Alan Miller is joining alternative investment business SilverStreet Capital as Partner. Miller is the former CIO and founding shareholder of New Star Asset Management, which he helped to build substantially from its formation in early 2001 until his departure in early 2007. He was previously a Director at Jupiter Asset Management between 1994 and 2000, where he was in charge of their specialist high performance division. At Jupiter, he launched the first UK Equity long/short hedge fund in January 1997 and managed this fund for over nine years. Miller will be working with Gary Vaughan-Smith, CEO and Founding Partner of SilverStreet Capital and a former colleague at Gartmore.
The Board of Managed Funds Association has unanimously re-elected Eric Vincent, President, Ospraie Management, as Board Chairman for a one-year term. Additionally, MFA’s membership elected the following seven new directors for a two-year term: Putnam Coes, COO, Paulson & Co; Samuel Cole, COO, BlueMountain Capital Management; Mark Horowitz, COO and General Counsel, Glenview Capital Management; Scott M Lawin, Managing Director, Fortress Investment Group; Jeffrey L Lomasky, CFO, Cerberus Capital Management; John G. MacFarlane, III, COO, Tudor Investment Corporation; and Joanne Pace, COO, Morgan Stanley Investment Management. “MFA’s new directors are poised to tackle a broad range of issues and opportunities for the industry and its investors,” said Vincent. “The recent crisis of confidence in financial markets calls for increased interaction among industry participants and policy makers. The MFA Board is committed to continuing its mission, as the voice of the industry, to foster sound business practices and to ensure investor protection while promoting industry growth.”
BNY ConvergEx Group has announced that Eze Castle Software has appointed Ralph Lafferty as Head of Sales for the Western United States and Canada. Lafferty will be based in San Francisco with responsibility for sales of Eze Castle’s award-winning order management system, the Eze OMSTM. In his new role, Lafferty will focus on the expansion of Eze Castle’s client base in Canada while continuing the growth already taking place in the Western US. Previously, Lafferty covered Institutional Sales for Eze Castle in New York. He has over nine years of buy-side experience, including execution, systems and operations consulting for hedge funds, asset managers and private equity firms. He has also held leadership roles in risk management and systems development, as well as research, equities and derivatives trading.
David Mimra has joined Galena Asset Management as Head of Sales & Marketing. Since 2001, Mimra has been active in the hedge fund industry primarily in capital raising roles for a variety of hedge funds. In addition to his asset raising activities, he was also involved in manager sourcing, selection and advisory portfolios with Harbour Capital Partners, Nomos, First Avenue and Asset Alliance. Prior to that, he covered institutional accounts for Schroders’ structured products and was country head for France and Benelux with Citigroup’s equity derivatives team. Commenting on this hire, Jeremy Weir, Galena’s CEO said: “We are delighted to welcome David to our team. His knowledge and experience in the hedge fund sector will further strengthen our ability to service clients and grow our asset management business”. Mimra graduated in 1993 from Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris) with a degree in Finance & Economics
Aladdin Capital Holdings has hired Neal Neilinger as Vice-Chairman and CIO. Most recently, Neilinger served as Global Head of Credit Sales, Trading and Syndicate in the London office of Calyon, a unit of France’s largest retail bank. According to Amin Aladin, Chairman and CEO of Aladdin, “A new global financial landscape is emerging which requires new ideas and new skills to meet the challenge. Significant opportunities will begin to present themselves and investment firms must be positioned to meet and capitalise upon them.” Previously, Neilinger was a Founding Partner at NSM Capital. In 1998, as a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank, Neilinger was responsible for the global credit activities of the bank. In 2000, Neilinger joined Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein initially as Deputy Head of the Americas. In 2002, Neilinger was transferred to London, where he was a Managing Director in charge of the global debt syndication business for corporate clients. Earlier in his career, Neilinger spent seven years with Lehman Brothers in London as an Executive Director in charge of European credit trading and four years with Bear Stearns in New York as a Vice President.
Climate Change Capital has appointed Shaun Mays from Deutsche Asset Management as its CIO. Mays, Chief Executive of DeAm’s RREEF Infrastructure Investments, has over 20 years experience in the funds management industry in both executive and investment positions in the UK, Australia and the US. Mark Woodall, the Chief Executive of Climate Change Capital said: “We are delighted to welcome a man with such stature and respect within the investment community to CCC. His knowledge as both a manager and investor of funds, and his environmental credentials, will be invaluable to us as we seek to grow the breadth and scale of our company, dedicated to the business of creating a low carbon economy. Shaun will be taking responsibility for all existing funds as well as for the development of new funds.”
Mulvaney Capital Management has appointed Alistair McNaughton as Chief Legal Officer. Prior to joining MCM, McNaughton was Deputy Head of Legal at Threadneedle and held senior legal positions at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Hill Samuel. “We are very pleased to welcome Alistair to our growing team,” said MCM founder and CIO Paul Mulvaney. “We are committed to growing our business from a robust and stable platform. Alistair brings a wealth of legal, regulatory and business experience from leading institutions and he will play a leading role in the further development of Mulvaney’s business.”
