Pierre Séquier has been appointed Global Chief Executive Officer of Sinopia Asset Management, the quantitative specialist of the HSBC Group. Séquier, steps up from the role of Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer. He also retains his position of CIO at Sinopia. Séquier moves into this position following the move by Philippe Goimard, the former Global CEO of Sinopia, to the role of Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Investments in France. HSBC Investments operates as the global distribution platform for Sinopia and HSBC's active management specialist Halbis. Mark McCombe, Global CEO of HSBC Group Investment Businesses, said: "Pierre Séquier has significant experience in quantitative asset management and, in his capacity as CIO of Sinopia, has highly contributed to the success of this business. In his expanded role as global CEO, he will help to cement Sinopia's position as one of the world's leading quantitative experts."
RAB Capital has announced the appointment of George Andrew Philips to the Board, as an Executive Director. The appointment is subject to FSA approval. Philips joined RAB in September 2006 when Northwest Asset Management, the company he co-founded, was acquired by RAB. Prior to Northwest, he was a partner and head of convertible securities at Caspian Securities. From 1988 to late 1993, Philips was a partner at Cresvale International. Michael Alen-Buckley, Executive Chairman of RAB said: "George has shown strong leadership qualities and innovative thinking in taking the RAB-Northwest funds from strength to strength and establishing key team members in our new Hong Kong office. I look forward to his future contributions to Board debate."
RAB Capital has also appointed Gary Pitts as Chief Compliance Officer. Pitts joins from Brevan Howard Asset Management, where he was Head of Compliance. Previously he spent four years with LAUTRO/PIA and at Threadneedle, Credit Suisse and Henderson. Pitts holds a Masters degree in Ancient & Modern History from Oriel College, Oxford and has obtained an MBA through the Open University Business School. He sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Securities Compliance and is a member of the Chartered Management Institute. "We are delighted to have a compliance professional of Gary's calibre and experience on board, as the growth and internationalisation of the business places increasing demands on the compliance function," said Alen-Buckley.
Partners Group has disclosed certain changes within its management team. Erik Kaas, Co-Head Markets, will join the Business Development Committee, which oversees the strategic development of the firm, and will assume responsibility for key accounts as well as for the build-up of new investor segments such as the increasingly important sovereign wealth funds. Stefan Näf has replaced Kaas on the Executive Board and will oversee the day-to-day operations as co-head markets. Furthermore, Philipp Gysler, currently Head Private Alternative Investment Strategies, will focus on further strengthening the position of Partners Group in Asia together with Christoph Rubeli, Head Markets Asia/Mid-East.
New York-based Permal Group has boosted its presence in the Americas institutional market by making a brace of senior hires. Joshua G Levine, a former director of BlackRock's Latin American institutional business, joins as head of Permal's Americas Institutional Sales team. Tim Schuler, the former director of Credit Suisse's Asian and Australian Alternatives business, becomes investment strategist, with responsibility for all US institutional clients and other large direct account relationships. "These two senior appointments add to our existing North American institutional sales team and shows the intent to grow our Americas institutional business," said Isaac Souede, Chairman and Chief Executive."
Atlas Capital Management has launched its Hedge Fund Advisory Board and the appointment of the initial Advisory Board members; Luiz Augusto de O Candiota, Ken deRegt, Peter Drittel, Gail Fosler, Richard Segal and Dr Jim Walker. In this new role, the board members will provide investment views to Atlas' global and emerging markets hedge funds and strategic direction to the firm. "Atlas Capital and its principals have been doing business and investing in emerging markets for almost two decades. The advisory board is an extension of the extensive global network we have developed over that time," said Atlas Co-Founder and Partner Harry Krensky. "Atlas appointed each of these board members based on their successful long-term track record of disciplined investment success. We anticipate that their insights and contributions will be invaluable in the months and years ahead," added Atlas Co-Founder and Partner Rogerio Chequer.
