Professor Erik Benrud
Drexel University
Dr. Benrud earned his doctorate at the University of Virginia. He has won awards for his research on competition in financial services and option pricing. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA®), Financial Risk Manager (FRM®), and Chartered Alternative Investment Advisor (CAIA®) designations. He has delivered seminars on many topics in finance on four continents, and he has been interviewed by many media organizations. For many years, Dr. Benrud worked for the CFA Institute in various capacities. Currently, in addition to his position at Drexel University, he serves as the Curriculum Director of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) program for Institutional Investor.
Chief Executive Officer
Hillview Capital Advisors
David M. Spungen is Chief Executive Officer of Hillview Capital Advisors, LLC and is a member of the firm's Investment Committee. He is responsible for formulation and oversight of the firm's investment policy and implementation of client portfolios. He also manages the firm's asset allocation optimization, portfolio construction, manager selection and monitoring efforts.
Mr. Spungen has over 25 years of investment experience covering a broad spectrum of capital markets investing. He also has extensive experience in providing independent and objective advice to wealthy individuals and families.
Prior to founding Hillview Capital Advisors, Mr. Spungen was the founder of the Capital Management Division within CMS Companies in 1989. He also served as a principal of CMS from 1995-1999.
Mr. Spungen was previously an Associate with Ryan, Beck & Company. He also served as a Director of M Funds, Inc., M Financial Investment Advisors, Hirtle Callaghan Trust. He was also a Member of the Business Advisory Board of the National Sports Museum.
Mr. Spungen holds a B.A. from University of Pennsylvania.
Partner
Ashford Consulting Group
Seth joined the Ashford Consulting Group after graduating with a Masters in Finance from the Wharton School in 2006. He received his undergraduate degree from Penn State University in 1994 where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa and graduated from the University Scholars Program. Seth is now a partner with the Ashford Consulting Group, focusing his time on asset allocation and alternative investing. Prior to business school, Seth ran long/short equity portfolios for nearly ten years, where he developed and implemented investment strategies focused on both fundamental and technical analysis.
Partner / Investment Committee Member
Agecroft Partners / City of Richmond Retirement System
Don Steinbrugge's achievements over his 25 year career in institutional investment management sales include serving as the head of sales for one of the world's largest hedge funds, Andor Capital Management, and institutional investment management firms, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Prior to his stint at Pequot, Don was a Managing Director and Head of Institutional Sales for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Don joined Merrill Lynch through the acquisition of Hotchkis and Wiley where he headed up sales and marketing. Previously, Don was Global Head of Institutional Sales for NationsBank (now Bank of America Capital Management). Don began his career in 1984 with The Travelers selling investment management to large institutional investors.
Don is a member of the Investment Committee for The City of Richmond Retirement System, the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens Endowment Fund and The Science Museum of Virginia Endowment Fund. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, The Science Museum of Virginia, The Richmond Ballet (The State Ballet of Virginia), the Richmond Sports Backers and the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business.
Managing Director, Manager Alliances Program
Glenmede Investment and Wealth Management
Ben Alimansky joined Glenmede in 2008 as managing director of Glenmede’s 'Manager Alliances Program', monitoring outside hedge funds and other opportunistic investment strategies. Glenmede is a $17 billion dollor Philadelphia-based investment and wealth management firm.
Prior, Ben was senior vice president and portfolio manager at Brooklyn NY Holdings.
Family Investment Officer
GenSpring Family Office
Eric Knauss is a Family Investment Officer in GenSpring’s Greenwich Local Family Office. Eric is charged with the introduction, implementation and management of GenSpring Family Offices’ investment process. His responsibilities include investment policy formation, asset allocation strategy development, investment manager selection, portfolio performance monitoring and client relationship management. Additionally, he serves as Chairman of GenSpring’s Investment Risk Committee and is a member of both the GenSpring Investment and Manager Selection Committees.
Eric has over 23 years of experience in the investment management industry. Prior to joining GenSpring, he served as Director of Investment Manager Research for a wealth management firm, Director of T. Rowe Price’s Private Client Group overseeing $3.5 billion in taxable portfolios, Chairman of T. Rowe Price’s after-tax asset allocation committee.
