Australia Briefing: The Future of Australian Capital Markets

Joe Longo commenced as ASIC Chair on 1 June 2021.

He has held senior leadership roles over four decades in corporate law, financial services, regulation and law enforcement, in Australia and some of the world’s most important financial markets.

He was the general counsel for Deutsche Bank in London and Hong Kong for 17 years, providing leadership across regulatory issues, governance, corporate law and non-financial risk.

Before that, Joe was the national director of enforcement at ASIC between 1996 and 2001, and responsible for the coordination and direction of all enforcement and litigation activities.

He has also been a senior adviser at Herbert Smith Freehills and earlier, a partner at Parker and Parker (now Herbert Smith Freehills).

Joe represents ASIC in key national economic and law enforcement forums including the Council of Financial Regulators, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission Board, the Criminal Justice Law Enforcement Forum and the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce.

He is also a member of the Board of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), the Asia Pacific Regional Committee of IOSCO, the Trans-Tasman Business Committee and the EU Asia-Pacific Forum.

Joe holds a Bachelor of Jurisprudence (Hons) and a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School.

Helen Lofthouse commenced as ASX’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer in August 2022. She is an accomplished financial markets executive with more than 20 years’ experience in cash equity and debt markets, listed and OTC derivatives, and clearing and settlement services.

Helen joined ASX in September 2015 and has held senior executive roles with the company, including Group Executive Markets – ASX’s largest individual business by revenue – and before that, Executive General Manager of Derivatives and OTC Markets. In these roles, Helen was responsible for ASX’s cash and derivatives trading, including equities, interest rates, commodities and energy products, ASX’s international business development teams, benchmarks, and derivatives and OTC clearing.

Prior to joining ASX, Helen was a Managing Director at UBS (2011-2015) with global responsibility for the OTC clearing business and Head of Clearing and Execution Sales in Europe. She also worked at J.P. Morgan in London (1998-2011) in various businesses including futures and OTC clearing, derivatives prime brokerage, credit markets and cash equities. Her earlier career involved project management and technology consulting.

Helen was announced as one of the World Federation of Exchanges’ (WFE) Women Leaders for 2021. She is passionate about the critical role ASX plays in Australian and New Zealand’s financial markets and committed to ensuring it remains resilient and reliable. Helen is also an advocate for promoting and maintaining mental health and wellbeing in the workplace and dedicated to providing an inclusive workplace.

Guy is Founder and Co-Executive Chair of Barrenjoey Capital Partners. He has been involved in financial markets for over 30 years. He spent 27 years at UBS Australia in various roles including Head of Corporate Finance and prior to that Head of Equity Capital Markets. While at UBS, Guy was instrumental in building and running the most successful investment banking franchise in Australia. He started his career with PwC.

Guy is a Panel Member of Adara Partners where he donates his time to advise on corporate transactions. He has a Bachelor of Economics from Macquarie University.

Guy was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australian (OAM) for his service to business and to the community.