Hedge Fund Investor Leadership Summit
November 2-3, 2017 | New York City
2017 Speakers
Leading Hedge Fund Allocators
Aberdeen Asset Management
Kevin Lyons, Senior Investment Manager
Kevin Lyons is a Senior Investment Manager on the Hedge Funds Solutions Team and head of credit and fixed income strategies. Kevin joined Aberdeen in 2012 from Attalus Capital where he was a senior analyst covering relative value strategies. Prior to Attalus, Kevin worked for Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs within their Prime Brokerage groups. Kevin graduated with a BSc in Finance from University of Scranton and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Fordham University.
Advanced Portfolio Management
Robert E. Kiernan III, Chief Executive Officer
Robert E. Kiernan III is the Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Portfolio Management LLC (APM), an investment management company based in New York City. Before founding APM, Mr. Kiernan spent nearly two decades in the capital markets with Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers, during which he was responsible for building, managing, and leading multiple global fixed income and investment banking businesses.
Prior to his capital markets career, Mr. Kiernan held several foreign policy positions in the first Reagan administration including appointments at USIA, the National Security Council, and the Department of State. He was also a member of the US Delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
Mr. Kiernan received an AB magna cum laude and an AM with distinction from the four-year AB/AM program at Boston College, and an MBA from the University of Chicago where he was a First National Bank Scholar. He also has studied as a graduate student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the University of Cambridge, and has been a Senior Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he led a seminar and research project on
socially responsible investing (SRI).
Currently, Mr. Kiernan serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Educate Girls Globally, and
as a member of the Advisory Board of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University, the Research Foundation Review Board of the CFA Institute, the Royal Institute of International Affairs (London), and the Council on Foreign Relations.
Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation
Ben Chang, Senior Associate
Ben Chang is a Senior Associate at Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation focusing on investments in private income, special opportunities, and absolute return. Prior to APFC, Ben spent four years working in private equity and private equity consulting with Boathouse Capital, based out of Philadelphia, and Stax Inc., based out of Boston. Ben started his career in investment banking with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, followed by a tenure with an equity long/short manager based out of New York. He holds a Bachelors in Quantitative Economics from Tufts University.
Alternative Investment Group
David K. Storrs, President & Chief Executive Officer
David K. Storrs is President and Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Alternative Investment Group.
David is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. David was formerly Trustee, Executive Vice President, and President of Commonfund, a multi-billion investment management organization serving endowments, foundations, and other non-profit institutions and led the formation of its alternative investment programs, including hedge funds, from 1982 to 1996. Prior to this, he was Vice President with responsibility for international consulting at Rogers, Casey & Barksdale and RCB Trust Company from 1984 to 1986. David was a senior financial officer and the first Director of Investments at Yale University, from 1971 to 1984, where he restructured the endowment by introducing alternative asset classes.
David holds an A.B. from Yale University as well as an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He was a Trustee and member of the Finance Committee of TIAA-CREF (1994-2002) and a Director and member of the Finance Committee of the Alliance Capital money market funds (1988-2005).
Analytical Research
Jerett Yelton, Senior Analyst
Chris Walvoord, Partner, Global Head of Hedge Fund Research
Chris leads Aon Hewitt’s Global Liquid Alternatives Team within Global Investment Management. He oversees research and investment activities across a variety of liquid alternative strategies including hedge funds, currencies, CTAs, and GTAA. His group is responsible for researching, recommending and monitoring managers for both advisory and delegated client portfolios. Prior to joining AHIC in 2016, Chris was a portfolio manager and a member of the investment committee at William Blair. Chris was the lead PM for the custom hedge fund business at Blair which managed client specific portfolios for large institutional clients. He was also the lead PM on the group’s 40 Act fund of hedge funds. Chris worked extensively with William Blair’s distribution team to help clients understand the role of hedge funds within their investment portfolios.
William Blair entered the fund of hedge funds business by acquiring Guidance Capital, a fund of hedge funds firm founded in 2001, where Chris was one of five equity partners. As a member of the investment committee at Guidance he was involved in both hedge fund research and portfolio construction. He also developed the portfolio risk management system that was used at both Guidance and William Blair.
Prior to joining Guidance Capital, Chris managed an unconstrained bond strategy at the Northern Trust. The mandates for these funds allowed investments in a wide range of fixed income instruments including corporate and asset backed bonds, swaps, options, futures, and other interest rate and credit derivatives. Chris began his investment career in the Capital Markets Strategies Group at Nuveen where he assisted investment banking clients with their derivative transactions. Prior to Nuveen Chris worked as an automotive engineer in Motorola’s Automotive Electronics Group and in Ford’s Advanced Vehicle Engineering Group.
Chris earned an M.B.A. degree in finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, an M.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California Berkeley and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Aon
Mr. Yelton joined Analytical Research in 2017 with responsibility for cross asset class, cross strategy alternative investment research, due diligence, and portfolio construction consulting. Prior to Analytical Research Mr. Yelton was member of the Alternative Investment Solutions team at Investcorp responsible for alternative investment sourcing, due diligence, and SSARIS-Investcorp fund of hedge fund products. Mr. Yelton previously worked at SSARIS Advisors, State Street Bank’s affiliated hedge fund of funds, and was a Partner and Global Macro hedge fund of funds Portfolio Manager. While with SSARIS for over ten years, Mr. Yelton’s responsibilities also included investment sourcing, investment due diligence, operational due diligence, risk monitoring, managed account platform investments, and product development support. Mr. Yelton received a BA in Business and minor in Economics from Skidmore College in 2002.
Aptitude Investment Management
Jeffrey Klein, Deputy Chief Investment Officer & Chief Executive Officer
Jeff is a founding partner of Aptitude Investment Management LP. In his role as Deputy Chief Investment Officer and Chief Executive Officer, he is responsible for investment strategy and governance, hedge fund portfolio construction, and conducting asset allocation and asset liability studies. He is also responsible for Aptitude’s business strategy and overall operations. Jeff has 27 years of investment experience.
