Our Team
Experience
you can trust.
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Ben Palmer
Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer
Ben Palmer is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Affinity Funds Management, bringing over 20 years of institutional investment and executive leadership experience to the role. Ben joined Affinity from GESB — Western Australia’s largest superannuation fund and a global top 300 pension fund — where he served as Chief Executive Officer from 2018, overseeing more than $46 billion in assets under management and 250,000 members. Under Ben’s leadership, GESB achieved top five national balanced fund performance in 2025 and successfully launched the landmark One Fund initiative — one of the most significant reforms in the fund’s 85-year history, allowing GESB members to pay non-government employer contributions to the fund for the first time. Prior to his appointment as CEO, Ben was head of investments for GESB’s global investment portfolio, and previously had responsibility for GESB’s private equity investment program and asset allocation strategies. Before returning to Australia in 2011, Ben spent eight years with Schroders in London, where he held senior roles including Head of Portfolio Management for the group’s UK private wealth business. Ben holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance and Investment and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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Adam Santa Maria
Founding Chairman, Affinity Funds Management
Adam Santa Maria is the Founding Chairman of Affinity Funds Management and the founder and Managing Director of Affinity Capital Group. With over two decades of experience across corporate finance, M&A, capital markets, and strategic advisory, Adam brings a distinctive combination of transaction execution depth and principal investing experience. He has previously served as Executive Director of a natural resources focussed fund and has substantial governance experience across both listed and unlisted entities, including as CEO, Chair, General Counsel, and Non-Executive Director, and is responsible for the management of Affinity Capital Group's private equity interests — giving him an operator's perspective that is rare in funds management. Adam's investment focus is concentrated on Western Australia's most structurally significant sectors: resources and critical minerals, infrastructure and sovereign capability, and Indigenous engagement and regional development. His deep relationships across industry, government, and community — built over many years of advising on some of Australia's most consequential transactions — provide Affinity with proprietary access to opportunities that are not available through conventional channels. Adam holds advanced qualifications from the University of Western Australia, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford, and is a former WA Business News 40 Under 40 winner.
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Demetrios Pynes
Head of Transactions
Demetrios Pynes is the Head of Transactions at Affinity Funds Management. With over 25 years of experience spanning analytical, advisory, and executive roles, Demetrios brings a rare combination of investment expertise and hands-on operational leadership to the firm. He founded an industrial company and led it to an ASX listing, serving as Managing Director for seven years and growing it into the largest independent company in its sector — overseeing the acquisition and integration of more than 50 businesses. This track record gives Demetrios deep expertise in transaction structuring, due diligence, and post-acquisition integration that he brings to Affinity Funds Management. He has extensive experience navigating special situations including corporate restructuring, asset divestments, and catalyst-oriented M&A, and brings an expansive network of corporate and financial relationships built over decades of deal-making. Demetrios holds a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance and Banking, postgraduate qualifications in Applied Finance and Investment (Portfolio Management), and is a Fellow of FINSIA, a Responsible Manager under an AFSL, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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Simon Tan
Head of Infrastructure
Simon Tan is Head of Infrastructure at Affinity Funds Management, where he leads the identification, evaluation, and execution of investments across the firm’s infrastructure themes. He specialises in originating infrastructure opportunities and structuring complex transactions, including off-balance sheet delivery models. Simon combines international transaction and sector experience with local market knowledge. He spent 16 years at leading global infrastructure investment banks in London and Sydney before returning to Perth to build an equally deep career advising Western Australian government and infrastructure investors. As a Senior Director at Rothschild in London and Royal Bank of Canada in Sydney, he was appointed more than 45 times by the world’s leading infrastructure funds and institutional investors to advise on the acquisition and development of infrastructure assets across all infrastructure asset classes. He has completed over $24 billion in transactions, including the Australian Financial Review CFO Awards M&A Deal of the Year in 2010. Simon has deep government relationships and advisory, funding, and approval experience that provides Affinity with the ability to partner directly with governments on expanding or developing infrastructure. He has advised 16 government departments, agencies, and government trading enterprises, from the Western Australian Government through to the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street, on infrastructure strategy, delivery, and asset sales. As Head of Infrastructure at KPMG Perth and subsequently Chief Adviser at the Western Australian Treasury Corporation, Simon has an intimate knowledge of Western Australia’s infrastructure conditions and opportunities. Simon holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia, a Master of Electronic Commerce from Murdoch University, and a Graduate Diploma of Applied Finance and Investment from FINSIA. He was named Western Australian of the Year (Youth) in 1995.
Our team continues to grow.
Further appointments will be announced in due course.
Enquire About Opportunities