Key People

Paul Nailand
Founding Director

Paul co-founded Visual Risk in 2001 and is joint managing director with special responsibility for the technical management of the company. Paul has over 16 years experience in financial markets. Prior to Visual Risk, he has worked for ANZ, Bankers Trust and Macquarie Bank where he gained a unique blend of systems and market knowledge from positions in derivatives trading, corporate treasury outsourcing and equities research. Paul holds a Masters of Science from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Richard Hughes
Founding Director

Richard co-founded Visual Risk with Paul in 2001 and is joint managing director with special responsibility for the marketing management of the company. Richard has over 20 years experience in financial markets where he has consulted widely to corporate treasuries across Australia. Prior to Visual Risk, Richard worked with ANZ and Capel Court Investment Banks for eleven years in a variety of treasury roles ranging from derivative trading through to risk advisory. Richard holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance) from the University of Cape Town.

Glen Giffen
Head of Business Development

Glen heads our sales team. He is a specialist in the fields of treasury risk and compliance where he has consulted widely to major corporations and financial institutions. Glen previously occupied positions with ANZ and Colonial State Bank as an FX and interest rate risk management specialist. He holds a Masters of Commerce (majoring in Applied Finance) from the University of NSW and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University.

Leif Rask
Chief Technology Officer

Leif leads our development team. He has over 12 years experience in Finance and Information Technology. His experience includes quantitative financial analysis with CS First Boston Australia and County NatWest Australia Investment Management. He has lead teams developing solutions and software with Hypercom, Equity Systems (Reuters), Merrill Lynch, ABN AMRO and EDS among others. Leif holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Technology Sydney where he was awarded the University Medal in Mathematics.

Dr Alankar Karol
Head of Quantitative Services

Alankar heads our Quantitative Services team. He was previously a senior research Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney where he worked on projects funded by the Australian Research Council in collaboration with the Central Bank of Denmark on Intelligent financial systems. Alankar has a PhD in Applied Mathematics and a Masters of Finance. He is highly experienced in developing mathematical models for complex business systems and exotic financial instruments and has been invited to present his methods to research groups and industry in Australia, Canada, the US and the UK.