MFA Forum 2023 - Speakers
June 20, 2023
Conference
Chicago, IL
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Ryan Abrams
Managing Director, Return-Seeking Investments, Constellation Energy Pension
Ryan Abrams is Senior Portfolio Manager at Exelon Corporation. In this role, he supports developing investment strategy and asset allocation for Exelon’s various investment trusts. He is also responsible for sourcing, implementing, and monitoring all of Exelon’s public equity investments, as well as investments with hedge funds and other uncorrelated strategies. His areas of interest include alpha-beta separation, portable alpha, risk parity, risk-based asset allocation, and overlay strategies. He earned his Master of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations.
Diana Amoa
Chief Investment Officer, Long Biased Strategies, Kirkoswald Asset Management
Diana Amoa is the CIO of Long Biased Strategies at Kirkoswald, based in New York. Prior to this role, Diana was a managing director and senior portfolio manager at JPMorgan Asset Management co managing in excess of USD 10 bn in global fixed income and currency strategies Diana has also previously held EM fixed income and FX trading roles at UBS, Société Générale and Standard Chartered Bank.
Diana holds an MSc and MBA from the University of Oxford, where she attended as a Rhodes Scholar She also holds a BSc in finance and banking from the University of Reading and is a CFA charter holder.
Catherine Beard
Senior Vice President, Alternatives Consulting
Callan LLC
Thomas Benevento
Head of Product for RiskSmart X, TS Imagine
Thomas Benevento is the Head of Product for RiskSmart X at TS Imagine. He has two decades of experience in prime brokerage and financial technology and brings a deep understanding of the complex and ever-evolving financial derivatives markets to his role.
He spent over 10 years at Deutsche Bank, where he led cash and synthetic client management teams that serviced some of the most sophisticated and complex hedge funds in the world. In addition, Thomas has nearly a decade of experience in financial technology, leading global product management and sales teams servicing prime brokerage firms. In his current role, Thomas focuses on accelerating the growth and development of TS Imagine’s cross-asset class, real-time risk platform, RiskSmart X.
Thomas graduated from the University of Richmond where he earned a BSBA in Finance.
Savina Boyadjieva
Head of Investor Relations, Viking Global Investors
Savina Boyadjieva is Head of Investor Relations. Savina joined Viking in 2011 and was an investor relations professional before she obtained her current position in 2017. Prior to Viking, she was a Management Consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. Savina received an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in political science, summa cum laude, from Yale University.
Jan-Paul Bruynes
Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
JP Bruynes works with a range of professionals in the private investment space, focusing on the formation and operation of quantitative investment managers and funds. He actively participates in structuring, negotiating and documenting fund formation, seed capital and other transactions. He also advises hedge fund managers, investment advisers, commodity trading advisors (CTAs), commodity pool operators (CPOs) and third-party marketers with regulatory compliance, including responses to SEC, CFTC, NFA and exchange audits and investigations.
JP advises clients with respect to a broad variety of investing activity, including:
- Securities
- Commodities
- Futures contracts
- Options
- Swap transactions
- Cryptocurrencies.
JP brings over 25 years of experience representing leading quantitative fund managers in a practice that, in multiple industry surveys, is consistently hailed as a leader. With a team of over 100 lawyers, the practice is distinguished by the resources that it dedicates to representing quantitative fund managers, the high-profile nature of its engagements and the number of industry-leading managers that it represents.
JP is involved in community, civic and charitable activities that include membership in the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) working group, the Managed Funds Association CTA/CPO forum and the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association. He is also a former member of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on Futures and Derivatives Regulation and its CPO/CTA subcommittee.
John Butler
Partner & Head of Macro Research, Wellington Management
John Butler leads the firm’s research and strategy effort for the macro investment platform. John focuses his research understanding the structural and cyclical themes impacting the global economy and financial markets. In addition, he provides local expertise in the macroeconomic forecasting within the euro area and United Kingdom. In this role, he helps to translate key macro data into investable ideas and themes, working closely with investors around the firm. Prior to joining Wellington, John was the Chief UK Economist at HSBC and prior to that was a Senior Economist at the Bank of England working under Mervyn King.
