Deloitte has announced that hedge fund pioneers Ellen C. Schubert and Ray J. Iler have joined the hedge fund team of its Asset Management Services practice. The addition of Schubert and Iler complements the move of 10 current Deloitte partners with capital markets experience to the hedge fund team. “With the industry undergoing a paradigm shift, hedge funds and their investors require a sophisticated partner with the right skill and experience,” said Cary Stier, Deloitte’s US Head of Asset Management Services.” Schubert joined Deloitte on 1st September in the newly-created role of Chief Advisor to the Asset Management Services practice. Based in New York, she will advise Deloitte’s hedge fund clients on issues including operations, product structuring and regulation. Prior to joining Deloitte, Schubert was a managing director and global head of the Fixed Income Hedge Fund Business for UBS Investment Bank. Schubert began her career in 1983 at the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1987 she joined First Chicago/O’Connor. She was a member of the Federal Reserve Board Foreign Exchange Committee and co-chair of the Operations Managers Working Group from 2002 to 2006. Iler rejoined Deloitte in July as the Northwest Pacific hedge fund leader. Based in San Francisco, he is responsible for hedge fund industry matters involving audit, tax, financial advisory and consulting. Prior to joining Deloitte, Iler served as chief financial officer and corporate secretary for Quadrise Canada Corporation, an oil and gas technology company. He began his career as an auditor with Deloitte in Canada in 1991.
BlueCrest appoints new Portfolio Manager
BlueCrest Capital Management has appointed Steve Smith as Portfolio Manager for the $2.3 billion AllBlue Fund. The fund invests exclusively across a portfolio of funds managed by BlueCrest, including BlueCrest Capital International and BlueTrend. Steve will also assume overall responsibility for global sales and client service teams and will join the firm’s Executive Committee. Smith joins BlueCrest having spent several years at Credit Suisse, where he was most recently leading the Global Liquid Alternatives team within the Asset Management division. Smith has a derivatives background having started his career at Bankers’ Trust and SBC O’Connor, and has experience of the alternative asset management industry having spent time at Dune Partners and Albourne Partners in addition to Credit Suisse. With Smith’s appointment, Anne Popkin will continue to head BlueCrest’s New York Office, and will focus her time exclusively on leading all client activities in North America. Mike Platt, CEO, commented, “We believe that Steve’s experience will bring great value to the Allblue Fund as well as helping us to continue to broaden and strengthen our client relationships.”
Oakley Capital appoints investment analyst
Oakley Capital Limited has announced that Julita Tonkich has joined the firm as an investment analyst. Tonkich will be responsible for supporting the portfolio managers in their approach to investment research on the Oakley Absolute Return Fund. Prior to joining Oakley, Tonkich was an investment analyst at Millennium Global Investments, where she was actively involved in long/short and event driven hedge fund search and monitoring through qualitative and quantitative research. Preceding this, Tonkich was an assistant fund manager at Margetts Fund Management Ltd. Nick Hannan, CIO, said: “We are delighted to have been able to attract someone of Julita’s calibre to Oakley at this important moment in our growth. Oakley takes a very hands-on and detailed approach to research, analysis and portfolio construction and she has the skills to really contribute in these areas.” Christopher Parkinson, Portfolio Manager, noted: “We are committed to careful and selective organizational growth as our investor base expands and recruiting people of Tonkich’s quality is a key part of that process.” Julita Tonkich said; “There are only a handful of companies like Oakley Absolute Return so the opportunity to work with a team that has growing recognition for its consistent performance is very exciting.”
Gartmore appoints Senior Credit Analyst
Gartmore has announced the appointment of Julia Campbell as Senior Credit Analyst. She will report to John Anderson, Gartmore’s newly appointed Head of Credit. Campbell joins from Elgin Capital where she has spent the past five years as a senior analyst. Her career spans 25 years and encompasses time at both Moody’s and HSBC in senior analyst positions. Commenting on the appointment, John Anderson said: “I am delighted that Julia, with her vast wealth of experience in credit analysis, is joining the bond team here at Gartmore. A highly respected individual of Julia’s calibre will clearly play a vital role in helping us achieve our aim of delivering top quality investment performance.”
