September 4, 2025 • 35 mins
What happens after you've reached the pinnacle of human achievement? For Tom King, Olympic gold medalist in sailing at the 2000 Sydney Games, the journey from elite athletics to the corporate world reveals surprising challenges and universal truths about success, purpose, and reinvention.
Tom pulls back the curtain on his remarkable path from sailing on Albert Park Lake as a teenager to becoming Chief Investment Officer at Nanuk Asset Management, Australia's leading sustainable investment firm.
Tom's story illuminates how seemingly disconnected experiences create unexpected opportunities. His sustainable investment focus now channels his competitive drive toward positive global impact through industries ranging from renewables to healthcare technology.
Whether you're navigating a career transition, interested in sustainable investing, or simply curious about what happens after the Olympic podium, Tom's journey offers powerful insights about reinvention and finding meaning in the next chapter of life.
Follow Tom King on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-king-9690a9368/
Visit the Nanuk Asset Management website: https://www.nanukasset.com/
Content Note
This episode discusses themes of depression, purpose, identity, and life transitions. If these topics raise concerns for you, know that support is available.
- Lifeline – 13 11 14 | lifeline.org.au
- Beyond Blue – 1300 22 4636 | beyondblue.org.au
- Headspace (for young people aged 12–25) | headspace.org.au
- If you’re in immediate danger, please call 000.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Coming down with one mark to go.
Tom King and Mark Turnbull outof Melbourne set to claim
Australia a very historic secondgold medal.
We look for the Australians,tom King and Mark Turnbull to
make history for Australia toclaim our gold medal.
Here are King and Turnbullcoming into the finishing line.
Are those boys happy?
(00:22):
A gold medal?
The comeback kings have scoredgold for Australia in the men's
470 class.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome back to Finance Friends, your personal
seat at the table with leadersshaping the financial world.
In this exclusive season, wemeet with high profile,
incredibly successful athleteswho achieve the greatest heights
on the sports field and are nowdominating the finance world.
(00:49):
On today's episode of FinanceFriends with Fabian, we have Tom
King, who's currently the ChiefInvestment Officer and
Portfolio Manager of NanookAsset Management.
They're a sustainableinvestment manager, arguably
Australia's leading sustainableinvestment manager.
Tom was a gold medalist insailing at the 2000 Olympic
(01:13):
Games and participated inAtlanta in 1996.
Tom shares his story aboutbeing a professional athlete in
sailing, studying engineeringduring this time, working as an
engineer before transitioning tothe world of finance and having
a very successful career infinance.
It wasn't easy for Tom, so ittook him about five years to get
(01:34):
comfortable with the corporateworld.
Tom shares his story.
This is a must listen to.
Before we begin today's episode,a quick note.
This conversation includes adiscussion of mental health
challenges.
If you are struggling or findthese topics difficult to hear,
please take care of yourself.
And also please note you're notalone and support is always
(01:57):
available.
We've included resources in theshow notes if you or someone
you know needs help in the shownotes if you or someone you know
needs help.
Hi, tom, welcome to the FinanceFriends podcast.
How are you today?
I'm good, thank you.
Well, thank you for coming in.
So you're currently you work atNanook Asset Management, is
(02:18):
that right?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, I'm the Managing Director and Chief.
Investment Officer at Nanook, Iwas involved in starting the
business about 15 years ago andbeen well involved in that
journey ever since.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so tell them.
For our listeners that don'tknow, nanook Asset Management,
can you share some insight intothe business?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Sure, we're an Australian-based funds
management business.
We run a global equitiesstrategy called the Nanook New
World Fund, and it invests inindustries and technologies
around the world that arerelated to environmental
sustainability and resourceefficiency.
So that covers a pretty broadrange of industries and
technologies, from the obviousthings like renewables and clean
(03:00):
tech through to healthcaretechnology and things to do with
the internet of things techthrough to healthcare technology
and things to do with theinternet of things A very broad,
really interesting set ofopportunities around the world
and we have believed for morethan 15 years now that investing
in that part of the broadermarket is likely to be the right
(03:20):
place to be to deliver goodinvestment outcomes, and if we
can do a great job of pickingstocks from that part of the
market, that we can delivergreat outcomes for our clients.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, and what is your?
You talk much a bit about yourinvestment process, and how do
you decide whether you know aninvestment is a good investment
or it's not a good investment?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, we have a team of very experienced portfolio
managers that I run who arelooking around the world every
day and every week to find whatwe think are prospectively good
investments, and for us that'stypically mature, profitable
businesses that can generate andhave proven that they can
generate good returns on capitalthat are benefiting from the
(04:01):
way in which the industries theysit in are evolving, both in
terms of these long-term trendsand themes but also the
shorter-term industry dynamicsand the way that the companies
are being affected by newtechnology and policy and
changing competitive dynamicsand industry cycles.
And if we can find things thatfit those criteria, at the end
(04:22):
of the day, we're fairlyconventional.
We want to buy things that wethink are cheap enough today
that they're going to delivergood investment outcomes if
we're close to being right aboutwhat's going to happen in the
future.
So, good quality businesses atreasonable prices with good
thematic tailwinds.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And do you have a limit on how many investments or
assets you will hold in theportfolio?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
We do, we cap the number in the portfolio at 70,
which is a number we came upwith.
That gave us a good balancebetween being able to invest
across a diverse range of thesesectors and get good exposure to
them, but also have a fund thathas a relatively benign risk
profile and is therefore usefulto our clients.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And when did you know you wanted to work in
investment management?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
About 23 years ago or 24 years ago, maybe even a
little bit longer than that.
I'd always had a fascinationwith it whilst I was sailing,
but that was really just becausewhat I saw as an engineer
looking at the news every nightwas these share price charts
(05:32):
that looked a bit like winddirection charts and people
talking about a tactical andstrategical game of capitalising
on what's going on in thosecharts.
That look very similar to whathappens in sailing and I'd
always sort of wanted to knowmore about that.
And then I studied mechanicalengineering and I actually went
(05:53):
down a career path in industrialconsulting, working on
performance improvement in bigmanufacturing businesses.
But that experience actuallyopened up a different sort of
angle on wanting to be involvedin the finance industry, which
is what ultimately led me tomove in that direction, and that
was becoming aware of thepotential for things to be done
(06:17):
better and more efficiently inbusiness through good decision
making and the value that couldbe created through doing that.
And as a consultant, that'svery hard to do and you get paid
a tiny fraction of the valueyou create, and I had in mind
that I wanted to get to theother end of the spectrum where
you had the control ofshareholding or sort of top-down
(06:40):
control over making betterdecisions, and you got the full
benefit of the value that wascreated through that, and so I
looked for a way to get intofinance and investment, and that
put me on a career path thathas taken me to where I am now,
which isn't necessarily where Ithought that might be 25 years
ago, but it's been aninteresting journey since then.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So it would be good to bring it back to the start,
because you did mention sailinga couple of times.
