Sciens Fund of Funds Management Holdings, part of the Sciens Capital Management Group and provider of single- and multi-strategy funds of funds and managed account services, today announces the recent appointment of two senior members to its London-based team. Dr Stavros Siokos, formerly of Citigroup and Piraeus Group, has joined as President and Michael Hart joins from bfinance as Senior Marketing Director.
In his new role, Dr Siokos is responsible for the general management of the fund of funds and the managed account platform businesses based in London, Guernsey and Zurich. He is a member of Sciens’ Investment Committee and reports to John Rigas, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Group.
Mr Rigas commented, “I am delighted to welcome Stavros as President of the Firm. He brings extensive expertise in quantitative strategies, risk and investment management which will provide invaluable guidance for both our clients and internal teams. As we grow our business, his long experience in
successfully initiating and developing new activities will be very valuable to us.”
Dr Siokos formerly spent 13 years serving as managing director within the equities division of Citigroup in London, where he was global head of alternative execution sales (program trading, algorithmic trading, Direct Market Access), global head of pre and post trade analytics, global head of portfolio trading strategies, as well as European head of the company’s pension funds and insurance companies’ structured solutions for equities. During that period, he and his teams were top ranked in most of the major global and European investment quantitative research surveys.
Subsequently, he was head of investment management for Piraeus Bank in Greece where he was Chairman of Piraeus Asset Management and Piraeus Equity Advisors, the private equity and venture capital arms of the Piraeus Group, both of which he initiated and implemented. He was also Chairman of Piraeus Wealth Management, a joint venture between the Piraeus Bank and BNP Paribas Wealth Management.
Dr Siokos holds an electrical and computer engineering diploma from the University of Patras, Greece, as well as a master’s degree in the same field and a PhD in operations research (with the focus on financial engineering) from the University of Massachusetts.
In his role as Senior Marketing Director, Michael Hart is responsible for institutional business development in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia and reports to Dr Siokos.
Prior to joining Sciens, Mr Hart worked for bfinance for ten years where he was responsible for the development of the institutional pension fund business in the United Kingdom and Ireland. During this time, bfinance grew its market share to become a major player in the UK investment consulting landscape.
Earlier in his career, Mr Hart worked for Morley Fund Management in institutional business development having previously held a variety of business development roles in New York and London, namely in Herrige Warren, Whale and Daniel Smith.
Mr Hart holds a BSc Hons Land Administration (Property Law and Finance) from the University of Westminster in London.
Dr Siokos said, “We’re very pleased to welcome Michael to the team. His experience and knowledge of the UK and Irish pension fund market will greatly help us to provide products and services tailored to their requirements. We believe that we can play a greater role in advising and assisting pension funds
to incorporate alternative investments into their portfolio and help them to understand and manage the risks involved.”