Eric earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Wesleyan University. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
Head of Private Equity
The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
David Turner is a Managing Director and Head of Guardian’s Private Equity team. He has over 25 years of experience in private equity and portfolio management. David has made over 60 private equity investments totaling over $4B in
committed capital and managed portfolios totaling over $17B in cumulative commitments.
Prior to joining Guardian in June 2007, David was CEO and CIO of the Private Equity Group at WestLB Mellon Asset Management. He was also Director of the Alternative Investments Division and Senior Portfolio Manager for the State
of Michigan Retirement System's Alternative Investment Division. David holds a B.A. from SUNY.
Senior Advisor
Finles
Finles N.V was founded in 1977 by the NCHP nowadays De Unie, a labor union for white collar employees in the Netherlands and the Centraal Beheer Insurance company, nowadays ACHMEA Insurance. Finles is regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and is a member of the Dutch Securities Institute (DSI). Finles Capital Management pursues absolute return and principal investing strategies globally and advises select highly accomplished investment managers and companies.
Sonny Saksena is the Senior Advisor to Finles in North America and Principal for Maihar Capital Strategies, LLC. His responsibilities include corporate development, principal investing, manager selection and due diligence. He has over 15 years of broad ranging experience with Fortune 100 companies. Mr. Saksena started his career with Larsen and Toubro Limited in India where he was responsible for performing corporate development activities and managing infrastructure projects. In 1994 he joined PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Management Consulting Services in New York and he subsequently became a Partner with IBM Business Consulting Services following their acquisition of PwC’s consulting business. Mr. Saksena has over 15 years of international experience covering a broad spectrum of strategic and financial issues for senior executives at Fortune 100 companies.
Managing Director
Pomona Capital
Jordan joined Pomona in 2008 to lead the firm’s product development, marketing and distribution strategies efforts. He has 8 years of private equity experience. Prior to joining Pomona, Jordan was a Vice President, Global Private Equity Strategies for AIG Investments where he was responsible for assisting in the strategic planning, product development, and asset allocation of AIG Investments’ global private equity efforts, a program that totaled approximately $30 billion. Previously, he served as the Assistant to AIG’s Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer as well as Regional Investment Officer for AIG’s international insurance companies. Before joining AIG, Jordan held various corporate finance and investment positions with the CIGNA Corporation and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation. He received a BA in International Relations from the Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Georgetown University. Jordan is currently on the Board of Directors of the Canadian-American Business Council.
Managing Director
L Investments
Ms. Beaumont is a Managing Director with L Investments, a family office with a vast portfolio of public and private equity that is primarily focused on commodities. She is actively involved in all capital allocation decisions for the family fund of funds as well as its direct investment portfolio.
She began her career in corporate finance at Merrill Lynch and subsequently worked as an investment banker at Lazard Freres where she executed more than $20 billion of merger and acquisition advisory assignments. While at Lazard, she advised clients globally on a wide array of transactions including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, hostile takeovers and hostile defense. Ms. Beaumont also worked as a private equity principal in venture capital at Argonaut Capital where she was responsible for all aspects of new investment execution for the firm and its portfolio companies including sourcing and screening potential investment candidates, conducting industry and market analyses, determining valuations, and structuring and negotiating term sheets. She attended Rice University, and obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Miami, graduating first in her class with a major in International Finance and Marketing.
Managing General Partner
Endeavor Capital Management
Anthony Buffa, Managing Partner, has over 26 years of experience in the private equity industry. He founded Endeavor Capital Management in 1988 and oversees all investment and operating activities of the firm. Mr. Buffa has been actively involved as an investor, director and advisor to a number of successful growth companies in a variety of industries including, among others, Catalina Marketing (NYSE – POS), Timberjack Holdings (now a division of John Deere), Harbinger Corporation (merged with Peregrine Systems and subsequently sold to Hewlett Packard), efax.com (merged into j2 Global Communications), Jostens Learning (formerly Education Systems Corporation), National Water & Power and Clean Air Power (LSE – CAP).
