Broadmark Asset Management has appointed Ricardo L. Cortez as president of global distribution.

Working out of Broadmark's New York office, Cortez will oversee the expansion of Broadmark's investment products worldwide with respect to direct sales, as well as the creation of strategic distribution partnerships with financial institutions.

"Broadmark is very fortunate to land a professional of Rick's calibre," says Chris Guptill, chief executive and chief investment officer of Broadmark. "He brings his unique expertise in alternative and absolute return investing to a marketplace starved for exceptional alternative investment management. He will be instrumental in product development and strategic placement and distribution. We couldn't be more pleased."

Cortez has more than 25 years of investment experience in the investment management industry. Most recently, he spent eight years as president of the private client group for Torrey Associates, based in New York City. 

Prior to that, he was vice president at Goldman Sachs and product manager for the Goldman's external money manager programme, Global Multi-Manager Strategies.

Before joining Goldman, Cortez spent 11 years at Prudential Investments as a senior vice president overseeing product development, communications, and sales for the investment management services division. 

Broadmark, an investment adviser focused on providing strategies that outperform the equity markets, recently partnered with Forward Management to offer separately managed accounts based on the Broadmark long short strategy. Forward, which also took an ownership position in Broadmark as part of the agreement, recently launched the new Forward Tactical Growth Fund, a mutual fund that is sub-advised by the investment team at Broadmark.