UBS also announced the addition of Euripides (Rip) Matos to the AIS team as Senior Investment Officer. Matos' key responsibility is manager research for Alternative Investment Solutions (AIS) as part of the Credit, Equity Arbitrage, and Fixed Income / Trading strategy Clusters. In this function, he also serves on the Investment Committee of AIS. Prior to 2007, Matos worked in Principal Investment Management at JP Morgan Chase & Co., where he was a Vice President focusing on the management of a significant proprietary multi-manager hedge fund of funds, with generalist strategy research responsibilities. Prior to JP Morgan, he was most recently an Associate Portfolio Manager and Senior Research Analyst at Tremont Advisers, covering Event-Driven, Relative Value, Credit, and Multi-Strategy areas. Matos has over 11 years of investment industry experience and holds an MBA from the Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College and a BA from Fordham University A&Q, which sits within UBS Global Asset Management, is a globally integrated business created to provide alternative investment solutions. A&Q represents the hedge fund platform within UBS and also manages fund of hedge funds, funds of private equity funds and long-only products. With assets under management of over USD53 billion as at 1 April 2007 and more than 350 people in offices around the world, A&Q has two primary business lines: a single manager business, which operates its own hedge funds and other funds directly, and a multi-manager or funds of hedge funds business. The single manager business is run by O'Connor, a key hedge fund specialist with global reach. The multi-manager business constructs portfolios of hedge funds (operated by third-party managers) to give clients diversified exposure to a range of hedge fund strategies. Within the multi-manager business are two distinct providers: Alternative Investment Solutions specializes in fund of hedge funds; and Alternative Funds Advisory provides clients with a complete alternative solution combining fund of hedge funds with single managers and other alternative assets including private equity.
Andrew Shrimpton, formerly the Head of Alternative Investments Supervision at the Financial Services Authority, has joined Kinetic Partnersas a senior adviser in the regulatory compliance practice. Shrimpton, who has more than 20 years experience in the investment management sector, was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management before joining the FSA in 1999 to supervise asset management. He was appointed the FSA's first Asset Management Sector Manager in April 2004 and the first Head of Hedge Fund Manager Supervision in October 2005. Shrimpton said: "I have enjoyed my last eight years at the FSA and it was a particular privilege to be at the forefront of developing their world leading, principles-based approach to hedge fund regulation. I believe that the alternatives sector will continue to develop strongly in the coming years, but so too will regulatory scrutiny and investor demands for transparency. This makes it an exciting time to join the advisory side and I am enthusiastic about joining Kinetic as it rapidly grows and using my experience to benefit their current and future clients." Kinetic Partners, the global professional services boutique focused on the investment management industry, has grown rapidly since its launch in March 2005. With offices in London, New York, Dublin and the Cayman Islands and a professional staff of more than 75, Kinetic offers a full range of advisory services including tax, audit and assurance, regulatory compliance consulting and forensic investigations to both hedge funds and the traditional asset management sector. Julian Korek, a founding member of Kinetic Partners, said: "I am delighted that Kinetic Partners has been able to attract someone of Andrew's reputation and ability. His deep knowledge of FSA regulation combined with his wealth of investment management experience will strengthen the regulatory advisory services that Kinetic offers its clients, particularly those in the hedge fund and private equity fields. Andrew's appointment will ensure that Kinetic remains the leading provider of regulatory and FSA compliance consulting services to the industry."