Prior to his role with Aptitude Investment Management LP, Jeff served in a similar role as the Portfolio Manager and Deputy Chief Investment Officer of Weyerhaeuser Asset Management LLC since 2004. In that capacity, he developed guidelines and conducted asset allocation and asset liability studies that led to pension trust investment structure and policy. He was responsible for integration, revision and development of the hedge fund portfolio from externally managed to internally managed.
Prior to joining Weyerhaeuser Company, Jeff was the National Practice Director for Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada. He had previously served as a Senior Consultant and Practice Leader as well as a Pension and Investment Consultant with Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada. Before joining Watson Wyatt Investment Consulting in Canada, Jeff held positions with Southern Life Association in Cape Town, South African and with Legal and General Assurance Company in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Jeff holds a Bachelor of Business Science with Honours from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a Certificate of Finance and Investment from the Institute of Actuaries, UK, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, London, and Canadian Institute of Actuaries.
CIBC Atlantic Trust
Ohm Srinivasan, CFA, Managing Director
Ohm Srinivasan is a portfolio manager and head of hedge fund research based in Boston within CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management. With more than 16 years of industry experience, he is responsible for managing the internally-managed hedge fund of funds and Customized Alternative Portfolio Solutions (CAPS), which builds custom portfolios. Prior to joining Atlantic Trust in 2008, Ohm was at Battersby Capital Management, where he was co-head of hedge fund research and the derivatives portfolio manager. His responsibilities included manager research, portfolio construction, risk management, and hedge fund of funds development. He was also the sole portfolio manager of the systemic hedge book trading equity options and credit swaptions to complement the portfolio of hedge funds, which returned +200% on risk capital in 2008 (Jan-Sep) which kept the overall fund profitable. Previously, Ohm was a senior proprietary trader at Cornerstone Trading, where he managed multiple portfolios employing event-driven, volatility arbitrage, options market-making, and quantitative equity market-neutral hedge fund strategies. He earned a Bachelor of Science with a concentration in economics from the University of Michigan and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.
Clearbrook Global
Timothy C. Ng, Chief Investment Officer
Tim joined the firm in 2010 and is Chief Investment Officer at Clearbrook, as well as Head of the Clearbrook Investment Committee. Within this role, Tim is involved in global macro and manager research, portfolio analysis and risk management. Prior to Clearbrook, Tim was President and Chief Investment Officer of Structured Investments Group, LLC. Tim began his career in 1982 and has served as an alternative investment and hedge fund advisor in numerous capacities. Previously, Tim was a Managing Partner with Access International Advisors and has held the title of Senior Vice President in varying roles at Prudential Securities, Smith Barney, and Oppenheimer & Company. During his career, he was one of the first advisors to place investor capital into hedge funds, portable alpha portfolios, structured/hedge fund linked notes, and insurance dedicated hedge fund products. Tim has had oversight of more than $5 billion of investor capital on behalf of corporations, pension funds, endowments and foundations, banks, investment advisory firms, and family offices. Tim is a Board member of Clearbrook Global Advisors and the Florida Alternative Investment Association. He has been a holder of securities licenses Series 3, 7, 24, 63 and 65. Tim received a BA in Economics from Stony Brook University and an MBA with honors from Long Island University. Tim has 33 years of investment experience.
Cliffwater
Chris Solarz, CFA, Managing Director
Chris is a Managing Director of Cliffwater LLC in our New York office and a member of the hedge fund research team. Prior to joining Cliffwater in 2011, Chris was a Senior Analyst at SAIL Advisors, where he focused on manager selection and due diligence as Head of Research for tactical trading and relative value strategies. Previous experience includes working for ING Investment Management, Antarctica Asset Management, Societe Generale Barr Devlin, and CIBC World Markets.
He earned a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and a MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris is a Certified Public Accountant, holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designation, the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation, and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Chris has broken 6 Guinness World Records, has run marathons on all 7 continents and in all 50 US states.
Corbin Capital
Craig Bergstrom, CFA, Managing Partner, Chief Investment Officer
Craig leads investment research and portfolio management and has responsibility for investment process and results across Corbin. He also has direct investment research responsibilities for Corbin's investments in credit and relative value strategies, including portfolio management for our credit opportunity program, direct and co-investments and our hedge overlay program. Craig is a member of the Investment Committee, the Private Investment Committee, the Valuation Committee and the Hedging and Allocation Committee. Prior to joining Corbin in January 2002, Craig was the Risk Manager at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC, a then $20+ billion institutional investment management firm, where he had responsibilities for firm wide market risk management, hedge fund product development and derivatives strategy. Prior to joining GMO, he was a Vice President in the Equity Derivatives group at Salomon Smith Barney, and previously worked in the Equity Structured Products group at Morgan Stanley. Craig graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Government, and he was awarded the CFA charter in 1997.
Deutsche Asset Management
Christoph E. Umscheid, Director, Hedge Fund Research
Chris Umscheid - Director, leads the research effort for the Hedge Fund Advisory Group within Deutsche Asset Management. The Hedge Fund Advisory Group is engaged in providing global institutional investors with bespoke and fund based solutions across, alternative risk premia, UCITS, Hedge Funds and niche private credit strategies. Prior to joining Asset Management, Chris served as Global Head of Hedge Fund Research & Due Diligence within the Global Investment Group of Deutsche Bank AWM. Chris was a senior research analyst specializing in hedge fund due diligence and is a member of the Global Investment Group Investment Committee. Along with other members of the global research team, he helps to source, structure, and ultimately select liquid alternative strategies and fund offerings for Deutsche Wealth Management, DB Hedge Fund Advisory and Deutsche Funds. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, Chris worked as a Fund of Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager for the Wafra Investment Advisory Group. Prior to that, Chris was a Portfolio Manager and Director of Research for Yankee advisers, LLC and a Senior Analyst at Phoenix Advisers Inc. Chris earned an A.B. in Economics from Dartmouth College and began his career as a Financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co.
