James Mudie
James Mudie is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Billarook Pte Ltd. Prior to establishing Billarook Mr Mudie was a Senior Managing Executive Officer of Aozora Bank, Tokyo, responsible for the bank's extensive global principal investment portfolios.
Mr Mudie joined Aozora Bank in early 2005 as part of a strategic management team charged with the rehabilitation of the bank after its purchase by a Cerberus led private equity consortium. While at Aozora Mr Mudie managed various business units including real estate, leveraged and structured finance, structured credit and credit trading, special situations and distressed debt.
Previously Mr Mudie was General Manager, Capital Markets and head of structured credit investment and credit trading at Shinsei Bank, Tokyo. Mr Mudie was previously part of Westpac Banking Corporation's financial markets team and held positions in both Sydney and Tokyo. Mr Mudie holds a Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University, Sydney, a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts from Queensland University, Brisbane.
Mr Mudie is a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Jeffrey Tolk
Jeffrey Tolk joined Billarook as a Senior Advisor in April 2012.
With more than 20 years of experience in capital markets, private financing, and asset management, Mr. Tolk has practiced law in New York, worked as a Senior Credit Officer with Moody's Investors Service, and been a Managing Director and Asia Head of Structuring for HSBC's Structured Credit business, based in Hong Kong.
Mr. Tolk moved to Singapore as a Managing Principal and Portfolio Manager of the Asian Debt Fund, a hedge fund focusing on distressed debt, special situations, and private equity in Asia. While at the fund, Mr. Tolk led major restructurings, and provided financing for medium-sized companies throughout Asia. Prior to joining Billarook, Mr. Tolk was a Managing Director and Asia Head of Institutional and Corporate Solutions with Standard Bank.
Mr. Tolk holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and a law degree from Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the CFA Institute and CFA Singapore.
Kazuhiro Ono
Kazuhiro Ono joined Billarook as Japan Representative in March 2012.
Prior to joining Billarook, Mr Ono was General Manager, Structured Credit Division of Aozora Bank, for 5 years covering various types of credit investments, credit trading, and structuring. Before Aozora Bank, he was a deputy General Manager of Shinsei Bank, leading a credit trading team to develop a CDS/Corporate bond trading platform for the bank.
Prior to Shinsei Bank, Mr Ono was co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Re-plus, a real estate investment company, which successfully IPOed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange venture board Mothers in 2004. The investment business was later sold to Oak-tree Capital.
Mr Ono has 16 years of experiences in the financial industry. He started his career as a trader and marketer of FX, Fixed income, and OTC derivative products in Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank in Tokyo. Kazuhiro Ono graduated from the University of Tokyo with a Bachelor degree of Law in 1994 and holds a Japanese Real Estate Transaction Specialist License.
Philip Metcalf
Philip Metcalf joined Billarook as Hong Kong Representative in May 2012.
Philip has been working with his clients for three decades, starting in London in the early 80's then from 1995 in Asia, manufacturing solutions in the major financial centres of Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore (for the last 5 years being based in Hong Kong). Over this time Philip's work in the financial solutions industry brings a wealth of experiences.
During the 80's the solutions involved asset and liability hedging using interest rate and currency swaps, equity derivatives and options across asset classes. During the 90's the focus expanded to include structured credit through insurance contracts and credit portfolio repackaging. For the last 12 years the focus centred on investment portfolios, equity and fund innovation, in particular the near and in-retirement savings markets. Typically this type of solutions service provides asset and or liability hedging answers for the Banking, Insurance and the Pensions industries. Prior to Philip's advisory work for Billarook, Philip worked at Credit Suisse based in Hong Kong with an Asia Pacific region mandate.
Niko Safavi
Niko Safavi joined Billarook as a Senior Advisor in March 2015.
Niko has been working in banking since 1990, initially as a banking regulator with Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (US Treasury). He has managed significant capital markets risk management functions at Bank of America, holding positions in San Francisco, Hong Kong and New York. He has also managed independent credit functions covering commercial credit exposure, treasury investments, core banking and private equity at Union Bank of California, as an SVP. At Aozora Bank in Japan, he was initially the chief operating officer of the investment banking group, and later the bank's chief risk officer.
Niko holds a bachelors degree in economics from San Francisco State University, and is an alumni of the Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where he completed the executive program.
