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Investment Team
MEET OUR TEAM
The Valara Partners Fund’s investment team comprises individuals with deep experience, extensive networks and technical expertise in a range of areas including property, finance and private credit.
Management Team
Ben Clark joined the Spotlight Group in 2020 as General Manager of Investments and Managing Director of Valara Capital. In managing the Valara Partners Fund, Ben’s responsibilities includes portfolio construction, sourcing, structuring and managing fund investments.
Prior to this role, Ben gained invaluable experience in the finance industry, with specific focus on private credit, holding senior roles at investment houses Wingate and Monark Property Partners. Ben commenced his career as a lawyer at Arnold Bloch Leibler in the Banking and Finance team.
Ben holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and Bachelor of Business (Banking & Finance) from Monash University.
Yon Rubinstein joined the investment team in March 2021 as an Investment Associate, focusing on transactional analysis and the execution of Valara investments. Prior to this role, Yon worked as a Finance Analyst at Spotlight Retail Group. Yon holds a Master of Finance and Bachelor of Science from Monash University.
Dimitra Soulemezis has built an extensive career in Treasury predominantly with publicly-listed corporates, having started her career with Rio-Tinto Ltd and has held finance leadership roles at Asahi Beverages, Incitec Pivot Ltd and Foster’s Group Ltd.
Dimitra joined Spotlight Group in late 2021 as Treasurer, where her primary responsibilities include interest rate and foreign currency risk management strategies, cashflow management and managing the banking relationships of the Group.
Dimitra holds a Bachelor of Business (Hons) from Monash University, Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment from the Securities Institute of Australia and is a Certified Practising Accountant.
Leigh Gratzer is General Counsel of Spotlight Group Holdings. As General Counsel, Leigh is involved in all legal facets of the Group, with a particular focus on Valara Partners Fund and the Group’s investments and retail divisions.
Prior to joining the Group in 2013, Leigh worked as a Senior Lawyer at Lend Lease in its retirement living business. Leigh commenced his legal career with Arnold Bloch Leibler in its commercial team.
Leigh holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Business Systems from Monash University.
Investment Committee
Morry Fraid is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Spotlight Group Holdings. Established in 1973, the Group comprises the Spotlight Retail Group (SRG), Spotlight Property Group (SPG) and Spotlight Group Investments (SGI). Under Morry and Zac Fried’s guidance, the Group has evolved into one of the most successful privately owned business groups in Australia.
Zac Fried is the Executive Deputy Chairman of Spotlight Group Holdings with a focus on the Group’s mixed use property development portfolio, leasing portfolio and store network expansion program.
He has more than 30 years’ retail and property industry experience and a demonstrable track record of successful site identification, property value creation, and the fostering of many longstanding and close industry relationships.
Zac has played the central role at the Group in the development of many of Australia and New Zealand’s premier retail, office, and homemaker centres.
Zac is a founding director with David Di Pilla of HMC Capital and is the President of the Large Format Retail Association (LFRA).
Avi Gilboa is the Group Managing Director of Spotlight Group Holdings and is engaged in all aspects of the Group’s activities.
Avi is a highly experienced senior executive and joined the Group in 2017 from Toll Holdings where he served for five years on the leadership team as its Group Chief Financial Officer and previously as its Head of Group Strategy.
Prior to joining Toll, Avi enjoyed a highly successful career in the investment banking and private equity industries, with over 20 years of multi-faceted exposure to a range of domestic and international businesses covering the full spectrum of retail, consumer, industrial and financial sectors.
John (JT) Macfarlane has over 40 years of experience within the finance industry in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and United States.
Previously, JT held executive positions for Deutsche Bank through a number of Asian countries and became Chairman of Deutsche Bank Australia & New Zealand in 2007, and was non-executive board member of the ANZ Banking Group until 2023.
JT is currently a non-executive board member of Spotlight Group Holdings and advisor to another large high net worth Australian family.