A career built on purpose, perspective and Western Australian pride

Jane Tandy’s journey through the financial services industry is a testament to purpose-driven ambition shaped by a deep connection to community. Her career began with an early appreciation for financial planning, instilled through her family’s long-standing relationship with a trusted adviser.

When Jane Tandy was in high school and thinking about what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said, “I want to work on St George’s Terrace and drive a Porsche — of which currently I do neither,” she laughs. “And my dad said, ‘You should talk to my financial adviser.’ We had a trusted adviser in the family for a very long time.” That early exposure sparked a genuine interest in the impact of financial advice. “I’ve always liked the idea of financial planning, as I knew it’s a real service that helps people immensely.”

Tandy (pictured) pursued a Commerce degree in Finance at the University of Western Australia, laying the groundwork for what would become a 20-year career in financial services. In the early 2000s, she launched her professional journey by cold-calling firms listed in the Yellow Pages — a clinical approach that landed her a role at Patersons Securities as a dealer’s assistant, just shy of her 21st birthday.

While Patersons was predominantly a stockbroking firm, Tandy completed her Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning early on, staying true to her desire to help people holistically manage their wealth. Over two decades, she rose through the ranks to eventually become chief operating officer and one of the firm’s top shareholders. Her career highlights included managing the international trading desk, representing the firm in financial centres like New York and London, and playing a key role during Patersons’ acquisition by Canadian investment bank Canaccord Genuity.

Though her time at Canaccord offered valuable insight into global strategy, it also underscored for her a growing disconnect between East Coast-driven financial models and the unique needs of Western Australian investors. More personally, Tandy found that the high-intensity, travel-heavy expectations of senior executive roles no longer aligned with the way she wanted to parent.

“I found that for me, personally, there wasn’t a business that was meeting my needs in terms of my juggle between being a mother as well as having a career,” she explains. “With most of the firms being East Coast-based, the hours and travel were really untenable for me to parent the way that I would like to parent — so I decided to create our own firm.”

In 2024, Tandy co-founded Leeuwin Wealth with four like-minded industry peers. “There’s five founders, and we saw a gap in the WA market,” she says. Their vision was to create a firm that combined comprehensive financial planning, direct equities advice, and corporate finance capabilities — an offering uniquely suited to the WA investment culture.

Leeuwin Wealth was built for clients who value the transparency that comes with direct equities, want to support local capital raising, and still seek the security of holistic advice. “And I have a group of like-minded individuals that thinks Western Australian investing is important,” Tandy adds, “and so having product that’s suitable for local investors, in an environment where you can still have a very strong career in financial services without having to move over East and without having to get caught-up in all that investment banking lifestyle.”

Cultural integrity is central to Leeuwin’s mission. The firm deliberately emphasises the importance of work/life balance. “We’re providing advice to clients to prepare them to live their best lives in retirement,” Tandy explains. “So, we need to live and breathe that as well.”

Just six months in, Leeuwin Wealth has grown to 17 staff and more than $650 million in funds under management — a testament to its resonant model. But scale isn’t the ultimate goal. “When we started, our goal was probably 20 to 30 people. We would definitely like to keep it small,” says Tandy. “Patersons, it was 120 when I started, and at our peak it was 550; we went down to 240, managing multiple offices, managing people over East and everything. Leeuwin Wealth is not about that.”

Instead, Leeuwin’s future lies in deepening its roots in Western Australia. “I think we’d like to have more of a presence in regional WA: we do a lot of radio into the regions, and we’ve just got our first partnership down in Albany,” Tandy says. “Providing financial advice more broadly through the Western Australian community makes sense for us.”

Leeuwin is also firmly committed to building the next generation of financial professionals. “We’re trying to build a great team of people that we like to spend time with every day. If I’m going to be away from my kids, who I love, I want to be with other people that I love, too,” Tandy shares. “So, we hire for personality and can teach skills.”

Tandy is passionate about showing that meaningful financial careers don’t require relocation. “I just want people to know that they can have a rewarding career in financial services, but they can stay here in WA,” she says. “There are a lot of reasons why people can’t leave Perth. I was a carer growing up, my mum was sick for a long time. I have a stepchild, we’re on shared custody. Not everyone has the opportunity to pick up and just move over to Melbourne or London to try and move their career forward.”

With a long-term vision focused on building talent for the West Australian community, Tandy sees Leeuwin Wealth not just as a financial firm, but a movement. “We feel we owe it to the Western Australian community to grow exceptional staff and financial advisers in the West, for the West,” she says. “We are putting a lot of work into that, building talent such that they can see really attractive careers and growth for them right here — because it’s such a great place to be.”

This deep commitment to mentorship and inclusive leadership has not gone unnoticed. In 2025, Tandy was named a finalist in the Women in Wealth Awards for Mentor of the Year. It was a fitting recognition of her dedication to nurturing the next generation of financial talent, creating pathways for others, and redefining what it means to build a career in finance — on purpose, and on home soil.