Polar Capital has appointed Alastair Smith, who was until recently at Société Générale Asset Management, to the sales team to lead the continued development of the US and Swiss business. Smith joins Polar Capital with over 15 years of experience in hedge fund sales. Most recently, at Société Générale Asset Management, he was Head of Europe and Middle East hedge fund sales and responsible for setting up the Société Générale Asset Management AI Hedge office in London. Previously, Smith spent 5 years at Aspect Capital where he was a Director and Principal and Head of Sales and Investor Relations. Prior to that, he was Business Development Manager at Global Asset Management and Head of Intermediary Sales at Man Group. Mark Kary, Chief Executive Officer of Polar Capital, said: "We are delighted to welcome Alastair to our sales team. He has a great deal of experience in hedge fund sales internationally which will prove invaluable in driving the overseas growth of our business.
Cole Partners Asset Management has named Philip Halpern as its Chief Investment Officer of Tellus Asset Management, CPAM's sponsored natural resources group. Halpern is responsible for directing portfolio strategy and manager structure of the natural resources fund-of-funds. Brad Cole, Founder and President of CPAM and Chairman of the Investment Committee of Tellus Asset Management, noted that, "Philip brings a strong vision and a proven history for innovation, and joins us at an important juncture in the firm's development. His credentials, experiences and management expertise will be of great value to CPAM as the firm seeks to expand our franchise. Philip already has made significant contributions during his three years on our Advisory Board for Tellus and we are excited at having recruited him to take on this very important role as CIO." Event driven hedge fund FrontFour Capital has appointed Jerry Meyer as Chief Operating Officer. Meyer will be responsible for back office operations, technology, and all fund accounting duties. He has 15 years of fund operations experience, holding senior positions throughout the financial services industry. Prior to joining FrontFour, he was Director of Operations for Pirate Capital. "We are delighted to find an individual with Jerry's credentials. He is a great addition to the team and will add valuable operating capabilities to the firm," said Andrew Stotland, Managing Member of FrontFour Capital.
Fund of hedge funds technology specialist Comada announced that it has hired Chandra Arandjelovic to occupy the newly-created position of Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Comada, Arandjelovic was a Senior Vice President at HSBC Alternative Fund Services in Bermuda. She has been working within the sphere of alternative fund operations for 20 years, and in her role at HSBC was responsible for delivering fund administration services to hedge funds worth over US$30 billion. "Bermuda provides an excellent base for Comada as a significant number of groups that handle hedge fund investments are based here, including funds of funds, insurance companies, endowments and administrators," Comada co-founder Dave Shastri explained.
Frontier Capital Management has announced the appointment of two new partners to its business. Colin Hodges, Chief Operating Officer and David Cienfuegos, Head of Investments have both been promoted to partners of the business. Commenting on their appointments Michael Azlen said, "I am delighted that Colin and David have joined the partnership. They have both made significant contributions to the development of Frontier so far and have key roles to play as we continue to grow and institutionalise the business."
Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking has appointed Paul Wiltshire and Pascal Vallot as Global Heads of Hedge Fund Relations. Paul Wiltshire will be based in London and Pascal Vallot in New York. They will report to Michel Macagno, Global Head of the Financial Institutions Group. They jointly take over the role from Bruno Lebre, who created the team in 2004. Bruno Lebre will join Société Générale Private Banking. Wiltshire and Vallot will be in charge of further developing Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking's franchise.
PCE Investors has appointed Clive Warburton to manage its Compliance Department. Warburton joined IMRO, a predecessor of the Financial Services Authority, in 1987, and has since held a number of senior positions in the financial services industry. He was compliance officer at both the IIMIA Investment Group and Old Mutual, and has held directorships of a number of regulated businesses. Warburton is a qualified solicitor and co-founder of the Compliance Institute. George Cadbury, President and Head of Business Development, commented: "As asset managers' regulatory impositions and trading strategies become more complex, it is imperative we have experienced personnel ensuring we are following the correct procedures and requirements. For this Clive is the perfect candidate."
