BNY and Insight Investment Roundtable Lunch | Insight Investment

Francesca Fornasari

Head of Currency Solutions, Insight Investment

Francesca joined Insight in June 2019. She is responsible for the oversight of Insight’s dedicated team of currency investment professionals which provides currency solutions ranging from foreign exchange hedging to currency alpha.

Prior to Insight, Francesca was a Senior FX and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). She started her career at The World Bank in Washington then spent time as an FX strategist at both Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley, before joining GSAM in 2006.

She graduated from the Universite’ de Geneve in Switzerland with a degree in Monetary and Financial Economics. She also holds a Masters and PhD in Economics from Georgetown University in the US.

Geoffrey Yu

Senior Macro Strategist

Geoff Yu is the senior macro strategist for EMEA markets. His areas of expertise include currencies, equities, fixed income and asset allocation. He is in addition a keen observer of China – its economy, central bank, policymaking and politics. Geoff is based in London but covers global institutional clients.. His views are frequently sought by the financial media as well, and he is a regulator contributor on Bloomberg Surveillance, Bloomberg Brief and CNBC Squawk Box.

He’s presented live from studios across three continents. Geoff authors not only regular macro publications but also specialized pieces, including monthly rebalancing models, MENA currency summaries, other white papers anchored by BNY’s custody flow data. Prior to joining BNY, Geoff was at UBS for 15 years, the first ten in the investment bank as a senior FX strategist, and the next five in Wealth Management, where he advanced to become CIO of the UK business. Geoff is a native speaker of both English and Mandarin.

He earned a BA in Maths and Economics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, and then followed up with an MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Nehal Mehra

APAC Head of Securities Finance and Global Collateral, BNY

Nehal is Asia Pacific Head of Securities Finance and Global Collateral at BNY. Prior to joining BNY in 2025, Nehal spent 15 years at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and London across their Corporate Treasury and Global Markets and Banking divisions, most recently globally heading Execution Structuring and prior to that, globally heading Cross Asset Financing. In these roles, he worked with the Fixed Income and Equities trading and sales business to originate and distribute financing and resource optimization solutions for the firm and its clients.

Nehal graduated with a Masters in Finance and Economics from the London School of Economics and a Bachelors (Hons.) in Economics from the University of Bath.

Charles Martin

Head of Distribution APAC, Insight Investment

Charles joined Insight in May 2012. He is responsible for leading Insight’s business development activities across Asia-Pacific. In this capacity, he helps to advise clients on their investment strategy as this relates to exposures across fixed income, currency and absolute return.

Charles started at Insight’s headquarters in London before moving to Asia and has been assisting clients in the region for more than 10 years. Prior to joining Insight, he spent 10 years at BNP Paribas in Strategic Sales Management and Development, initially in Germany and then later in London.

Charles holds a Bachelor of Business Science (Honours) degree in Marketing & Finance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Singapore. He holds type 1 and 4 licenses from the Hong Kong SFC and is also a licensed representative in Singapore.

Otto Vaeisaenen

Head of Liquidity, Finance & Collateral Australia / New Zealand, BNY

Otto Vaeisaenen runs the Clearance and Collateral business for Australia and New Zealand for BNY that operates the largest Triparty platform globally with close to 6 trillion of daily volume. CCM helps customers to manage and optimize the funding and financing of their portfolios internationally.

Otto also helps the business development of BNY’s markets business that includes agency lending, FX and Liquidity solutions.

Previously Otto worked for close to 20 years in markets, collateral and custody holding several leadership roles in business development in Europe, Africa and Middle East.

Otto holds degrees in business and hospitality management.

Rugby Kliousis

Business Development Manager, Insight Investment

Rugby joined Insight in May 2024 as a Business Development Manager, responsible for continuing to build Insight’s institutional business in Australia & New Zealand, whilst expanding relationships within the private wealth sector.

Prior to Insight, Rugby spent three years at Shed Enterprises as a Business Development Manager focussing on the distribution of offshore wholesale and retail funds within the institutional and private wealth sectors within Australia and New Zealand.

Rugby started his career in finance at CMC Markets as a Client Service Executive, providing regular market insights and training to high valued clients.

Rugby holds a Bachelor of Business & Commerce in International Business & Commerce from the University of Newcastle and a Masters of Real Estate Investments from the University of Technology Sydney.

David Lee

Business Development Associate, Insight Investment

David joined Insight in August 2025 as a Business Development Associate, responsible for supporting Insight’s institutional business in Australia & New Zealand.

Prior to Insight, David spent three years at Qantas Super as a Senior Investment Analyst, responsible for portfolio management, risk management and manager selection across fixed income, currency, equities and alternatives.

He has also held the role of Investment Operations Analyst at Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation. David graduated from the University of Queensland with a BA in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering. He also has a Masters in Applied Finance from the Queensland University of Technology.