Howard B Rubin, CFA, has joined Midwood Capital Management LLC, as chief operating officer and managing member.

Midwood Capital Management LLC, established in 2003, manages Midwood Capital Partners, LP a value-driven, small-cap and micro-cap focused Investment Partnership.

“I am very pleased to be joining David Cohen and Ross DeMont at Midwood Capital Management,” says Rubin. “They have done an excellent job since 2003 of producing attractive returns with modest net exposure and low correlation to traditional market indices. I am looking forward to combining their strong product with my experience in building “institutional-quality” investment firms. I am excited about the prospect of growing our organisation and assets substantially over the next few years.”

Cohen, managing member and portfolio manager, says: “We viewed the potential to retain Howard Rubin as a unique opportunity to enhance the strength of our team. Howard’s experience in building appropriate infrastructure and connecting strong products with relevant investors of all types presented a compelling opportunity.”

Ross D DeMont, Managing Member and Portfolio Manager, says: “We believe that by combining Howard’s domain expertise with our strong historical performance, that 2012 will be a breakout year for Midwood Capital.”

Midwood Capital’s Partners, LP has produced net returns to investors of 12.2% for 2011 and 11.4% annualised since inception in December 2003.

Rubin was previously the co-founder, managing partner and chief operating officer of Tara Hill Capital Management LP and founder, senior managing partner and co-portfolio manager of Boldwater Capital Management, both Boston-based long/short hedge fund firms. Prior to Boldwater, Rubin was a director and member of the executive committee at Standish, Ayer & Wood (now Standish Mellon Asset Management), an institutional money management firm.

“There continues to be growing interest among both high net worth and institutional investors in hedge funds, especially in niche liquid US long/short equity strategies that can generate meaningful alpha with little to no leverage,” says Rubin.

Midwood Capital uses Goldman, Sachs as its prime broker, DB Alternative Fund Services as its administrator, KPMG as its outside auditor, and Foley Hoag as its legal counsel.