Previously, Mr. Buffa was a general partner of Edelson Technology Partners (“ETP”), a private venture capital firm where he managed ETP’s single most successful investment, Catalina Marketing, which Mr. Buffa identified, co-led and originated to the venture community.
Prior to joining ETP, Mr. Buffa was an investment officer with Michigan Capital and Service (MCS), a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC), then operated by NBD Bank, N.A.
Mr. Buffa entered the private equity industry in 1980 as an associate at New Court Securities Corporation (now Rothschild, Inc.), then one of the larger active technology-oriented, venture banking and private equity-investing firms in the country. During this time, in addition to his investment and advisory duties, Mr. Buffa took on his first operating assignment and initiated his proactive approach to lead investor duties by serving as interim Chairman and CEO of a troubled Rothschild family-owned business, which he stabilized and sold successfully.
Mr. Buffa has been a Director of more than 25 private equity–backed businesses. He began his career as a loan officer for the Chase Manhattan Bank in Caracas, Venezuela. Mr. Buffa received a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan.
Division Vice President of Strategy and Marketing
ADP Small Business Services
Headquartered in New Jersey and with significant operations around the world, ADP is the market leading provider of outsourced HR and other business services for clients of any size, (small to large) and scope (local to multi-national).
In his current role, Don is responsible for strategic planning, marketing, product management and business development for all payroll, PEO and HR outsourcing products.
Don started with ADP in 2006 as Vice President of Corporate Strategy. Prior to joining ADP, he held similar senior strategy roles within IBM corporate strategy and PriceWaterhouseCoopers strategic consulting. He began his career in 1990 with General Electric as an engineer.
Don received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Drexel University and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business.
Director
Credit Suisse
Brian Tijan is a Director of Credit Suisse in the Investment Banking division, based in New York. He serves as a Co-Head of the Life Finance Group's physical origination and distribution business.
Prior to joining Credit Suisse, Mr. Tijan was a corporate finance attorney at Latham & Watkins and the president of a small boutique where he specialized in premium finance and life settlements.
Director of Research
Ford Foundation
Laurence B. Siegel is director of research in the Investment Division of the Ford Foundation in New York, where he has worked since 1994. Before that, he was a managing director of Ibbotson Associates, an investment consulting firm that he helped to establish in 1979.
In 2005 Larry was named Research Director of the CFA Institute’s Research Foundation. He holds this position concurrently with his responsibilities at the Ford Foundation.
Mr. Siegel currently chairs the investment committee of the Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, and serves on the investment committee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Larry is a member of the editorial boards of the Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Portfolio Management, and the Journal of Investing, and serves on the board of directors and program committee of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance (the Q Group). His first book, Benchmarks and Investment Management, was published by the CFA Institute in 2003. With Zvi Bodie and Dennis McLeavey, he co-edited the book The Future of Life-Cycle Saving and Investing, published by the CFA Institute in 2007.
Larry received his BA in urban studies from the University of Chicago in 1975, and his MBA in finance from the same institution in 1977.
Managing Director
Harcourt Group (US)
Marcel Herbst is an Executive Director of the Harcourt Group. He joined Harcourt in March, 2002 at the headquarters in Zurich (Switzerland) and relocated to New York in 2007 as Managing Director / CCO of Harcourt Alternative Investments (US) LLC, an SEC registered subsidiary of the Harcourt Group.
His past experience includes Corporate Finance and M&A for Enron Broadband Investments in London (an independent USD200m private equity subsidiary of Enron). Prior to that, he was Director of Strategic Development for ComTelco, a US/German High Tech firm that successfully went public in 2000. He started his career 1997 in the Business Development department of Atlas, a financial services firm in New York. Marcel Herbst graduated from the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) with a masters degree in Economics, and is currently finalizing his PhD in Economics with the same University.
Managing Director, Portfolio Manager
Appomattox Financial
Susan is Managing Director and Head of Appomattox Financial Inc, a financial advisory firm located in New York City. Appomattox manages customized portfolios for Endowments, Foundations and High Net Worth Individuals. It also works with hedge fund managers to incubate and launch their hedge funds. Appomattox is a partner with Atlas S.A., located in Geneva, Switzerland.