EnTrustPermal
Robert Kaplan, Senior Managing Director
Robert Kaplan is Senior Managing Director of EnTrustPermal and serves on EnTrustPermal’s Global Investment Committee. Mr. Kaplan was previously Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Permal Group, responsible for Permal Asset Management LLC’s asset allocation, performance monitoring and research, and was Chairman of the Investment Committee. He joined the Permal Group in 1996, focusing on the discovery and identification of independent, investment managers including the analysis of their styles and strategies. Before Permal Group, Mr. Kaplan was an audit manager at Ernst & Young in their financial services division. Mr. Kaplan holds an M.B.A. with honors from Columbia University in New York (2005) and a B.S. in accounting from the State University of New York at Albany (1988). Mr. Kaplan was a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the State of New York.
Episcopalian NY Diocesan Investment Trust
John Trammell, President
Mr. Trammell has extensive experience helping to build and manage global asset management firms. Besides being President of the Episcopalian NY Diocesan Investment Trust he sits on the boards for three other nonprofit organizations. Recently John has worked with emerging FinTech companies to help them organize for growth.
Fairfax County Retirement Systems
Katherine Molnar, CFA, Senior Investment Officer
Ms. Molnar joined Fairfax County Retirement Systems in 2013 as a Senior Investment Officer responsible for managing the Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, a $1.3 billion plan. Her responsibilities include all aspects of portfolio management and oversight, including strategic and tactical asset and risk allocation, selection and supervision of external investment managers and risk management. From 2001 until 2012, Ms. Molnar was Vice President, Senior Research Analyst at AIG Investments’ Hedge Fund Solutions Group – both in London and New York. At AIG Investments, Ms. Molnar was responsible for due diligence procedures and research including: sourcing new managers, monitoring current hedge funds, analyzing portfolio risk and performance, making new investment recommendations to an investment committee as well as hedge fund asset allocation recommendations for portfolio construction. She was additionally responsible for portfolio reviews and overall asset allocation recommendations for external client portfolios. Previously, she was Vice President, Market Research Analyst at Citigroup Investments’ Alternative Investment Strategies group. Prior investment management experience includes positions at Paribas Asset Management as well as Trevor Stewart Burton & Jacobsen. Additionally, Ms. Molnar spent one year in Warsaw, Poland launching the first retail mutual funds available to the Polish market as well as two years in Frankfurt, Germany as an intern with J.P. Morgan. Ms. Molnar received a B.S. in Business Administration/Finance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a CFA charterholder.
FERI Trust GmbH
Marcus Storr, Head of Hedge Funds
Mr Storr joined FERI in 2005. He is responsible for the Absolute Return portfolio management, manager selection (offshore & UCITS) and due diligence within FERIs asset management department. Furthermore he is responsible for hedge fund operations including client reporting. He started his career in 1994 as an advisor to UHNWI before moving to London in 1998 joining the Investment Banking division of Robert Flemings Ltd. (acquired by JPMorgan). Until 2003 he was a Director within the Global Equities department of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in London. He has over 20 years experience in capital markets, corporate transactions and manager selection. He has written several articles and book chapters on hedge funds which have been published in professional journals and industry magazines. Mr Storr holds a masters degree in Finance/Capital markets and international management / economics from Humboldt University Berlin in addition to a two-year apprenticeship as a bank manager. He is married and father of three children.
FERI is one of the largest Asset Manager in Germany based in Bad Homburg managing more than EUR31bn including EUR3bn in Alternative Investments. FERI invests in hedge fund (UCITS and offshore) for Institutional Investors and UHNW / family offices on a global scale, mainly in German-speaking Europe. FERI allocates to Alternative Investments since 1999 and has built up the largest hedge fund team in Germany.
Arvin Soh, Portfolio Manager
GAM
Arvin Soh is a Portfolio Manager and Investment Committee Member of GAM’s Global Investment Solutions team with over twenty years of institutional investment experience. Within GAM, he is responsible for global macro and systematic investments along with the management of GAM Trading and numerous multi-strategy accounts. This also includes collaborating with the global sales and marketing team on new product development. Prior to joining GAM in February 2005, Mr Soh was a manager within the pension group at Pfizer, with primary responsibility for manager selection in international equity, global macro and currency funds. Before that, he was a portfolio manager with a quantitatively-based fundamental hedge fund, and a vice president with Bankers Trust Asset Management focused on global markets. Mr Soh holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is based in New York.
Gapstow is a registered investment advisor base in New York which allocates capital to compelling opportunities in the global credit markets. We manage approximately $900 million.
Chris Acito founded Gapstow in 2009. He serves as the firm’s Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer.
Mr. Acito began his career in the investment management industry as a strategic consultant, beginning in Booz-Allen & Hamilton’s Banking & Capital Markets practice in New York. In 1998 he joined John Casey, Kevin Quirk, and others to build a specialist firm focusing exclusively on the global investment management industry. This team was originally part of Barra, where Mr. Acito was a Managing Director, but later became independent as Casey, Quirk & Acito.
In 2004, Mr. Acito left CQA to become the global Chief Operating Officer for Investcorp's Hedge Fund Group, which, at its peak, managed about $8 billion of client and proprietary capital in both multi-manager funds and single manager hedge funds.
Mr. Acito graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Duke University and received his Masters in Economics from the University of Chicago. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, which he has served as Board Chairman (2009-2015) and Head of the Investment Committee (2003-2009) of the School’s $300 million endowment.
Christopher J. Acito, Founder, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer
Gapstow Capital Partners
The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
Jonathan D. Hook, Chief Investment Officer
Jonathan Hook was named the first Chief Investment Officer for the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation of Owings Mills, Maryland in May 2014. He is responsible for managing the foundation’s investment portfolio, which totals in excess of $2.3 Billion, and the first internal investment team at the foundation. The foundation, headquartered in Owings Mills, MD, is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Its’ sole purpose is to assist low-income and vulnerable individuals and families through nonprofit grants to direct-service providers and programs. Prior to joining the Weinberg Foundation, Hook was the first Chief Investment Officer at two separate universities, Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio and Baylor University in Waco, Texas. In both cases, he created and managed the university’s Office of Investments to manage the long term investment pool which included its endowment funds. In both instances, he was charged with developing a new asset allocation policy, building an investment team, and charting a new path for the institutional capital of each school. Prior to moving to the institutional investing field, Mr. Hook spent twenty years in the corporate and investment banking fields, finally as a Senior Vice President with First Union Securities in Atlanta, Georgia. He primarily covered the energy and business services sectors. Responsibilities included origination and delivery of public debt and equity offerings, private placements, syndicated lending, derivatives products, and capital management services. He graduated from Willamette University with a B.S, in Economics and Sociology and from Baylor University with his M.B.A. in Finance.