Matteo Dante Perruccio has joined Jupiter Investment Management as Non-Executive Director. He has recently been appointed as Chief Executive of Hermes Funds of Hedge Funds, the fund of hedge funds boutique within Hermes. Prior to this, Perruccio was Co-Chief Executive of Olympia Capital Management in Paris and also spent six years working at Pioneer Investment Management in a variety of roles culminating in his appointment in 2005 as CEO International/CEO Pioneer Investment Management SGR, Milan. Between 1992 and 2000, he worked at American Express Bank, holding roles from Senior Director/Country Head of Financial Institutions and Private Banking for Milan to Executive Director, Head of Personal Financial Services Europe, based in Paris.
Pension Corporation has appointed Dr Frank Eich as Senior Economist. Eich will chiefly be responsible for economic issues relating to public and private sector pensions, and will work with the Longevity Risk Management team at Pension Corporation to better assess and manage the risk originating from the uncertainty of future longevity trends, the greatest challenge for pension funds today. He will also collaborate with Dr Amarendra Swarup to develop Pension Corporation’s programme of setting up independent research initiatives with strategic partners such as the London School of Economics to produce high quality thought leadership on pension-related issues. He joins Pension Corporation on secondment from HM Treasury where, until early 2008, he headed the Long Term unit within the Macro and Fiscal Policy Directorate. Eich has worked extensively on issues such as long-term fiscal sustainability, the macroeconomics of pension provision and long-term labour market trends. Edmund Truell, Chief Executive of Pension Corporation, commented: “I am delighted to welcome Frank to Pension Corporation. His wealth of experience and deep knowledge of the key economic issues regarding public and private pensions will be invaluable as we continue to grow and develop our range of solutions for defined benefit pension funds.”
Eddington Capital Management has appointed Jerry Cooper as Head of Operational Due Diligence. Commenting on the appointment, Dr Glenn Baggley, CEO of Eddington Capital commented: “We are very pleased that Jerry is joining the Eddington team. In the current financial climate we feel there is an increasing necessity for skill, dexterity and a methodical approach to assessing the level of operational risk of hedge fund investments. This will not only help to protect our investors, but also ensure our continued out-performance through sound investment decisions in the future.” Prior to joining Eddington, Cooper spent two years as Head of Due Diligence at Pragma Wealth Management, a multi-family office and fund of funds. Previously, he was at Schroders Investment Management for seven years, in an internal operational audit and control role, the first four of which were spent in traditional long only asset management, followed by three years in alternative investments. He also previously worked at the Bank of New York and UBS. Cooper has a degree in Psychology and an MBA from London University.
Ivy Asset Management, part of BNY Mellon Asset Management, has named Robert Murphy as Director, Investment Strategies group. In this new position with the fund of hedge funds boutique, he will work with the global investment team and have a range of responsibilities, including elements of the investment research, product development and portfolio management processes. Murphy, who reports to Sean Cumiskey, Managing Director and Head of the Investment Strategies group at Ivy, is based in New York and works with Ivy’s global investment team. Murphy joins Ivy from Meridian Capital Partners, where he was a partner and member of the firm’s portfolio management group. At Meridian, he was responsible for the event-driven and relative-value investment strategies and was in charge of the firm’s quantitative research and risk management functions. “Bob Murphy is an outstanding individual and brings to Ivy a unique blend of financial markets and hedge fund investing experience,” said Cumiskey. “He will play an important role as Ivy helps clients navigate through these historically challenging market conditions. We are excited to integrate his talents into our global investment platform.”
Gatehouse Bank, the fully Shariah-compliant wholesale investment bank, has reinforced its Capital Markets team by appointing Zaid Maleh as a Director in the Capital Markets Origination team. Maleh joined Gatehouse in September 2008 from Vienna-based Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG (RZB), where he spent the last three years. As part of the Global Markets team Maleh was responsible for the origination and structuring of syndicated loans and capital markets products. His focus was primarily on the emerging markets covering the Middle-East and North Africa region, Turkey and parts of Western Europe. At RZB, he also had a global mandate to develop the activities of RZB‘s Islamic desk. Prior to joining RZB, Maleh worked as a financial consultant in the Project Finance Unit at the United Nations Headquarter in Vienna. During his three years at the UN, he worked on numerous projects in the Middle-East and North Africa region.
HedgeStart Partners has announced that Lynn Henderson will be joining the firm as a Senior Compliance Consultant. Henderson was formerly Vice President and Head of Compliance at State Street Bank & Trust Company and financial controller at Baring Securities in London and, more recently, was the compliance manager at a boutique hedge fund. Andy Wood, Partner in charge of compliance said: “We are delighted that Lynn has decided to join us as she brings a wealth of experience to the firm. We only recruit senior consultants who have long and wide-ranging experience as we know our clients value the input we can provide based on that experience and knowledge of the compliance function and how financial companies work. Our team of consultants can now boast approaching 100 years of combined compliance experience”