Jennifer Cafarella
Director of Strategic Initiatives & National Security Fellow, Institute for the Study of War
Jennifer Cafarella is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Ms. Cafarella works closely with ISW’s President, Board of Directors, and other senior leaders to envision, scope, and develop new programs supporting long-term growth of the Institute. Ms. Cafarella is also an ISW National Security Fellow and leads the Institute’s Geopolitical Risk Analysis practice, which builds upon the foundational work of ISW’s open-source analysis on ongoing and potential conflicts in Ukraine, Russia, China, and the Middle East. She regularly advises senior military leaders as well as policymakers on the threats the US and its allies face. She also briefs financial services companies and investors regarding global risk and geopolitical forecasts.
Ms. Cafarella’s work has been recognized by numerous other institutions including through fellowships at the George Mason University’s National Security Institute as well as the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College in London. Ms Cafarella was recently selected for the Middle East Policy Council’s “40 under 40” award in 2023. Ms. Cafarella is an internationally recognized expert on the conflict in Syria and al Qaeda and has testified at Congressional hearings on these challenges.
Ms. Cafarella regularly appears in broadcast media and has made live appearances on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and other major networks. She frequently speaks at major international conferences in the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Ms. Cafarella has authored numerous papers including “Russia’s Dead-End Diplomacy in Syria” and “Confronting the Russian Challenge: A New Approach for the U.S.” Her written work has been featured across major media outlets including Foreign Affairs Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and others.
Ms. Cafarella previously served as ISW’s Chief of Staff from 2021-2022 after 6 years in ISW’s Research Department including as Research Director. As the Chief of Staff, Ms. Cafarella led ISW through a period of transformational change that included asymmetric growth and the launch of multiple new programs. She is a graduate of ISW’s Hertog War Studies Program and was the Institute’s first Evans Hanson Fellow, which sponsors outstanding alumni of the War Studies Program and seeks to help build the next generation of national security leaders.
Pablo E. Calderini
President and Chief Investment Officer, Graham Capital
Pablo E. Calderini is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Graham Capital Management, L.P. (“GCM”), an alternative investment firm with approximately $17 billion in AUM as of August 1, 2021. Mr. Calderini is responsible for the management and oversight of the discretionary and systematic trading businesses at GCM, among other things. Mr. Calderini is also a member of the firm’s Executive, Investment, Risk and Compliance committees. He joined GCM in August 2010 and became an Associated Person and Principal of GCM effective August 13, 2010. Prior to joining GCM, Mr. Calderini worked at Deutsche Bank from June 1997 to July 2010 where he held positions of increasing responsibility, most recently the Global Head of Equity Proprietary Trading. Mr. Calderini commenced his career at Deutsche Bank as Global Head of Emerging Markets. During his tenure at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Calderini also helped manage several groups across the fixed income and equity platforms, including the Global Credit Derivatives Team. Mr. Calderini received a B.A. in Economics from Universidad Nacional de Rosario in 1987 and a Masters in Economics from Universidad del CEMA in 1989, each in Argentina.
Bryan Corbett
President and Chief Executive Officer
MFA
Bryan Corbett is MFA’s President and CEO. He is a veteran of Washington and Wall Street. For the past 12 years, he was a senior executive at The Carlyle Group, most recently as Managing Director in the Corporate Private Equity segment and Head of the firm’s OneCarlyle Global Investment Resources Group. In this role, Mr. Corbett and his team provided strategic and operational support to investment teams and portfolio companies across segments.
For the first half of his Carlyle tenure, Mr. Corbett managed U.S. government and regulatory issues affecting Carlyle, its investments and the industry. In this role, he developed legislative and regulatory strategies relating to all of Carlyle’s business segments, including private equity, credit and real estate. In addition to serving on the boards of several Carlyle portfolio companies, Mr. Corbett started the firm’s global corporate citizenship program focused on responsible investing, published Carlyle’s inaugural corporate citizenship report, and started the firm’s initiative to recruit and place diverse individuals on portfolio company boards in the U.S.
Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. Corbett served in the George W. Bush Administration as a Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and as the Senior Advisor to Deputy Secretary Robert Kimmitt at the Treasury Department. He also served as Majority Counsel on the Senate Banking Committee.
Mr. Corbett earned his JD from George Washington University Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the George Washington Law Review, and earned his BA from University of Notre Dame.
Sean Cumiskey
Partner & Co-Chief Operating Officer, Yiheng Capital Management LP
Sean is a Partner and Co-Chief Operating Officer for Yiheng Capital, a China-focused alternative investment firm with offices in San Francisco, Beijing and Hong Kong. Yiheng was founded in 2008 and manages assets on behalf of a select group of investors that include university endowments, family offices, private foundations and pension plans in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America. Sean is a member of Yiheng’s Operating Committee and oversees business and product strategy, investor relations as well as certain legal and operational functions.