So you were a professionalsailor and you competed at the
Olympics.
So can you share some of yourexperience from your early days,
maybe when you were a teenager?
When did you know that youwanted to be a professional
athlete?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So I sailed full time you could call it
professionally for 10 yearsafter I finished school.
I'd learnt to sail when I was12 or 13.
I grew up in Melbourne sailingon Albert Park Lake.
I wasn't a particularlytalented sailor immediately, but
I really loved it.
It was something that I hadsome aptitude for and I just
(07:39):
loved being out on the water andthe opportunity to compete and
get better at something, andover a number of years, got
involved in the junior trainingprogram here and then ended up
winning national and ultimatelya world championship just as I
was leaving school, and that, Iguess, made the dream of going
(08:00):
to the Olympics, which I guessis something I'd had since I was
a little kid even well before Ihad ever sailed a distinct you
know, or maybe a distanceprobably the better word
possibility.
And yeah, I decided afterfinishing school that I wanted
to sort of pursue that and seewhere I could get to with it.
So I spent, you know, 10 yearssailing a lot, whilst sort of
(08:26):
working through an engineeringdegree over that same timeframe.
So I took a year off afterschool and focused on raising
enough money to go and sail andcompete overseas.
I then started an engineeringdegree and ended up doing three
years of that before I deferredbecause we were getting close to
being selected for the Olympicsin Atlanta in 1996, which we
ended up going to.
(08:46):
And then, having had thatexperience, I really wanted to
go to the Sydney Games and to gothere and do it properly.
So I finished my engineeringdegree in 98 and then sailed
full-time through to 2000.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, so for our listeners that might not be
familiar with sailing and youmentioned that you raised enough
money to do that full-time andtravel around the world talk us
through that.
Were you a paid athlete?
Is there like Sailing Australiathat plays their top, like the
Australian cricket team that hasa list of 20 paid players, or
(09:20):
how does it work?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I think sailing is similar to a lot of the sort of
minor Olympic sports wherethere's not a lot of money
involved.
We did get a little bit offunding through the Sports
Commission and through theNational Federation and support
from organisations like theVictorian Institute of Sport
(09:44):
federation and support fromorganisations like the Victorian
Institute of Sport.
But most of what it costs tocampaign is the living and
travel expenses and we had tofind a way to make that work
ourselves and some of that wasthrough working alongside
travelling and training andcompeting, and some of it was
with family help, but it wasnever something where we were
(10:11):
making money out of it andcertainly towards the end I had
this strong sense that I wasslipping behind my peer group
financially, because we wereborrowing money in order to be
able to go to the Olympics andeven if we won, we weren't going
to come out of it with anythingyou know significant in hand.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, and that must be quite challenging during that
time when you want to.
You've got a goal of competingin the Olympics and, I assume,
an ultimate goal of winning gold, which you were able to achieve
, and balancing between you knowthis is costing me money to
hopefully achieve my goal.
Was it challenging at times?
Or you always had your goal onthe prize that?
(10:51):
You know, whatever it takes,I'm going to get there, You're
right.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It was challenging and challenging, often
frustrating, because throughmost of that timeframe I think
we'd always have felt that ifwe'd had more money we could be
doing more and be moresuccessful than we were.
So we were constrained by that,but it was sort of part and
(11:16):
parcel of doing what we weredoing.
We didn't start it with anyexpectation that we were going
to be making money out of it.
It was a journey that I was onwith the two people I sailed
with over that time frame to seehow far we could go.
I didn't think of it as ordidn't go into it thinking it
(11:36):
was a financial sacrifice to dothat.
In a lot of ways, I think theright way to look at it is we
were really lucky to spend ahuge amount of time just focused
on making ourselves better, andthat's a privilege that
athletes you know who aretraining full-time.
Have that very few people insociety have to invest all their
(12:00):
own time and effort into makingthemselves better at what they
do not making you, not makingmoney or not making someone else
money yeah, and how did you,how did you balance during that
time?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
because you mentioned you were studying an
engineering degree.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
You were doing a little bit of work here and
there and also focusing onbecoming the best athlete you
could be I guess you know wemade it work as we needed to, so
I was fairly committed to theidea of finishing my study over
that time frame, and I was luckythat the university was
accommodative in terms of beingable to take time off when I
(12:35):
needed to and defer studies forextended periods in order to fit
in competition and particularlyoverseas travel.
But yeah, it's just a constantjuggle, and I don't think
(12:56):
balance is the right way tothink about it either, because
you don't get to that level bybeing balanced, and it's an
interesting sort of topic insport these days that everyone's
focused on achieving balance insport and life and achieving
sort of all-round success.
If you want to win an Olympicgold medal, you've got to be the
(13:17):
best in the world, and unlessyou're the most obsessively
committed to achieving that,you're pretty unlikely to do
that.
And so I thought of it more asa period, towards the end at
least, where it was absolutelyunbalanced, obsessive commitment
for as long as I could sustainthat up to the point that we
finished, knowing that at somepoint it was going to finish and
(13:39):
I could do other things afterthat.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And how does that relate to what you do in your
current role, the commitment togetting the desired outcome, and
what you do in your currentrole?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
The big picture is, you know, I got to where I did
in sport because I'm outlier interms of obsessive commitment to
and determination to achieve,achieve sort of perfection and
and to be as good as I can, andthat's that's what you need in
that sporting environment.
(14:14):
But there's a big differencebetween that and, you know, a
more normal professionalenvironment.
The big one is that you cansustain a level of intensity in
that sporting arena knowing thatit's going to stop at some
point, and you're always focusedon a goal that's within line of
(14:35):
sight.
So you're working towards aworld championship or an Olympic
Games in a couple of years'time.
You know where that finish lineis and you can structure
everything around that and it'seasy to go all in when you know
it's like that.
When you're dealing with a jobor a career aside from some very
(14:58):
transactional sort of jobs andindustries, it's a continuum you
don't have that focal point andyou need to find a balance that
enables you to keep going andgoing and going.
Yep, and I think that's quite abig difference between the
sporting environment and theworking environment.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, and was it a challenge for you to transition
from being an athlete to youmentioned?
After 10 years of sailing, youthen went and working.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
you're working as an engineer.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Can you talk about your transition and how you
found that transition?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, if I'm frank, I found it extremely difficult
and I went through a period offour or five years during which
I was depressed and I wouldn'tsay I had depression in a
clinical sense, but felt verydown about sort of who I was and
where I was in the world andwhere I was going and how I was
(16:01):
going to sort of get back ontrack.