In addition, Susan is Head of First Atlas Capital, the Registered Investment Advisor for Atlas Capital Group. In this capacity she is a member of the Atlas Capital Investment Committee and sub-advises on a number of funds of funds, for Institutional Clients.
In 2001, she joined Atlas Capital. She recently launched the ‘Alternative World Fund’ for Atlas, a multi-strategy, capital guaranteed fund with 20 to 30 managers. She was also a lead Director for the Weston-Atlas Partners fund, selecting managers to incubate and fund. Susan Webb Dreyfus is responsible for the chapter in the Book “Managing Alternative Investments” on “Monitoring and Maintaining Investments in Hedge Funds.” She last spoke at the Managed Futures Conference her topic being ‘Monitoring Hedge Funds for Principal Protection Strategies’. Finally, she was elected member of a liquidation committee for a hedge fund. M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from Darden School at the University of Virginia. B.A. in Economics and in Psychology from the University of Virginia.
Associate Director
Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company
Geoffrey Lasry, CAIA is an Associate Director of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a leading global independent fund of hedge funds investment firm. Geoffrey heads PAAMCO’s Portable Alpha fund initiatives and is a member of the Investment Management Roundtables. In addition, Geoffrey chairs the Account Management Committee and has select institutional account management responsibilities.
Prior to joining PAAMCO, Geoffrey was an account manager at PIMCO, where he managed institutional client relationships with fixed-income portfolios. He began his career as a fixed-income trader at Republic National Bank of New York (now HSBC). Geoffrey has eleven years of investment management experience, has authored select pieces on alternative investment strategies, and is a frequent guest speaker at investment conferences throughout the United States.
Geoffrey graduated from New York University with a B.A. in English Literature, and received his M.B.A. in Analytical Finance from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Geoffrey also serves as a Toigo Foundation mentor, where he advises minority business school students considering careers in finance.
Director
Merrill Lynch
Dina is the Director of Wealth Structuring Group for Merrill Lynch for the New York metropolitan area. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, she was a senior associate at the law firm of Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy,LLP in New York where she gained extensive experience in innovative estate planning for wealthy individuals and families, including structuring transactions, drafting and implementation of plans. She also has extensive experience in asset protection planning, probate practice and trust administration, and fiduciary representation. Before joining Milbank, Dina was an associate at the law firms of Brauner Baron Rosenzweig & Klein, LP and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, LLP where she also practiced law in the Trusts and Estates groups. Dina holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a J.D. from Yale University.
Partner
Auriel Capital Management
Larry Abele is one of the three founding partners of Auriel Capital Management in London and spends his time researching quantitative strategies and risk management techniques. Prior to founding Auriel Capital in 2004, Mr Abele was a Managing Director at Deutsche Asset Management where he pioneered a global macro investment program as head of Quantitative Strategies and Portfolio Engineering Group. In April 2003, he also became responsible for quantitative US and European stock selection strategies. Prior to joining DeAM in 2000, he worked as a senior researcher for the Global Tactical Asset Allocation program at Barclays Global Investors. Mr Abele started his career at First Quadrant working as a systematic global macro researcher and portfolio manager for currency overlay accounts after completing a MPhil at Cambridge University in 1996. In 2007 Larry was named one of the twenty “rising stars” in hedge funds by Institutional Investor Magazine.
Founder, Managing Director
Cedar Lane Asset Management
Samuel W. Adams is the founder and Managing Director of Cedar Lane Asset Management, which is the New York based investment adviser to the Cedar Lane Entertainment Fund (“Cedar Lane”). Cedar Lane is an asset-based lending fund focused on the entertainment industry. The fund provides term and bridge financing on a global basis to owners and distributors of entertainment content. Typical deal size is $5-10 million bearing interest at 17-20%. Under the leadership of Mr. Adams, and through the hard work of his partners and colleagues, Cedar Lane has developed a reputation in its market niche for thoroughness, creativity and speed in meeting borrowers’ needs. On the investor side, the fund has demonstrated low-correlation and low volatility, with returns of 1% or more net each month since it launched in August of 2006. Assets under management are $120 million firmwide.
