The Great Southern Managed Investment Scheme went leg up in May 2009 initially with debts of 700 million plus, but eventually it transpired that more than $1 billion was owed to investors.
Almost exactly 18 months later, 3 people from the top of Great Southern management have launched into a new venture, Vault Advisory Services, trading as Vault Financial Group. These ex-Great Southern managers are John Young, Cameron Rhodes and Neville Hill. The rest of Vault is owned by the other three directors, Brian Collins (accountant), Tim Jess (ASX, share trading background) and Brad Gunn (business background). At least two of these three blokes had also been employed by Great Southern but it does not appear to be widely realised as there is yet to be a media article pointing out the connection.
First up is the founder and original CEO of Great Southern, John Young. He is apparently responsible for a large amount of the finance required to set up Vault Financial Group, but he is not listed as a Vault Financial Group director.
Second is chartered accountant Cameron Rhodes, who was the Great Southern Managing Director/CEO from 1999 to 2010, and a Pricewaterhouse Coopers director from 1987 to 1999. He is listed on the website as one of the five Vault Financial Group directors, and is apparently the Vault Financial Group Pty Ltd Managing Director.
Third is Neville Hill, Great Southern National Sales Manager for 13 years. Neville Hill is also listed as one of the five directors of Vault Financial Group.
Curiously but perhaps unsurprisingly, there is no mention in the Vault Financial director’s biographies that any of them were involved with the Great Southern Investment Scheme, but of course it’s public knowledge that John Young, Cameron Rhodes and Neville Hill were involved, right up the top.
What is not widely known is that at least two of the other three Vault Financial Directors were employed by Great Southern in financial management/sales positions. Tim Jess was presumably employed by Great Southern in a ‘financial product distributor’ capacity. He was at a meeting of Great Southern investors in Albury, in an official capacity along with Great Southern Sales Manager Neville Hill, in November 2008. In 2008 Tim Jess is also listed as the contact for a Great Southern Securities ‘gold’ level sponsorship listed in the De La Salle Old Collegians Amateur Football Club (Sydney) newsletter.
Brian Collins was Great Southern Commercial manager from 2003-2007, Business Development Manager from 1998-2009 and Great Southern Regional Sales Manager from 2007-2009. He is now a senior property advisor with the John Hopkins Group.
Whether Brad Gunn’s link to Great Southern was direct or indirect isn’t clear as about all that is publicly known is that Brad A Gunn established Vault Accountants Pty Ltd with Sharath Sama in December 2009.