And that's a pretty common thing, I think.
If you speak to most Olympianswho move away from their sport
and into something else, they gothrough extended periods of
having to rethink who they areand what they do and how they
(16:22):
succeed in different areas.
So yeah, it was a reallychallenging period for me and I
think the thing that made itreally hard was this sort of
huge disconnect between peoplearound me at the time,
(16:44):
constantly sort of saying, oh,you know, because you've done
this, you'll be great, and thatdidn't sort of sit well with the
athlete in me, which you knowas an athlete.
You know what excellence lookslike, you know what world class
(17:04):
looks like and you know thatfalse confidence doesn't
underpin excellence and you knowhow long and how hard you have
to work to become excellent atsomething.
You know when you move intoanother field that you're you
know, you are chasms away frombeing as good at that as you
(17:26):
could be.
You might want to be.
You need to be, to be, to begood in a new field and to have
sort of people saying, oh, it'sgreat.
And operating in a workplaceenvironment where negative
feedback is frowned upon,compared to a sporting
environment where 95 percent ofthe feedback you get every day
is negative feedback, and it'sreally healthy because that's
(17:47):
what helps you improve.
It was a really difficulttransition into a different
environment and it took me along time to sort of find
comfort with that and to realiseand I think sort of internalise
and accept that the workplaceenvironment and succeeding
(18:08):
outside of elite sport is verydifferent to in elite sport.
Elite sport's one of the realpure meritocracies in the world.
I mean maybe you could.
You could point the finger atsome of the team sports where
selection becomes a bitsubjective, but in most sports
the results do speak forthemselves.
(18:30):
It's merit that gets you whereyou want, and there's no hiding
from that.
In most other facets of life,it's relationships and
connections and intangibles thatare important in getting to the
next step.
It's not a meritocracy, and Ithink for a lot of athletes
(18:53):
that's a pretty challengingthing and I didn't realise at
the time it took me a long timeto work it out that the thing I
really earned during my olympicjourney was not, um, not not a
set of skills that some peoplesay are what olympians have.
(19:15):
It's not.
It's not being a hard workerand disciplined and organized
and all these things that peoplekeep saying.
Like plenty of people inbusiness have those kind of
skill sets and they're you knowthey're they're a starting point
for being successful.
You don't come in as an.
Olympian, suddenly you're goingto succeed because you're more
(19:36):
organised.
But I did have a calling card,so I'm an Olympian, and that
opens up a network and a set ofrelationships and conversations
that's very difficult for peoplewho don't have that background
to to engage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
that was the the competitive edge that I had, and
when I sort of realized thatand that there was a network of
people there who wanted to helpthat you know, I opened up doors
and opportunities that havetaken me where I've got to yeah,
and would you, what advicewould you have for someone that
(20:15):
is just maybe towards the end oftheir professional career as an
athlete and looking at theirprofessional career in finance
or as an engineer or in themedia to help with that
transition to a different careeror to their next career?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, I mean along the lines of what I've just said
about my experience.
I think if people are coming tothe end of that sporting career
, they should absolutely makethe most of that time, because
it does end and you's you can'tgo.
It's very hard to go back and dothat again, but that yeah, the
(20:56):
finding a new path after thatisn't easy, but as a sports
person you have a network and acommunity of people there who
want you to succeed and who will, if you ask them, you know, at
least once sit down and talk toyou and if you're polite and
(21:18):
thoughtful, they will makeintroductions, they will do what
they can to facilitate youmoving forward and if you, if
you open-minded, if you, youknow, recognize that and take
advantage of what you have,which is this community of
support and network, that youwill find opportunities, and you
(21:39):
don't need to know exactly whatthey look like.
Yeah, um, so there are.
You know, there's this group ofus who've been through this
kind of athletic experiencewhere, in some ways, it's really
simple and it's a luxurybecause you, at some point, work
out that's what I want to dowith my life and you can go and
focus exclusively on that.
(22:01):
It's really simple, it's reallyclear, um, and there's an
appeal to thinking well, that'show the rest of my life should
operate, that I should come upwith the same kind of clarity I
had when I was 14, that I wantedto go to the Olympics.
My career needs to have thatkind of clarity, and the reality
is that 95% of us in theworkforce probably more never
(22:26):
have that clarity.
We're not pursuing an end goalthat we've had as a dream since
we were 14 years old.
We're making the most of theopportunities that we've got and
letting that sort of take us toto where we should be.
Um, and the people I see tryingto find that next goal as their
primary concern, they veryrarely do like if you, if you're
(22:49):
lucky enough to work out afteryou finish your sporting career,
that you know I want to be.
You know I want to be aproperty developer doing X and
that's my passion and I'm goingto go for it.
I want to make paper straws andsell them to wherever.
Go for it, like that's, butthat's the one in 20 or the one
in 50.
The rest it's not going tohappen.
(23:10):
Like you've got to accept thatyou're not going to have that
purity of you know this is whatI really want to do.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
The ultimate outcome or goal.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, that goal, that singular focus, won't be there.
But it doesn't mean you can'thave a great life.
You don't need to have thatsingular focus to be happy, to
be satisfied professionally, tohave a great life and the things
that you might value and if youfree yourself of that worry.
I think that's half the battle.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, and it is a bit of a change of a mindset, isn't
it?
Because you've gone from, likeyou said, the age of 13 or 14,
wanting to go to the Olympicsand ultimately you achieve the
greatest sporting achievement ofbeing a gold medalist.
Then how do you change yourmindset of not necessarily
having an ultimate goal in thebusiness world to just enjoying
(24:04):
the journey and learning as yougo?
It could be challenging.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, I don't think it sits well with people.
I think people who've had thatpreviously want to find it again
.
It's not impossible, I thinkit's just unlikely.
And in getting worried aboutthat, you're likely to miss the
opportunities that are there.
Because I think one thingbecomes sort of clearer the
(24:31):
longer you're in business isthat there are people who
succeed in the mostextraordinarily diverse range of
stuff.
There are people making greatlivings and having happy careers
and successful businesses doingabsolutely everything.
There's some guy you know whomakes the, the sound deadening
(24:53):
stuff that's stuck on the wallnext to us.
Who's the guy, who's the go-toman who knows all about that and
has it, and I'm sure he's doingjust great and having a happy
life.
Like everywhere, there arethese opportunities around us,
um, and yeah, it's hard to knowwhat that's going to be and
probably it's a circumstantialthing that you'll end up in
(25:14):
something like that.
You need to be open to it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, and is there someone that had a big influence
on your career, to your careerbeyond sailing, like your career
in finance or engineering,someone that you looked up to
that helped you with thattransition comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Look, I haven't had a mentor.