Mr. Adams has extensive experience in structuring and documenting asset-based transactions in the entertainment industry. Such transactions include film-library-based deals where loan proceeds are used for acquisitions or developing new content, to deals based on music catalogues, electronic game rights, rights in live performances collateralized by ticket pre-sales, and a variety of other transactions. Prior to forming Cedar Lane, Mr. Adams spent four years managing the Octave Entertainment Fund, where he was responsible for originating, structuring and documenting a broad variety of asset-based entertainment transactions.
In addition to his experience in asset-based financing, Mr. Adams has a wealth of experience in more general types of secured transactions and corporate finance. Prior to managing hedge funds Mr. Adams practiced corporate transactional law for 12 years, mostly with large law firms in New York such as Shearman & Sterling. During the course of his legal career Mr. Adams advised large money-center banks and other lenders in a broad variety of transactions. As a consequence Mr. Adams has substantial experience in structured and asset-backed transactions including securitization of receivables and loan portfolios, among other assets. Mr. Adams has also advised both investors and issuers in connection with private placements and has substantial experience with asset-valuation and financing techniques employed by start-up and middle market companies.
Mr. Adams holds a B.A. in History from Kenyon College and a J.D. from Washington & Lee University. His contact information is below.
Co-Portfolio Manager, Managing Partner
Proprietary Capital
Mr. Cohen, is the co-founder and managing partner of Proprietary Capital LLC, a RMBS Manager based in Denver, Colorado. At Proprietary, Mr. Cohen is responsible for portfolio management and prepayment modeling/forecasting on the firm’s mortgage-related portfolios.
Prior to Proprietary, Mr. Cohen was a senior vice president at Oppenheimer & Co. in Los Angeles where he was responsible for managing fixed income portfolios for the firm’s corporate clients. Prior to Oppenheimer, Mr. Cohen was a mortgage-related securities salesman for Dean Witter Reynolds advising and effecting transactions in mortgage securities with the largest mortgage investors in the country, including Financial Corporation of America, Countrywide Home Loans, Western Savings and Loan, to name a few. In 1994, Mr. Cohen introduced a new approach to hedge servicing rights for mortgage bankers utilizing derivative mortgage instruments, a strategy that became widely employed by the industry as a whole for the balance of the 1990’s.
Mr. Cohen is a graduate of the University of Florida. He is currently lead director for Arco Capital Corporation, a Puerto Rican based company that originates mid-market commercial, infrastructure and real estate finance transactions in emerging markets. From 2004 thru 2007, he was a board member for the University of Florida Investment Management Company (“UFICO”), the entity that manages the university’s $1.6 billion endowment and non-endowment financial assets.
Senior Associate / Professor or Economics
DeRosa Research and Trading / Pace University
Sinem Sonmez has been an Emerging Market Economist with DeRosa Research and Trading and with prior experience at the World Bank. She performs macroeconomic analysis of countries, follows and analyzes global economic indicators and their implications on the currency markets. She also teaches macroeconomics at Pace University.
At the World Bank, she conducted economic research on key development issues concerning the developing countries. She made significant contributions to a flagship project of the World Bank named “Doing Business” , a database designed to measure business regulations of countries and their enforcement in all countries. Previously, she served as an International Trade Analyst at the US Department of Commerce where she verified the compliance of foreign companies to US tariff regulations and calculated tariffs on imported foreign merchandise.
Sinem has a Master’s Degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University and an undergraduate degree from George Mason University. She has also earned a Certificate in International Management from Boston University’s program in Japan.
Anthony Huston
Managing Director, Chairman of Asset Allocation Committee
PMA Asian Opportunities Fund
Tony Huston has over 23 years of broad experience in international markets, hedge fund management, financial services and technology. At PMA, Tony is a Managing Director and Chairman of the Asset Allocation Committee for PMA’s multi-strategy Asian Opportunities Fund. Tony also serves as Head of Business and Product Development for the Americas.
