Penso Advisors (Penso), a New York-based manager and advisory boutique specialising in discretionary macro and risk mitigating strategies, has established a Advisory Board, whose inaugural members include Alan Howard, Co-Founder of Brevan Howard, Raymond Kanner, former CIO of IBM Retirement Funds’ system and Mike Edleson, former CRO of The University of Chicago Office of Investments.
The Advisory Board will serve as external advisors to the firm, providing expert perspectives on global macro investing, investment operations and institutional risk and portfolio management.
“We are delighted that these three distinguished industry veterans have joined our newly established Penso Advisory Board,” says Ari Bergmann, Founder and CIO of Penso Advisors.
Jaime Shechter, Senior Managing Director & COO of Penso Advisors, adds: “In the current unprecedented post-COVID market environment, we’ve seen strong interest from institutional investors for our multi-asset derivatives approach to risk mitigation, given their desire for strategies that can be swiftly monetised after volatility spikes while maintaining downside protection for secondary drawdowns. Having known each of these individuals for many years, we’re excited to be able to utilise their world class experience and expertise for the benefit of our client base.”
Alan Howard is the Co-Founder of Brevan Howard, one of the world’s leading global macro absolute return managers. Since its inception in 2002, Brevan Howard has become known for its combination of rigorous fundamental macro research and uncompromising focus on risk management. Penso’s investment team will benefit from Howard’s outside perspective on macro investing. Brevan Howard holds a non-controlling minority stake in Penso.
Raymond Kanner was formerly the Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of IBM’s global Retirement Funds’ system, where he spent 9 years as its CIO, overseeing approximately USD150 billion of IBM pension and savings funds worldwide. Under his leadership he grew the plan to be one of the best funded one in North America. He will provide the Penso team with advice and perspectives on operations, compliance and marketing, formed by his experiences of dealing with hundreds of managers over his career.
Mike Edleson was formerly the Chief Risk Officer for the University of Chicago Endowment, a position he had held since 2010, recently retiring to Emeritus status. From 2003-2010, Edleson ran risk management globally for four major divisions of Morgan Stanley. Mike’s subject matter expertise across risk and portfolio management is a strong complement to Penso’s focus on risk mitigating strategies for institutional investors.
“As a client of Penso for almost a decade, I was always impressed by their creative, cost-effective, smart and successful solutions for adding much-needed convexity to our portfolio,” says Mike Edleson. “I’m pleased to now contribute to this as part of Penso’s Advisory Board.”
