[INTERVIEW] Korean-Australian wealth manager full of ambition

Solomons Group managing partner Johnny Shin, fifth from left, poses with his corporate advisory team members at the company's Sydney office in this 2019 file photo. / Courtesy of Solomons Group

By Park Jae-hyuk

Solomons Group managing partner Johnny Shin, 32, lives up to his favorite William Pollard quote, "The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient for tomorrow."

The private wealth adviser, who also has a Korean name, Shin Yong-ha, founded the wealth management company in Brisbane last year.

Based on his career at Macquarie Group and Ord Minnett, a private wealth management group owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, the Korean-Australian has led his company with colleagues who worked with him at his previous workplaces.

At its offices in Sydney and Brisbane, Solomons offers private wealth management and corporate advisory services.

In a recent interview with The Korea Times, Shin said he dreams of expanding his company's offices further in strategic and key locations such as Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore within the next five years as demand for Asia-Pacific cross-border financial services continues to grow.

"Just like Australia is well known for its multicultural society, our partners and staff members also come from diverse cultural backgrounds; from Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India and even covering Kenya," he said.

"Our diversity within the firm allows us to understand our international clients' needs at a much deeper and personal level, and we believe showing acknowledgement and understanding of our client's cultural differences is a crucial and key component to our success."

In particular, Shin seeks to consolidate his company's partnerships with Korean clients.

"We are already working actively with a number of leading financial institutions and family offices in Korea to source appropriate assets across Australia and Asia," he said.

"We assist our Korean clients with a buy mandate to source off-market alternative assets like commercial properties, government-led infrastructure projects, renewable energy projects, asset-backed debt and other private equity related deals."

Born in Seoul, Shin immigrated to Australia with his mother when he was a teenager.

After getting a bachelor's of commerce at Griffith University, he worked at Macquarie and Ord Minnett.

"I found that the finance industry is the one sector where a new day is never the same," he said.

"I liked the fact that it continues to challenge you on daily basis and that is one of the biggest reasons why I continue to thrive and always seek to learn more when working within the sector. You can never be complacent in this industry."

Solomons' assets under management stood at 300 billion won ($249 million) in February.

Shin said his company has every intention to grow this if the timing is right and opportunity does arise.

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