Professional services company, AZ NGA, has appointed former Yellow Brick Road executive, Andrew Symes, to the newly-created position of General Counsel & Company Secretary, and appointed Yasemin Onat to Head of Mergers and Acquisitions.

Symes, who previously served as YBR’s General Counsel & Company Secretary, and prior to that held senior roles at the Commonwealth Bank, Challenger Limited and IBM, will head AZ NGA’s legal, risk and corporate governance function, reporting to Chief Executive Officer, Paul Barrett.

“AZ NGA is an ambitious company with a high calibre team, and I’m excited about the opportunity to join this dynamic business to lead the legal, risk and corporate governance function as well as provide some support in operational areas,” Symes said.

“In the current environment, it is rare to find a business that is so well funded and has the capability and capacity to pursue growth, and I look forward to making a contribution to AZ NGA’s ongoing success.”

Barrett said AZ NGA’s rapid growth in recent years created the need to bolster the group’s senior leadership team.

As part of the leadership changes, Onat, who has served as the group’s company secretary since January 2020, will shift to focus exclusively on Mergers and Acquisitions.

In her new role, Onat – a specialist corporate governance and mergers and acquisition professional – will support the business and underlying AZ NGA firms to identify suitable targets, conduct due diligence, structure and execute deals.

“AZ NGA has doubled in size in a relatively short period of time and our growth trajectory is strong, necessitating significant investment in people and talent to expand our capacity and capability,” Barrett said.

“Andrew is an experienced General Counsel & Company Secretary with a detailed understanding of the relevant regulatory requirements and a proven track record of achieving results, solving complex problems and delivering quality outcomes.

“His background and broad financial services experience, which spans advice, lending, broking and wealth management, also positions him strongly to offer support to our collective of accounting and advisory firms.”

For more information, please contact:

Paul Barrett

Chief Executive Officer, AZ NGA

M: 0419 402 319

E: paul.barrett@aznga.com