CFA, CAIA, PRM, MIA, Director of Asset Allocation and Risk, The Observatory, Adjunct Professor, Queens College, the City University of New York
| 09:00 |
ALTERNATIVES IN THE ASSET ALLOCATION MIX |
• How true are the Non-Correlation and Absolute Return attributes of Alternatives? Has Mean Reversion kicked in?
• How large a portion of the asset allocation mix should family offices and other investors put to Alternatives?
• Are alternative assets 'commoditized' or do investors still need to use a case-to-case approach to the asset class and managers?
Moderator: Managing Director, Appomattox Advisory
Panelists:
CFP, President, Century Wealth Management
CIO, United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
Senior Consultant, Partner, CTC Consulting
| 09:50 |
ASSET LIABILITY MANAGEMENT FOR DIFFERENT INVESTORS AND THE ROLE OF ALTERNATIVES |
• Investment return management for endowments, family offices, and pension funds: short term vs. long term goals
• Can Alpha in Alternatives replace the returns of successful but maturing industrial families?
• Persistent Alpha, and who can deliver it?
Moderator:
Professor Andrew Spieler, PhD, CFA, FRM, Hofstra University, Chairman of Derivatives Committee, NYSSA
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Andrew has over ten years experience as a valuation and risk management expert. He currently is an Associate Professor of finance in the Frank G. Zarb School of Business of Hofstra University and Director for the Masters of Science in Quantitative Finance Program. Andrew has served as a financial trainer leading financial institutions including Goldman Sachs, UBS, Fidelity Investments, Deutsche Bank, MorganStanley, Bloomberg, CalPERS and others corporations. He regularly consults and provides expert opinions for law firms, hedge funds and quantitative mutual funds. Andrew is the former Research Director for the Investors Rights Association of America and served as a member on SEC committees on several governance issues.
Andrew was previously awarded the “Distinguished Teacher of the Year” and “Researcher of the Year” at Hofstra University. He has also received two Best Paper awards in “Real Estate Valuation” and “REITs” from the American Real Estate Society and was a finalist for 2009 Financial Management Association Best Paper in “Investments”. Andrew has published studies in top academic journals and presented over 30 research papers at national and international conferences in North America, Europe and Asia.
Andrew currently serves as the Chair of the Derivatives Committee of the New York Society of Security Analysts and Associate Editor of The Investment Professional. He is also an Associate of the Center for International Financial Services and Markets (formerly Merrill Lynch Center) and was the Director for the 2007 annual conference on Private Equity. Andrew is frequently interviewed by the print and television media including MSNBC, New York Times, Associated Press, WABC, WNBC and others.
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Panelists:
CFA, CAIA, Family Investment Officer, GenSpring Family Offices
Phd, CPA, Controller, The Commonwealth Fund
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10:30 MORNING BREAK
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| 11:00 |
RISK MANAGEMENT IN ALTERNATIVES |
• Tail risk and Black Swans: predominant themes with Alternatives?
• The death of structured products with defined risk, or not?
• How much is fund of funds' risk and portfolio management really worth?
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Aleksey has thirteen years of experience in financial services industry. At Risk-AI, LLC Aleksey holds the position of Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to starting Risk-AI, LLC Aleksey was a Vice President in Risk Management & Quantitative Research team at Ivy Asset Management - a leading U.S. Fund of Hedge Funds. At Ivy Aleksey played an integral role in developing state of the art risk management infrastructure and processes.
Prior to joining Ivy Asset Management, Aleksey was a senior developer at JPMorgan’s proprietary trading business.
Aleksey has an MBA in Finance and Statistics from Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Aleksey is a certified financial risk manager (FRM) by Global Association of Risk Professionals and he is also a CFA and CAIA charter holder.
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Panelists:
Vice President, International Asset Management
Senior VP & Chief Risk Officer, The Kenmar Group
Managing Partner, MSD Capital
| 11:55 |
ENERGY/COMMODITIES TALK |
• Relative Value Opportunities in the US Electricity Markets
Speaker:
Craig Gontkovic, Portfolio Manager, GEM Capital Management
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Mr. Gontkovic joined Credit Suisse’s Proprietary Commodity Trading Group in 2008. At Credit Suisse, he continued trading forward and spot Electricity, Natural Gas, and Crude Oil products.
Mr. Gontkovic was a Managing Member of CAM Energy, LLC, which he co-founded in 2003. He has over 12 years of trading and structured products experience in the electric power markets.