Prior to joining PMA, Tony was a Managing Director at Paloma Partners. Serving Paloma on the Portfolio Review Committee, he also had broad responsibilities that touched upon all products at the firm: Chinese private equity; multi-strategy flagship fund; market neutral fund of funds and a fund of CTA’s. Prior to Paloma, Tony was President and Board Member of publicly traded financial services software development company Internet Financial Services, Inc. A pioneer in the electronic trading markets he took IFSI public in 1999 and is a published author; “Electronic Trading and the Hedge Fund Manager” (Hedgefundnews 1998). From 1987 to 1995, Tony worked in New York, London and Tokyo for Tullett and Tokyo Forex in the FX Options markets, where he ran various international trading desks within the derivatives markets.
Tony was an Honors Student at the University of Michigan, where he studied Mandarin Chinese and Asian Studies. He is also a World Champion Yachtsman in the International One Design Class.
Partner/CIO/Portfolio Manager
Finisterre Sovereign Debt Fund
Prior to co-founding Finisterre, Mr. Crean had 22 years of experience in a wide spectrum of Emerging Markets. Previously, he was Executive Director and Global Head of Hard Currency Emerging Market Trading at West LB, managing a team of 12 traders in London, New York and Singapore. From 1993 to 1997 he was Executive Director and Head of Emerging Market Sales at Union Bank of Switzerland, London. He helped to establish the new Emerging Market debt business and was instrumental in building market share for the Bank. From 1986 to 1993 Mr. Crean was with Banque Paribas where he was initially hired to set up a Financial Futures capability. Subsequent to this he ran a G7 Fixed Income and Foreign Exchange Proprietary Trading desk from 1988 to 1991. In 1991, Mr. Crean joined the Emerging Market Debt Group at Banque Paribas, London. Here he was responsible for global distribution of the product. Mr. Crean’s first introduction to the financial markets in 1980 was with CAL Futures where he dealt in a range of commodity futures as well as Precious Metals, Currencies and Financial and Stock Index futures. Mr. Crean holds a BA (Honors) degree in Economic and Social History from the University of York.
Managing Director
Alden Global Capital
Eli is a Managing Director for Alden Global Capital, an emerging markets manager with dedicated investment programs in Russia, MENA, India and Frontier Markets. Alden Global Capital is a division of Smith Management, the family office of Randall Smith who is the portfolio manager for all of the Alden funds, and has a personal commitment of over $500mm to the Alden portfolios. Alden has investment offices in New York, Mumbai and Dubai. Prior to Alden, Eli was a managing director at Eos Partners, and had a similar position at Dickstein Partners and Caxton Health Holdings. Prior to Caxton, he worked in the investment management division of both Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch in New York. Mr. Combs has a BS from Miami University, a Master of Finance degree from The City University of New York and an MBA from Yale University.
Managing Partner
New Stream Capital
David Bryson is a Managing Partner of New Stream Capital, LLC and a member of the Investment Committee. Prior to New Stream, Mr. Bryson founded Bryson Capital in 2001. Bryson Capital was a capital markets advisory firm
specialized in asset-based investments. Bryson Capital raised over $750 million of institutional equity for several startup lending organizations.
Previously, Mr. Bryson was a director of AIG International Asset Management, a division of American International Group (AIG), with over $2 billion of assets under management. He was a member of the investment committee as well as being responsible for product development, sales, marketing and client services. Prior to AIG, Mr. Bryson was the president of the alternative investment division of Washington Investment Corporation, a regional broker-dealer in Washington D.C. While there Mr. Bryson also managed a global investment hedge fund.
