INVESTORS DIRECT FINANCIAL GROUP

Executive Team

 

Bill Zheng

Managing Director, Investors Direct Financial Group

Bill Zheng is the founder of the Investors Direct Financial Group, which is headquartered in Melbourne with offices in Sydney and Brisbane.

The company comprises 5 divisions: 1) Investor Education 2) Property Advisory 3) Financial Planning 4) Mortgage Solutions and 5) Property Management.

Bill was educated in China, Australia & USA and is fluent in both English and Chinese. His tertiary education includes Civil Engineering at South China University of Technology, Computer Science at RMIT, MBA at Monash University, Finance at the Securities Institute of Australia and numerous investment related courses in Australia, China, Hong Kong & USA.

After a long corporate career spanning positions in Australia, Hong Kong, China, USA, Canada & Northern Europe, Bill left PricewaterhouseCoopers Melbourne in 2000 to found Investors Direct, initially as a mortgage broking business solely servicing property investors.

In 2005, Bill became the highest ranked mortgage broker in Victoria during the first ever national survey of mortgage brokers, before then becoming a mentor to many of the MPA Top 100 mortgage brokers in Australia. He holds an Australian Credit Licence (No. 402950).

Bill soon became known for his unconventional views on property and finance. He not only personally executed numerous property strategies himself but also actively educated tens of thousands of property investors across Australia.

Bill was given the honour of being the Chief Judge for the inaugural Australian Property Investor of the Year Awards in 2008. With his practical knowledge and hands-on experience in real estate investment and finance, Bill has been invited to appear on property shows on TV and radio in Australia. He regularly writes for a variety of property investment magazines, newspapers and online investment portals and is one of the most sought after presenters on property and finance in Australia and South East Asia.

 

 

Vivien Lin

General Manager, Investors Direct

Vivien Lin is in charge of the general management of Investors Direct Financial Group and all its divisions. She was educated in Accounting and Financial Management in China, Australia, Canada & USA and is fluent in both English and Chinese.

Over the past 20 years, Vivien's business career has included extensive corporate experience in various Chartered Accounting firms including KPMG Australia, as well as entrepreneurial and management experience in directing finance and business operations in both Australia and overseas.

Vivien has been instrumental in building Investors Direct from a single mortgage business in Melbourne into a financial services group now providing Investor Education, Financial Planning, Property Advisory, Mortgage Solutions and Property Management for tens of thousands of property investors across Australia.

 

 

Ross Martiensen

Director, Property Advisory, Investors Direct

Ross Martiensen is a director of Investors Direct Property Advisory. He holds a full licence in Real Estate in Victoria and New South Wales (Licence No. 071792L).

Ross's tertiary education includes a Bachelor of Applied Science at RMIT, and a Diploma of Property at Academic Pavilion, and a Certificate IV in Mortgage Broking from AAMC.

Ross began his outstanding career in the Real Estate industry in 2001 after travelling around the world extensively for more than 3 years. He was the head of the Property Investment Division for one of the largest building groups in Victoria and directed a number of land subdivision and property development projects within his own business before heading up Investors Direct Property Advisory in 2010.

Ross has a remarkable track record in delivering high performing investment properties to property investors and his expertise is well sought after by property investors across Australia. In the last few years alone, Ross was personally responsible for securing and delivering over $400m worth of residential property transactions to individual property investors, a record very few people have ever achieved in the history of real estate in Australia.

 

 

Adam Carmody

Director, Financial Planning, Investors Direct

Adam Carmody is a director of Investors Direct Financial Planning. He holds an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL 385827) and a CFP (Certified Financial Planner) qualification which is the highest practitioner level for membership in the Financial Planning Association of Australia.

Adam also has a Diploma of Financial Planning through Deakin University; an Executive Certificate in Management; a Graduate Diploma in Accounting through Monash University; a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment through HBA and a Certificate IV in Mortgage Broking from AAMC.

Adam began his career in the Financial Planning Industry in 1999. Before joining Investors Direct in 2010, he worked at Shadforth Financial Services, Vanguard Investments Australia and the ANZ bank.