A lot of people do seek outbusiness mentors who help guide
them over time through thatjourney, and I think that's a
great thing if you can find theright people who you have the
right rapport with.
But I have had a number ofpeople during my career at
(25:56):
different points, provide greatadvice and good counsel and be
what I think have been greatrole models for me in the way
that I operate, and most ofthose have come through sporting
connections and you knowgetting to know people because
of the sporting connection, butthen having a relationship that
(26:17):
extends beyond that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, and it would be good to.
We've spoken a lot about yourcareer as an athlete and
transitioning to where you aretoday, but I want to talk more a
bit about the journey.
So you mentioned that youstudied engineering.
You were working sort ofengineering was it consulting,
where you're helping businessesimprove their manufacturing?
How did you get from there towhere you are today?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So I worked for this really interesting small
business that was based out ofSydney and had an operation in
the UK only for about a year andwas involved in a couple of
projects to deliver performanceimprovement work.
The first thing I worked on wasin a very large toilet paper
factory in the UK making theequivalent of Softly toilet
(27:04):
paper there, and within thefirst few weeks that I was on
the job managed to solve acouple of problems.
That probably saved the companythe better part of a million
dollars a year wow and, as aconsulting firm, we might have
been paid ahundred thousand dollars and as
a consultant I was paid tenthousand dollars and on a ten
(27:26):
times earnings.
Multiple shareholders were 10million dollars better off.
So I was a you know threeorders of magnitude away from
the shareholders in terms ofcapturing the value.
Um, but I saw that in businessa lot of stuff can be improved
and my immediate reaction tothat was I want to be in private
(27:50):
equity, where not only are younot fighting the system, as a
consultant you're able toinfluence with real control over
how things get changed, butyou're at that equity end of the
value spectrum, and so I workedout quite quickly that that's
what I wanted to try and get towas being involved in private
(28:13):
equity, being involved inbusiness ownership, where you
could help make better decisionsand benefit from doing that and
make the world a better placeby being being more efficient.
yeah, lots of people are wastinga lot of the time out there
doing things that are not notnot achieving a lot, so what
Australia could do isproductivity improvements.
Yeah, and the opportunities arethere.
(28:41):
And it wasn't necessarily easyfor me to get into that industry
and I ended up getting a jobwith a small Australian equities
fund manager down here inMelbourne.
That was my entree into theinvestment industry.
And once again, I only workedthere for less than a year but
it, I guess, gave me aneducation in markets and
(29:01):
investment and the things thatare important to good investing
and through that, yeah, I wasclear that I wanted to stay in
the industry and continue downthis particular path.
And then, yeah, through a seriesof conversations with people
(29:22):
who wanted to help me, I endedup getting a job in an
investment bank and moved up toSydney, so I worked for
Rothschild initially with theCEO there in a sort of corporate
strategy type role, looking atprivate equity opportunities,
and then in their corporateadvisory and M&A business and
also in the forestry managedinvestment scheme business,
(29:45):
which I ran for a while.
Rothschild got most of itsbusiness, got sold to Investec
and I moved on at that point andjoined Consolidated Press.
I worked for James Packer forthree years in a role that was
with a small group of peopleresponsible for most of the
(30:05):
unlisted assets thatConsolidated Press owned, which
is a pretty interesting mix ofbusinesses that Kerry Packer had
bought during his lifetime andthe goal there was to build an
institutionalised private equitybusiness within Consolidated
Press, much as they'd done withthe listed markets in Elliston.
(30:28):
And for a variety of reasonsthat didn't come to pass, uh,
but through a series ofconversations that actually
started with people I knewthrough sailing um in early 2009
, um, I left consolidated pressto start nanook.
We saw an opportunity in themidst of the financial crisis to
(30:52):
start a business that focusedon the areas we focus on today
that no one else was reallydoing in Australia at that point
in time.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, so you're the leaders ultimately in
sustainable investing in thiscountry.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Look we run.
I think the largest activelymanaged, sustainably themed fund
in the country.
There are a couple of otherincredible people out there
doing similar things, but yeah,we're one of the leaders in that
space.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Well, it's an incredible journey that you've
had, from being a professionalsailor to studying engineering,
travelling around the world,being an Olympian, going to two
Olympics, winning gold medal,working in engineering, so
investment banking, privateequity and now for the leading
sustainable investment firm inthe country.
(31:42):
So credit to you.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's kind of you.
It's nice when you put it thatway.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, do you sort of look back and say, wow, I've
achieved a lot in my career?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
No, no, I mean, I don't look back is the main
thing, I guess in sport I'vealways had a view that you're
only as good as your next result.
And yeah, I don't spend a lot oftime thinking about what I've
(32:17):
done previously, Like we've onlygot a limited amount of time in
our life and I like to do asmany good things as I can whilst
I've got the opportunity.
Got the opportunity, and it'snice to be in a position now
where we've built somethingthat's our own and it's a
successful small business butthere's a great opportunity.
(32:39):
I still believe, more stronglynow than I did 15 years ago,
that what we're doing has meritand is a worthwhile thing to be
doing, and that we can delivergreat outcomes for our clients
if we do a great job, and sothat's what I'm focused on.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, if we can do things well, I get satisfaction
out of that and, I guess, tosome of the stuff that I said
earlier, I don't have an endgoal.
You know a specific end goal inmind in terms of we have to get
the business to here, or I'mtrying to, you know, take my
career to the next spot.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
You know, I've thought more about.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know, the longer my career's gone on, the more
about what matters to me isworking with good people doing
something worthwhile and doingit well and yeah, trying to have
the right way of operating thatI can enjoy.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, we definitely make an impact.
And what about sailing?
Are you still involved in thesailing community?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Not particularly.
It's interesting, though, myboys, who are 8 and 11, have
started sailing in the lastcouple of years, so I'm now a
sailing parent driving aroundwith a trailer and a boat
dropping them off at events, sothey can do it.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah Well, do you have any?
What advice do you have foryour children?
I don't, I don't.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah, make sure your boat's packed up when I get back
.
Yeah, I try not to get tooinvolved.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've got coaches there to do that, and I don't
think it helps to have parentsinterfering.
They won't listen to me.
Yeah Well, I'm sure one daythey'll want your advice Maybe,
maybe not.
Well, thank you for coming onthe podcast, tom, it's been a
pleasure.
Thanks for sharing your storyand and first time we're meeting
.
But I'm familiar with thebusiness and I know Matt, who
works in your team.
(34:33):
So thank you very much forcoming on, it's been a pleasure.
And thank you for sharing yourstory on Finance Friends Podcast
my pleasure.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening this week.