Sean has over 20 years of global alternative investing experience. Prior to joining Yiheng, Sean was a Director at Farallon Capital Management, a global multi-strategy investment firm. Previous to Farallon, Sean worked as a Managing Director at York Capital Management, and was a member of the Investment and Executive Committees at Ivy Asset Management where he helped oversee $16 billion of hedge fund investments.
Sean received a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
David Deddouche
Macro Strategist, Alpstone Capital
David has over 24 years of industry experience in financial markets, specialised in Macro research and trading. He started his career at the International Monetary Fund in Washington as an Economist in the emerging markets research division. Then, to be closer to financial markets, he moved to Société Générale as a Derivative structurer, focused on designing thematic macro products for investors linked to current opportunities. He was then hired by SAC Capital as a Macro Strategist where he worked alongside the portfolio managers/traders running the internal macro book. He then returned to Société Générale in the FICC proprietary trading team, before taking charge of FX Global Macro Strategy covering G10 FX markets, working with external investors including central banks, asset managers and hedge funds. Prior to joining Alpstone in 2019 as a Macro Strategist, David ran his own Macro portfolio. David has a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Applied Economics (1995) and a Master’s degree in International Financial Markets (1997) from Paris Dauphine University
Peter van Dooijeweert
Managing Director, Head of Multi-Asset Solutions, Man Group
Peter van Dooijeweert is Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Man Solutions. Peter is responsible for assisting clients develop bespoke, actively managed investment programmes and also manages Man Group’s institutional hedging platform. Peter specialises in designing risk mitigating portfolios through the use of futures and options overlays, combined with diversifying Man Group discretionary and systematic strategies.
Prior to joining Man Group in June 2018, Peter was a portfolio manager at Paloma Partners between 2013 and 2017, where he was responsible for managing a global volatility portfolio and a multi-asset tail hedge protection plan. He started his career with Goldman Sachs in Tokyo in 1995 before moving on to Soros as a volatility portfolio manager. Subsequently, he launched and managed a volatility hedge fund seeded by Tudor Investment.
Peter holds a degree in accountancy from Wake Forest University and also studied at Tokai University in Japan.
Daniel Ehrmann
Partner, Head of Restructuring, King Street Capital Management
Daniel Ehrmann is a Partner and Head of Restructuring. He is a member of the Management Committee.
Prior to joining King Street in 2015, Daniel was a Partner in the restructuring practice at Alvarez & Marsal. Prior to Alvarez & Marsal, Daniel held Associate positions in the M&A practices of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton as well as at Salès Vincent & Associés.
Daniel received a L.L.M. in Corporation Law from New York University School of Law, a post graduate degree in Business and Economic Law (DEA en droit des Affaires et Droit Economique) from Sorbonne Paris I University, and a Masters in Commercial Law (Maitrise en Droit des Affaires et Droit Fiscal des Societes, J.D. equivalent) in Business Law from Assas Paris II University.
Saul Farber
Director, Prime Brokerage Sales and Origination, Citi
Saul joined Citi in 2021 as a Director of Prime Sales and Origination. Prior to joining Citi, Saul served as Senior Director of Client Development & Sales at CME Group. As a member of the Prime sales team, Saul is responsible for introducing Citi offerings, generating new client leads and closing new mandates across Prime, Futures, OTC Clearing and FXPB.
Saul earned a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in political science and history at New York University and earned a Juris Doctorate degree at New York Law School. He is a licensed attorney in New York and New Jersey.
Saul is an avid sports fan, loves to travel and fish. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Carly and two kids, Benjamin (7) and Elle (4).
Tracy Fong
Partner and Head of Venture Capital/Crypto Investment Due Diligence, Albourne Partners
Tracy Fong is an alternative investment professional with over 24 years of experience across startups, public technology companies, investment banking, alternatives endowment management, fixed income and foreign exchange, and strategic equities management. She has a passion for global, complex and emergent investment opportunities, e.g. international startup investments in 2004, emerging markets debt in 2008, healthcare structured investments in 2015, SaaS revenue-based loans and marketplace lending in 2016, technology company SPACs in 2017, and crypto assets in ~2014-2017.