Prior to his investment career Mr. Bryson served as a Lieutenant in the US Navy and received his B.S. Degree from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Managing Director, Senior Quantitative Strategist
Jefferies Asset Management
Mr. Crimmins is a Managing Director of Jefferies Asset Management, LLC. In his previous role of Vice President of Currency and Commodity Research at Goldman Sachs, Mr. Crimmins was a chief architect of the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index, the GSCI futures contract listed on the CME and served as both a member of and a consultant to the GSCI Policy Committee from 1991-1999. Mr. Crimmins also served as Executive Director of Corporate Derivatives at Morgan Stanley, Managing Director of Capital Markets Derivative Solutions at Merrill Lynch and the President of Telluride Investment Strategies, a consulting firm based in Colorado providing investment and risk management advice. Mr. Crimmins graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Yale College in 1983, and a M.A. in Physics from Harvard in 1987
CIO, Head of Commodity Asset Management
Prudential Bache Asset Management
Steve is Chief Investment Officer of Prudential Bache Asset Management and Head of Commodity Asset Management for Prudential’s Global Commodities Group. He is responsible for building a global asset management business based on Prudential’s strong franchise in the global commodities marketplace. Prior to rejoining Prudential in 2006, Steve spent six years as a senior executive at OppenheimerFunds (OFI) responsible for creating new products and distribution opportunities for OFI’s high net worth group. Prior to joining OppenheimerFunds Steve held senior executive positions at Ameritrade, Van Eck Global, Bankers Trust and Deloitte & Touche.
Steve earned his bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Notre Dame and his Masters of Business Administration in Finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Partner
Altima Partners
Mr. Edward Ho has responsibility over the investor relations effort of Altima Partners in the Americas. He joined Altima in January 2006. Previously he was a Managing Director with Merrill Lynch in their Alternative Sales department. Before that, he was with UBS and he started his career at Bankers Trust in their Global Investment Management department. He holds BSc in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Co-Head Global Property Securities, Portfolio Manager
Macquarie Capital (USA)
Charles Song is Co-Head of Global Property Securities and North America portfolio manager at Macquarie Funds Group. Prior to joining the team at Macquarie, Charles was a Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Dividend Capital Investments (DCI), a real estate investment management firm. At DCI, Charles established the investment and risk management processes and hired and trained the investment team. He was lead manager for the firm's open ended fund, closed-end funds, institutional sub-advisory accounts and a long/short hedge fund, delivering top-decile returns for US long-only funds over four years. Prior to DCI, Charles was a founder of Genesis Strategic Partners, a Management Consulting firm in Seoul, Korea, co-Founder of Novalis Ventures, a real estate sector venture fund and an associate at Cahill, Warnock, a private equity firm. Charles began his career with Lehman Brothers in the Asset-Backed Finance Group in New York and holds a B.A. from Cornell University.
Founder & CEO
Fusion Alternatives
Saul is the joint founder and CEO of Fusion Alternatives, a unique investment advisory and trading firm specializing in the emerging AI asset class of investment diamonds. Prior to creating Fusion Alternatives Saul was the Head of Research of the Rapaport Group, the world’s leading service provider to the global diamond industry. In this capacity Saul was the Chief Advisor to the Rapaport Price List which is global price benchmark authority for diamonds traded in the wholesale markets. Saul was also heavily involved in the development and expansion of Rapnet, the world’s leading online inter-dealer trading platform for polished diamonds. Saul commenced his career at the National Australia Bank in its private wealth management division and was involved in the development of its suite of Fund-of Funds products in the late 1990’s. Saul holds a Bachelor of Business and Arts degrees from Monash University and a post-graduate fellowship at the Securities Institute of Australia.
Managing Principal
TerraCap Partners LP
Mr. Hagenbuckle is a graduate from University of Florida, BS (Computer Science and Engineering – College of Business) 1985. His initial career was in Healthcare Computing. He worked for Baxter Healthcare, Continental Healthcare (VP Clinical Sales) and publicly held Clinicom (NASDQ) (VP Ambulatory Division/Officer) which was acquired by publicly traded HBOC/McKessen Corp. of Atlanta.
In 1995 Mr. Hagenbuckle founded Techware Consulting. In less than two (2) years Techware employed 155 professionals with revenues in excess of $14MM. Techware was acquired by Denver based CIBER (NYSE) in 1997. In 1998 Mr. Hagenbuckle founded ORUS Information Services which employed 245 professionals with revenues in excess of $23MM. Mr. Hagenbuckle has lectured at the undergrad and graduate level at the University of Colorado, College of Entrepreneurship, “Ethics and the Entrepreneur” and “Managing Growth”. In 1997 Mr. Hagenbuckle initiated his Self Funded Real Estate “Incubator Fund” which has had an impressive average return of 65% per year for the past twelve (12) years. He has acquired, constructed and/or sold over $72,000,000 in real estate related transactions. In October of 2008, Collegiate Images, a company co-founded by Mr. Hagenbuckle and 7 other individuals was sold to XOS Technologies. Mr. Hagenbuckle was the Chief Information Officer of Collegiate Images at its inception in 2001. Once again capitalizing on current opportunity and distressed markets Mr. Hagenbuckle and his partners have launched TerraCap Partners LP a Distressed Real Estate Private Equity Fund. Mr. Hagenbuckle has an expansive network of National and Regional Developers, Builders and Brokers both Commercial and Residential positioning TerraCap Management Corp for first hand purchase and sale information and opportunities.
