About

Eddystone Rock lies off the south coast of Tasmania, Australia, in the notorious Southern Ocean. It has stood resolute despite 15,000 years of turbulent weather after separating from the mainland.

The inspiration for the company name follows the founder, Barnaby Webb, having taken part in several legs of a round-the-world yacht race. After sailing the Southern Ocean from Cape Town to Western Australia, then to the south of Tasmania, Eddystone Rock marked the turning point north to the warmer, calmer seas of Sydney (and a cold beer) to prepare for the 2015 Sydney Hobart Race. Eddystone Financial Services has been established to provide an alternate provider for Australia and New Zealand’s corporate loan markets. Like our namesake, we aim to provide a resolute and dependable service to our varied clients. Our offering is based upon:

People

Eddystone’s staff underpin our entire operation. The complex, bespoke nature of the transactions we manage rely entirely on expertise and accuracy. The founding members of Eddystone have extensive international experience, and are former colleagues who share a similar work ethic and vision. Business growth will only occur as we welcome or develop similar talent. Mediocrity isn’t tolerated. All Eddystone employees will be eligible to share in the equity of the business, as we aim to develop and retain an inclusive, engaged, highly professional modern workforce.

Technology

We are not a fintech, nor have any aspiration to be one. Instead, we recognise and value the importance of technology systems that are robust, fit for purpose, and remain at the forefront of developments in global loan markets. We have therefore partnered with vendors who offer industry-leading solutions, with automation, accuracy, and accessibility benefits we look forward to sharing with our Borrower and Lender clients, and believe will set us apart from other providers in Australia and New Zealand.

Eddystone Ethos

The services Eddystone provides, while critical to the transactions managed, pale in significance to the roles played by the deal parties and their advisors. We recognise this, and intend to develop a business without fanfare or ego, and instead to act as an agile facilitator, happy to operate in the background unless circumstances warrant otherwise. We remain humbled to play a part in these exciting transactions, and intend that recognition and excitement to remain at the heart of everything we do.

We are the calm head in a storm, with extensive experience navigating a sensible course for competing stakeholders.

Meet Our Management Team

Barnaby Webb

Managing Director

Barnaby has nearly 20 years’ experience in banking and financial services, both in Australia and the UK. This has included large banks such as National Australia Bank, Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse, and smaller boutiques including BlueBay Asset Management and European Credit Management, with roles largely involved in the management and trading of Syndicated Loans. A common theme has been inheriting underperforming teams, then overhauling and revitalizing them. More recently Barnaby was responsible for establishing and heading up the Australian office of another specialist independent loan agency provider, the first of its kind to venture into the local market, as well as sitting on its global board of directors.

Barnaby sees the benefit to establishing an alternate provider for the burgeoning Australian and New Zealand loan market, with improved systems and risk mitigation strategies, using the knowledge and experience gained from both large and small institutions to create a market-leading offering. Barnaby is a fully qualified CPA.

Deborah Macdonald

General Counsel

Debbie is a highly experienced banking and finance lawyer, with extensive exposure to leverage, acquisition, project, restructuring and general finance transactions as well as unitranche financing provided by non-bank financiers.

Debbie started her career at Buddle Findlay in Auckland before relocating to work in the bank finance team at White & Case first in London, then Abu Dhabi, both providing the opportunity to work on complex multijurisdictional financing transactions.

She has also worked as an in-house lawyer at three different banks, as well as in the Sydney office of another independent loan agency provider, giving her a good understanding of lending and financial service institutions from a commercial perspective. She holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce.

Will Taylor

Manager, Operations

Will has spent the majority of his 10 year+ career in banking and financial services with National Australia Bank, initially in London before promotion and relocation to their Sydney offices. He specialises in the management of Syndicated Loan and related product transactions, developing technology expertise across a number of related inhouse and vendor systems. Will also led the operations team for GLAS, another independent agent/trustee business, for a number of years.