Helmsley Charitable Trust
Warren Tye, CFA, Investment Officer
Warren Tye is an Investment Officer at the Helmsley Charitable Trust. He is responsible for thematic research, manager research, investment due diligence, and portfolio construction within traditional long only, hedge fund, private equity, and venture capital segments of the Trust’s investment program.
Prior to joining Helmsley, Warren was with Optima Fund Management where he managed both commingled and advisory portfolios of hedge funds within a $4.5 billion firm. He also sat on the firm’s asset allocation committee and was responsible for formulating medium term views on equity, fixed income, commodity, and currency markets across all regions. Warren started his career with Kellogg Capital Group as an options market maker on the NYSE and AMEX.
Warren received a B.A. from Hobart College with a concentration in History and Mathematics, and is also a CFA charter holder. He is involved with numerous charitable organizations in and around New York City such as Robin Hood, Trees New York, and the Bronx Charter School.
Hywin Capital Management
Gib Dunham, CFA, Managing Director
Mr. Dunham is a Managing Director with Hywin Capital Management based in New York City where he is on the team overseeing alternative allocations including hedge funds and private equity. Prior to Hywin, he was the Chief Investment Officer for Alternative Capital Advisers, a multi-strategy hedge fund allocator. Prior to that he was a Partner at a $4 billion multi-family office responsible for security selection, risk management and alternative allocations. Before that he was a Vice President at Emigrant Capital, a captive private equity fund which was sponsored by a $10 billion bank. Previous to that he was a portfolio manager at $4.5 billion hedge fund group where he was seeded and launched his own fund. He began his career in investment banking at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc. as an analyst in the telecommunications group. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College where he majored in political science. He has received his CFA, CAIA, CMT, QFA and CIC designations and has a certificate in structured products. He is the Chief Investment Office on a volunteer basis and a board member for the Carter Burden Center for the Aging and oversees the endowment portfolio for the Church of the Epiphany.
JP Morgan Alternative Asset Management
Paul Zummo, CFA, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Zummo is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of J.P. Morgan Alternative Asset Management Hedge Fund Solutions. He is head of the Portfolio Management Group and lead portfolio manager for the JP Morgan Multi Manager Alternatives Fund, a US Mutual Fund. Mr. Zummo is Chair of the JPMAAM HFS Investment Committee and co-founded JPMAAM HFS in 1994. Prior to that, Mr. Zummo served as the manager of retirement plan investments for the Interpublic Group of Companies from 1992 to 1994, where he was responsible for analysis, asset allocation, and manager selection. From 1990 to 1992, he worked at the former Chase organization as an investment analyst and consultant for institutional clients of the Chase Consulting Group. Mr. Zummo received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and an M.B.A. from New York University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute.
Lighthouse Partners
Timothy Berry, CFA, Managing Director
Tim identifies investment strategy opportunities and analyzes and monitors portfolio construction and asset allocation for Lighthouse Partners. Tim is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. Previously, Tim ran the hedge fund investment team at Private Advisors LLC, an institutional alternative investment manager where he invested in hedge fund managers across a broad variety of strategies for 14 years. He was a member of the hedge fund investment committees and the firm’s executive committee. Tim started his investment career at Chesapeake Capital Corporation, a commodity trader, where he analyzed fund performance and performed due diligence on alternative investments on behalf of the principals of the firm. Tim earned a master’s degree from Duke University and graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia. He is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Virginia.
Lone Peak Partners
Betsy L. Battle, Chief Investment Officer & Founding Partner
Ms. Battle brings almost four decades of financial services and investment experience to Lone Peak Partners. Most recently, she was Director of Manager Selection and a member of the Management Committee at Soros Fund Management LLC. Over her eight years there, she not only managed multibillion dollar portfolios of external hedge funds for the Quantum group of funds and George Soros, but also built the manager selection and due diligence processes as well as the multi-manager portfolio construction and monitoring methodologies. Prior to Soros Fund Management, she held positions at Bankers Trust, Citicorp and JP Morgan, primarily as a manager in Global Sales and Trading. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School Foundation Board, the Board of Directors of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the President’s Council of the Peconic Land Trust. Ms. Battle received a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976.
Lyxor Asset Management
Fabien Pavlowsky, Head of US Product Development
Fabien Pavlowsky joined Lyxor Asset Management Inc. (“Lyxor Inc.”) in September 2010 as the Head of Global Macro and CTA strategies. Since January 2015, he has served as the Head of U.S. Product Development. From 2002 to 2010 he worked for fund-of-funds Financial Risk Management (“FRM”), both in New York and London. While at FRM, Mr. Pavlowsky headed the directional trading sector and was responsible for manager selection of global macro and CTA funds as well as portfolio management for sector specific fund-of-funds.
Mr. Pavlowsky holds an MSc from the Ecole Centrale Paris in France with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Finance.
Man FRM - Pine Grove Funds
Thomas Williams, CFA, Chief Investment Officer & Founding Partner
Thomas (Tom) Williams is Chief Investment Officer - Pine Grove Funds at Man FRM (‘FRM’), based in New York. He is also a member of FRM’s Investment Committee.
Prior to assuming his current role, Tom was a Managing Member, the Chief Investment Officer and the Head of Investments at Pine Grove Asset Management (now operating as Pine Grove Funds under the FRM business). Prior to this, Tom practiced law in California for three years, specialising in intellectual property and venture capital transaction.
Tom holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Trinity College and a JD from the University of Southern California School of Law. Tom is also a member of the CFA Institute and the New York Society of Security Analysts.
Massey Quick Simon & Co.
