Wietske Blees Email & Phone Number

Sydney, Nsw, Au

Sydney, Australia

Fund Business is an Australian publishing and events company providing executive level insights for institutional investors. We provide independent editorial and host senior-level forums on topics including investment implementation, trading, technology and operations, risk and performance analysis, regulation and compliance.

Sydney, Australia

Tracking regulatory, risk and compliance developments and providing in depth analysis on both global and domestic financial services regulation for financial services institutions

Sydney-based freelance features writer, covering financial markets in Asia & Australia. Specialisation: derivatives, structured products, risk management & technology. During this period, I wrote monthly features for Risk.net, Asia Risk, Risk Australia, Operational Risk & Regulation, Structured Products magazine, Emerging Private Equity and other publications. I was also on the panel for the annual Asia Risk awards, responsible for a.o. the technology development and technology house of the year, structured product of the year, and the Australian derivatives awards.

London-based role as staff writer, covering the latest trends and developments in derivatives, structured products and risk management, both through in depth monthly features as well as in daily analyses on the website (www.risk.net). This role involved continuously sourcing new developments in the market and delivering new, original and breaking feature ideas, as well as delivering accurate, high quality, financial information and analyses to extremely tight deadlines. During this period I also sat on the judging panel for the annual Risk awards. Areas I have covered include but are not limited to option strategies, structured products, ETNs, ETFs, credit derivatives, equity derivatives, inflation derivatives, property derivatives, portfolio hedging techniques, Islamic finance, catastrophe bonds, Icelandic banks, currency and commodity derivatives, risk management technology and Basel and Solvency regulations.

Editing and writing a trade journal for the venture capital & private equity industry in the ‘Benelux’ region (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg). Based in London, this role required regular international business travel and frequent meetings with high profile investment managers.Additional responsibilities included a position as co-managing editor of Unquote news”, a daily breaking news website, and writing regular features for the ‘Unquote” intelligence reports’ and ‘Private Equity Europe’, and written a chapter on mezzanine finance in Incisive Media´s 2006 Mezzanine Report. I have also chaired and moderated panel discussions at Benelux unquote” conferences, sourced discussion topics and actively contributed to the design of the conference agendas.

Providing research assistance on a Femise research project, calculating the effects of trade agreements on Mediterranean economies (the ‘Femise Research Programme: Les effets des Accords d’Association sur l’Industrie des Pays Partenaires Méditerranéens’, available on: http://www.femise.org/PDF/a021/fem2121-sussex.pdf

Researching & documenting human rights abuse in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Malawi

Ski instructor

Ma, Global Political Economy, Specialisation Global Finance, Distinction

Result: Distinction

Ba, International Relations, Specialisation Economics, First Class

Activities and Societies: Providing research assistance to the Femise research programme, calculating the effects of trade agreements.

Ba, Politics & Economics

First class result

Education record