Vernon Spencer

Vernon Spencer is credited with being the ‘inventor’ of mortgage broking in Australia.

Vernon is Executive Chairman of the Stargate Corporation Group. Stargate provides a broad range of specialist mortgage underwriting, processing, technology and management services through its financial services, global asset management, and technologies divisions, and is a market leader in these segments of the Australian mortgage industry.

Vernon’s career includes diverse experience in accounting and financial services. In 1972 he founded Stargate Corporation, which quickly became a

market leader in the business of mortgage banking, loan processing, and asset management. In 1978 he was responsible for the first issue of mortgage-backed securities in Australia and the beginning of the secondary mortgage market in this country.

The big switch from broker to originator came in 1992 when Vernon formed Interstar Securities. This company became one of the nation’s largest non-bank wholesale loan financiers, providing housing finance through mortgage managers and mortgage brokers, and funded by the issuance of mortgage-backed securities to major institutions and investors in Australia, Europe, Asia and USA.

In 2003 Stargate’s Interstar business was acquired by Challenger Financial Services, a listed major diversified financial services group.

Vernon has always been prepared to ‘walk the talk’ – he is so committed to ensuring there will always be funds available to make sure there are surf life savers at Portsea, he has been Trustee of the Portsea Surf Life Saving Foundation since it started in 1959 more than   50 years ago. Vernon has been a Trustee of the Burnet Institutes’ Sir Zelman Cowen Foundation for Medical Research and Public Health since its inception in 2003.