Wayne Yi, CFA, Director, Head of Manager Research
Wayne joined Massey Quick Simon in 2017 as a member of the Investment Research Team. His primary responsibilities are to lead the manager research process and support the CIO in asset allocation, portfolio construction, and investment due diligence. Prior to joining the firm, Wayne was a Co-Portfolio Manager and member of the Investment Committee for SAIL Advisors, a hedge fund investment firm headquartered in Hong Kong. He also served as the senior analyst for their Credit and Event-Driven strategies. Prior to SAIL, he was the Sector Head for Credit and Event-Driven strategies at Robeco-Sage, a hedge fund investment firm based in New York.
Wayne started his career in investing at Delaware Investments as a Research Analyst for high yield and investment grade bonds across various industries. He then joined Goldman Sachs’ Investment Research department where he was the Senior Analyst covering high yield credit in the Technology sector.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he received a B.A. in Economics and in International Relations. Wayne is a CFA charterholder.
Maverick Capital
W. Bates Brown, Head of Maverick Stable
Since 2004, Mr. Brown has led the efforts of Maverick’s fund-of-funds, Maverick Stable, and since 2011 of Maverick’s seeding fund, Maverick Seed. Prior to that, he was a senior analyst for the media and telecommunications sector for 5 years. Prior to joining Maverick, Mr. Brown was an Analyst in Morgan Stanley's Global Telecommunications Group and interned as a Financial Analyst at ABN AMRO. Mr. Brown received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University where he was captain of the baseball team.
Merrimac Corp.
Clark Cheng, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Clark Cheng, CFA, FRM, joined Merrimac at the end of 2014 and is the Chief Investment Officer. Merrimac is a large single family office with investments in hedge funds, private equity, real estate and mutual funds. Prior to Merrimac, he was responsible for managing hedge fund research in the Americas for HSBC’s Alternative Investment Group which had $39B in hedge fund investments across both discretionary and advisory mandates. Before joining HSBC, Clark performed hedge fund research at Guggenheim Partners and Morgan Stanley between 2002 and 2005. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston’s equity research department in 2001. Prior to that, he spent six years building and establishing West Coast Economics. Clark holds the Chartered Financial Analyst, Financial Risk Manager and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designations. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Duke University and a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Business/Economics and Psychology from UCLA. He has also completed his coursework towards his Masters Degree in Psychology from California State University, Los Angeles.
NEPC
Neil Sheth, Partner, Director of Alternative Asset Research
Neil joined NEPC in 2009 with investment experience dating back to 1993, including thirteen years as a private equity and hedge fund investment professional. He has extensive investing experience across the U.S. and international public and private credit and equity markets. Neil oversees our alternative asset groups and is actively involved in all aspects of manager research, client portfolio design, construction and implementation as well as portfolio monitoring and risk assessment. He works with all of the firm’s client types. Neil is a member of the firm’s Executive, Alternative Asset, Audit and Retirement Plan Committees.
Prior to joining NEPC, Neil worked at Berkshire Partners, LLC, a leading middle market leverage buyout firm based in Boston, where he was a founder and co-portfolio manager of a fundamentals-based, global value hedge fund. Previously, Neil spent eleven years as a private equity investment professional. In this capacity, he served on the boards of seven companies in both the U.S. and Europe while he was a Partner at M/C Partners and an Associate at General Atlantic, LLC; two firms that focus on the global technology, telecom and media industries. Neil began his career as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co.
Neil received his B.S. with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Optima Fund Management
Erik Welle, Partner
Mr. Welle joined Optima in 2007 and currently serves as the firm’s International sector head with responsibility for manager allocations across Europe, Canada and global emerging markets with an emphasis on hedged equity and global macro allocations. Further, Mr. Welle is a member of the firm’s portfolio management committee. Prior to joining Optima, Mr. Welle was an equity analyst at Thompson, Siegel & Walmsley, a $19 billion investment management firm located in Richmond, Virginia. There he was a member of the energy and industrials group and responsible for both fundamental and quantitative analysis. Mr. Welle is a graduate of Washington and Lee University where he received a B.S. in Business Administration.
PAAMCO
Robert Motoshige, Director
Robert Motoshige is Director and Sector Specialist for the Fixed Income Relative Value strategy at PAAMCO. He is responsible for manager selection and portfolio construction within fixed income relative value, macro, and mortgage strategies. In addition, he also serves as the main point of contact for certain institutional investor relationships in Asia. Prior to joining PAAMCO, Robert ran his own consulting firm, helping investment banks and hedge funds with research and due diligence. Prior to that, Robert traded Japanese Government Bonds at Morgan Stanley, and covered hedge funds as Head of Asian Hedge Fund Sales at Dresdner Bank. Robert received his MBA from the University of California, Irvine and his BA in Economics from Stanford University.
Pendyne Capital
Andy Fisher, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Andy Fisher is the Chief Investment Officer for Pendyne Capital, LLC, a single-family investment platform established by the Collier family in Naples, Florida.
Prior to joining Peninsula Funds in January 2017, Andy served as the Managing Director of Public Markets at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In this role, he was a senior member of the team responsible for building and managing institutional investment portfolios totaling approximately $7.3 billion, including a $6.0 billion endowment. Since the inception of his responsibilities at Emory in 2008, Andy was responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and prioritizing investments and relationships across global equities, fixed income, and hedge funds. Within these areas, he led the initiative to begin Emory’s internal trading platform. Later in his tenure at Emory, Andy also provided leadership within the areas of private equity, natural resources, and real estate.
Andy’s earlier professional experience includes investment roles within hedge funds, and capital markets advisory within investment banking. He is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the Stanford University School of Education where he received joint MBA and MA degrees. He graduated from Princeton University where he received a BSE in Civil Engineering and Operations Research, and is a CFA charterholder.
Pension Consulting Alliance
John J. Burns, CFA, Managing Director
Mr. Burns joined PCA in 2008 as a Managing Director. He is a general consultant with Public Fund and Taft-Hartley Defined Benefit Plan clients. His primarily focus is on asset allocation and risk management.
Mr. Burns began his career with the New York City Retirement Systems. During his 24 year tenure he was responsible for overseeing the $85 billion publicly traded Equity and Fixed Income portfolios. In addition, he developed and recommend asset allocation strategy and investment policies for the five NYC Pension Funds and four Variable Supplements Funds.
