Sands Brothers Asset Management has hired Christopher Kelly, who has more than 25 years of corporate and securities law experience, as its chief operating and compliance officer, responsible for overseeing all compliance-related issues and the business practices of investment strategies including equity, venture, credit and alternative investments.

'As we build the Sands Brothers platform, we are committed to providing our investors and portfolio companies with transparency and the highest quality operational infrastructure,' says senior portfolio manager Martin Sands, who co-founded and manages the firm with his brother Steven.

'During his career, Chris has handled more than USD10bn of M&A transactions and securities offerings, giving us yet another seasoned and powerful perspective on the team. His role will be an important one as our firm grows and diversifies into new areas of investment.'

At Pirate Capital, a USD1.8bn hedge fund manager, Kelly was general counsel and chief compliance officer, having been a managing director, general counsel and chief compliance officer of Cypress Associates, a New York-based boutique investment bank he co-founded. He joined Cypress from international law firm Proskauer Rose, having begun his career in New York with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Founded in 1999, Sands Brothers Asset Management provides investment management and advisory services to institutional and high net worth clients worldwide. The firm provides investment advisory services to Genesis Merchant Partners, an asset-based and secured lending fund, the Select Access group of funds of hedge funds, the Venture Funds, a group of venture capital funds, and the LLC Companies, a series of limited liability companies formed for specific alternative investments.