Midwinter’s Directors

Julian Plummer – Managing Director

The primary focus of Julian’s role is to lead the development and establishment of Midwinter as the pre-eminent Australian financial advice technology service provider. This includes showcasing Midwinter’s value proposition to licensees, practices, trustees and planners, and working with them to accelerate the growth of their businesses.

Julian has held a number of management positions within the financial advice industry including Head of Quantitative Research for CBA/Financial Wisdom and has worked with some of largest multi-manager and superannuation funds in Australia while an asset consultant at Intech Financial Services.

Julian has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) and has completed the Chartered Financial Analyst course.

James Murphy – General Manager, Research and Compliance

James is responsible for managing Midwinter’s research and compliance processes. This includes managing platform and fund relationships, controlling Midwinter’s data audit processes and ensuring our software satisfies ASIC’s regulatory requirements as well as our client’s stringent compliance needs.

James has over eleven years experience in the financial services industry with extensive experience in risk management. Before joining Midwinter, James was a Regulatory Analyst with Merrill Lynch in London and prior to that Manager of Risk Management Services at Rabobank in Sydney.

James has a Bachelor of Economics (Hons.) and has completed Level I of the CFA course.

Andrew McClelland – General Manager, Financial Planning Technology

Andrew heads up the financial planning technology area of Midwinter. He is responsible for ensuring a smooth financial advice process through effective utilisation of Midwinter’s software. Andrew is responsible for adviser training & development, as well as maintaining our programming base and code development. Andrew draws on his financial planning and technology skills base to enable Midwinter client’s to easily implement complex financial planning and strategies.

Andrew has over ten years experience in the Australian Financial Services industry, including roles as a financial planner and a technology analyst at CBA/Financial Wisdom. In his capacity as Financial Planning Manager WA/SA at AXA, Andrew worked closely with planners to implement practical technology solutions.

Andrew has a Bachelor of Economics, Diploma of Financial Planning and Certificates in Financial Analysis (UTS).

Matthew Esler – General Manager, Strategy and Technical Services

Matt is responsible for Midwinter’s ongoing strategic direction and technical support. He continually analyses the impact of new legislative developments, and proactively reviews the effects of existing legislation. Matt is accountable for ensuring that Midwinter continues to lead the industry with financial advice tools that enable both strategic implementation and sales generation.

Matt has over seven years experience providing technical and strategic advice to fund managers, financial advisers and accountants on a broad range of superannuation, taxation, investment, insurance and social security issues. Matt is regularly invited to speak at professional development days, industry association and major financial services conferences throughout Australia on a range of strategic and legislative topics. He is also regularly invited to comment in both the trade and retail press on financial services opportunities and has a monthly column in Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) magazine. Matt is a member of IFSA’s technical committee, after-tax reporting group and superannuation working groups, ASFA’s investment management education policy committee, and has been an editorial committee member and major client representative of Tribeca’s Financial Planning Guide since 2003. He is also a member of the Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals Association of Australia (SPAA).

Before joining Midwinter, Matt was Head of Technical at Advance Asset Management and prior to that Technical Manager at Zurich Financial Services Australia. Matt has a Bachelor of Economics and Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment.