About Us Our People
Adviser connections
An integral part of our DNA
We are 100% staff owned, with an advice-based heritage, so we understand not only portfolio construction but how important advice is when it comes to implementing an investment strategy.
We pride ourselves on the high quality of service we offer Advisers as a boutique portfolio manager. We are always listening and improving upon what we offer.
Our core leadership team has a long history of working together, with a deep knowledge of managed accounts and the complexities involved in running these kinds of portfolios.
Our Mission
To innovate and empower people to achieve their financial goals.
We do this through our unique approach to risk management and by shaping our solutions to better align with investor behaviour.
Our Investment Team
Dan Miles
Managing Director & Co-Chief Investment Officer
Years with Innova: 16
Dan is Managing Director of Innova, where he has led the firm since 2010. He is responsible for portfolio oversight and the development of Innova’s approach to risk-aware portfolio construction, with a focus on aligning investment outcomes with real client behaviour.
Dan has spent much of his career working at the intersection of investments and financial advice, having previously held investment research roles with RI Advice Group and Genesys Wealth Advisers. His perspective is shaped by the practical realities advisers face when translating portfolio theory into client outcomes.
Dan is a regular contributor to adviser conferences, professional communities and industry publications, and speaks frequently on portfolio construction, risk framing and investor behaviour. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Finance from Macquarie University, where he was awarded the University Prize for Risk and Portfolio Construction, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance) with Merit and a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales.
Dinyar Irani
Chairman & Co-Chief Investment Officer
Years with Innova: 16
Dinyar co-founded Innova alongside Dan and currently serves as our Chairman and Co-Chief Investment Officer. Dinyar has worked with Advisers for many years and truly understands the needs and challenges Advisers face when recommending investment solutions for clients. He has a wealth of knowledge about the different investment solutions available in Australia and specialises in Australian equities, international equities and real assets.
Shane Wang
Head of Research
Years with Innova: 14
Shane joined Innova in 2012 and currently serves as our Head of Research. Shane’s research over the years has focused on portfolio construction techniques and factor diversification. Currently pursuing his PHD, he has spent years learning through rigorous academic research and is regularly finding ways to refine and improve our own process through this research.
Sam Chapman
Investment Governance Analyst
Years with Innova: 8
Sam joined Innova in 2018 and currently serves as our Investment Governance Analyst. Sam’s main responsibility is to maintain the consistency of our portfolios across our different products and assess the viability of any suggested investment solution. Functioning in a dual role, Sam also provides quantitative and qualitative support to our investment team.
John Bilsel
Quantitative Investment Analyst
Years with Innova: 4
John joined Innova in 2022 and currently serves as one of our Investment Analysts. He provides quantitative analysis and contributes ongoing research as part of our portfolio construction process. John also plays a key role in our sustainable investing research, as well as our work on factor diversification and short-term return forecasting. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics.
Rafio Khan
Portfolio Manager
Years with Innova: 3
Rafio joined Innova in 2023 and currently serves as Portfolio Manager for the CFS FirstChoice and CFS Edge Accelerate portfolios. He also contributes ongoing research to the investment team as part of our portfolio construction process. Rafio brings deep knowledge of fund managers, with prior investment experience in managed accounts and model portfolios. He also specialises in fixed income and alternatives research.
Aashna Kotwani
Operations & Investment Analyst
Years with Innova: 2
Aashna joined Innova in 2024 and currently serves as our operations and investment analyst. Aashna supports investment operations, with a focus on portfolio trade execution and ensuring ongoing operational excellence across our product suite. She also provides investment analysis support to our investment team, as part of her dual role.
Our Adviser Relations Team
Sophie Temperton
Director & General Manager
Years with Innova: 14
Sophie joined Innova in 2012 and currently serves as a director and our general manager. Sophie’s focus has been on streamlining the Innova business operations, developing the goals-based advice framework and has strong relationships and a deep understanding of our platform providers. She also oversees the development and execution of our business strategy and plan.
Laura Edwards
Training and Relationship Manager
Years with Innova: 2
Laura joined Innova at the start of 2024 and currently serves as our Training and Relationship Manager, a newly created role. She is focused on maintaining the high standard of service our clients value and finding new ways to enhance how we support our partners. Laura also leads the training and onboarding of new advisers and support staff as they familiarise themselves with our products and advice framework.
Damon Brown
Business Development Manager (WA/ SA)
Years with Innova: < 1
Damon has over 20 years experience in Financial Planning including 15 years as an Authorised Representative. Damon’s area of expertise is business management with particular focus on tech, and efficiency. Damon has managed and consulted to large financial planning firms with >$5m revenue. With undergrad majors in Economics and Finance with an MBA overlay, he can bring strategic insights into Financial Planning businesses.
Outside of work, Damon has three daughters, is a keen gardener specialising in topiary and bonsai. He can often be seen cooking up a storm in his woodfire pizza oven. To stay fit, he’s a competitive Open Water Swimmer with over a dozen solo swims to Rottnest.
John Li
Business Development Management (NSW/VIC/TAS)
Years with Innova: 3
John joined Innova in 2023 and currently serves as our business development manager. His focus is primarily on promoting Innova’s solutions to financial advisers. John is committed to understanding the requirements of financial advisers and finding investment options to solve their problems. He is also our in-house expert on large language model AI.
Nathan Roberts
Business Development Manager (QLD/NSW)
Years with Innova: < 1
Nathan brings close to 20 years of experience within financial services , spanning funds management, platforms and investment research, having held technical and distribution-focused roles with leading firms including Morningstar, Russell Investments, UBS Wealth Management and BT Financial Group.
Nathan works closely with advisers across NSW and QLD, supporting with managed account solutions, portfolio construction and implementation designed to help investors achieve long-term outcomes aligned to their objectives and risk tolerance. He is passionate about building long-term partnerships and helping advice practices become more efficient, profitable and scalable to enable advisers to deliver quality strategic advice outcomes to more clients.
Outside of work, Nathan enjoys spending time with his family boating on Moreton Bay, heading to the beach and enjoying the Queensland outdoors. He also has a fun story to share about his time on the TV game show Deal or No Deal.