Argonaut Funds Management is a high conviction investor in the Australian resources sector that operates two open resource funds;
- Argonaut Natural Resources Fund – An actively managed wholesale fund that primarily invests in ASX listed resource and mining service companies.
- Argonaut Australian Gold Fund – An actively managed wholesale fund that invests in ASX listed Gold sector companies.
Argonaut Funds Management is part of the Argonaut Group, which provides corporate advisory, research and stockbroking services to retail, high net worth and institutional clients. The group is based in the tier 1 mining jurisdiction of Western Australia and is recognised as a leader in the resources space.
Argonaut operates independently from the broader Argonaut Group with strong governance and compliance structures in place.
The group has a rigorous three stage investment process:
- Market – An assessment of general market conditions
- Macro – An evaluation of global economic conditions that drives our strategic views of commodity markets and investment risks.
- Micro – Our “FIVE BRICKS” analytical approach involves stock specific analysis based on five investment criteria : Management Strength; Business Strength, Financial Strength, Valuation and Responsible Investing.
Read on to learn more about our investing and operations teams.
Investment Committee
David is Executive Director / Head of Funds Management at Argonaut. He has over 25 year’s financial markets experience including almost ten years as Head of Research at a leading small company’s stockbroker and 10 years as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of a boutique funds management business. David is also an experienced business executive, having held senior roles in ASX listed and unlisted companies.
Dianmin is a mining engineer with more than 35 years’ experience in metal mining. He has had a wide range of roles in mining technical, production and management in Australia, China and Canada. Dianmin held executive roles with Sino Gold (General Manager), Citic Pacific Mining (Chief Operating Officer), CaNickel (Chief Executive Officer) and Northern Goldfields (Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer) and has served as a Non-Executive Director of publicly listed companies in Australia and Canada.
Ben has over 25 years of Equity and Debt capital markets experience including equity trading, portfolio management, equity underwrites, IPO’s and capital structure advisory for leading global listed corporates. Most recently he was Head of Equities and Board Member at Goldman Sachs Australia & NZ for over 5 years and held senior trading roles at Macquarie Bank in both Tokyo and Sydney for over 12 years. Ben served as Portfolio Manager at Blue Sky Macro and also NIB Capital in London. Ben is a Managing Director and main Board member of Argonaut Capital and is Joint Head of Argonaut Funds Management and Portfolio Manager of the AGGF
Cameron is a private client dealer with Argonaut Securities, services high net worth individuals. He is a value orientated investor, specialising in emerging companies with a focus on the resources sector. Cameron holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Diploma of Financial Services (FINSIA).
Glen is the Managing Director of Argonaut Securities. He has more than 30 years experience in the financial services sector, in particular the Australian stockbroking industry. Glen has extensive experience in most facets of share trading and advisory having worked as a trading floor operator, designated trading representative, private client advisor and corporate stockbroker.
Prior to joining Argonaut in 2006, Glen spent six years as Branch Manager of a successful Goldfields based stockbroking operation, where he gained a detailed knowledge of the mining and mineral exploration industries. Glen has significant expertise in the analysis of small and mid-capitalisation resource companies.
Cathy has worked as a senior resources analyst for a number of the major stockbroking firms over her career. Including McIntosh (now Merrill Lynch), County Securities (now Citigroup) and Evans and Partners where she was a partner of that firm. More recently, she spent a year with Perseus Mining running their Business Development and Investor Relations areas, which involved significant interface with both brokers and fund managers, a number of international roadshows, helping prepare all the company releases, maintaining a corporate model, and being the direct contact for all the brokers covering the company. Following this, Cathy became the Head of Research at Paterson’s Securities.
With more than 35 years' experience in the financial services industry, Kevin specialises in providing share market advice, portfolio management and trade execution. Prior to Argonaut, Kevin started his career at the RBA, was a branch manager for WA offices of BNZ Norths and James Capel and a board member of Saw James Capel until its sale to HSBC. Kevin has been an Executive Director of Argonaut since joining in 2006.
Investment Team
David Franklyn
Joint Head of Argonaut Funds Management / Fund Manager ANRF
David has over 25 year’s financial markets experience including almost ten years as Head of Research at a leading small company’s stockbroker and 10 years as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of a boutique funds management business. David is also an experienced business executive, having held senior roles in ASX listed and unlisted companies.
T: +61 402 447 839
E: dfranklyn@argonaut.com
Benjamin Clifford
Joint Head of Argonaut Funds Management / Fund Manager AAGF
Ben has over 25 years of Equity and Debt capital markets experience including equity trading, portfolio management, equity underwrites, IPO’s and capital structure advisory for leading global listed corporates. Most recently he was Head of Equities and Board Member at Goldman Sachs Australia & NZ for over 5 years and held senior trading roles at Macquarie Bank in both Tokyo and Sydney for over 12 years. Ben served as Portfolio Manager at Blue Sky Macro and also NIB Capital in London. Ben is a Managing Director and main Board member of Argonaut Capital and is Joint Head of Argonaut Funds Management and Portfolio Manager of the AGGF.
T: +61 452 122 681
E: bclifford@argonaut.com
Marketing & Operations Team
Jenna Converse
Marketing Manager
Jenna has over a decade of experience in marketing / capital raising / client service in the finance industry. Most recently, Jenna worked as Vice President in the Alternative Asset Management business of The Blackstone Group, managing capital raising campaigns for Blackstone’s GP Stakes and Seeding business, and external hedge fund managers.
T: +61 434 243 212
E: jconverse@argonaut.com
Jumna Appavoo
Senior Analyst, Compliance and Funds Services
Jumna has nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, with particular expertise in funds management administration and compliance.
T: +61 8 9224 6866
E: jappavoo@argonaut.com
Finance Team
Alison Thompson
CFO & Company Secretary
Alison is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience. She commenced her career with PwC in Perth, and held several senior finance positions at various companies across Australia, United Kingdom and New Zealand before joining Decmil Group Limited in 2007 where she held the role of CFO & Company Secretary. After leaving Decmil in 2021, Alison worked as a consultant for various companies assisting with ASX listings, mergers and business improvement projects before joining Argonaut as the CFO & Company Secretary in August 2022.
T: +61 8 9224 6833
E: accounts@argonaut.com
Marilyn Noakes
Senior Accountant
Marilyn is a CPA with more than 6 years of accounting experience. Marilyn started her career in the Multi-National Automotive Co-Operative environment, working within Travel, Insurance, Finance and Corporate teams. Her work history includes extensive experience in data analysis and reporting as well as system implementation and training across multiple platforms. Marilyn also worked in Freight Logistics and Finance sectors before joining Argonaut in September 2018.
T: +61 8 9224 6848
E: accounts@argonaut.com
