Building resilient portfolios for better outcomes during uncertain times

Florbela (Flof) Yates began her career in November 1993 as a consultant with Alexander Forbes in the health care division. She spent six years there before transferring to Investment Solutions as a senior marketing executive. There, she focused on new business in the institutional space. Florbela was instrumental in building relationships with consultants outside of Alexander Forbes and growing assets in that external market. After 13 years with the group, she joined RMB International as their Head of Institutional Business in SA. Her responsibilities included participating in the quarterly asset allocation and manager review meetings in London, reporting back to local clients whose offshore assets they managed and growing the offshore assets. She then joined STANLIB Multi-Manager where she was involved in growing institutional assets, product development and institutional reporting. It was at STANLIB that she branched into the retail investment space as an investment marketing specialist. Here, she was involved in distributing not only the STANLIB Multi-Manager offering but also growing the Stonehouse model and their building blocks into the partner space. It was here where her first experience into the DFM market was gained. She then spent three years with Hollard Investments in their DFM team. Here, she was involved in concluding partnership deals with identified independent financial advisers (IFAs) and building bespoke model portfolios for retail clients. Florbela joined as Head of Equilibrium Investment Management in January 2017. She has a BCom (Economics, Business Finance, Marketing and Tax) degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and is a certified financial planner (CFP).

Chris Rule is the Head of Client Solutions at 10X Investments, where he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of client investment solutions. Chris has a wealth of knowledge in investment management and investment banking. Prior to joining 10X Investments, Chris was at Grindrod Bank where he was involved in balance sheet projects and fund management. He was instrumental in the development of Grindrod Bank’s ETF business, which served as the foundation for CoreShares. At CoreShares, as management co-founder Chris played a vital role in growing the company from its inception to over R14bn in assets under management. He was responsible for investment strategy, product development, and research. Chris holds a B.Comm. Hons (Financial Analysis) and is a CFA and CAIA charterholder. He is excited to continue his work at 10X Investments and make a difference in the industry.

Paul Fouché is the Chief Investment Officer and co-founder of New Road Capital. Paul has a wealth of experience in the financial advisory and investment management industry, from client facing advisory roles to the technical aspects of portfolio management and asset allocation. After graduating with an Honours Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pretoria in 2007, Paul started his career as a production manager in the manufacturing industry. In 2010, he joined the Liberty Group as a financial planner focusing on constructing portfolios for high net-worth clients. This is where he and Garth met and formed their friendship. Paul moved into a management role, whereby he managed a team of financial advisers and built up a large client investment book. During this time Paul obtained his CFA charter, and in 2016 he entered the private wealth management industry whereby he managed personal share portfolios and model portfolios for high net-worth clients. In 2019 he co-founded New Road Capital with Garth, as a business that could materialize their vision of providing holistic and unique portfolio management services to financial advisers and their end clients. Paul is an avid cyclist and enjoys both mountain biking and road riding. When he is not looking at markets, he, and his wife Raine spend much of their spare time at various cycling events around the country.

Victoria Reuvers is the managing director for the Morningstar South African investment management group. She is responsible for leading the business and leveraging Morningstar’s global investment capabilities to provide best-practice investment management for clients. Her career at Morningstar began with the formation of the South African Investment Management business in February 2015 where she was a senior portfolio manager. She was responsible for leading the South African investment team and building portfolios to deliver better investment outcomes to Morningstar clients. Before joining Morningstar, Victoria was the founder and CEO of Trivium Capital (Pty) Ltd, an investment consulting and research firm in Cape Town. As well as driving strategy for the business, Victoria was a senior portfolio manager at Trivium Capital. Her role included investment research, portfolio construction and ongoing portfolio management. Before founding Trivium, Victoria gained extensive experience in fund analysis and quantitative research experience at Investec Asset Management where she worked in the retail fund management team. Prior to that, she worked for Investec Private Bank as part of their growth and acquisition finance team. Victoria began her career at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank and has 21 years’ experience in the financial services industry. She holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Cape Town.

Zama is a Portfolio Executive at RMI Investment Managers. Her portfolio focuses on assisting RMI’s affiliate boutique asset management firms with their asset raising initiatives across retail and institutional client segments. Her asset management career began in 2004 when she joined Coronation Fund Managers as an investment specialist in the retail distribution team. After close to 10 years she left to pursue a slight career change and joined the Debt Capital Markets distribution team at RMB where she assisted various corporates raise debt capital from asset managers in bond auctions and private placements. She holds a B.Business Science Finance Honours degree from UCT and a Postgraduate Diploma in Certified Financial Planning from the University of the Free State. Outside her asset management career, Zama enjoys travelling the world, good wine and competitive dancing.