HSBC appoints new Managing Director
HSBC Private Bank has appointed Chris Allen, currently Head of Real Estate, HAIL, to Managing Director, Head of HAIL. As of 1st January 2010 Allen will report locally to Nigel Webber, CIO of HSBC Global Private Banking and functionally to Peter Rigg, Global Head of HSBC Alternative Investment Group. HAIL is the dedicated unit responsible for hedge funds - institutional mandates and fund of funds for the HSBC group and real estate and private equity investment for HSBC Global Private Banking. Chris Allen joined HAIL in 2007 to head up its real estate division. Prior to joining HSBC Chris spent ten years at Colliers International, ultimately as Executive Director within its Investment Division before joining Ahli United Bank as Head of Real Estate Fund Management. Nigel Webber, CIO of HSBC Global Private Banking, said: “Chris has shown considerable success in developing and building the real estate business within HAIL over the past few years.”
Butterfield Fulcrum adds to US team
Butterfield Fulcrum has expanded its US business development team with the recent addition of Christine Egan. Egan joins Bill Neville, Jim Gabriele, John Peterson and Bill Henderson under the leadership of T. Andrew Smith, Global Business Development Head. Since joining in April 2009, Smith has built a global sales team of seasoned professionals to meet the growing demand for transparency, independence and flexibility in the hedge fund sector. Under his leadership, Butterfield Fulcrum has opened a Chicago office, upgraded its US headquarters in New York City to accommodate further growth and attracted significant talent to the firm. “I am very proud of the team we have assembled to present Butterfield Fulcrum’s innovations to the hedge fund industry,” said Smith. Egan is a founding member of The Alliance of Alternative Asset Professionals and joins from Kaufman Rossin Fund Services where she was Director of Business Development. Egan’s previous experience includes Head of Regional Sales for Bank of Bermuda/HSBC and Vice President in Client Consulting for Morgan Stanley Prime Brokerage. She began her career with Coopers & Lybrand in Boston, MA where she received her CPA designation in 1993.
Gartmore appoints team from GAM
Gartmore has announced the appointment of Asim Rahman and Christian Billinger as Investment Analysts and Eleanor Cameron as Manager (Dealing & Operations) from GAM. They will report to John Bennett, Gartmore’s new Senior Portfolio Manager, European Equities, who joins in January 2010. It is anticipated they will also join at that time. At Gartmore Bennett and his team will assume lead management responsibility for the Gartmore European Selected Opportunities and Gartmore SICAV Continental European Funds. The funds’ current managers, Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg, remain fully committed to the management of these funds until Bennett’s arrival, at which point Guy and Rambourg will concentrate on their growing list of alternative and institutional mandates. Commenting on the hire, Dominic Rossi, Gartmore’s Chief Investment Officer, said: “We are delighted that John’s analyst team will be joining him at Gartmore. They have a proven team process and this will ensure a continuity of John’s highly successful investment approach when he arrives at Gartmore in the New Year.”
Barclays Wealth appoints new Head of UK Investment Advisors
Barclays Wealth, the global wealth manager, has appointed Oliver Gregson as Head of UK Investment Advisory within its Investment & Product Office. Gregson joins from UBS and will be leading the UK team of investment advisors who specialise in providing investment advice to its UK-based relationship managers and clients. The team also plays a key role in investment philosophy, asset allocation and investment idea generation as well as providing in-depth technical expertise of investment products. In this newly created position, Gregson will report to Craig Lewis, Head of Investment Advisory, who commented: “We’re excited Oliver is joining Barclays Wealth to lead our investment advisors in the UK.” Gregson started his career at Insinger de Beaufort and then moved to Citigroup Private Bank before joining UBS where he last was a senior client advisor for key UK clients.