He began his career at Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) as an engineer performing power flow studies in the Pennsylvania Jersey Maryland (PJM) power pool. In 1996, he joined the commodity trading group of BGE under a joint venture with Goldman Sachs where his responsibilities included operations, physical risk assessment, derivative deal structuring and physical spread trading.
In January 1999, he joined Merrill Lynch’s Global Energy Markets (GEM) as a founding team member (1 of 4). After a 1,000 MW tolling deal, he moved to trade and manage the Merrill Lynch electric power trading portfolio in the Northeast, including NYISO and PJM.
Upon completion of the sale of GEM to Allegheny Energy in March 2001, Mr. Gontkovic assumed the additional responsibility of portfolio manager for Allegheny's 9,400 MWs of generation and load in the Mid-Atlantic region. Mr. Gontkovic also traded proprietary products including physical & financial power and natural gas, options and capacity.
He earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1993.
His primary responsibilities at GEM Capital is to manage the firm’s trading activities and the anticipated growth of the firm.
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• The Allocator’s Dilemma and the Case for Tangible Assets
Stephen Bauer, CEO & CIO, Truffle Hound Capital
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Mr. Bauer, the CEO, founder, and managing member of Truffle Hound Capital, LLC has devoted substantially all of his business time to managing THC since July 2002. Mr. Bauer has made numerous appearances as a market commentator on CNBC. Prior to founding THC, Mr. Bauer practiced corporate law for over six years with ShawPittman (1995-1999) and the Washington office of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson (1999-2002) where his practice focused on the representation of leveraged buy-out funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, and institutional investors. Mr. Bauer holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in Economics from Princeton University and a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
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12:35 LUNCH BREAK
Lunch talk:
• Creating Global Market Infrastructure for Alternative Assets
Vincent R. Molinari, CEO & Founder, GATE Technologies
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Mr. Molinari is a Founder and the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. He is the driving force behind the Company, having identified the global trend line of illiquid/alternative asset trading platforms. Mr. Molinari is responsible for the Company’s strategic planning and business initiatives, including corporate alliances and strategic partnerships. His vision is based on a core belief that technologies can be re-purposed and customized for the emerging and developed markets where they can close the technology gap, create a leadership position and rapidly accelerate business models. He is also the founder of Global Access Holdings LLC, a financial media and analytics company, which identified a global trend line of illiquid securities and the potential market need for alternative asset trading platforms. Before Global Access Holdings, Mr. Molinari was the Chairman & CEO of Burlington Capital Markets LLC, a financial services company specializing in institutional execution services and investment banking activities. In addition, he founded Inculab, a technology business incubator, Voluto Ventures, a venture capital concern and Cold Spring Advisors, LLC, an investment services provider. Mr. Molinari began his career at Lehman Brothers Inc., and he has held senior positions at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc., and Ridgewood Capital, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, technology, and capital formation transactions. During this time, Mr. Molinari spearheaded the acquisition of Hemisphere Capital Corporation, a New York broker-dealer and Registered Investment Advisor, and managed its turnaround and profitable sale. Mr. Molinari is a board member of Transfer Online Inc. and Bigshare Services Pvt., Ltd. He holds a B.B.A. in International Business from the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University.
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| 02:00 |
CREDIT / DISTRESSED DEBT |
Moderator: Ronen Schwartzman, CEO, Ten Capital Advisors
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Ronen has over 10 years of investment and capital markets experience.Prior to founding Ten Capital Advisors, he was the Investment Manager of Yellow Brick Capital, a $100MM family office focused on alternative investments. Ronen led a profitable year in 2008 and Yellow Brick remains as his client.
Prior to that Ronen worked for 4 years at Bear Stearns in New York where he managed equity and fixed income portfolios for individuals and corporations. He also advised institutional investors on capital markets investments.
Ronen started his career as an equity analyst with Oppenheimer in Tel Aviv where he was frequently quoted in the local media. A former special operations intelligence officer in the Israeli Air Force, Ronen is fluent in Spanish and Hebrew and he holds an M.B.A from The Wharton School University of Pennsylvania.