Stay tuned for our next episodeand keep up to date with us by
following the Finance FriendsPodcast on Instagram and TikTok
Plus.
Connect with us and our guestsover on our LinkedIn page, all
(34:55):
linked in the show notes.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational
and entertainment purposes only.
The personal opinions of thespeaker and guests do not
represent the view of any otherparty.
If this recording containsreference to financial products,
that reference does notconstitute advice nor
recommendations and may not berelied upon.
Coming down with one mark to go.
Tom King and Mark Turnbull outof Melbourne set to claim
Australia a very historic secondgold medal.
We look for the Australians,tom King and Mark Turnbull to
make history for Australia toclaim our gold medal.
Here are King and Turnbullcoming into the finishing line.
Are those boys happy?
(00:22):
A gold medal?
The comeback kings have scoredgold for Australia in the men's
470 class.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Welcome back to Finance Friends, your personal
seat at the table with leadersshaping the financial world.
In this exclusive season, wemeet with high profile,
incredibly successful athleteswho achieve the greatest heights
on the sports field and are nowdominating the finance world.
(00:49):
On today's episode of FinanceFriends with Fabian, we have Tom
King, who's currently the ChiefInvestment Officer and
Portfolio Manager of NanookAsset Management.
They're a sustainableinvestment manager, arguably
Australia's leading sustainableinvestment manager.
Tom was a gold medalist insailing at the 2000 Olympic
(01:13):
Games and participated inAtlanta in 1996.
Tom shares his story aboutbeing a professional athlete in
sailing, studying engineeringduring this time, working as an
engineer before transitioning tothe world of finance and having
a very successful career infinance.
It wasn't easy for Tom, so ittook him about five years to get
(01:34):
comfortable with the corporateworld.
Tom shares his story.
This is a must listen to.
Before we begin today's episode,a quick note.
This conversation includes adiscussion of mental health
challenges.
If you are struggling or findthese topics difficult to hear,
please take care of yourself.
And also please note you're notalone and support is always
(01:57):
available.
We've included resources in theshow notes if you or someone
you know needs help in the shownotes if you or someone you know
needs help.
Hi, tom, welcome to the FinanceFriends podcast.
How are you today?
I'm good, thank you.
Well, thank you for coming in.
So you're currently you work atNanook Asset Management, is
(02:18):
that right?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, I'm the Managing Director and Chief.
Investment Officer at Nanook, Iwas involved in starting the
business about 15 years ago andbeen well involved in that
journey ever since.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, so tell them.
For our listeners that don'tknow, nanook Asset Management,
can you share some insight intothe business?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Sure, we're an Australian-based funds
management business.
We run a global equitiesstrategy called the Nanook New
World Fund, and it invests inindustries and technologies
around the world that arerelated to environmental
sustainability and resourceefficiency.
So that covers a pretty broadrange of industries and
technologies, from the obviousthings like renewables and clean
(03:00):
tech through to healthcaretechnology and things to do with
the internet of things techthrough to healthcare technology
and things to do with theinternet of things A very broad,
really interesting set ofopportunities around the world
and we have believed for morethan 15 years now that investing
in that part of the broadermarket is likely to be the right
(03:20):
place to be to deliver goodinvestment outcomes, and if we
can do a great job of pickingstocks from that part of the
market, that we can delivergreat outcomes for our clients.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, and what is your?
You talk much a bit about yourinvestment process, and how do
you decide whether you know aninvestment is a good investment
or it's not a good investment?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, we have a team of very experienced portfolio
managers that I run who arelooking around the world every
day and every week to find whatwe think are prospectively good
investments, and for us that'stypically mature, profitable
businesses that can generate andhave proven that they can
generate good returns on capitalthat are benefiting from the
(04:01):
way in which the industries theysit in are evolving, both in
terms of these long-term trendsand themes but also the
shorter-term industry dynamicsand the way that the companies
are being affected by newtechnology and policy and
changing competitive dynamicsand industry cycles.
And if we can find things thatfit those criteria, at the end
(04:22):
of the day, we're fairlyconventional.
We want to buy things that wethink are cheap enough today
that they're going to delivergood investment outcomes if
we're close to being right aboutwhat's going to happen in the
future.
So, good quality businesses atreasonable prices with good
thematic tailwinds.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
And do you have a limit on how many investments or
assets you will hold in theportfolio?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
We do, we cap the number in the portfolio at 70,
which is a number we came upwith.
That gave us a good balancebetween being able to invest
across a diverse range of thesesectors and get good exposure to
them, but also have a fund thathas a relatively benign risk
profile and is therefore usefulto our clients.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And when did you know you wanted to work in
investment management?
Speaker 3 (05:09):
About 23 years ago or 24 years ago, maybe even a
little bit longer than that.
I'd always had a fascinationwith it whilst I was sailing,
but that was really just becausewhat I saw as an engineer
looking at the news every nightwas these share price charts
(05:32):
that looked a bit like winddirection charts and people
talking about a tactical andstrategical game of capitalising
on what's going on in thosecharts.
That look very similar to whathappens in sailing and I'd
always sort of wanted to knowmore about that.
And then I studied mechanicalengineering and I actually went
(05:53):
down a career path in industrialconsulting, working on
performance improvement in bigmanufacturing businesses.
But that experience actuallyopened up a different sort of
angle on wanting to be involvedin the finance industry, which
is what ultimately led me tomove in that direction, and that
was becoming aware of thepotential for things to be done
(06:17):
better and more efficiently inbusiness through good decision
making and the value that couldbe created through doing that.
And as a consultant, that'svery hard to do and you get paid
a tiny fraction of the valueyou create, and I had in mind
that I wanted to get to theother end of the spectrum where
you had the control ofshareholding or sort of top-down
(06:40):
control over making betterdecisions, and you got the full
benefit of the value that wascreated through that, and so I
looked for a way to get intofinance and investment, and that
put me on a career path thathas taken me to where I am now,
which isn't necessarily where Ithought that might be 25 years
ago, but it's been aninteresting journey since then.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So it would be good to bring it back to the start,
because you did mention sailinga couple of times.
So you were a professionalsailor and you competed at the
Olympics.
So can you share some of yourexperience from your early days,
maybe when you were a teenager?
When did you know that youwanted to be a professional
athlete?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
So I sailed full time you could call it
professionally for 10 yearsafter I finished school.
I'd learnt to sail when I was12 or 13.
I grew up in Melbourne sailingon Albert Park Lake.
I wasn't a particularlytalented sailor immediately, but
I really loved it.
