Joe Akiki
Managing Director
Joe is a Director of First Financial with extensive financial services industry experience where he has successfully led large, multidisciplinary teams, driving the delivery of high-quality sales and service outcomes for clients and business partners. This excellence has been acknowledged within the industry for several years with Joe being nominated in numerous business and leadership categories and being awarded a winner of the IFA Practice Principal of the Year award across Australia.
Joe has built a strong reputation for consistently providing effective wealth management advisory services and has a proven track record in delivering a very deliberate and targeted approach to expanding a business’s existing service offerings and revenue lines resulting in enhanced enterprise value. Prior to joining the Group, Joe worked for some of the largest financial services institutions across Retail and Private banking, wealth management, finance and insurance. Joe is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD).
Jason Rawlins
General Manager
Jason’s passion for financial advice started in high school and has evolved to a career centred on ensuring that the people he works with achieve what’s important to them.
He began his career in financial services in 2004 and became a financial adviser in 2005. During his time as financial adviser, Jason specialised in working with retirees, pre-retirees, young families, and clients with UK Pensions, assisting them reach their personal and financial goals by building deep relationships that enabled them to benefit from his strong technical and investment knowledge.
In a leadership role since 2011, Jason has successfully worked to drive growth and change with teams across some of Australia’s largest financial institutions, and has specialised in assisting advisers and teams develop and implement effective and sustainable client-centric solutions.
Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Banking & Finance, from Monash University.
He also holds an Advanced Diploma in Financial Services. Jason is a Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australasia and a Member of The Ethics Centre. Away from work, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and is an avid coffee drinker. He also enjoys socialising with friends and loves getting away to his family’s farm.
Chris Crough
Head of Private Wealth
Certified Financial Planner®
Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning)
Advanced Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning)
The Chris Crough story starts with two words. Coffee boy. His parents were clients of the firm and found out there was a job available. Chris had finished uni and was looking for something fulfilling. He found ‘coffee boy’.
Of course, there is a technical name for this role, it’s ‘traineeship’, but as Chris remembers it, he spent more time making coffee and filing than anything else. But his ability to learn, grow and achieve for himself and his clients, meant that his rise was inevitable.
“I like what I do … I like my clients and I like the guys I work with. The culture here is enjoyable, and everyone respects each other.” Read more
Rob Petrie
Head of Private Wealth
With over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Rob has built a reputation as a strategic, innovative, and results-driven leader with a proven track record in building high performing teams.
A determined leader, Rob has a history of leading large teams through periods of sustained transformation driven by numerous complex environmental influences.
An experienced financial planner with a passion for championing the cause of professional financial planners and the demonstrated link between planner advocacy and the execution of advice to secure positive financial outcomes for clients.
