Michelle Baltazar is the editor of Financial Standard, a fortnightly publication owned by financial services information company Rainmaker Group.

Prior to joining Financial Standard, Michelle worked for London-based weekly investment magazine Shares where she wrote a regular column on derivatives and separately, on fund managers.

She was also the magazine’s resident reporter covering the telecommunication, software services, support services and household goods & textiles sectors.

From 1998-2000, Michelle was the Rich 200 researcher at Australia’s national business magazine BRW. The Rich 200 is a year-round project culminating in the publication of BRW’s annual issue profiling Australia’s top 200 wealthiest individuals and families.

In August 2004, her book ‘The Beginner’s Guide to Financial Spread Betting‘ was published in London. She is working on her second book tentatively titled ‘The Beginner’s Guide to Contracts for Difference (CFDs)’ due in 2008.

Michelle graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Biology and Biochemistry. She has completed a Diploma of Financial Markets from the Securities Institute of Australia (SIA) and hopes to finish her MBA in Financial Management from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management (MGSM) by 2009.

Update: Besides her role as Financial Standard’s editor, Michelle is the founding editor of a new woman’s magazine called The Australian Filipina. She is also a contributing TV reporter for ABS-CBN Australia, the local subsidiary of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation, the largest television and radio broadcasting network in the Philippines.

Email michellejbaltazar@gmail.com