Private credit start-up hires industry veteran as CIO

Written by
ELIZABETH FRY  

A veteran superannuation and funds management executive has joined Sydney boutique private credit start-up Kingsmen Capital Partners as its inaugural chief investment officer.

The firm, which launched a few weeks ago has appointed Brendan Casey to the role.

Casey has over 35 years of experience spanning investment management, financial markets, and institutional governance, as well as over four decades of service in the Australian Army Reserve.

Starting out as a chemical engineer at DuPont, Casey moved into stockbroking in the early 1990s, joining County Securities as a dealing research analyst. The firm later became Citigroup, where he rose to head of portfolio and trading.

Casey then moved into various roles in funds management at Suncorp and Rest Super, where he served as head of investment operations and general manager of investments, respectively.

Over the last five years, Casey has held contract positions, including head of investment strategy (Pacific) at Mercer and senior manager of investment strategy implementation at TAL, the insurance giant.

Kingsmen chief executive Chris Smith welcomed Casey to the firm as the inaugural investment chief

"He brings very deep experience, credibility and technical capability across the financial markets. He has honed his extensive leadership skills from start ups to global corporates to the battlefields of Afghanistan.

"Brendan's unparalleled integrity, combined with his commitment to client focus and fiduciary obligations, sets up Kingsmen Capital Partners to deliver great outcomes in the private capital asset class for our investors.

The new chief investment officer said he was drawn to the excitement of private credit and a start up plus super enthusiastic founders.

This is not Casey's first start-up.

In 2004, he set up Alturus Asset Management, an alternative investment management firm, which now trades as NAOS Asset Management.

This article originally appeared in financialstandard.com.au, on Thursday, 30 Oct, 2025