He is one of the initial investors in Landmark Bank/giantbank.com (Fort Lauderdale). Mr. Hagenbuckle has been an active board member for more than eight (8) years - since April 2000.
Partner, Head of Fixed Income Trading
Pine River Capital
Prior to joining Pine River in 2008 to head up fixed income investing, Steve was a Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Goldman Sachs based in New York and Beijing from 2002 to 2007, where he was part of a team that managed approximately $40 billion in mortgage backed securities. While he was in Beijing, he provided training to sovereign wealth fund clients and voluntarily taught Finance to students from Peking University and Tsinghua University. From 1999 to 2002, Steve was a Japanese convertible bond trader at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago. Prior to that, he was head of mortgage backed securities trading at Cargill in Minnetonka, MN. Steve received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Harvard University in 1991.
Founding Member
12% Distressed Real Estate Fund
Jeff Hines, the principal founding member of the 12% Distressed Real Estate Fund, is a graduate of the University of Maryland with degrees in business, and in law. He has been active in real estate for 20 years, engaging in every aspect of the business, including tax sales, foreclosures, renovation, building, and developing. He is the owner of a mortgage company and is licensed as a lender in Maryland and in Florida is licensed as a broker. He is a public speaker before real estate investor conferences, and is a mentor to many investors, looking to build wealth in real estate. He is a member and sponsor of many real estate investment clubs, and frequently speaks to members in need of money or strategies to execute their financial plan. While part of an investment group in Tampa, buying, fixing and selling retail, homes purchased from the Bank Reo dept, he came up with the idea of scaling the project up, starting this hedge fund to leverage a ready source of capital in this unique environment to produce outstanding returns for his investors. The business plan is to extend the success of their Tampa model, increasing the number of houses in process, and to extend the idea to other markets in the foreclosure capital across Florida.
Director
Kaufman Rossin Fund Services
Kaufman Rossin Fund Services, LLC (KRFS) is proud to welcome Christine Egan, an experienced Sales and Marketing executive who joined the KRFS team on August 14, 2006 as their Business Development Manager located in New York. In addition to her strong sales skills, Christine also brings a wealth of operational and best practice experience gained from her nearly 20 years on Wall Street. Her past responsibilities in the Hedge Fund Administration industry have included sales, marketing, technology infrastructure and systems, and client relationship management.
Partner, Financial Services Group
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Henry Bregstein is a member of the Financial Services Practice, Chairman of the Structured Products Group and Co-Managing Partner of the New York office. He advises banks, domestic and offshore hedge funds, life insurance companies, investment advisers and brokerdealers, on a broad range of regulatory, securities, tax, finance, licensing, general corporate and other legal matters. Mr. Bregstein is a member of the following organizations: New York State Bar Association, New York City Bar Association, NYCBA Committee on Commodities and Futures Law, and American Bar Association.
In 2009, Mr. Bregstein was featured as one of Chambers USA’s Leaders in their Field, and in 2008 he was included in the Guide to the World’s Leading Investment Funds Lawyers. In 2006, Mr. Bregstein was named to Lawdragon’s 3000 Leading Lawyers in America and in 2007 he was named a finalist for Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. He was also recognized by Legal 500 as a leading lawyer in the category of Investment Funds-Alternative/
Hedge Fund Formation.
Mr. Bregstein earned his undergraduate degree (B.A., 1970) from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree magna cum laude (J.D., 1993) from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law where he was Senior Editor of the Law Review.
