Evergreen founder exits Ascalon Capital

Ascalon Capital has bid farewell to Evergreen Consultants' founder Angela Ashton, shortly after acquiring the consulting firm last year.

Ashton confirmed she has left Ascalon and will soon work on a new venture.

Ascalon acquired Evergreen Consultants in late 2025 in a bid to strengthen its position in the domestic wealth management market by leveraging Evergreen's independent research, disciplined portfolio construction and high-touch client models.

Ascalon said the acquisition would also ensure continuity and enhanced capability for clients at Evergreen.

Following the acquisition and Ashton's departure, Ascalon said: "Clients of the Evergreen practice have transitioned to the Ascalon platform and continue to be serviced without interruption. Ascalon Capital remains committed to providing the highest standard of service and investment governance to all clients under its established governance framework."

Ashton founded Evergreen in 2016. She previously held senior investment roles at QIC and was head of ratings at van Eyk Research. At IWL, Ashton was general manager of managed funds research, a wealth management and broking firm that was acquired by CommSec.

Former Evergreen principal consultant Brad Bugg did not join Ascalon but moved to Betashares as a portfolio manager in superannuation in April.

Ascalon services private wealth firms, providing customised institutional-grade portfolio solutions. It started out as Oreana in 2018 and rebranded as Ascalon Capital in 2024.

In the last 12 months, Ascalon has seen a spate of hiring activity under the leadership of chief executive Aubrey Roga, who has held the post for the last year.

About the same time as Roga's appointment, Shailesh Jain joined the firm as partner and deputy chief executive. He previously served as a principal at Evidentia, following a four-year tenure at Zenith Investment Partners as a senior investment consultant.

Berit Deagan joined as head of business development and John Burton became head of business solutions.

In early 2026, Steven Tang joined Ascalon after leading the portfolio solutions business at Zenith Investment Partners from 2020. Under his leadership, funds under management grew from around $1 billion to nearly $6 billion.

Meanwhile, Ben Davis, who was with Zenith for nearly 22 years, recently left Ascalon as head of private markets. Davis is now the head of portfolio solutions at FinCap.

John Burton joined Ascalon in July 2025 but left last month after being made redundant. He was previously with Lonsec and Clarity Wealth.