Firstlinks (previously published as Cuffelinks) is a community sharing both the knowledge and the battle scars of experience from an informed and impartial point of view, without pushing products or promoting services.
Cuffelinks Pty Ltd ACN 161 167 451 was founded in 2012 by Graham Hand and Chris Cuffe and was acquired by Morningstar Australasia in October 2019.
Graham Hand
Graham Hand is Managing Editor of Firstlinks and Editorial Director at Morningstar.
Graham has 42 years’ experience in financial markets, starting at the Commonwealth Bank in 1976 where he headed New Issues before becoming General Manager, Capital Markets. From 1988, he was Deputy Treasurer at the State Bank of New South Wales, and from 1995, he was Managing Director, Treasury at NatWest Markets Australia.
Graham then embarked on full-time writing and consulting roles, where his clients included AMP, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Colonial First State, CUSCAL, Travelex and Arab Bank. He consulted to Colonial First State from 2001 and was appointed General Manager, Funding & Alliances in 2007, managing the funding for the largest geared share funds in the country, peaking at $10 billion, and establishing seven boutique asset management businesses across all asset classes.
In 2001, Graham’s first book, Naked Among Cannibals, an analysis of the evolution of Australian banking, featured in the Top 10 Business Books in Australia for several months. His first novel, Beyond Lucas Heights, was published in 2005. He wrote a monthly column on banking and funds management for CFO Magazine, and his articles have appeared in Euromoney, International Financing Review andMoney Management magazines, as well as websites Crikey and Banking Day.
Graham has an honours degree in economics from the University of NSW and a Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia (now the Financial Services Institute of Australasia).
Prior to joining Morningstar, Graham was a Director of the Listed Investment Company, Absolute Equity Performance Fund (ASX:AEG, the listed version of the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund) and a member of the Compliance Committee of Lazard Asset Management Pacific Co. He is currently a Director of Wealth02, and unconflicted, low cost managed account platform solution for advisers.
Leisa Bell, Assistant Editor
Leisa Bell joined Cuffelinks in 2013 as Assistant Editor and is also Editorial Associate at Morningstar.
Leisa has spent most of her career in the banking and finance industry, from specialising as a credit analyst to financial publishing. For 15 years, she worked across multiple levels of banking (retail, business, treasury, corporate and investment banking), both domestic and international. After a career break to raise children, she spent five years managing a small finance consultancy before joining a fledging Cuffelinks in 2013, assisting with editing, publishing and business administration.