US as Head of AI Ecosystem.  

• Michael Craig has joined Swissport as General Manager, Finance from JAS Worldwide.  

• Annie Zambesi previously with Zodia Custody, has joined NRF Corporation as Associate Director, Investments.  

• Richard Jiang has joined Telstra as Senior Manager, Strategy & Corporate Development from Bank of America’s TMT team.  

• Justin Hau has joined Firmus Technologies as Corporate Development Manager from Wingate.  

• Dominic Hyun has joined Sydney Airport as Aviation Commercial Manager. Dominic has earlier experience with Transgrid & Hyundai Rotem.

• Avestina Zhong has joined Wesfarmers Health as a Strategy Business Partner from Grant Samuel.  

• Lawrence D’Mello previously Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley, has joined Airtrunk’s corporate development team.  

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ASIA PAC MOVES

• Tibor Papp has been appointed as Head of Portfolio Optimisation, APAC & Middle East with HSBC Hong Kong from ING.  

• Kunal Maini of BNP Paribas, has joined SMBC New York as Deputy Co-Head of Global Markets & International Head of Macro Rates.  

• Maisie Ng previously with Santander as SVP, Private Debt Mobilisation APAC, has joined Howden Insurance Brokers Hong Kong as Director, Structured Credit, North Asia.  

• Christopher Ganis has been appointed as Jardine Mathieson’s Indonesia Country Head, joining from Indonesia Investment Authority where he was CIO.  

• Dai Kitatani previously of Citigroup, has joined Goldman Sachs as Managing Director & Head of Japan Credit Business.  

• Wei Cheong previously Macquarie Asset Management’s Head of Greater China & SEA in Singapore – has been appointed as Head of Client Solutions with Lunate, Abu Dhabi.  

• Toby Baxter has joined Societe Generale Singapore as G10 AUD NZD Rates Trader from Credit Agricole.  

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We are keen to hear your feedback or should you require further information, please contact us on 02 9235 9400 or nfoster@jmes.com.au

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