Credit Suisse has announced the appointment of Lance Babbit as a Director and a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Multi-Manager Portfolios (MMP) business within Alternative Investments. Mr. Robertiello, Head of Multi Manager Portfolios said, "We are very pleased to have Lance joining the team. He brings a wealth of experience to this role, and his expertise will be beneficial as we continue to expand our platform." Babbit said, "I am delighted to join Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse has a strong Multi-Manager Portfolios platform, and I look forward to working with Ed and the team to further strengthen this global franchise." Babbit has joined Credit Suisse from the Focus Investment Group where he was a Managing Director and the senior Portfolio Manager for their Multi-Strategies and Customized Solutions Portfolios, and was also a member of the Manager Selection and Portfolio Construction Committee. Prior to joining Focus in 2005, he spent four years at Deutsche Bank as a Senior Portfolio manager responsible for both multi-strategy funds of hedge funds and research for event driven and short seller managers. Prior to his career in fund of hedge funds, he was a corporate attorney for Gersten, Savage where he advised on bankruptcy, public offerings and private placements. Credit Suisse's Multi-Manager Portfolio business has approximately US$20 billion in assets and 75 professionals operating from its offices in New York, Zurich, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. With teams located around the world, MMP is responsible for constructing and monitoring fund of funds, including both hedge funds and traditional long-only funds. Babbit is based in New York and reports to Ed Robertiello.
Stenham has made three senior appointments to further strengthen its asset management team. Shyam Moorjani has joined as Chief Operating Officer, London. His primary focus will be to further develop institutional markets and ensure the highest level of client servicing. Moorjani was previously at Key Asset Management as Head of Client Services and prior to that Head of Institutional Client Reporting at JP Morgan Fleming Asset Management. He is a Chartered Accountant, a Corporate Treasurer and holds an MBA from London Business School. Francis Kidd has joined as Chief Operating Officer, Guernsey. He will enhance Stenham's back office capabilities to meet the increasingly sophisticated requirements of its institutional client base. Prior to joining Stenham, Kidd worked for a number of other leading funds of hedge funds, most recently as a Director at Gottex Fund Management Operations, Switzerland and prior to that as a Vice President at FRM, London.Sameer Saifan has joined as Head of Quantitative Research and Risk. Prior to joining Stenham, Saifan worked as a Quantitative Research Analyst at NewFinance Capital, a London fund of hedge funds group which later became part of Schroders. He was responsible for analysing hedge funds and portfolio construction. Saifan previously worked at FRM. He obtained his M.Sc.Operations Research from The London School of Economics and Political Science. He also holds a B.Eng. (Mechanical) from Walchand Institute of Technology in India. Kevin Arenson, CIO of Stenham Advisors, said: "The appointments of Shyam, Francis and Sameer reaffirms our commitment to our client-driven business and demonstrates our intention to continue growing Stenham's Institutional and Private Client asset base. The fund of hedge funds industry is becoming increasingly competitive and it is essential to have a team of the highest calibre." Michael Fienberg, Group CEO, said, "We have been managing multi-manager hedge fund portfolios and funds of hedge funds since the 1980's and commercial property investments since the 1990's on behalf of our family office clients. Investments in these asset classes are now finding increasing appeal with sophisticated private banks, trust companies, asset managers and institutions, resulting in strong growth of our assets under management. To support this growth we are constantly building our investment and operational teams and investing in improved systems. After more than 30 years in our current offices we will be moving to larger premises in the West End in July."
Deutsche Bank is continuing to expand its Global Prime Finance franchise with the creation of a European-focused team to concentrate on marketing prime brokerage, synthetic finance and securities-lending products to investors - Global Prime Finance Sales, Europe. Sean Capstick and Danny Caplan have been appointed co-heads of this new team and Capstick has also been appointed Head of the Hedge Fund Capital Group Europe. Caplan and Capstick will be based in London and report jointly to Jason Good, Head of Equity Sales - Europe in their roles as Co-Head of Global Prime Finance Sales in Europe. Capstick will also report to John Dyment, Global Head of the Hedge Fund Capital Group in his role as European Head of the Hedge Fund Capital Group. Capstick joins Deutsche Bank from Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for prime brokerage sales in the UK for the past two years. Previously he held a number of senior roles in the European Cash Equity business. Caplan was previously responsible for Global Prime Finance sales in Europe at Deutsche Bank and in his new role will take on the additional responsibility for structuring finance solutions for the European prime brokerage client base. Capstick's appointment follows a strategic build-out of the Global Prime Finance platform which began with the appointment of Barry Bausano and Jonathan Hitchon as Co-Heads of Global Prime Finance in January and has continued with the subsequent hire of Jeff Dorman as Head of North America for Global Prime Finance. "Sean has had more than 15 years experience in the industry and we believe his appointment is key to building our Global Prime Finance platform. This demonstrates Deutsche Bank's commitment to becoming the number one provider of prime brokerage and financing business to European clients," said Jason Good, Head of Equity Sales - Europe.