With ~23 years of experience across Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0, Ms. Tracy Fong is a Partner and Private Markets Investment Due Diligence Analyst at Albourne Partners, a leading investment consulting firm that advises on over $650bn of alternative assets to over 300 institutional clients. She leads the Firm’s global Venture Capital coverage (including crypto/blockchain) and previously served as the co-chair of the Private Markets Investment Committee. Ms. Fong was previously a Managing Director at SVB Capital’s $4bn+ VC fund-of-funds and direct VC fund. Ms. Fong also spent four years at the Harvard University endowment, Harvard Management Company, where she was Vice President of Alternative Assets and worked on HMC’s $20bn+ alternatives portfolio construction, investment manager selection, and direct natural resources transactions (including timber and agriculture). Her Venture Capital experience included allocations to prominent access-constrained firms and strategic transactions resulting from the IPOs of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to business school, she also worked at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) on the Corporate Finance and Treasury Team during the Web 2.0 era, where her group managed Yahoo!’s $4bn+ fixed income portfolio; worked on structured transactions; and helped manage 30 acquisitions, including the landmark joint venture with Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). Ms. Fong has also worked in Investment Banking at Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. During the first technology boom, Ms. Fong began her career at two startup companies, Webvan Group (NASDAQ: WBVN) and Varsitybooks.com. Webvan, a Sequoia and Benchmark-backed company, was one of the first online grocery delivery services, was called by CNET one of the most well-known companies of the dot-com / Web 1.0 era.
Ms. Fong received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley (honors recognition) and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. In her spare time, Ms. Fong enjoys adventurous international travel (~60 countries), immersive art projects, listening to podcasts, and scuba diving.
Joel Hinkhouse
Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Joel Hinkhouse is a Director of External Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), a $150 billion pension system serving 1.5 million active and retired educators and their families. Mr. Hinkhouse currently directs the management of the Trust’s $23 Billion external equity portfolio; he previously managed much of the Trust’s $12 billion hedge fund portfolios. Joel is also currently leading TRS’s efforts in leading the Trust’s evaluation of potential on-the-ground presence in Asia. Prior to TRS, Mr. Hinkhouse served in a similar role at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in Chicago, where he co-managed the fixed income portfolio and a $1+ billion hedge fund portfolio and a $500 million private distressed portfolio. He has also worked for two hedge fund firms in Chicago in various roles ranging from risk management to creation of new fund offerings. Joel began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a technology consultant focused on trading systems for energy companies. Mr. Hinkhouse earned an MBA with High Honors from the University of Chicago, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
Peter Kraus
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Aperture Investors
Peter Kraus is the Chairman and CEO of Aperture Investors. For over four decades, Peter has worked at major financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and most recently at AllianceBernstein (AB) where he served as Chairman and CEO, successfully leading the firm’s turnaround after the crisis in 2008. Throughout his career, Peter has been a vocal proponent of pay-for-performance compensation models and the need for trust between active managers and their clients.
After years of watching diminishing returns and increasing outflows, he concluded that a disruptive idea like performance-linked fees would only be successful in an entirely new firm, one built from scratch with client performance as its primary objective. That’s why Peter teamed up with Generali to launch Aperture in 2018.
Peter serves on the boards of multiple organizations including CalArts and the Capital Markets Institute of Third Way, and is the co-founder of The Kraus Family Foundation, a non-profit that supports public art and emerging artists. He is also the Chairman of Marstone, a leading independent digital wealth management platform. Peter received his B.A. in economics from Trinity College and his M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business. He and his wife Jill are avid collectors of contemporary art and enjoy spending time at their home in Dutchess County where they commission outdoor artwork.
Paul Kreiselmaier
Director, Hedge Funds, Verus Investments
Mr. Kreiselmaier has over 20 years of investment experience in various roles in both manager due diligence, portfolio management, and quantitative research. At Verus, he is primarily responsible for investment strategy, due diligence, portfolio construction recommendations and relationship building across the hedge fund universe.
Prior to joining Verus, he was a senior research analyst at Russell Investments where he was responsible for evaluating, recommending and monitoring hedge funds for inclusion in client portfolios. He began his career at Russell evaluating US large cap equity and Global Tactical Asset Allocation (GTAA) managers. He also worked at Mellon Capital Management where he was responsible for both research and portfolio management related roles focused on both equity and GTAA mandates.
Mr. Kreiselmaier graduated from Trinity University with a bachelor of arts (BA) degree in economics. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a CFA charter holder (Chartered Financial Analyst) and a member of both the CFA Institute and the CFA Society of Seattle. Mr. Kreiselmaier is also a member of the Chicago Quantitative Alliance.