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Distressed Debt focused panel:
• Opportunities in European Distressed Debt
• Opportunities in US middle market high yield and distressed securities
Panelists:
Jame Donath, Portfolio Manager, Karsch Capital Management
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Mr. Donath is a Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at KCM Global Credit, an affiliate of Karsch Capital Management. Prior to joining KCM Global Credit in 2009, Mr. Donath was a Managing Director in the distressed investments group at Davidson Kempner Capital Management LLC, a $12 billion hedge fund, where he started and managed the firm’s international credit business. Previously Mr. Donath was a Financial Analyst in the investment banking division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and an Associate at Jupiter Partners LLC, a private equity firm. Mr. Donath graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics cum laude and earned his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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Oliver E. Wriedt, Managing Director, Providence Equity Partners
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Oliver Wriedt is a managing director in Providence’s Capital Markets Group based in our New York office. Prior to joining Providence in 2010, Mr. Wriedt was a partner at Sciens Capital Management. Previously, he was a partner and global co-head of marketing and structured products at GoldenTree Asset Management. Mr. Wriedt spent six years at Deutsche Bank in London and New York, where he held several sales management positions, most recently as managing director running the alternative asset solutions effort in North America. Before joining Deutsche Bank in 1998, Mr. Wriedt worked for five years at NORD/LB in Hannover, Singapore and New York. Mr. Wriedt received a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University.
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Credit focused panel:
• Opportunities in the US Municipal Securities Market
Panelists:
Bart Mosley, Portfolio Manager & CIO, Alprion Capital Management LP
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Bart has 25 years experience in the fixed-income markets. Formerly, Bart was the Head of the Municipal Proprietary Trading Desk at UBS where he managed over $2 billion in municipal bonds. Prior to that he was a senior trader on Citi’s proprietary trading desk and was responsible for the firm's $6 billion Tender Option Bond program. Bart also contributed the chapter on Municipal Arbitrage and Tender Option Bonds in The Handbook of Municipal Bonds, Feldstein & Fabozzi, Editors (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2008). Bart received a BS in Physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
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Burton Weinstein, Managing Partner, Cedarview Capital Management
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Prior to establishing Cedarview, Mr. Weinstein served as a portfolio manager for four years managing a $120 million hedge fund, Aviary Capital, dedicated to bank loans, high-yield bonds and distressed debt investments. In addition, he advised a wealthy U.S. family, who was the largest investor in the fund, in other investment matters. From January 2001 through April 2004 Mr. Weinstein returned +44.84% as compared to Merrill Lynch High Yield Index return of +33.41%, the S&P 500 return of -11.90% and CS Hedge Fund Index return of +27.26%. Previously, he worked at Gabriel Capital, a $1 billion New York-based hedge fund where he concentrated on distressed investing and risk arbitrage. From 1991-1998, Mr. Weinstein worked at Loews Corporation, where he helped manage $2 billion in high-yield and distressed securities as well as equities. From 1990-1991, he worked at Smith Barney Asset Management, now Palisade Capital, as a senior high-yield analyst and at IBJ Schroder bank from 1988-1990 as a credit analyst where he went through IBJ's rigorous credit training program. Mr. Weinstein holds a B.S. in Accounting from Yeshiva University and an M.B.A. in Finance from N.Y.U. Stern School of Business.
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| 03:00 |
EMERGING MARKETS PANEL |
• Asia Economic and Market Overview
• Why Turkey and why Russia?
Moderator: Natalia Gurushina, Director of Emerging Markets Strategy, Roubini Global Economics
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Natalia Gurushina is director of emerging markets strategy at Roubini Global Economics. Previously, Natalia worked for Pantera Capital Management, a global macro hedge fund, where she developed investment strategies for both emerging and developed European markets. Prior to that, Natalia was in charge of macroeconomic research for select economies in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Russia at Deutsche Bank and Bankers Trust. Before joining the private sector, Natalia analyzed economic and political developments in Russia and the former Soviet Union for the Open Society Institute in Prague. Natalia has a Ph.D in economic history from the University of Oxford, Christ Church, and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Moscow State University.
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Panelists:
Randall Kahn , Director of Investments and CEO, APS Asset Management
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Mr. Kahn, is the Director of Investments and CEO of Japan of APS and has twenty-five years of investment experience. Before joining APS in 2010, Mr. Kahn was the managing partner and portfolio manager at Apiana Investments.He was formerly a portfolio manager at Ward Ferry, Nicholas Applegate and American Century focusing on Asia. Mr. Kahn is a graduate from the University of Chicago with a Masters in Business Administration in Finance & Accounting and holds a Bachelors of Humanities from the University of Califorrnia at Berkely.