Optima Fund Management, LLC ("Optima"), a fund of hedge funds with over $6 billion of assets, has announced that Fabio Savoldelli has joined the firm as Managing Director and Chief Global Strategist, a new position. In his position, Savoldelli will be a part of the investment infrastructure and further strengthen the firm's management team. He will work with Optima's management and investment personnel to set strategic policy and direction for its investment activities and allocations. Savoldelli will report directly to Dixon Boardman, Optima's Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "We are very pleased that Fabio has joined Optima. The high quality of professionals at this firm has been an important factor in our success," said Dixon Boardman. "We are confident that Fabio's extensive hedge fund investment experience and success in global strategic asset allocation will prove to be a benefit to our investors and the firm." "I am delighted to join Optima," said Savoldelli. "Optima has long occupied a unique place in the investment management industry with its deep team, vision, history of innovation, and sole focus on hedge fund investing." Prior to joining Optima, for more than ten years, Savoldelli was at Merrill Lynch, most recently as President, and Chief Investment Officer of MLIM Alternative Strategies and Managing Director of ML Investment Managers. Serving in this capacity, he oversaw the business and investment activities of the firm's hedge fund department. Previously he was Chief Investment Officer for Chase Manhattan Private Bank (Americas) and held investment roles at Swiss Bank Corporation, and the Bank of Tokyo, where he gained both fixed income and equity investing experience. Savoldelli received his BA in Economics from the University of Windsor (Canada) and received a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) from the London School of Economics. Optima, founded in 1988, now has 9 funds-of-funds as well as several custom tailored institutional separate account portfolios. In addition to its multi-manager portfolios, Optima's affiliates serve as sponsors or the equivalent for nine single manager hedge funds.
Alexandra Investment Management, LLC ("Alexandra") has announced that John J. Hock has joined the firm as President and a Partner. Hock was formerly Executive Vice President and Head of Global Sales at Tremont Capital Management, as well as a member of Tremont's Executive Committee. Hock will work closely with Alexandra's senior executive team and will assume responsibility for overseeing the firm's non-investment activities, including business development, client servicing, operations and strategic planning. "With more than 25 years of strategic business experience in the asset management industry, John Hock brings a history of deep institutional business expertise to Alexandra as we seek to grow," said Mikhail Filimonov, Chairman and CEO of Alexandra. "We are extremely excited to have John on board and look forward to his contributions to the firm." "I am very pleased to be joining Alexandra, an innovator in multi-strategy investing," commented Mr. Hock. "With its impressive investment team and strong track record, I believe Alexandra has established a solid platform on which to build and grow, and I look forward to contributing to the firm's ongoing evolution and success." Hock joins Alexandra from Tremont Capital Management, a leading fund-of-funds group. During his five-year tenure at Tremont, Hock helped to strengthen the firm's institutional business platform around the globe. Prior to joining Tremont, Hock was a Senior Managing Director and Partner at Alpha Investment Management, where he developed the firm's global institutional hedge fund-of-funds effort. Prior to that, Hock headed up institutional marketing efforts at Citibank Global Asset Management and UBS (NY) Asset Management. He was also a Co-Founder and Head of Sales and Marketing for Oak Hall Capital Advisors. Hock holds a B.S. and an MBA from Long Island University, which honored him in 2005 with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Founded in 1993, Alexandra Investment Management, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser, is a New York-based, multi-strategy hedge fund specializing in event-driven, relative value strategies. With approximately $1.1 billion in assets under management, the firm invests in a wide variety of asset classes, markets and strategies, including event driven, relative value, special situations, equity long/short, convertible bonds, high yield, distressed debt and capital structure arbitrage.