Jason Josephiac
Senior Vice President, Research Consultant, Meketa Investment Group
Mr. Josephiac joined Meketa Investment Group in 2021 and has formally been in the investment industry since 2008. A Senior Vice President of the firm, Mr. Josephiac serves as a Research Consultant in Meketa’s Marketable Alternatives practice covering multiple types of strategies such as beta-neutral, long volatility and uncorrelated/niche opportunities. His work includes investment due diligence, portfolio construction, asset allocation and oversight of client portfolios.
Prior to joining the firm, he was responsible for managing United (Raytheon) Technologies’ portable alpha/hedge fund program as well as covering global equities, risk parity and multi-asset/strategic partnership portfolios. Prior to that, he held multiple roles at The Boston Company Asset Management as part of the business development and client service teams.
Mr. Josephiac graduated magna cum laude from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance and minors in Economics and International Studies. He is a CFA and CAIA charterholder as well as a member of the CFA Hartford Society. He is a member of the Bentley University endowment investment committee and a member of the Ellington Community Scholarship Association.
Cameron Joyce
Senior Vice President, Head of Private Equity, Research Insights, Preqin
Cameron Joyce has 10 years of experience in the investment industry and is currently part of Preqin’s Research Insights team based in London. He previously worked on the international equity desk of one of the largest pension funds in Latin America where he managed a $5bn allocation to Emerging Market equities in Asia. Cameron later went on to work for a Vietnam based investment bank, writing investment research for global institutional clients. Cameron is also a CFA Charterholder and an Economics graduate from the University of Manchester.
Colman Madden
Head of Customer Engineering, Hedge Funds, Google Cloud
Colman Madden is the Head of Customer Engineering for Hedge Funds at Google Cloud where he had worked for 5+ years. He leads an engineering team of specialists in various technologies including Data Engineering, AI/ML, Security, Infrastructure etc. His team collaborates with quantitative hedge funds and market makers to help them build scale out research platforms on Google Cloud.
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Anthony Novara
Partner, Research Director – Marketable Alternatives & Capital Markets, Fiducient Advisors
Anthony joined Fiducient Advisors in 2011. Anthony directs the firm’s Marketable Alternatives research effort and chairs the firm’s Capital Markets Team. He is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee, Discretionary Committee, Research Forum and Marketable Alternatives Research Team.
Prior to joining the firm, Anthony held various roles at National City, Conversus Asset Management and William Blair & Company. Anthony received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Analytic Finance, Economics & Entrepreneurship and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He is a CFA® charterholder and member of the CFA Society Chicago and CFA Institute. Anthony is actively involved with YearUp, a nonprofit providing urban young adults with the skills, experience and support to pursue professional careers and higher education. He is also on the Advisory Board for the Michigan State University Financial Markets Institute and serves as Midwest Regional Director of the Hedge Fund Association. In his free time, Anthony enjoys playing guitar, golf, running after his two young sons and all things Michigan State Spartans.
Andrew Palmer
Chief Investment Officer, Maryland State Retirement and Pension System
Andrew Palmer, CFA is the Chief Investment Officer for the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System. In this role, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the System’s investment division and has overall responsibility for the System’s investment program.
Previously he was the Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Director of Fixed Income for the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. In addition to his role as Director of Fixed Income, he led the construction of a Strategic Lending Portfolio, was a member of the Private Equity and Real Estate Committees and shared in the responsibility for tactical asset allocation and new product development. He began his career at ASB Capital Management, a Bethesda, Maryland based institutional advisory firm.
Mr. Palmer is a member of the University of Maryland, Economics Leadership Council, and the ILPA, has been active in the CFA program and was President of the Washington Association of Money Managers. He received a BA and an MA in Economics from the University of Maryland.
Jeff Park
Head of Alpha Strategies and Portfolio Manager, Bitwise Asset Management
Jeff Park is an Active Portfolio Manager at Bitwise Asset Management. Prior to Bitwise, he was a Partner at Corbin Capital Partners, an alternative asset management firm that specializes in multi-strategy hedge fund and opportunistic credit investing, where he spearheaded the firm’s digital asset investments. Before Corbin, Jeff focused on US credit investing for the internally-managed portfolios at Harvard Management Company, and before that, was an Exotic Equity Derivatives trader at Morgan Stanley in New York. He is a graduate of Stanford University with a B.A. in Economics and International Relations, and is a CFA charterholder since 2013.