Bruce Murphy made Managing Director of BNY Mellon AM Australia
BNY Mellon Asset Management has appointed Bruce Murphy as Managing Director of BNY Mellon Asset Management Australia. Murphy replaces James Gruver who has relocated to the US to work on strategic business growth initiatives. Based in Sydney, Murphy will report to David Jiang, CEO of BNY Mellon Asset Management Asia Pacific. His immediate goal is to continue to grow BNY Mellon’s asset management business in Australia, a key market for BNY Mellon in Asia Pacific. Murphy has over 20 years’ asset management experience and joins the company from Macquarie Funds Group where he was an Executive Director and Head of Distribution. At Macquarie, Murphy was responsible for Macquarie Funds Group’s Australian and global fund distribution for both institutional investors and intermediaries globally. Prior to joining Macquarie, Murphy was responsible for Deutsche Bank’s retail funds business in Australia and had held product development and marketing roles with Prudential and Citibank.
Martin Currie appoints business head for Switzerland
Martin Currie Investment Management has announced the appointment of Dominik Issler as country head for Switzerland. In this new role Issler will be responsible for client service and business development in Switzerland. Based in Zurich, he will join Martin Currie on 4th January 2010 and report to Eric Bateman, Director, Head Of European Sales. Dominik joins Martin Currie from Fortis Investments/ABN Amro Asset Management, Switzerland where he was CEO. Previous roles include head of institutional business for Schroder Investment Management in Zurich, and key relationship manager in Zurich for State Street Global Advisors. Commenting on Dominik’s appointment, Eric Bateman, Director, head of European sales at Martin Currie, said: “I am delighted that, with his experience and industry knowledge, Dominik is joining us.”
Omar Negyal joins HSBC Global Asset Management
Halbis, the active management unit of HSBC Global Asset Management, has announced the appointment of Omar Negyal. He joins as a Senior Portfolio Manager and will work closely with the existing Global Emerging Markets equity team, headed by Nick Timberlake. Negyal, who will lead the development of HSBC’s alternative Emerging Markets capabilities, is based in London and reports to Timberlake. He joins from the hedge fund specialist Lansdowne Partners, where he spent three and a half years as a senior member of the team managing long/short Global Emerging Markets funds. Negyal has more than 10 years’ experience in GEM equities, having previously spent seven years at F&C where he was a member of the Emerging Markets Asian team.
Robeco Group appoints Hester Borrie to the management board
Hester Borrie has been appointed as a member of the Management Board of Robeco Group NV. She will be responsible for global distribution and marketing, subject to the approval of the regulators. At the same time, Roderick Munsters, CEO, will become temporarily responsible for mainstream investments and Leni Boeren for Robeco Investment Management in the US. They are expected to continue in these functions for several months. Frank Kusse has decided to continue his career outside of Robeco. Hester Borrie worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Management for more than 10 years. She held various sales positions, most recently as Managing Director. Before Morgan Stanley, she was employed by Mees Pierson. Borrie comments: “I am joining Robeco at an excellent time. Robeco holds a strong position within the Rabobank group and has emerged unharmed from the credit crisis.”
Russell Investments appoints Steven Lowe
Russell Investments today announces the appointment of Steven Lowe to the role of senior consultant in Russell’s Consulting and Advisory Services team. Steven’s previous experience includes senior roles at Pension Corporation and at Legal & General, where he was a partner in the new business division and senior credit portfolio manager respectively. “Russell’s consulting team comprises of highly skilled individuals including actuaries and investment specialists from diverse backgrounds,” commented Sorca Kelly-Scholte, Director, Consulting and Advisory Services. “Steven joins Russell as a highly successful fixed income fund manager with over 13 years’ experience in both Sterling and European credit markets. I am thrilled that Steven is bringing his wealth of experience to bear for our clients.” Lowe will be based in Russell’s London office and his appointment is effective immediately.