Halcyon, the NY multi-strategy hedge fund firm with over $10 billion of assets under management, has announced that its Halcyon Structured Asset Management LP (HSAM) affiliate has appointed Isidro Fernandez as Co-Head of European Research based in London. HSAM, with over $4.5 billion of assets under management, is run by ex-Goldman Sachs proprietary trader Steven Mandis. Fernandez will work alongside Khing Oei, an ex-Goldman Sachs proprietary trader who worked with Steven Mandis, and is currently heading the European Research effort, towards expanding the firm's initiatives and platform in the European asset-based, structured finance and credit markets. Before joining Halcyon, Fernandez was the Head of Credit Products and Trading at Caja Madrid, where he specialized in structured credit products and leveraged loan/credit derivatives trading. Along with his team, he was responsible for creating one of the most active proprietary credit trading desks in Europe and assisted in actively managing the bank's multi-billion dollar leveraged loan portfolio. Fernandez was also responsible for constructing and managing Caja Madrid's Neptuno CLO Programme and structured credit portfolio which focused largely on European leveraged loan and synthetic investment grade exposures. Steven Mandis, Chief Investment Officer of HSAM, said "The European asset-based and credit markets are very attractive and offer significant opportunities. Isidro is one of the most respected investing professionals focusing on credit in Europe. We have built an extensive business platform in Europe and believe Isidro will help us continue to find and take advantage of new opportunities." Fernandez holds a B.A. cum laude in Government/International Relations from Harvard College, where he was a John Harvard scholar.
Pioneer Investments has announced the appointment of Antoine Josserand as Head of Alternative Investments Institutional Sales. In this newly created London-based role, Josserand will report to Paul Price, Global Head of Institutional Business. As Head of Alternative Investments Institutional Sales, Josserand will lead the alternative sales effort to the institutional market and he will also act as a technical specialist within the wider Pioneer Investments global distribution team to maximise sales potential. Josserand joins from AXA where he was responsible for hedge fund product & business development. He is a CFA qualified investment professional. Prior to AXA, Josserand was an Equity Derivatives Trader at Lehman Brothers International (Europe). Previous to that, he was Sales and Marketing Executive for Groupama Insurance Company Limited formerly Gan Insurance Company Limited in London. Commenting on the hire, Paul Price said: "Antoine is a highly skilled investment professional with an in-depth knowledge of the hedge fund industry. We all know that institutional allocations to alternative investments continue to rise and I am certain that it is important to have specialist knowledge in this area in the team that interacts with our clients. Success and credibility comes from building effective partnerships with those clients and I am confident that Antoine's experience in institutional sales matched with his technical knowledge of the hedge fund industry will prove invaluable as part of our global team."
Dresdner Kleinwort, the investment banking division of Dresdner Bank AG, has announced the appointment of Roberto Morellias Head of Hedge Fund Sales for Equities into Europe. He joins as a Managing Director and will work alongside Chris Baildon, recently appointed Head of Equity Distribution to US Hedge Funds based in New York, and Martin Coughlan, Head of Hedge Fund Sales Trading for Equities into Europe. He will report to Richard Price, Head of Equity Sales, and Martin Newson, Head of the Hedge Fund Solutions Group, who joined in November 2006. Martin Newson, Head of Hedge Fund Solutions said, "Roberto is a further senior and experienced hire for us in the hedge fund sales space. His appointment completes our line up of senior coverage bankers for hedge funds on the equities side. We have deepened and broadened our coverage capability for hedge fund clients recently, demonstrating the firm's commitment to deliver on our growth ambitions with this customer base." Morelli joins from Citigroup where he was a Managing Director in the bank's European Equity Sales team in London specialising in hedge fund coverage. Prior to joining Citigroup, Roberto worked at Deutsche Bank managing the European long/short strategy in the DB Advisors unit.