Darrel Pfeifauf
Vice President, Hedge Funds & Risk, Advocate Aurora Health
Darrel Pfeifauf serves as Vice President of Hedge Funds and Risk for Advocate Health, a mission-driven non-profit healthcare system headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. In this role he is responsible for the design and management of the Hedge Fund portfolio. Additionally, Mr. Pfeifauf is responsible for developing, maintaining, and applying the Risk Management framework across the Advocate Health investment program. Prior to joining Advocate in 2021, he served as a Portfolio Manager for Mercer Investment Management as well as had responsibility to extension of staff engagements with Not-for-Profit institutions. Mr. Pfeifauf began his career as a Trader for Bridgewater Associates and then moved to an allocator role with the Washington University Investment Management Company. Mr. Pfeifauf holds a BSBA in Finance and Economics from the University of Tulsa and an MBA from Washington University. He currently serves as a Board Director for both The Missouri Foundation for Health and Build Missouri Health.
Jay Ramakrishnan
Managing Director, Head of Originations, AB Private Credit Investors
Jay Ramakrishnan joined AB in 2014 and is a founding member, Head of Originations, and a member of the investment committee of AB Private Credit Investors. In addition, she is responsible for business initiatives such as technology-focused growth capital solutions, oversees investments in the healthcare/HCIT sectors, and covers select East Coast financial sponsors with an emphasis on technology, healthcare and business services. Previously, Ramakrishnan was a managing director with Barclays Private Credit Partners, and as a founding member of the business was involved in various aspects of business launch, transaction sourcing and execution. Prior to joining Barclays, she was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, in the Specialty Lending Group in New York, and in London, where she oversaw a European leveraged-loan portfolio and managed restructurings. Before that, Ramakrishnan was in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Bear Stearns, and she started her career as an associate consultant for Bain & Company. She holds a BA (Hons) in economics from the University of Cambridge, England, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Location: New York.
Nora Richardson
Vice President, Membership & Investor Services, MFA
Jackie Rosner
Managing Director, PAAMCO Prisma
Jackie Rosner joined the firm in 2013 and is a Managing Director and a member of the Portfolio Management team, with a specific focus on global macro, relative value, managed futures, and quantitative strategies. Prior to joining, Mr. Rosner was a Managing Director, head of global macro and systematic trading strategies, and a member of the executive committee at Union Bancaire Privee Asset Management in New York. Prior to UBP, Mr. Rosner was a proprietary trader at BNP Paribas in New York. Mr. Rosner has also been a portfolio manager at both Archeus Capital Management and Millennium Partners, and was a founding member of a proprietary trading desk in the fixed income department of Chase Manhattan Bank/J.P. Morgan. Mr. Rosner began his career at Salomon Brothers (Citibank) where he held various positions of increasing responsibility primarily focused on quant, trading, and fixed income strategies. Mr. Rosner is on the advisory board for the MIT Sloan Department of Finance, volunteers as a master’s thesis supervisor at the Department of Mathematics at NYU Courant, and has guest lectured at Columbia University’s Department of Financial Engineering. Mr. Rosner holds a B.S. in Economics, a B.S. in Management Science, and an M.Sc in Management from the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He also holds an M.Sc in Mathematical Finance from New York University and completed the following Charters: CFA, CAIA, CMT, and FRM.
Matthew Rutherford
Principal, Bracebridge Capital, LLC
Matthew Rutherford is a principal at Bracebridge Capital focused on both the firm’s developed market rates and financials portfolios. Bracebridge is a Boston-based hedge fund manager with approximately $12 billion under management. For over 25 years, the firm has focused on generating returns that are largely uncorrelated with broad moves in equities, currencies, and rates. In his capacity as a portfolio manager, Mr. Rutherford evaluates opportunities across developed market interest rate cash instruments and related derivatives. Additionally, he evaluates capital structure relative value opportunities in the financial institutions sector. Mr. Rutherford is also instrumental in assessing the investment impact of financial regulation and monetary policy in global developed markets. Prior to joining Bracebridge Capital in 2015, Mr. Rutherford served for over five years as Acting Under Secretary for Domestic Finance as well as Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He has also held roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and served as a Presidential Management Fellow. Mr. Rutherford received his Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago and his A.B. in Economics from Lafayette College.
David Ross
Senior Managing Director & Head of Capital Markets Group, OPTrust
David Ross, Managing Director of the Capital Markets Group (CMG) at OPTrust, has close to 25 years of experience within financial markets. David is responsible for overseeing OPTrust’s public market investment strategies, executed both internally and externally. Strategies are deployed across three value add portfolios, namely multi-strategy, credit and emerging markets equities. Prior to his current role, David was the Senior Director of the FX & Fundamental Macro Strategies desk within CMG.