Prior to joining PCA Mr. Burns was the Director of Public Equity for the North Carolina Retirement Systems in Raleigh, NC. In that capacity he was responsible for equity portfolio structure, investment manager monitoring, due diligence and equity portfolio transitions.
Mr. Burns, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his BS Business Administration from Manhattan College and his MBA from Pace University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
Private Advisors
Charles Honey, Partner
Charles Honey is an Investment Committee member. Charles focuses on sourcing, underwriting, and monitoring of long/short equity investments, including funds and direct equity positions.
Prior to joining Private Advisors, Charles was the Managing Partner of Rapidan Capital, a long/short equity hedge fund that he founded. Prior to Rapidan, Charles held Managing Director roles in the hedge fund groups at Morgens, Waterfall, Vintiadis & Company and at Trainer, Wortham & Company. He began his career as a trader and research analyst for Woodward & Associates, a New York based hedge fund. Charles has over two decades of equity investing experience.
Charles received a B.S. in Business Administration from Washington & Lee University.
Protégé Partners & MOV37
Adil Abdulali, President & Chief Science Officer
Adil has 26 years of experience in the markets. He received an M.A. in pure mathematics from MIT and B.A. in mathematics from University of Pennsylvania. He spent the first half of his career trading fixed income derivatives at JP Morgan, Nikko, Nomura, and Barclays. At Nomura and Barclays, he ran the systems and analytics groups for these products. He subsequently joined Capital Market Risk Advisors as a Senior Advisor specializing in structured products and hedge fund valuation. He joined Protégé in 2003 to head Risk Measurement. Adil became a partner in 2006 and specializes in Autonomous Learning Investment Strategies, Relative value and Market Independent Strategies. Adil used geometry to invent the Bias Ratio, a metric that detects return smoothing by active managers.
Russell Investments
Cedric S. Fan, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager
B.S. (with distinction), Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A., Economics, New York University
Based in New York, Cedric Fan is the lead portfolio manager for Russell Investments’ hedge fund team. In this role, Cedric directly manages or oversees all multi-strategy and single-strategy hedge fund portfolios. Cedric also oversees the global hedge fund research team, which is composed of analysts in New York, Seattle, and London. The research team establishes and maintains ranks on all hedge fund products that are used in portfolios.
Prior to joining Russell Investments in 2004, Cedric worked at Bear Stearns in its risk management group. When he left Bear, he was serving as its first dedicated fixed income prime brokerage risk manager. Cedric began his career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
SECOR Asset Management
Philip DiDio, Portfolio Coordinator & Portfolio Manager
Philip DiDio is a Portfolio Coordinator and Portfolio Manager in SECOR’s hedge fund of funds manager selection team. Prior to SECOR, Phil was Director of Research at Summit Private Investments, a fund of hedge funds. Before that, Philip managed hedge fund research and was a portfolio manager for Oppenheimer & Co.’s proprietary fund-of-funds. Philip has additional related experience at FRM Americas, a $13 billion fund-of-funds company, where he headed a team responsible for finding, recommending and monitoring relative value managers. Philip spent the earlier part of his career as a convertible bond portfolio manager for General Motors Asset Management and a quantitative analyst with Merrill Lynch. He has authored a chapter for a hedge fund compendium published by Euromoney. Philip received a B.A. in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Silvercrest Asset Management
Michael Dubin, Managing Director
Michael Dubin, Managing Director, Silvercrest Asset Management, heads up the alternatives group within Silvercrest and has over 25 years of hedge fund experience. Silvercrest is a $20B wealth management firm managing private investor and institutional portfolios across all asset classes. The alternatives group advises on $2 billion in hedge fund-of-funds, customized portfolios and alternatives investment consulting. Previously, as a Partner at Powers & Dubin for over 15 years, he developed their expertise in hedge fund-of-funds. Prior to that, for nearly a decade in the 1980's, he served as President of both Morgan Stanley/GFTA and GFTA Services, which marketed sophisticated multi-billion dollar currency risk management systems for major institutions worldwide. Earlier, he headed up the International Financial Advisory Service at Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., advising the Treasurers of the Fortune 500 companies on currency risk management. He authored the book, Foreign Acquisitions and the Growth of the Multi-National Firm, and lectures frequently on alternative investments and financial markets issues at conferences and business schools. He has a Doctorate of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in International Finance and a BA from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He holds a Series 3 Registration with the NFA/CFTC. He was Chairman of the Endowment Committee of the Town School, where he was a Trustee and Treasurer for over a decade, and currently serves as a Director & Treasurer for both PlaNet Finance Corp., a non-profit NGO in global microfinance, and Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, a non-profit which helps inner-city residents achieve financial stability.
Brad Beatty is the Chief Investment Officer of Sirius Partners LP (“Sirius”), a privately held investment firm he joined in 2007. At Sirius, Mr. Beatty is responsible for developing and implementing the firm’s investment strategy across asset classes, including the firm’s main hedge fund portfolio.
Prior to joining Sirius, Mr. Beatty spent nine years as the Chief Investment Officer at JAB Partners, Ltd., a Chicago-based real estate development firm. Mr. Beatty also served as the founder and President of Hickory Crest Enterprises, LLC, where he led the acquisition and management of a consumer goods firm. Mr. Beatty began his career at Primedia Inc., a KKR-sponsored media firm located in New York City.
Mr. Beatty has a B.A., with Honors in History, from Northwestern University, a J.D. from Northwestern University, and an M.B.A., with honors from the University of Chicago. He is a licensed attorney in the state of Illinois and is also a CFA charter holder.