Aviva Investors announces appointments
Aviva Investors has appointed Paul Whelan as a Credit Portfolio Manager with immediate effect. Whelan is part of the London-based Credit team and reports to Stephen Lee, Head of Credit Portfolio Focus Group, Aviva Investors. Whelan joins Aviva Investors from Henderson Global Investors where he managed the interest rate portfolio within a fixed income hedge fund. Prior to this he worked at UBS Global Asset Management and has extensive management experience of both benchmarked and absolute return funds. Mark Wauton, Head of Credit said: “Paul will be focusing on risk analysis and portfolio engineering, leveraging his experience of managing global aggregate and absolute return funds.” Aviva Investors has also announced the appointment of Rob Watson to the new role of Global Product and Strategic Relations Director. Watson will lead Aviva Investors combined global product development and strategic relationship teams, as well as the Consultant Relationship Group. He will be based out of Aviva Investors offices in Chicago and report to Erich Gerth, recently appointed Global Business Development Director in London. Watson joins from Janus Capital Group where he was most recently Managing Director and Senior Vice President in charge of the firm’s global key relationships and product consulting teams. Prior to joining Janus, Watson was head of product strategy and management for Morgan Stanley’s US asset management affiliate, Van Kampen.
Threadneedle makes senior international appointments
Threadneedle has announced that Kris Haber will join the company mid-November to develop and lead Threadneedle’s business in North America. Based in New York, Haber will also take charge of and manage Threadneedle’s hedge fund business, globally. Haber will report directly to Crispin Henderson, Threadneedle’s Chief Executive Officer. A well-known figure within the North American investment industry, Haber has more than 16 years experience, most recently as Managing Director of Global Alternative Investments at Lazard Asset Management, where he has spent the last 13 years. Crispin Henderson, Threadneedle’s CEO commented: “Kris arrives at a pivotal time for Threadneedle’s growth. His proven abilities and experience will help us to expand our reach in the US whilst creating local relevance for our clients.” Threadneedle has also announced the appointment of Campbell Fleming to the position of Head of Distribution. Fleming will join the company in November to lead Threadneedle’s global distribution function, which includes the wholesale and institutional business as well as marketing and product development. Fleming will report to Crispin Henderson. With over 12 years experience in the asset management industry, Fleming has been instrumental in developing JP Morgan Asset Management’s UK business, where he has held a number of roles, most recently as Managing Director, Head of UK Business.
RBC Wealth Management appoints Asia team
RBC Wealth Management has announced the appointments of Matthew Yong and Frank Mu as President and CEO respectively of its Asia operations and the unification of its Asian operations under one umbrella, RBC Wealth Management, Asia. Yong will be responsible for sales and distribution activities in Asia. Mu will continue to lead the advisory team, while also focusing on client solution support (including trust, discretionary investment management, investment advisory and credit) and functional support (including operations, information technology, human resources, finance, risk and compliance). Yong is based in Singapore and Mu is based in Hong Kong. These locations form RBC Wealth Management’s main hubs in the region. RBC Wealth Management also has a representative office in Beijing and a branch in Brunei. Yong and Mu both report to Doug Gunton, Head of Asia and Canadian International Centres, RBC Wealth Management. Commenting on the new appointments within RBC Wealth Management’s Asian operations, Gunton said: “Matthew and Frank are exceptional leaders. Asia is a high growth region and a key priority for RBC Wealth Management’s international wealth management business.”
UBPAM appoints chief risk officer of alternative investment
UBP Asset Management, a fund of funds unit of Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), today announced that Daniel Kelly will join the firm in New York as Chief Risk Officer of alternative investment, a newly created position. Kelly is an 18-year veteran of asset management, 17 of which he spent at Harvard Management Company, where he was Chief Risk Officer of the Harvard University endowment since 2005. His appointment marks UBP’s fourth major hire this year as the firm commits to building its risk-management platform and bolsters its research and investment activities. “Apart from his broad knowledge in alternative and traditional asset classes, Daniel has the unique experience of having conducted both in-house risk management and external manager-risk evaluation throughout his career,” said Matthew Stadtmauer, Chief Executive Officer of UBP Asset Management. Kelly will oversee all aspects of UBP’s global risk-management platform, serve on the firm’s Global Investment Committee of alternative investment and report to Stadtmauer. He will preside over the investment-risk management function, which entails analyzing and assessing the underlying risks of the hedge funds in which UBP invests while managing the portfolio risks of UBP’s funds of funds.
