UTS Finance Department welcomes new honorary Industry Fellow John Birkhold

UTS Finance Department would like to welcome John Birkhold, who has been appointed as an Honorary Industry/Professional Fellow with UTS. John is a co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at TWC Invest, an embryonic ashtaginvestment manager targeting institutional, family office, private wealth, and sophisticated high-net-worth hashtaginvestors.

Prior to founding TWC, John spent 12 years with Origin Asset Management as a Partner and a member of a four-person Portfolio Manager team managing approximately $5 billion in assets across five global long-only equity strategies.

Prior to joining Origin, John was one of the original partners in Chicago-based HOLT Value Associates which was eventually acquired by CSFB in 2002. He was promoted to managing director for Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for all of CS HOLT’s non-US activities based out of London. Over his 17-year career with HOLT, John was instrumental in enhancing and evolving HOLT’s highly regarded proprietary CFROI framework while working closely with over 100 institutional investment firms across five continents.

One of John’s notable clients was London-based Investec Asset Management, where he played a pivotal role in helping design and develop the evidence-based 4Factor investment process. The senior 4Factor investment team later left Investec to found Origin Asset Management in 2005. Recognizing the value of their innovative approach, John reconnected with his former clients in 2009 and moved back to Sydney to establish Origin’s Australia office in 2010.

John started his career in hashtagfinance in 1988 as an Equity Analyst for the Chicago-based Ameritech Pension Fund. He holds an MBA in Finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from the University of Virginia.

We hope he will contribute to the long-standing reputation of the University of Technology Sydney of partnering with industry practitioners to provide industry-relevant courses that produce work-ready graduates.