Brad Beatty, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
Sirius Partners
Steve Henderson joined Spider Management in 2013 as director of investments, and is involved in investment strategy, asset allocation, implementation, and due diligence. He has more than 25 years of investment experience, including his previous role as program director of fixed income with the more than $50 billion pension of the Virginia Retirement System (VRS). At VRS, Steve was responsible for all aspects of the fixed income program, and served on the management committee, setting asset allocation strategy, working with the board of trustees, and identifying new investment strategies. Prior to VRS, Steve was a portfolio manager at Mentor Investment Group and an investment analyst with Ryland Mortgage Company. Steve holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Richmond, a Master of Business Administration from George Washington University, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Steve Henderson, CFA, Director of Investments
Spider Management Company
Dominic Napolitano, Founder & Managing Member
Talson Partners
Dominic Napolitano is the founder and Managing Member of Talson Partners, LP. Prior to founding the Partnership, from 2001-2009, Mr. Napolitano was employed by Soros Fund Management, where he was instrumental in building and overseeing multibillion portfolios of hedge funds for the Quantum group of funds, and other Soros affiliate portfolios. In addition, during his tenure he designed the manager selection and due diligence monitoring processes. His work included reviewing thousands of investment managers from an investment, business, and operational perspective and extensive negotiation of terms, fees, and structures.
From 1998-2001, Mr. Napolitano managed discretionary funds at Graham Capital Management and prior to that, from 1992-1998, Mr. Napolitano was employed by Tudor Investment Corporation in the capacity of researching, trading and managing proprietary capital. It was at Tudor that Mr. Napolitano gained his knowledge of the underlying risks of the instruments employed by hedge funds. Prior to Tudor, Mr. Napolitano worked at Refco Securities covering, among other entities, large hedge funds and institutional clients. He began his career on the floor of the Commodities Exchange. Mr. Napolitano graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College and spent half of his junior year studying finance at Columbia University. Mr. Napolitano has over two decades of direct hedge fund experience in trading, investing and overseeing investment managers. His unique and extensive experience plays a pivotal role in Talson’s pursuit of sustainable, superior performance.
Since 2009, Colin Ambrose has been the Chief Investment Officer for UJA-Federation of New York where he is responsible for the day-to-day management and oversight of the institution’s endowment and retirement plans. Mr. Ambrose’s more than twenty years of investment experience include cofounding an asset management firm that advised and managed assets on behalf of institutional and high net worth clients and starting the investment office at The Juilliard School where he served as the school’s first Chief Investment Officer. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ambrose was responsible for alternative investments at Wesleyan University after having worked on both the buy and sell side. Mr. Ambrose serves as an Investment Committee member for the Westport Public Library in Connecticut where he resides with his wife and children. He earned a M.B.A. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a B.A. from Wesleyan University and holds a CFA designation.
Colin G. Ambrose, CFA, Chief Investment Officer
UJA - Federation of New York
United Technologies' Pension Plan
Jason Josephiac, CFA, Senior Investment Analyst
Jason Josephiac is a Senior Investment Analyst for the United Technologies’ Pension Plan. He is primarily responsible for global public equities, portable alpha/hedge funds and risk parity. Prior to joining United Technologies he was a Senior Associate at The Boston Company Asset Management, LLC where he held multiple roles in business development and client service. Jason graduated magna cum laude from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance as well as minors in Economics and International Studies. Jason was an Institutional Investor Rising Star award recipient in 2016, is a CFA charterholder and a CAIA charterholder.
Verger Capital Management
Jim Dunn, Chief Executive Officer & Chief Investment Officer
As Verger’s Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer, Jim oversees all investment decisions and is responsible for setting the course for the company, leading our corporate strategy and ensuring that Verger remains competitively positioned to serve our partners’ needs in an increasingly complex and volatile market environment.
Previously, Jim was Vice-President and Chief Investment Officer at Wake Forest University, responsible for investment of the University's endowment, working capital and life income assets of over $1.4 billion. Prior to joining Wake Forest, Jim served as Managing Director at Wilshire Associates Inc., and Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager for Wilshire Funds Management, the money management arm of Wilshire Associates. At Wilshire, Jim was responsible for providing leadership on asset allocation, investment policy and investment manager selection. Jim served as the Chairman of the Wilshire Funds Management Investment Committee and served as Portfolio Manager for all of Wilshire Fund Management’s alternative investment portfolios.
Jim holds a BBA in Finance from Villanova University, where he was a member of the NCAA Division I men’s varsity soccer team. He is married and the father of two boys. He currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Wells Fargo Global Alternative Investments, ASGI Agility Income Fund and the ASGI Corbin Multi-Strategy Fund, LLC. Jim also sits on the CAPTRUST Advisory Board, the North Carolina Investment Institute Editorial Committee, the CFA North Carolina Society’s Strategic Advisory Board, SEI Canada Independent Review Committee, Villanova President’s Advisory Council and serves as the Treasurer of James Denmark Loan Fund.
Other Industry Experts
Baker Tilly
John Basile, CPA, New York Financial Services Leader
John serves as the New York leader for Baker Tilly’s financial services practice where he represents alternative investment funds and their managers as well as broker- dealers and advisory firms. He also serves as a member of the firm’s Board of Partners where his responsibilities include setting overall strategy for the firm as well as management oversight.
John has over 30 years of diversified public accounting experience advising clients in many areas including U.S. GAAP reporting, SEC requirements and general business advisory matters. His industry specialties include investment managers and alternative investment funds, real estate and financing.
Specific experience
Oversees financial services industry strategy and business development in New York, one of the firm’s primary U.S. markets - Extensive experience working with the registered investment advisors (RIAs), investment vehicles including fund of funds, public and private funds, alternative asset funds, investment management companies and regulated broker-dealers - Over 30 years of diversified public accounting experience, advising companies in many areas including U.S. GAAP reporting, SEC requirements and general business advisory matters - Represents both public and privately held companies and well-versed in many industry sectors, including real estate, technology, software development and sales, service companies and equipment leasing
Industry involvement
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) - New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) - Managed Funds Association (MFA) - Risk Management Association (RMA) - Hedge Fund Association (HFA) - Management Committee, New York Hedge Fund Roundtable (HFR) - Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) - SEC Practice Committee, NYSSCPA - Instructor, Becker CPA review course - Lecturer, numerous AICPA and NYSSCPA sponsored events - Board of Directors, POPPA, Inc.
Education
Wagner College, Bachelor of Science, Accounting
Stephen has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry with the last 15 years focusing on technology for family offices, wealth advisory firms, and accounting firms. Stephen joined Backstop Solutions Group through its acquisition of Cogency Software, now Backstop Accounting, in 2015. Stephen manages the East Region for Backstop as well as representing Backstop Accounting nationwide.