Mr. Kahn covers Japan, Australia and India and the Machinery, Chemicals, Technology and Financials sectors at APS.
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Khan Karaca, Managing Director, 2nyc Capital
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Mr. G. Khan Karaca, the Investment Manager of 2nyc Capital , has extensive experience in trading emerging market equities. He has been managing his own private office since 2003, with outstanding track record (audited by Grand Thornton). He will conduct all trading and risk management activities with 2nyc Capital on a daily basis. The Fund is based in the Cayman & was structured by Clifford Chance of NYC & Ogier of the Cayman. The portfolio strategy is L/S liquid equities in the Russian & Turkish markets with limited short on special event horizons.
Between 1996-2003 Mr. Karaca was involved in a number of money management positions with HSBC Istanbul, Turkey’s leading international bank. For example, he managed an equity portfolio of $500m, with average returns of 20%. As Chief High-Net-Worth Portfolio Manager, he achieved returns in excess of 30% for investments above $1m, managing a global portfolio of $100m. As Head of Equities Risk Management & Strategy (with a team of 7 traders) he was responsible for trading in various local and international instruments including futures. Between 1991-1995 Mr. Karaca worked in several broker-dealer & prime brokerage companies including Comondo Securities (derivative instruments) based in Paris France.
Mr. Karaca has an engineering background, graduating from Istanbul Technical University 1993. He speaks fluent English. He is married to a former senior executive in the Treasury Department HSBC Turkey. They have one child, and are based in Istanbul, where trading activity will be centered.
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03:30 Networking Break
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| 03:50 |
MACRO & GEOPOLITICAL DISCUSSION PANEL |
• Attention to Global Macro News allows for the discovery of Global Macro Trends which are actionable.
• Asset pricing, regional bubbles and the escalating sovereign debt situation
• Cyclical trends in sectors and openings for opportunities
• How can managers best use geopolitical information to their advantage
Speakers:
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Robert operates a business intelligence service. This service provides clients with specified intelligence briefs related to their current or planed business operations worldwide. Principle clients are in the Insurance, Mining, Shipping, Energy, Manufacturing and Defense sectors.
Hardy was Senior Managing Director at LaBranche & Co. LLc for International Equity market making from 2006 to 20010. He was in charge of trading in over 300 Stocks in their home markets and ADRs at the New York Stock Exchange.
As an arbitrageur in International Oils and later heading an International Trading Unit, he made extraordinary contacts with senior non-U.S. business leaders and governments. He consulted with foreign governments on the privatization of state owned companies. For example he consulted with the French Government on the privatization and three level pricing scheme for the launce of France Telecom. He also consulted with the Brazilian Government for breakup and privatization of state owned Telebras into ten companies.
He has a broad client list, which includes companies and governments, which includes various agencies of the U.S. government.
He has represented the NYSE at conferences in China, India, Mexico and Brazil. In 1999 he was invited by the EU to consult on the cross boarder trading of equities between the Union and various trading venues.
In India in 2001 he gave a nationwide address on the nature of developed capital markets and how India could participate in and with them; this address was sponsored by DSP Merrill Lynch, and featured a questions period.
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Dan Bogler, President, Medley Global Advisors
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Dan Bogler is President & Editor of Medley Global Advisors. He joined from the Financial Times, where he spent the previous 15 years. He joined the FT as a Lex columnist based in London and then New York and also worked as Asia News Editor in Hong Kong, Financial Editor of the FT Deutschland in Frankfurt and as Head of the Lex Column before becoming Managing Editor in 2005. Mr Bogler had a brief spell as speechwriter for the president & COO of Goldman Sachs in New York and early on worked for the Daily Telegraph in London. He holds a first class degree in Modern History from Oxford University.
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| 04:25 |
ALLOCATING THE ASSETS: MANAGER SELECTION AND INVESTOR CONSULTANT ISSUES |
• What is Alpha?
• What are the top allocation criteria for investors: performance?, risk management?, AUM?, reputation?, liquidity?, management team?, operational platform?
• What degree of due diligence is sufficient and when it is 'enough'?
• Are watermarks and performance hurdles back?
