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Our story

  • Built on passion, expertise and practical solutions
  • Management owned, providing access to decision makers to improve efficiency and certainty
  • To preserve and protect the wealth of people whose money we take care of
  • Specialist fiduciary only, reducing conflicts
  • Aiming to support our team and give back to our community

Founded in 2016 to create a corporate trustee whose focus was on providing market leading client service through expertise, professional passion and modern infrastructure.

We provide fiduciary services to major domestic and international institutions including pension funds, insurance companies, banks and global asset management firms.  We work with top tier lawyers, international fund administrators and advisors to develop compliant Australian fund structures. We have a razor sharp focus on supporting investment managers in achieving positive outcomes for the long term wealth of the people whose money we take care of.

We continually aim to improve and streamline systems and processes to provide our clients with market leading service levels.

Experienced and professional leadership

Leading by example, exemplifying client commitment and sound practical expertise.

Ben Norman

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Ben is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 24 years of professional and industry experience. Before joining Evolution Trustees, Ben was a Director in global advisory Ernst & Young’s Transaction Advisory Services division, where he spent over 9 years working on numerous due diligence, operational improvement and restructuring engagements with clients in all industry sectors. Prior to this, Ben worked with Hastings Funds Management in a senior finance role, and in tax in a professional services firm that later merged with PwC.

Ben is based in Evolution Trustees’ Melbourne office.

Yvonne Kelaher

Director, Custody

Yvonne is responsible for Evolution Trustees’ custody business, with over 26 years’ expertise in corporate trusteeship, custody and debt capital markets. Yvonne has a proven track record in business management, development, transaction management, operations and client management.

Before joining Evolution Trustees, Yvonne was head of the former Australian Executor Trustees Corporate Trust business, overseeing $33bn of funds under administration, 35 staff members and 500 trusts.

Yvonne’s prior roles were at State Street and Westpac Institutional Bank.
A dynamic and results-driven leader, Yvonne is passionate about partnering with asset managers and advisors in delivering solutions that optimise operations, enhance governance and support the accelerated growth of funds.

Yvonne is based in Evolution Trustees’ Sydney office.

David Grbin

Director & Chairman

David is a Director and Chairman of Evolution Trustees’ majority independent board.

David was the former Chief Financial Officer and Group Executive, Corporate Clients at The Trust Company. He has significant corporate trustee experience and is currently the Chief Financial Officer of an ASX-listed company.

David pioneered the development of a single regional corporate trustee offering across the capital markets of Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and the development of managed investment trusts to facilitate significant foreign investment flows into Australian commercial property and infrastructure assets.

Sandy Calder

Director

Sandy is a board member of Evolution Trustees’ majority independent board.

Since qualifying as a lawyer in 1988, Sandy has worked for a number of leading fund management houses, both in Australia and abroad. Sandy’s previous experience includes positions as Chief Operating Officer of RF Capital, Managing Director of Calibre Capital Limited, a property funds management business he co-founded in 2004, CEO of Principal Real Estate Investors (Australia) Limited managing a $2.2 billion real estate portfolio, Head of Property Securities and Head of Listed Property of Colonial First State Investment Managers (Australia) Limited. Sandy has been a director of numerous real estate company boards.

OUR Principles
01

Passionate

Our business is owned and operated by a team who are passionate about what we do and are eager in our role in growing and protecting the wealth of investors.

02

Personal

Our people are at the centre of our product offering providing long term commitment to our clients and investors which we service, even through the execution of difficult decisions.

03

Professional

Our culture emphasises impartial integrity in each relationship we form and decision we make.

04

Pragmatic

We work flexibly with our clients to ensure we understand the facts and use common sense to set our course of action. We work with our clients to understand their needs and then adapt our approach to meet their specific needs.

Philanthropy

Evolution Trustees is committed to performing real actions and providing real financial support to give back to the community.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give – Winston Churchill.

Evolution Trustees’ giving program is focused on supporting Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs) through partnership with Community Capital and Barrenjoey Private Capital

Community Capital’s innovative funding model provides long-term support to Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs), enabling them to scale, achieve sustainability, and deliver greater impact in the community. A defining feature of this model is its commitment to social outcomes: a portion of fees is redirected to not-for-profit organisations, creating a sustainable source of funding for causes that matter.

How we support Social Purpose Organisations (SPOs)

Evolution Trustees is proud to act as Trustee for the Community Capital Private Equity Fund (CCPE) and the Community Capital Credit Fund (CCCF), established in partnership with Barrenjoey Private Capital.

As Trustee, Evolution Trustees is contributing by offering its services at a reduced fee, ensuring more resources flow directly to the community. In doing so, our role extends beyond fiduciary responsibility – it reflects our commitment to enabling private capital to generate meaningful social benefit and supporting investment structures that deliver lasting positive change.

Pledge 1%

Pledge 1% is a global initiative and an easy model with a proven track record of helping businesses of all sizes and stages to have an impact. It encourages and empowers companies to donate 1% of their staff time or profit (or both) to any charity and their ethos is to believe in all companies to have the capacity to give.

Profits

Evolution Trustees is proud to be a signatory to the Pledge 1% global initiative, and each year donates at least 1% of its profits towards causes to end slavery.

Staff commitment

Our staff are empowered to make an impact and are encouraged to donate their time to meaningful causes which help reshape the world for the better. In addition to committing 1% of Evolution Trustees’ annual profits to donations, staff have the option to donate 1% of their time during work hours.

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