It was something that I hadsome aptitude for and I just
(07:39):
loved being out on the water andthe opportunity to compete and
get better at something, andover a number of years, got
involved in the junior trainingprogram here and then ended up
winning national and ultimatelya world championship just as I
was leaving school, and that, Iguess, made the dream of going
(08:00):
to the Olympics, which I guessis something I'd had since I was
a little kid even well before Ihad ever sailed a distinct you
know, or maybe a distanceprobably the better word
possibility.
And yeah, I decided afterfinishing school that I wanted
to sort of pursue that and seewhere I could get to with it.
So I spent, you know, 10 yearssailing a lot, whilst sort of
(08:26):
working through an engineeringdegree over that same timeframe.
So I took a year off afterschool and focused on raising
enough money to go and sail andcompete overseas.
I then started an engineeringdegree and ended up doing three
years of that before I deferredbecause we were getting close to
being selected for the Olympicsin Atlanta in 1996, which we
ended up going to.
(08:46):
And then, having had thatexperience, I really wanted to
go to the Sydney Games and to gothere and do it properly.
So I finished my engineeringdegree in 98 and then sailed
full-time through to 2000.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, so for our listeners that might not be
familiar with sailing and youmentioned that you raised enough
money to do that full-time andtravel around the world talk us
through that.
Were you a paid athlete?
Is there like Sailing Australiathat plays their top, like the
Australian cricket team that hasa list of 20 paid players, or
(09:20):
how does it work?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
I think sailing is similar to a lot of the sort of
minor Olympic sports wherethere's not a lot of money
involved.
We did get a little bit offunding through the Sports
Commission and through theNational Federation and support
from organisations like theVictorian Institute of Sport
(09:44):
federation and support fromorganisations like the Victorian
Institute of Sport.
But most of what it costs tocampaign is the living and
travel expenses and we had tofind a way to make that work
ourselves and some of that wasthrough working alongside
travelling and training andcompeting, and some of it was
with family help, but it wasnever something where we were
(10:11):
making money out of it andcertainly towards the end I had
this strong sense that I wasslipping behind my peer group
financially, because we wereborrowing money in order to be
able to go to the Olympics andeven if we won, we weren't going
to come out of it with anythingyou know significant in hand.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Yeah, and that must be quite challenging during that
time when you want to.
You've got a goal of competingin the Olympics and, I assume,
an ultimate goal of winning gold, which you were able to achieve
, and balancing between you knowthis is costing me money to
hopefully achieve my goal.
Was it challenging at times?
Or you always had your goal onthe prize that?
(10:51):
You know, whatever it takes,I'm going to get there, You're
right.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
It was challenging and challenging, often
frustrating, because throughmost of that timeframe I think
we'd always have felt that ifwe'd had more money we could be
doing more and be moresuccessful than we were.
So we were constrained by that,but it was sort of part and
(11:16):
parcel of doing what we weredoing.
We didn't start it with anyexpectation that we were going
to be making money out of it.
It was a journey that I was onwith the two people I sailed
with over that time frame to seehow far we could go.
I didn't think of it as ordidn't go into it thinking it
(11:36):
was a financial sacrifice to dothat.
In a lot of ways, I think theright way to look at it is we
were really lucky to spend ahuge amount of time just focused
on making ourselves better, andthat's a privilege that
athletes you know who aretraining full-time.
Have that very few people insociety have to invest all their
(12:00):
own time and effort into makingthemselves better at what they
do not making you, not makingmoney or not making someone else
money yeah, and how did you,how did you balance during that
time?
Speaker 2 (12:10):
because you mentioned you were studying an
engineering degree.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
You were doing a little bit of work here and
there and also focusing onbecoming the best athlete you
could be I guess you know wemade it work as we needed to, so
I was fairly committed to theidea of finishing my study over
that time frame, and I was luckythat the university was
accommodative in terms of beingable to take time off when I
(12:35):
needed to and defer studies forextended periods in order to fit
in competition and particularlyoverseas travel.
But yeah, it's just a constantjuggle, and I don't think
(12:56):
balance is the right way tothink about it either, because
you don't get to that level bybeing balanced, and it's an
interesting sort of topic insport these days that everyone's
focused on achieving balance insport and life and achieving
sort of all-round success.
If you want to win an Olympicgold medal, you've got to be the
(13:17):
best in the world, and unlessyou're the most obsessively
committed to achieving that,you're pretty unlikely to do
that.
And so I thought of it more asa period, towards the end at
least, where it was absolutelyunbalanced, obsessive commitment
for as long as I could sustainthat up to the point that we
finished, knowing that at somepoint it was going to finish and
(13:39):
I could do other things afterthat.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
And how does that relate to what you do in your
current role, the commitment togetting the desired outcome, and
what you do in your currentrole?
Speaker 3 (13:53):
The big picture is, you know, I got to where I did
in sport because I'm outlier interms of obsessive commitment to
and determination to achieve,achieve sort of perfection and
and to be as good as I can, andthat's that's what you need in
that sporting environment.
(14:14):
But there's a big differencebetween that and, you know, a
more normal professionalenvironment.
The big one is that you cansustain a level of intensity in
that sporting arena knowing thatit's going to stop at some
point, and you're always focusedon a goal that's within line of
(14:35):
sight.
So you're working towards aworld championship or an Olympic
Games in a couple of years'time.
You know where that finish lineis and you can structure
everything around that and it'seasy to go all in when you know
it's like that.
When you're dealing with a jobor a career aside from some very
(14:58):
transactional sort of jobs andindustries, it's a continuum you
don't have that focal point andyou need to find a balance that
enables you to keep going andgoing and going.
Yep, and I think that's quite abig difference between the
sporting environment and theworking environment.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, and was it a challenge for you to transition
from being an athlete to youmentioned?
After 10 years of sailing, youthen went and working.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
you're working as an engineer.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Can you talk about your transition and how you
found that transition?
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, if I'm frank, I found it extremely difficult
and I went through a period offour or five years during which
I was depressed and I wouldn'tsay I had depression in a
clinical sense, but felt verydown about sort of who I was and
where I was in the world andwhere I was going and how I was
(16:01):
going to sort of get back ontrack.
And that's a pretty common thing, I think.
If you speak to most Olympianswho move away from their sport
and into something else, they gothrough extended periods of
having to rethink who they areand what they do and how they
(16:22):
succeed in different areas.
So yeah, it was a reallychallenging period for me and I
think the thing that made itreally hard was this sort of
huge disconnect between peoplearound me at the time,
(16:44):
constantly sort of saying, oh,you know, because you've done
this, you'll be great, and thatdidn't sort of sit well with the
athlete in me, which you knowas an athlete.
You know what excellence lookslike, you know what world class
(17:04):
looks like and you know thatfalse confidence doesn't
underpin excellence and you knowhow long and how hard you have
to work to become excellent atsomething.