Millennium Global Investments has appointed Claire Dissaux as Global Economist and Strategist. Based in London, she will be working with the teams managing Millennium's currency products including Currency Overlay, Multi-Strategy and Hedge Fund products. Her main focus will be on macroeconomic and FX research, both for G10 and Emerging Markets. She was previously at Crédit Agricole Indosuez, joining in 1998 as an Asia Economist before moving to become a Senior Emerging Market Economist. Prior to Crédit Agricole she was a Country Risk Analyst at Société Générale. She began her career in 1995 as an Economist at the Ministry of Finance in France.
CVC Capital Partners has announced a number of Partner appointments and promotions. GeertDuyck, Roy Kuan and Adrian MacKenzie have been promoted to Managing Partners of CVC Capital Partners Group. Duyck is responsible for CVC's Paris and Brussels offices and joined CVC in 1998. Kuan is responsible for Greater China, Southeast Asia and Korea. He joined CVC in 1999. MacKenzie is responsible for Australia and New Zealand. He joined CVC's London office in 1995 and transferred to Sydney in 1999. Daniel Schmitz, Marc St John, Marc Strobel, Peter Törnquist, Hugo van Berckel, Soren Vestergaard-Poulsen and Christian Wildmoser have been appointed Partners of CVC Capital Partners Group. Michael Smith, Chairman, CVC Capital Partners Group commented: "We are delighted to announce a number of partner appointments and promotions made across the CVC group. Each promotion recognises the significant contribution the individuals have made to CVC's global business and further bolsters CVC's long standing international network of offices and stable management structure."
Managed Funds Association, the trade association of the hedge fund industry, has announced that Representative Richard Baker will join the association as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. Baker succeeds John G Gaine, who will move into a special advisor role and undertake the expansion of MFA's global outreach with regulators, policy makers and market participants worldwide. Baker, who has represented Louisiana's sixth congressional district in the US House of Representatives since 1986, is one of the most respected voices in Congress on financial services and capital markets issues. "We are extremely pleased that Congressman Baker has agreed to lead Managed Funds Association," said Eric Vincent, MFA's chairman. "Richard has extensive knowledge of and broad experience with financial services issues, including those affecting the alternative investment industry. His expertise in this area, coupled with his deep understanding of the impact of policy making on US capital markets, investment advisers and investors, make him the ideal leader for our industry. We thank Jack Gaine for his ten years as president of MFA and are pleased he will continue to serve as a special advisor."
Juno Mother Earth Asset Management, a hedge fund firm specialising in commodities, has hired Alex Gorski as a Research Analyst focused on commodity-related global equities as well as the key commodity sectors traded by the fund. Gorski joins from Thomas Weisel Partners, an investment bank focused on the main growth sectors of the economy, including Alternative Energy and Natural Resources. Gorski was a founding member of Thomas Weisel International Private Limited, an Indian subsidiary of TWPG with operations in Equity Research, Asset Management, and KPO. He developed a proprietary screening process to identify high growth and turnaround opportunities in US and Indian listed equities. His responsibilities encompassed Equity Research and Asset Management and focused on in depth analysis of over 150 companies, including under-covered Small & Mid Cap equities across the Alternative Energy and Natural Resources sectors. "Fundamental research is central to all aspects of our strategy and investment process. Gorski's strong equity research background across key emerging growth sectors coupled with a proven competency in company and industry analysis and a solid work ethic will add significant value as we intensify our efforts on monitoring and research", said Eugenio Verzili, Managing Partner and Executive Officer.
Infiniti Capital has announced the appointment of Ian Shearer to the role of CEO. Shearer, previously Head of Business Development at Infiniti and a member of its Executive Committee and following a highly successful 2 year period with Infiniti's fund management division in Hong Kong, will be taking up residence at the group's Zurich head office. The Executive Team at Infiniti remains unchanged with Shearer retaining oversight of the business development activities for the time being. Shearer started his career in finance whilst employed by the British Diplomatic Service. He was posted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London where he was responsible for the reconciliation and payment of bulk airline and freight accounts, departmental budget monitoring, and liaising with other Government departments.