Adam sat as a member of the Financial Planning Association Chapter Committee for 2 years assisting the industry body with professional development and advisor training. He has also appeared as an expert advisor on financial planning on 3AW & ABC Radio, and in various property investment magazines and investment newsletters.

Unlike most Australian financial planners who tend to focus mainly on shares, Adam, being an active property investor himself, has as his main focus utilising the best financial management principles to help property investors become more strategic and disciplined in their approach towards property investing.

 

 

Vincent Power

Head of Mortgage Solutions, Investors Direct

Vincent Power's outstanding career covers over 30 years in many sectors of the banking and finance industry. He is a fully licenced Mortgage Broker and is Head of the Mortgage Solutions division which has been specialising in financing property investors since 2001.

Since joining Investors Direct in 2006, Vincent has been a multiple winner of both the MPA Top 100 Brokers Award and the Choice Platinum Achiever Award.

In his mortgage finance career, Vincent has personally settled over A$1Billion worth of residential mortgages for home owners and property investors, an enormous finance volume that very few mortgage brokers in Australia have ever achieved. Vincent is one of the most respected financiers in Australia.

As an active property investor himself, Vincent is passionate about helping property investors to achieve their financial goals through effective mortgage solutions. His expertise in mortgage finance is regularly sought after by various investment property magazines, popular investment newsletters and websites.

 

 

Jan Malmstrom

Head of Property Management, Investors Direct

Jan Malmstrom heads up the Property Management Division of Investors Direct. She is one of the most experienced and highly awarded property managers in the country.

During her outstanding career, amongst Jan's numerous awards, she has also won two of the industry's top awards: International Property Manager of the Year Award for the LJ Hooker network, and the REIA's National Property Manager of the Year Award; an honour very few people in Australia share with her.

Jan was also the first person ever in Australia to complete a Master's Degree in Professional Studies (Property Management). She also holds a Certificate IV Training and Development. Jan is a regular writer and speaker on property management issues for The Australian, the Herald Sun, Sold/Leased/Principal Magazines and various radio stations.

Jan had also successfully built her own property management business of almost 1,000 properties from scratch. Through that process she developed an award-winning training system that was eventually introduced to the entire LJ Hooker network of almost 700 offices.

As a landlord of multiple properties herself, Jan not only understands the importance of what a good property manager can do for an investor's bottom line, but also appreciates the huge responsibility involved in managing someone else's highly valuable asset that is a rental property.

 

 

Mark Farrelly

Marketing Director, Investors Direct

Mark Farrelly is the Marketing Director who is responsible for better communication between Investors Direct and its clients.

Mark has worked for some of Australia's leading Advertising Agencies in a career spanning more than two decades. In that time he has won a variety of awards for his creative thinking in developing outstanding campaigns for a number of clients. He developed the retail launch of the Year campaign for Whitman's, propelled that agency to win the B&T Agency of the Year and won many high level industry awards developing campaigns for BMW, Colonial First State, Hewlett-Packard and Hungry Jack's.

Mark has a passion to utilise his considerable experience to improve the communication standards within the investment industry and raise the level of awareness and understanding among property investors in general.

Mark has a strong desire to gain better understanding of our clients' needs and to deliver programs that will help people take control of their own financial destiny.

 

 

Rachel Herbert

Client Relationship Manager, Investors Direct

Rachel Herbert heads up the CRM (Client Relationship Management) area at Investors Direct. She is responsible for helping the organization to deliver a superior experience to each of its clients.

Rachel has a Bachelor Degree of Communications (Marketing) at the University of Wollongong. With over 9 years of experience in the property and marketing industries and having grown up in a real estate family stretching back generations, Rachel is passionate about helping property investors.

She was instrumental in developing a Customer Relationship Management system for LJ Hooker that was so successful it won dozens of awards including the International Marketing Relationship Award in 2008 and the Top Media Relations awards in 2007, 2008 and 2010.

Rachel's passion is to deliver a superior customer experience to every client, a level of service which is often lacking in the financial services industry. She measures herself by how much clients feel valued, respected and well looked after.