Before joining OPTrust in October 2016, David spent 10 years at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in Toronto. He served 8 of those years as a Portfolio Manager, pursuing discretionary Global Macro value-added strategies on the Global Opportunities desk and most recently as co-head of the Emerging Markets Fixed Income & FX desk within the FICC group. Prior to OTPP, David focused on emerging markets investment strategies and risk in roles based in London, New York and Toronto. David has a B.A., Economics from the University of Western Ontario and an M.A., Economics from the University of Toronto. David has been a CFA Charterholder since 2006.
Reginald G. Sanders
Managing Director, Absolute Return & Fixed Income, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Reginald G. Sanders, CFA, CAIA is Managing Director of Absolute Return & Fixed Income for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, reporting to the Chief Investment Officer. Mr. Sanders also leads the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s diverse manager strategy and also sits on the Foundation’s Impact Investment Committee.
Prior to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Mr. Sanders was Manager of Pension Investments for Eastman Kodak Company, where he was primarily responsible for managing the alternative asset classes, which included the hedge fund and illiquid investment programs, for the company’s U.S., U.K., and Canadian pension plans. Prior to Eastman Kodak, Mr. Sanders was an equity research analyst for AEW Capital Management. Mr. Sanders also has prior equity research analyst experience with both T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and GW&K Investment Management. Additionally, Mr. Sanders was a utilities industry analyst for A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.
Mr. Sanders holds a BS degree from Florida A&M University, where he was an SEO Career Program intern, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Robert A. Toigo Fellow. Mr. Sanders currently sits on the State of Michigan Investment Board and on the Investment Advisory Committee of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Mr. Sanders also sits on the board of Rock the Street, Wall Street, serves on the Limited Partner Advisory Council for SEO, is a founding steering committee member of IADEI (Institutional Allocators for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), and serves on the CFA Institute’s D&I Steering Committee.
Leonora M. Shalet
Partner, Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP
Leonora M. Shalet focuses her practice on advising investment funds and investment advisers in connection with fund structuring, formation, and ongoing operational needs, as well as on general securities laws and regulator and compliance issues. She has extensive experience in investment management matters, specifically related to U.S. and offshore credit funds, private equity funds, growth equity funds, hedge funds, perpetual funds, hybrid funds, funds-of-funds and managed accounts. Leonora is admitted to practice in New York, and England and Wales.
Speaking Engagements
- “Fund Insights – Co-Investments, Secondaries and Fund Restructuring,” SRZ 32nd Annual Private Investment Funds Seminar, January 2023
- “Roadmap to Europe: Addressing Marketing Rules,” SRZ Webinar, December 2022
- “Co-Investments Today: Structures,
Chaney Sheffield
Investment Partner, Canyon Partners
Chaney Sheffield is an Investment Partner at Canyon. Mr. Sheffield joined Canyon in 2008 and primarily oversees a team that focuses on the packaging, leisure, lodging, gaming, and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining Canyon, Mr. Sheffield worked at Morgan Stanley, first as an investment banker and then as an investor in distressed and special situation securities across the capital structure. Mr. Sheffield graduated from Harvard University (B.A., Economics).
Tessie Shih
Director, Capital Fund Management
Tess Shih leads regional market coverage and delivers quantitative investment solutions across equities, fixed income, commodities, currencies, and derivatives to institutional investors, consultants, and families. Prior to joining Capital Fund Management in 2017, she spent almost a decade at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. in Asset Management and in Corporate Strategy. Tess currently chairs the Alternative Investment Management Association Research Committee and has been recognized as a “Hedge Fund Rising Star” by Institutional Investor and one of “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” by Ernst & Young. Tess graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California and she obtained her MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Alissa Shipper
Managing Director, Public Markets, Bayshore Global Management
Alissa Shipper is Director of Public Securities at Bayshore Global Management. In this role, she is in charge of portfolio investment strategy and implementation for hedge funds, public equities and fixed income. Previously, Alissa was an Investment Director at Fidelity Family Office, where she advised family offices on overall portfolio asset allocation and strategies across asset types. Before that, Alissa was Director of Public Markets at CM Capital, a family office in Palo Alto where she invested in hedge funds and public equity managers. Alissa began her career in fixed income capital markets at Bear Stearns and as an analyst at Arbor Partners, an equity long/short hedge fund. Alissa has an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in Operations Research from Columbia University.
