Our Story Started with a Problem
Back in 2018, our founder Kieran Ashworth was working as a senior analyst at a mid-sized investment firm in Melbourne. He kept seeing the same pattern — brilliant people with advanced degrees making critical research mistakes that cost their firms millions.
The issue wasn't intelligence or dedication. It was methodology. Most financial professionals learned research techniques that looked impressive on paper but fell apart when applied to real market conditions.
That's when we realized something important: The gap between academic financial research and practical application was wider than anyone wanted to admit. We decided to bridge it.
ciloparion emerged from countless late-night conversations about what financial research education should actually look like. We wanted to create programs that prepared people for the messy, complex reality of financial markets — not just the sanitized version found in textbooks.