How it all began: A passion for global finance
Tom’s fascination with financial markets began during a defining moment in recent history.
“The spark was studying macroeconomics in my undergrad during the height of the Global Financial Crisis in ’08-09 - Exploring how the financial derivatives were built that ultimately collapsed the global economy, the systemic gaps that failed to contain excessive greed and allowed these products to proliferate, and more generally how extremely intertwined the entirety of human society is through commerce and the decisions of global businesses and governments.”
This early experience gave Tom a unique perspective on the importance of risk management and the need for more robust, transparent systems. He moved onto grad school at the University of Sydney, as he sought to understand how businesses could protect themselves from market volatility.
“I got deeply curious, specifically about the interconnectedness of financial markets across equities, bonds, FX & commodities and just how people could possibly create structure to not get blown away when the economic winds shifted.”
His first job out of graduate school was as a Treasury consultant at Rochford Capital, and this proved to be pivotal:
“I was tasked with building FX Risk Management spreadsheets for several businesses and a global Cash Flow Forecasting spreadsheet for another large business. Realising these two functions were simply two parts in one greater process of managing risk, I stuck them together into a single flow of data and started using these files for all of our clients who, in some instances, even cancelled software licenses because these Excel workflows were more practical.”
Tom still recalls the moment when everything clicked:
“I still have the chart I made one night when I was at the office by myself and the light bulb went off.”
Identifying the real problems
Through his work, Tom identified a chain of challenges that businesses face when managing FX risk and payments:
“It’s a chronological chain of problems:
1. FX Risk can materially harm or bankrupt a business if mismanaged.
2. Even if a business recognises this, it can lack the time or internal skill sets to implement change and manage risk ongoing.
3. Even if change is implemented, the data underpinning FX risk processes is often fragmented across various systems, leading to error-prone and slow Excel-based data consolidation, resulting in poor decision making.
4. To top it off, FX service providers can pitch themselves as trusted risk experts that help solve these challenges, but their business models are based on maximising trading volumes and charged spreads, with these misaligned incentives leading to clients receiving ineffective support.”
He was witnessing daily the real-world consequences of these systemic issues, and the frustrations CFO’s and internal financial experts were experiencing:
“Many had never hedged before and didn’t know where to start. Often, they had experienced FX losses on their P&L large enough to catch the eye of shareholders or the board.”
He also saw the pitfalls of ad hoc approaches. “It tends to work until it doesn’t,” he notes, referencing businesses that try to “time the market” without a structured process.
Some clients faced even more complex challenges, driven by the greed of trusted partners, and highlighting how short-term gains for brokers, rather than long term business stability for clients, is so often a driving factor:
“One particular former client took on our advisory services because they were struggling to maintain oversight of their FX options; they were a simple business with predictable cash flow timings and volumes. However, they had been sold dozens of FX options, all with leverage and various strikes, knock-outs and knock-ins that made it nearly impossible to know how much hedging they were likely to have at any point in the future. The dealer seemed all too happy to leverage a friendly relationship to push excessively complicated products onto this business. It took months to unwind everything.”
The birth of Tenora and the launch of the Hedge Analyser
Driven by these experiences, Tom, along with Harry and Nick, founded Tenora. The company’s first product, the Hedge Analyser, is already making an impact.
“The FX industry has normalised opacity, misaligned incentives, and outdated processes — and it's long overdue for change. The Hedge Analyser enables businesses to reveal how their FX hedge costs stack up against the protection they provide, including what their counterparty is charging. It’s about making people sweat when they are taking advantage of others who are trusting them for guidance. We chose to make it free as we want the market to change for the better and feel transparency should not have a cost.”
Tom explains how simple it is for businesses to get started:
“If you have a live quote now, or have executed a hedge in the past, you can have true transparency on if you are getting a good deal. And if you are not, then you now have the data you need to go back to your counterparty and discuss a better deal.”
He adds:
“It’s a quick and simple tool that can save businesses thousands with every use and makes you part of the change towards a more transparent financial future. It’s the perfect tool to lead the drive towards our promise of better outcomes being the norm.”
Looking Ahead
While the Hedge Analyser is already helping businesses, this is just the beginning for Tenora.
“I really enjoy the intellectual gymnastics of understanding financial markets, risk management frameworks, and how to implement and manage practical solutions in the real world. Tenora is giving us a platform to follow our passion and really deliver on changing the FX industry. Our product pipeline is a synthesis of all our learnings and experience streamlined into simple, effective and transparent solutions."
With a foundation built on trust, practical experience, and a deep understanding of the challenges businesses face, Tom and the Tenora team are committed to delivering innovative solutions that empower clients and drive real change in the FX market.