UBP hires CEO of asset management and alternative investments
Union Bancaire Privée has announced that they have hired Richard Wohanka, former CEO of Fortis Investment Management, as the CEO of the Bank’s new asset management and alternative investments division. Wohanka, who is a finance specialist, also becomes a member of the Bank’s Executive Committee. He will report directly to Guy de Picciotto. “We are pleased that Richard Wohanka is joining UBP”, said Guy de Picciotto, CEO of UBP. “His global vision, his management skills and his long experience in international finance and asset management are a major advantage for our development strategy.” Richard Wohanka was CEO of Fortis Investment Management from 2001 to 2009 and CEO of WestLB Asset Management from 1997 to 2001. Previously, he worked for 13 years at Paribas.
Hewitt announces global strategy leader for Investment
Hewitt Associates, the global human resources consulting and outsourcing company, has announced the promotion of Andrew Tunningley to Global Strategy Leader for Investment, and the appointment of John Rushen to succeed Tunningley as head of the UK Investment Consulting practice. In his new role, Tunningley will be responsible for accelerating the global expansion of Hewitt’s Investment offering. Tunningley will report directly to Yvan Legris, President, Global Consulting at Hewitt. Tunningley has led the UK Investment team at Hewitt since 2003. John Rushen has been recruited to succeed Andrew as head of the UK Investment team. Rushen joins Hewitt from Ermitage, one of Europe’s leading alternative asset management organisations. He has extensive experience gained during 10 years at Mercer Investment Consulting and nine years at fund manager BlackRock, where he was a managing director on the specialist equity team. He will report directly to Andy Cox, managing director of the UK for Hewitt Associates, and he will also sit on Hewitt’s UK management team. Rushen will join Hewitt on 1st November 2009.
Odey AM adds two to global equities
Odey Asset Management has announced the appointment of Simon Todd and Michael Nickson to run the group’s Global Equities strategy. The pair managed more than $20 billion at leading US asset manager MFS Investment Management, and have a strong performance record in Global and European equities. Todd invested across various Global and European strategies at MFS, compounding returns 4%-7% ahead of the indices. He trained at Phillips & Drew, having joined the company from KPMG. His colleague Nickson, who trained at Goldman Sachs, worked alongside Todd on his European strategies and co-managed MFS’ international research funds with responsibility for utilities, capital goods and financials. Todd commented: “We are delighted to be joining Crispin (Odey) and his team. We share common values and goals and feel our investment style will best flourish in an environment like the one Crispin has carefully cultivated over the years.” The duo will kick off by managing a new unconstrained global equities long-only fund, the Odey Global Allegra Fund. The new fund will be part of the group’s Allegra range which includes the £204 million Allegra European Fund and the £659 million Allegra International.
Newedge announces Global Head of Press Relations
Newedge has announced the nomination of Valery Lepinette as Global Head of Press Relations. Newedge is a 50/50 joint venture between Société Générale and Caylon. Lepinette joins Newedge after having worked for an international media communication agency as well as a broker and an investment bank. He was a Senior Vice President at Financial Dynamics advising on financial communication and M&A communication. Prior to that, he was head of corporate broking at BNP Paribas, advising the bank’s strategic clients on cash equity. Newedge Global Head of Brand & Communications, Jean Christophe Huertas said, “Valery brings a very valuable experience as a media specialist and former broker. His past experience fits well our client driven culture, and will contribute to deepen our relations with the media while we continue to increase our leadership in the clearing and execution of multi asset financial products.” In his role, Lepinette will be based in Newedge’s Paris Headquarters and will be assisted by a team of PR professionals based in New York, London and Hong-Kong. THFJ
