As the Commonwealth Games kicks off in the UK, we’re taking a look at some of the sporting stars who are now in the broking industry and finding out what the broking industry’s top team could look like.
The broking and mortgage finance industry attracts players from all walks of life and all professions.
From interviewing thousands of brokers over the years for the magazine, finding out how leading players built their broking businesses in our one-on-one chats in The Adviser Podcast Network, engaging and networking with members of the industry at industry events, we’ve learned that this industry is home to a surprising number of athletes – both former and current.
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In this wrap-up, we look at the team roster of some of the broking industry’s top athletes.
(Leave us a comment below if you think anyone else should be given an honourable mention!)
Since 2013, the name “Trbojevic” has been echoing across Brookvale Oval to adoring fanfare, with Tom Trbojevic, or Tommy Turbo, the cause.
In his seven-year career, Mr Trbojevic has planted himself as an all-star athlete, becoming a crowd favourite with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and being awarded the Brad Fittler Medal at the 2021 State of Origin series’ conclusion.
But he has also found himself competing in the broking space. Since 2019, Mr Trbojevic has been a partner with iFin Capital, a brokerage based in Sydney with a focus on business and asset lending.
He recently completed his Certificate IV in Financial Services: Specialising in Commercial and Asset Finance (Complex Issues in Commercial Lending) through CAFBA's Education Council.
For over a decade, Sean Wellman was a professional Australian Rules footballer.
In 1994, Mr Wellman transitioned from Prospect Oval – the home of the SANFL’s North Adelaide Roosters – to the AFL, playing with the Adelaide Crows. Two years later, he moved to Windy Hill, playing for the Essendon Bombers.
In 2000, Mr Wellman would become a member of the club’s Premiership win and near-perfect season, with the Bombers only losing one game that year.
After retiring in 2004, Mr Wellman found himself orbiting careers, before ultimately landing on the broking space in 2013 as Wellman Finance’s principal & residential lending manager.
After a decade on the pedals, Travis Meyer took the off ramp from cycling and steered towards a career in mortgage broking.
His first Pro Tour race was the 2009 Tour Down Under and by the beginning of 2010 he was the winner of the Australian National Road Race Championships elite road race. Mr Meyer rode professionally between 2010 and 2016, before racing towards his broking career.
First starting out as a part-time broker (while still racing), before committing full time in January 2018, he hasn’t “looked back” since. As finance executive of Finance Detective in WA, Mr Meyers took home the Best Newcomer & Rising Star Award for Western Australia in 2019 from The Adviser.
Steve “Beaver” Menzies went from scoring tries in rugby league to sinking his teeth into broking.
The rugby league icon played 477 games and scored an astounding 238 tries, amassing a total of 952 points in his career. He played for the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles, represented New South Wales and Australia and also played for the Bradford Bulls and the Catalans Dragons in the Super League before retiring in 2013.
After a successful sporting career, Mr Menzies took up a position as business development manager at Bell Partners in 2017. In this role he discovered that writing mortgages and asset finance “excited” him.
He became a mortgage broker at Citywide in 2018.
From former captain of the Port Adelaide Football Club, Domenic Cassini has since become an award-winning mortgage broker in his own right.
Having led the club as captain across four seasons, from 2009-2012, he now defines success as getting the best deals for his clients and helping them achieve their dreams.
Just 15 months after leaving the club he set up a brokerage ‘Funding Options’ and within a year was recognised as one of the industry’s best new mortgage brokers, taking home the Rising Star Award in 2015 at AFG’s High Achievers Gala Dinner.
After running the tracks for more than a decade, Sean Wroe caught sight of finance broking and now considers it his “perfect profession”.
The two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but had to withdraw from representing Australia at the 2012 Olympics in London due to appendicitis.
It wasn’t long before he discovered broking and launched his Melbourne-based business, Sakura Finance, in 2017. The name of the brokerage is a tribute to his Japanese heritage.
Mr Wroe said the “determination and discipline” harnessed during his athletics career helped him build Sakura Finance.
Considered to be a “schoolboy prodigy” by Rugby Australia, Phil Waugh spent over a decade in rugby union’s topflight as a flanker.
In 2000, the Sydney-raised athlete made his debut as a Wallaby, kicking off a career that saw him reach the sport’s World Cup final in 2003 as vice captain, being awarded the John Eales Medal, and captaining the NSW Waratahs.
Mr Waugh has since spent the past 10 years tackling the lending space.
Since March 2021, the Wallaby icon has served as the executive, broker distribution for NAB – a position that was preceded by roles with both St.George and CBA.
For Blake Edwards, “high performance” in broking has come naturally, given his ongoing sporting career as an Olympian.
In 2020, Edwards competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Water Polo and is currently in France competing in the World League Super Finals (we’re cheering for you Blake).
While traveling the world for his country, he completed business and commerce degrees, which lead him to a career in mortgage broking in 2019. Then in 2020, he made the jump and founded BE Astute.
Juggling sports and broking, Mr Edwards has built up a multi-million dollar loan book and was acknowledged for his success at The Adviser’s Better Business Awards 2022, taking home NSW Best Newcomer Award.
In 2009, Natalie Sheehan – a mortgage professional with then almost 20 years in the space – made the decision to train professionally as a cyclist. Entering in Melbourne’s Gatorade Triathlon Series that year, Ms Sheehan found herself compelled to eventually compete for Australia.
Five years after her professional start, she eventually represented her country at the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series. She repeated this three years later at the 2017 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships.
Since 2020, Ms Sheehan has served as the director - head of distribution for the non-bank lender Brighten, and is also an MFAA and FBAA accredited mentor.
Former Rugby Sevens captain Nick Reily has been forming strong broker relationship ever since exiting his sporting profession.
In his former career, Mr Reily participated in the 2005 Rugby World Cup Sevens in Hong Kong and the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games as part of the Australian Sevens rugby team. He has even played soccer at a semi-professional level.
Drawing on similarities from his sporting and lending careers, Mr Reily said he “understands what it means to see an opportunity and then go for it”.
Mr Reily took on the role heading up broker partnerships for SME lender OnDeck Australia almost three years ago after a similar stint at Prospa where he was BDM for South Australia and the Northern Territory.
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