• The outlook for capital raising in 2011
Moderator: Jeremy Lieberman, Partner, Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross
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Mr. Lieberman graduated from Fordham University School of Law in 2002. While in law school, Mr. Lieberman served as a staff member of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. Upon graduation, Mr. Lieberman began his career at Chadbourne & Parke LLP as a litigation associate, where he specialized in complex commercial liability and product liability actions.
At Pomerantz, Mr. Lieberman is the lead partner in a number of high profile securities class actions, including: In re Comverse Technology, Inc. Securities Litigation, 06-CV-1825 (E.D.N.Y.) (NGG) (RER) In re PXRE Securities Litigation, 06-cv-3410 (S.D.N.Y.) (RJS), and In re Perrigo Co. Sec. Litig., 06-CV-3410 (S.D.N.Y.). Mr. Lieberman regularly consults with foreign pension schemes and investment houses regarding their rights under the U.S. securities laws. Mr. Lieberman is a member of the New York State Bar Association and is admitted to practice law in the District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mr. Lieberman is a member of the Professional Circle of the Jewish National Fund.
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Speakers:
Bruce Lipnick, Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board, Asset Alliance Corporation
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Bruce H. Lipnick is Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Asset Alliance Corporation (“Asset Alliance”). He is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Asset Alliance Advisors, Inc. He has an extensive background in alternative investments with over 35 years of experience in the investment management and financial services industries, and was a pioneer in utilizing various hedging techniques in portfolio management in the early 1970’s through the 1980’s. Among other affiliate manager-related activities, Mr. Lipnick serves on the Board of Directors of Wessex Asset Management Limited, a UK based hedge fund manager as well as on the board of many of Asset Alliance's subsidiary and sponsored funds. He is also a member of the Asset Alliance Investment Committee, Transaction Structuring Committee and Co-CIO of the Asset Alliance Manager Participation Fund.
Prior to founding Asset Alliance, Mr. Lipnick served as principal, general partner and senior executive officer for several investment management organizations including Wharton Management Group, Inc., which he founded in 1982 and also served as president. Mr. Lipnick is a member of the Advisory Council of the Milken Institute California Center and of the Advisory Board of the Eco Power Conference in Brazil. He is also a member of United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Speaker’s Cabinet, and in 2002 he received Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Mr. Lipnick is a supporter of the New Combinations Fund for the New York City Ballet and a supporter of the School of American Ballet at Lincoln Center. He is also a patron of MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a past Dinner Chairman of Petra Nemcova’s Happy Hearts Fund and a board member of Hedge Funds Care.
In 2008, Mr. Lipnick received the Lifetime Humanitarian Award for Giving from Hedge Funds Care. Earlier in his career, Mr. Lipnick was President and Founder of the Elms Companies and was Vice President of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., a merchant investment bank, in addition to founding and serving as President of Pierpont Management, Inc., a family office. Mr. Lipnick received a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Long Island University in 1969. Mr. Lipnick has directly or indirectly owned or operated seats on several major U.S. Securities and Commodities Exchanges.
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Sara Grillo, CFA, Diamond Oak Capital Advisors, LLC
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Ms. Grillo has performed extensive quantitative research, modeling, and due diligence at three funds of hedge funds. Her 12 years of industry experience include work at Lehman Brothers and JPMorgan, and internships at Fidelity Investments and Merrill Lynch.
Ms. Grillo earned a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from NYU Stern School of Business, and is a CFA charterholder . She is a member of the New York Society of Securities Analysts' Alternative Investment Committee. She is an avid author on the subject of alternative investments. In 2005, she authored a piece on the statistical aberrations in risk monitoring of hedge fund strategies, which was published in London’s Investor Services Journal. Her writings on alternative investments have appeared in several publications devoted to the space.
Ms. Grillo is an adjunct professor of finance and speaks Spanish and mentors younger women and minorities.
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Matthew Storm, Co-Founder, CV Advisors, LLC.
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Matthew Storm co-founded CV Advisors, a multi-family office that caters to endowments, foundations and families, in 2007. At CV, Matthew manages client relationships and he also focuses on portfolio risk management.
Prior to joining CV, he served as head of investing for a $1 billion family office / fund of funds, Crystal Advisors LLC, where he worked for six years. Prior to Crystal, he worked at Monitor Group, a leading global strategy consulting firm in the US, the EU and Turkey. He graduated from UPENN with a BA in 1994 and an MBA from the Wharton School in 2000.
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05:00 Conclusion & Drinks Reception
Please note: Speakers and agenda are subject to change without notice.
* Tentative