MEET THE TEAM

Chairman
Governance Team
Gregor Schmalz
Gregor is currently an Executive Coach running a boutique coaching company focused on team building and leadership with senior executives from Fortune 500 companies from around the world. He holds an MBA from Thunderbird, and an Executive MBA from Sasin/Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University). He has served as Managing Director for Igus GmbH and Plansee SE in Europe overseeing strategic changes leading to growth and profitability.

Executive Director, Strategy
Governance Team
Jodi Thomas​
Jodi is currently the General Manager Strategy for Allianz Worlwide Partners. Having done her MBA and Masters in Project Management from Queensland, Jodi entered her corporate career in sports and recreation services industry. From there she progressed her way into the insurance industry. As Head of Project Management for Auto & General she held the responsibility of over seeing new product development. She leads the strategy implementation team at SO Capital.

Executive Director, Stakeholder Management
Governance Team
Laurence Kubiak
Laurence was CEO of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research from 2014 to 2021, and is currently Chair of Trustees Executors Ltd, a Director of Northpower, and Trustee of several philanthropic organisations. He is also owner and Chief Executive of Nautech Electronics Ltd. Earlier in his career, Laurence lived in Europe for 25 years, and held a series of commercial and strategic roles for FTSE-100 companies, before returning to New Zealand.

Executive Director, Money
Governance Team
Anindya Sen
Dr. Anindya Sen is a Lecturer in Finance and Statistics at the University of Otago. He has a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Chicago and was formerly employed as a credit derivatives quant at Goldman Sachs in London. His interests lie in financial derivatives, portfolio management and risk analysis. His skillset allows for an in-depth analysis for all the investment opportunities that cross the SO Capital domain, across a range of industries.

CEO
Management Team
Shah Aslam
Shah gained a Bachelors of Commerce double major in Accounting and Finance, and Post Graduate Diploma in Finance at University of Otago, before completing his MBA at the National University of Singapore. Following this, Shah returned to NZ where he worked with BNZ in Corporate Finance specialising in leveraged buyouts and mergers & acquisitions. He left his position to become a part of SO Capital full time, where he is currently disrupting and growing the aviation industry with Air Napier.

Portfolio Manager
Management Team
Queenie Lai
Queenie graduated from her MBA and then proceeded to work for Westpac as a Business Manager. Prior to this Queenie has spent time working for HSBC and Standard Chartered in Hong Kong as an Investment Strategist. She is currently in charge of creating a strategy to expand SO Capital further in the Hospitality space. ​

Data Analysis
Management Team
Jonathan Haggart
After graduating from Sheffield Hallam University with a Bachelor of Mathematics, Jonathan proceeded to work for the esteemed IBM as a Financial Analyst. Jonathan also has a passion for content creation, branding and marketing, having grown large audiences on social media platforms, reaching over 50 million viewers worldwide. Jonathan leads the overall strategy of SO Capital along with the Marketing arm.​