You know when you move intoanother field that you're you
know, you are chasms away frombeing as good at that as you
(17:26):
could be.
You might want to be.
You need to be, to be, to begood in a new field and to have
sort of people saying, oh, it'sgreat.
And operating in a workplaceenvironment where negative
feedback is frowned upon,compared to a sporting
environment where 95 percent ofthe feedback you get every day
is negative feedback, and it'sreally healthy because that's
(17:47):
what helps you improve.
It was a really difficulttransition into a different
environment and it took me along time to sort of find
comfort with that and to realiseand I think sort of internalise
and accept that the workplaceenvironment and succeeding
(18:08):
outside of elite sport is verydifferent to in elite sport.
Elite sport's one of the realpure meritocracies in the world.
I mean maybe you could.
You could point the finger atsome of the team sports where
selection becomes a bitsubjective, but in most sports
the results do speak forthemselves.
(18:30):
It's merit that gets you whereyou want, and there's no hiding
from that.
In most other facets of life,it's relationships and
connections and intangibles thatare important in getting to the
next step.
It's not a meritocracy, and Ithink for a lot of athletes
(18:53):
that's a pretty challengingthing and I didn't realise at
the time it took me a long timeto work it out that the thing I
really earned during my olympicjourney was not, um, not not a
set of skills that some peoplesay are what olympians have.
(19:15):
It's not.
It's not being a hard workerand disciplined and organized
and all these things that peoplekeep saying.
Like plenty of people inbusiness have those kind of
skill sets and they're you knowthey're they're a starting point
for being successful.
You don't come in as an.
Olympian, suddenly you're goingto succeed because you're more
(19:36):
organised.
But I did have a calling card,so I'm an Olympian, and that
opens up a network and a set ofrelationships and conversations
that's very difficult for peoplewho don't have that background
to to engage.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
that was the the competitive edge that I had, and
when I sort of realized thatand that there was a network of
people there who wanted to helpthat you know, I opened up doors
and opportunities that havetaken me where I've got to yeah,
and would you, what advicewould you have for someone that
(20:15):
is just maybe towards the end oftheir professional career as an
athlete and looking at theirprofessional career in finance
or as an engineer or in themedia to help with that
transition to a different careeror to their next career?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Yeah, I mean along the lines of what I've just said
about my experience.
I think if people are coming tothe end of that sporting career
, they should absolutely makethe most of that time, because
it does end and you's you can'tgo.
It's very hard to go back and dothat again, but that yeah, the
(20:56):
finding a new path after thatisn't easy, but as a sports
person you have a network and acommunity of people there who
want you to succeed and who will, if you ask them, you know, at
least once sit down and talk toyou and if you're polite and
(21:18):
thoughtful, they will makeintroductions, they will do what
they can to facilitate youmoving forward and if you, if
you open-minded, if you, youknow, recognize that and take
advantage of what you have,which is this community of
support and network, that youwill find opportunities, and you
(21:39):
don't need to know exactly whatthey look like.
Yeah, um, so there are.
You know, there's this group ofus who've been through this
kind of athletic experiencewhere, in some ways, it's really
simple and it's a luxurybecause you, at some point, work
out that's what I want to dowith my life and you can go and
focus exclusively on that.
(22:01):
It's really simple, it's reallyclear, um, and there's an
appeal to thinking well, that'show the rest of my life should
operate, that I should come upwith the same kind of clarity I
had when I was 14, that I wantedto go to the Olympics.
My career needs to have thatkind of clarity, and the reality
is that 95% of us in theworkforce probably more never
(22:26):
have that clarity.
We're not pursuing an end goalthat we've had as a dream since
we were 14 years old.
We're making the most of theopportunities that we've got and
letting that sort of take us toto where we should be.
Um, and the people I see tryingto find that next goal as their
primary concern, they veryrarely do like if you, if you're
(22:49):
lucky enough to work out afteryou finish your sporting career,
that you know I want to be.
You know I want to be aproperty developer doing X and
that's my passion and I'm goingto go for it.
I want to make paper straws andsell them to wherever.
Go for it, like that's, butthat's the one in 20 or the one
in 50.
The rest it's not going tohappen.
(23:10):
Like you've got to accept thatyou're not going to have that
purity of you know this is whatI really want to do.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
The ultimate outcome or goal.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, that goal, that singular focus, won't be there.
But it doesn't mean you can'thave a great life.
You don't need to have thatsingular focus to be happy, to
be satisfied professionally, tohave a great life and the things
that you might value and if youfree yourself of that worry.
I think that's half the battle.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, and it is a bit of a change of a mindset, isn't
it?
Because you've gone from, likeyou said, the age of 13 or 14,
wanting to go to the Olympicsand ultimately you achieve the
greatest sporting achievement ofbeing a gold medalist.
Then how do you change yourmindset of not necessarily
having an ultimate goal in thebusiness world to just enjoying
(24:04):
the journey and learning as yougo?
It could be challenging.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Yeah, I don't think it sits well with people.
I think people who've had thatpreviously want to find it again
.
It's not impossible, I thinkit's just unlikely.
And in getting worried aboutthat, you're likely to miss the
opportunities that are there.
Because I think one thingbecomes sort of clearer the
(24:31):
longer you're in business isthat there are people who
succeed in the mostextraordinarily diverse range of
stuff.
There are people making greatlivings and having happy careers
and successful businesses doingabsolutely everything.
There's some guy you know whomakes the, the sound deadening
(24:53):
stuff that's stuck on the wallnext to us.
Who's the guy, who's the go-toman who knows all about that and
has it, and I'm sure he's doingjust great and having a happy
life.
Like everywhere, there arethese opportunities around us,
um, and yeah, it's hard to knowwhat that's going to be and
probably it's a circumstantialthing that you'll end up in
(25:14):
something like that.
You need to be open to it.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, and is there someone that had a big influence
on your career, to your careerbeyond sailing, like your career
in finance or engineering,someone that you looked up to
that helped you with thattransition comes to mind.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
Look, I haven't had a mentor.
A lot of people do seek outbusiness mentors who help guide
them over time through thatjourney, and I think that's a
great thing if you can find theright people who you have the
right rapport with.
But I have had a number ofpeople during my career at
(25:56):
different points, provide greatadvice and good counsel and be
what I think have been greatrole models for me in the way
that I operate, and most ofthose have come through sporting
connections and you knowgetting to know people because
of the sporting connection, butthen having a relationship that
(26:17):
extends beyond that.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
Yeah, and it would be good to.
We've spoken a lot about yourcareer as an athlete and
transitioning to where you aretoday, but I want to talk more a
bit about the journey.