As of 1 May 2007, Thierry Post became head of RAM Quantitative Strategies at Robeco. In this role he will be responsible for the management of the Quantitative Strategies department and, specifically, for delivering high-quality investment-support strategies and portfolio-management methodologies. The Quantitative Strategies department provides strategies for Robeco's investment departments but does not invest itself. In addition, Post will coordinate quantitative research within the Robeco Group and monitor its quality. He will remain attached to the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Post has been affiliated with the Erasmus University Rotterdam since 1996. He currently holds positions as Full Professor of Finance, Head of the Finance Group, Director of the Business Economics capacity group and Chairman and Director of Erasmus Center of Financial Research (ECFR). As a researcher, he has published in leading international academic journals in finance and economics. Robeco, established in Rotterdam in 1929, offers investment products and services to institutional and private investors worldwide. It has EUR 142 billion in assets under management (at 31 December 2006). The product range encompasses equity and fixed-income investments, money-market and real-estate funds and alternative investments, such as private equity, hedge funds and structured products. The various strategies are managed from Rotterdam (head office), Paris, Boston and New York. Transtrend in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Harbor Capital Advisors in Chicago, USA are part of the Robeco group. Robeco also holds interests in SAM Group (64%) in Zurich, Switzerland; Canara Robeco Investment Management (49%) in Mumbai, India; and AIM (49%) in Rijmenam, Belgium. Robeco is part of Rabobank Group.
Gartmore has announced that Andrew Skirton has joined the company as Non-Executive Chairman of the Advisory Board. In addition to this role, Skirton will become a director of Gartmore Investment Management Limited, Chair the Audit Committee and be a member of the Compensation Committee of the Advisory Board. Skirton has an investment management career spanning over 23 years. He started his career at Legal and General in 1984 as a Fixed Income Portfolio Manager and, more recently, was Co-CEO of Barclays Global Investors (BGI) from 2002-2006. Gartmore completed its management buyout in September 2006. It currently has £25.1 billion of total assets under management. Jeff Meyer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gartmore said, "We are delighted that Andrew is joining Gartmore. Being able to draw on Andrew's experience of building and running a Retail, Institutional and Alternative business such as Barclays Global Investors will be invaluable to us. In addition, Andrew is a team player, with a lot of energy and eager to get involved in the business, which is exactly the type of person we were looking for. I look forward to working with him." Skirton added, "I am looking forward to taking up my role with Gartmore as I believe that this company has a very exciting and positive future. I now want to be able to contribute towards helping Gartmore's strong management team realise the full potential of this great investment management brand."
Standard Asset Management ("Standard") has announced that Fiona Stewart, previously Chief Operating Officer of hedge fund firm Sofaer Capital and more recently of Plutus Capital, has joined Standard as Chief Operating Officer. Stewart has worked across the globe and specifically, in the United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong and South Africa and she currently co-chairs the AIMA Hedge Fund CFO/COO Committee. Stewart is a Chartered Accountant by training, having obtained her Bachelor's of Commerce from the University of Cape Town. Her responsibilities at Plutus and at Sofaer encompassed supervision of finance, compliance and operations and at Standard her role will include the oversight of the asset manager's overall operations, risk management and compliance functions. She will report into Ian Gibson, Standard Bank International's Managing Director of Wealth Management and will be based in London. Kevin Colglazier, Chief Investment Officer, said: "Fiona's arrival is an important appointment for us. As a boutique operation within a large financial institution, her background and expertise ideally suits our business. We are focused on generating absolute returns, where risk management is one of the key elements of our investment principles." Ian Gibson, Managing Director - Wealth Management, added: "Fiona has a wealth of experience and we are delighted that she has joined the team. I am convinced that she will add significant value to the business."