Justin W. Slatky
Chief Investment Officer, Shenkman Capital Management, Inc.
Justin W. Slatky joined Shenkman Capital in 2011. He has 23 years of investing experience in high yield and distressed securities. Prior to joining Shenkman Capital, Mr. Slatky was Co-Head and Managing Director of the Distressed Bond business in New York and London for Goldman Sachs. He was also a member of the Credit Investment Committee charged with reviewing proprietary investments within the Credit Department. Before joining the distressed bond business in 2002, Mr. Slatky was a telecom high yield analyst and a recipient of Institutional Investor’s Runner-Up award. He joined Goldman Sachs from Credit Suisse First Boston in 2000, where he worked as a high yield analyst as part of an II ranked telecom team. Mr. Slatky graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Economics (1998) and an MBA (1999) from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Roark Stahler
US Head of Strategic Consulting, Barclays
Mr. Stahler is the US Head of Strategic Consulting at Barclays. Mr. Stahler joined Barclays in 2008 as a member of the Strategy team working on various projects across the Investment Bank. Prior to joining Barclays, he worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, advising Asset Managers and other financial institutions as well as several other client types.
Mr. Stahler holds an MBA as well as a BA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
Noah Theran
Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Head of Global External Affairs
MFA
Noah Theran is MFA’s Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Head of Global External Affairs.
Noah joined MFA after six years at Internet Association, a national trade association representing more than 40 of the world’s top internet companies, where he oversaw global communications, creative, marketing, events, and grassroots. In this role, he helped grow Internet Association from a startup into a respected voice on tech policy issues.Prior to Internet Association, Noah was Director of Communications at the American Investment Council, the trade association representing the interests of the world’s largest private equity firms. There, his team earned a PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, Reputation/Brand Management for their campaign to help the private equity industry manage the spotlight of the 2012 presidential election.
Noah also worked at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications in Washington, where he developed and executed communications strategies for a diverse set of clients with broad reputation, image, and crisis management challenges.
Noah earned his B.S. from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
Jean-François Tormo, CAIA
Senior Portfolio Manager, Head of Global Portfolio Solutions – U.S., Lyxor Asset Management
Jean-François Tormo joined Lyxor S.A.S. in 2004 and since 2009 has been part of Lyxor Asset Management Inc. (“Lyxor Inc.”) in charge of launching and managing fund of funds and providing advisory services on alternative investments. Before joining Lyxor S.A.S., Mr. Tormo worked at BNP Paribas Arbitrage within the Fund Derivatives Structuring Team, where he was in charge of secondary trading for respective funds. He also worked at Credit Lyonnais within the Interest Rate Derivatives Team and was in charge of product pricing for plain vanilla and exotic derivatives.
Mr. Tormo holds a Master’s Degree in Economics, Banking, and Finance from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas, and a Master’s Degree in from the University of Paris Dauphine. He is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) charterholder.
Amy Waldron
Client Executive, Northern Trust
Amy is a Senior Vice President at Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services and works as a Client Executive on the Relationship Management team. In this capacity, Amy oversees a dedicated service model for a strategic client partnership. Prior to this role, Amy owned product and service for Regulatory and Tax Solutions offered to clients on the Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services platform. Amy started her career as an auditor in KPMG’s Financial Services practice, then spent a few years as a client facing risk consultant at CNA Insurance before joining Northern Trust in 2014. Amy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and a Masters in Accounting and Information Systems from the University of Kansas.
Ben Wellington
Managing Director, Quantitative Researcher, Two Sigma
Ben Wellington is a Managing Director and Quantitative Researcher at Two Sigma, where he has worked for more than 15 years. He currently leads News and Insights Modeling, with a focus on natural language processing and feature forecasting. He is also the author of data science blog I Quant NY, which has influenced local government policy, including changes in NYC street infrastructure and the design of NYC subway vending machines. Ben is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the City & Regional Planning program at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn where he teaches statistics using urban open data. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University.
David Zirin
Chief Operating Officer, Pentwater Capital Management LP
David joined Pentwater Capital Management in April 2007 as a founder and the Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Pentwater, he was a Director in the Prime Brokerage group at UBS Securities. Previously, David worked at Ritchie Capital Management and Citadel Investment Group. David has 36 years of investment industry experience. David graduated from the University of Michigan in 1987 with a B.A. in Decision Behavior Analysis and received a M.B.A. in Economics and Finance from the University of Chicago in 1995.
Contact
Registration for this event is by invitation only. To request an invitation, please email conferences@managedfunds.org