So you mentioned that youstudied engineering.
You were working sort ofengineering was it consulting,
where you're helping businessesimprove their manufacturing?
How did you get from there towhere you are today?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So I worked for this really interesting small
business that was based out ofSydney and had an operation in
the UK only for about a year andwas involved in a couple of
projects to deliver performanceimprovement work.
The first thing I worked on wasin a very large toilet paper
factory in the UK making theequivalent of Softly toilet
(27:04):
paper there, and within thefirst few weeks that I was on
the job managed to solve acouple of problems.
That probably saved the companythe better part of a million
dollars a year wow and, as aconsulting firm, we might have
been paid ahundred thousand dollars and as
a consultant I was paid tenthousand dollars and on a ten
(27:26):
times earnings.
Multiple shareholders were 10million dollars better off.
So I was a you know threeorders of magnitude away from
the shareholders in terms ofcapturing the value.
Um, but I saw that in businessa lot of stuff can be improved
and my immediate reaction tothat was I want to be in private
(27:50):
equity, where not only are younot fighting the system, as a
consultant you're able toinfluence with real control over
how things get changed, butyou're at that equity end of the
value spectrum, and so I workedout quite quickly that that's
what I wanted to try and get towas being involved in private
(28:13):
equity, being involved inbusiness ownership, where you
could help make better decisionsand benefit from doing that and
make the world a better placeby being being more efficient.
yeah, lots of people are wastinga lot of the time out there
doing things that are not notnot achieving a lot, so what
Australia could do isproductivity improvements.
Yeah, and the opportunities arethere.
(28:41):
And it wasn't necessarily easyfor me to get into that industry
and I ended up getting a jobwith a small Australian equities
fund manager down here inMelbourne.
That was my entree into theinvestment industry.
And once again, I only workedthere for less than a year but
it, I guess, gave me aneducation in markets and
(29:01):
investment and the things thatare important to good investing
and through that, yeah, I wasclear that I wanted to stay in
the industry and continue downthis particular path.
And then, yeah, through a seriesof conversations with people
(29:22):
who wanted to help me, I endedup getting a job in an
investment bank and moved up toSydney, so I worked for
Rothschild initially with theCEO there in a sort of corporate
strategy type role, looking atprivate equity opportunities,
and then in their corporateadvisory and M&A business and
also in the forestry managedinvestment scheme business,
(29:45):
which I ran for a while.
Rothschild got most of itsbusiness, got sold to Investec
and I moved on at that point andjoined Consolidated Press.
I worked for James Packer forthree years in a role that was
with a small group of peopleresponsible for most of the
(30:05):
unlisted assets thatConsolidated Press owned, which
is a pretty interesting mix ofbusinesses that Kerry Packer had
bought during his lifetime andthe goal there was to build an
institutionalised private equitybusiness within Consolidated
Press, much as they'd done withthe listed markets in Elliston.
(30:28):
And for a variety of reasonsthat didn't come to pass, uh,
but through a series ofconversations that actually
started with people I knewthrough sailing um in early 2009
, um, I left consolidated pressto start nanook.
We saw an opportunity in themidst of the financial crisis to
(30:52):
start a business that focusedon the areas we focus on today
that no one else was reallydoing in Australia at that point
in time.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Yeah, so you're the leaders ultimately in
sustainable investing in thiscountry.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
Look we run.
I think the largest activelymanaged, sustainably themed fund
in the country.
There are a couple of otherincredible people out there
doing similar things, but yeah,we're one of the leaders in that
space.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
Well, it's an incredible journey that you've
had, from being a professionalsailor to studying engineering,
travelling around the world,being an Olympian, going to two
Olympics, winning gold medal,working in engineering, so
investment banking, privateequity and now for the leading
sustainable investment firm inthe country.
(31:42):
So credit to you.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
It's kind of you.
It's nice when you put it thatway.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, do you sort of look back and say, wow, I've
achieved a lot in my career?
Speaker 3 (31:55):
No, no, I mean, I don't look back is the main
thing, I guess in sport I'vealways had a view that you're
only as good as your next result.
And yeah, I don't spend a lot oftime thinking about what I've
(32:17):
done previously, Like we've onlygot a limited amount of time in
our life and I like to do asmany good things as I can whilst
I've got the opportunity.
Got the opportunity, and it'snice to be in a position now
where we've built somethingthat's our own and it's a
successful small business butthere's a great opportunity.
(32:39):
I still believe, more stronglynow than I did 15 years ago,
that what we're doing has meritand is a worthwhile thing to be
doing, and that we can delivergreat outcomes for our clients
if we do a great job, and sothat's what I'm focused on.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Yeah, if we can do things well, I get satisfaction
out of that and, I guess, tosome of the stuff that I said
earlier, I don't have an endgoal.
You know a specific end goal inmind in terms of we have to get
the business to here, or I'mtrying to, you know, take my
career to the next spot.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
You know, I've thought more about.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
You know, the longer my career's gone on, the more
about what matters to me isworking with good people doing
something worthwhile and doingit well and yeah, trying to have
the right way of operating thatI can enjoy.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, we definitely make an impact.
And what about sailing?
Are you still involved in thesailing community?
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Not particularly.
It's interesting, though, myboys, who are 8 and 11, have
started sailing in the lastcouple of years, so I'm now a
sailing parent driving aroundwith a trailer and a boat
dropping them off at events, sothey can do it.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Yeah Well, do you have any?
What advice do you have foryour children?
I don't, I don't.
Speaker 3 (34:05):
Yeah, make sure your boat's packed up when I get back
.
Yeah, I try not to get tooinvolved.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've got coaches there to do that, and I don't
think it helps to have parentsinterfering.
They won't listen to me.
Yeah Well, I'm sure one daythey'll want your advice Maybe,
maybe not.
Well, thank you for coming onthe podcast, tom, it's been a
pleasure.
Thanks for sharing your storyand and first time we're meeting
.
But I'm familiar with thebusiness and I know Matt, who
works in your team.
(34:33):
So thank you very much forcoming on, it's been a pleasure.
And thank you for sharing yourstory on Finance Friends Podcast
my pleasure.
Thank you.
Thanks for listening this week.
Stay tuned for our next episodeand keep up to date with us by
following the Finance FriendsPodcast on Instagram and TikTok
Plus.
Connect with us and our guestsover on our LinkedIn page, all
(34:55):
linked in the show notes.
Speaker 4 (35:00):
Disclaimer this podcast exists for informational
and entertainment purposes only.
The personal opinions of thespeaker and guests do not
represent the view of any otherparty.
If this recording containsreference to financial products,
that reference does notconstitute advice nor
recommendations and may not berelied upon.
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