Prior to joining Cogency / Backstop, Stephen was the Senior Director of Sales at Private Client Resources, a technology firm specialized in data aggregation and custom reporting. Stephen was also Senior Managing Director at Foundation Source, a provider of cloud technology, administrative, compliance and philanthropic consulting services for private charitable foundations. Stephen co-founded the Boston Philanthropic Advisors Roundtable and was also the National Sales Manager for Proprietary Equity Products at Northstar Distributors.
Stephen and his family live in the Hudson Valley in New York where they enjoy hiking, fly fishing, swimming, sailing and golf.
Stephen Vondrak, Vice President, Institutional Sales
Backstop Solutions Group
CAIA Association
Bill Kelly, Chief Executive Officer
William (Bill) J. Kelly, CEO of the CAIA Association, is an asset management industry veteran with extensive managerial and boardroom experience gained through successive CFO, COO, CEO and independent board director roles. He has led both start-ups and full scale global organizations. Mr. Kelly is the former CEO of Robeco Investment Management, a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based global asset management organization with over $200 billion of assets under management, where he oversaw all aspects of United States business, including portfolio management, distribution and product development. He also was responsible for the strategic growth, introduction, and positioning of new managed products in the US and Europe, including alternative investments.
Kelly was a founder and former CEO of Boston Partners Asset Management, a self-funded partnership enterprise, which became one of the industry’s largest and most successful start-up money management organizations. Previous to that, he served as CFO of The Boston Company Asset Management and earlier in his career held various positions at Bear Stearns and was an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Harneys
Oliver Bell, Partner
Oliver Bell is a Partner in Harneys’ investment funds and regulatory team in the British Virgin Islands. Oliver is a recognised leader in pre-formation strategy, organisational structure, regulatory compliance, document preparation and transactional activities for both private equity and hedge funds. Oliver has been actively involved in a number of recent BVI legislative developments, including the drafting of the new Limited Partnership Act and recent changes to the BVI Business Companies Act. He is routinely sought out by the public sector for guidance on the funds industry, and speaks regularly on the topic at industry events. He is a contributor to the Offshore Funds Blog, a Harneys blog dedicated to explaining how offshore funds work and why investment managers use them.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd
Robert Rothman, Partner
Robert Rothman has extensive experience litigating cases involving investment fraud, consumer fraud and antitrust violations. He also lectures to institutional investors throughout the world.
Robert Rothman is a partner in Robbins Geller’s Melville office. He has extensive experience litigating cases involving investment fraud, consumer fraud and antitrust violations. Rothman also lectures to institutional investors throughout the world.
Rothman has served as lead counsel on behalf of consumers and investors in numerous class actions where he has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars, including cases against First Bancorp ($74.25 million recovery), CVS ($48 million recovery), Popular, Inc. ($37.5 million recovery), and iStar Financial, Inc. ($29 million recovery). He actively represents shareholders in connection with going-private transactions and tender offers. For example, in connection with a tender offer made by Citigroup, Rothman secured an increase of more than $38 million over what was originally offered to shareholders. He also actively litigates consumer fraud cases, including a case alleging false advertising where the defendant agreed to a settlement valued in excess of $67 million.
In one securities matter that Rothman litigated, the court took the time, in upholding plaintiffs’ complaint, to compliment the quality of the legal representation: “I’ve thought about the arguments and the briefs. Let me commend the lawyers. It was well argued on both sides, and well written briefs, and it’s a pleasure to have lawyering of this caliber in the courthouse.” In re Orion Sec. Litig., No. 08-cv-1328 (RJS), Transcript at 32 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19, 2009). In another matter that Rothman and the Firm litigated as lead counsel, the court noted: “Counsel, as I stated earlier, are competent, zealous and experienced. In fact, competent is an understatement. Counsel are experts, experienced and zealous . . . .” Winward Builders LLC v. Delos Ins. Grp., No. 15214/2009, Transcript at 13 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Nassau Cty. May 4, 2011).
Rothman earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He then earned his Juris Doctor degree, with Distinction, from Hofstra University School of Law. During law school, Rothman was a member of the law review and was awarded the Dean’s Academic Scholarship for completing his first year in the top one percent of his class. Prior to joining the Firm, he practiced commercial litigation with an international law firm.
Sadis & Goldberg
Ron Geffner, Partner
Ron S. Geffner is a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and also oversees the Financial Services Group. He regularly structures, organizes and counsels private investment vehicles, investment advisory organizations, broker-dealers, commodity pool operators and other investment fiduciaries. Mr. Geffner also routinely counsels clients in connection with regulatory investigations and actions. His broad background with federal and state securities laws and the rules, regulations and customary practices of the SEC, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Commodities Futures Trading Commission and various other regulatory bodies enables him to provide strategic guidance to a diverse clientele. He provides legal services to hundreds of hedge funds, private equity funds and venture capital funds organized in the United States and offshore.
Mr. Geffner began his legal career with the SEC, where he investigated and prosecuted violations of the federal securities laws with an emphasis on enforcement in connection with violations of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Investment Company Act of 1940. He also assisted federal and state criminal agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Attorney General’s Office, in their investigations of possible criminal violations of federal and state securities laws.
Prior to joining Sadis & Goldberg, Mr. Geffner was associated with two other New York City-based law firms, where he represented domestic and offshore private investment vehicles, as well as broker-dealers, registered investment advisers and registered investment companies.
He began his corporate legal career as in-house counsel to the Investment Management Industry Services Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He provided legal advice regarding investment advisers, registered investment companies and broker-dealers.
Mr. Geffner is often interviewed as a legal expert in the securities industry. He has been interviewed on Fox News, CBS Morning Show, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Squawk Box, Power Lunch and Closing Bell on CNBC, British Broadcasting Channel and Bloomberg Radio. He is regularly quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Barron’s, Barron’s Online, Reuters, Dow Jones, Financial Times, New York Newsday, London Daily News, TheStreet.com, Private Equity Week and other national and international publications.