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BlueCrest’s Leda Braga is to leave the USD27bn hedge fund operation to separately run her USD8.3bn systematic fund BlueTrend, plus the smaller BlueMatrix fund, under a new company called Systematica Investments.
Systematica Investments will be majority-owned by Braga and her team, with BlueCrest holding a minority economic interest. Braga’s 100-strong team will continue to be based in Geneva. The move will allow Braga and her team to concentrate on developing systematic trading strategies with competitive fee structures.
BlueCrest founder Mike Platt will continue to oversee the company’s remaining USD17.8bn of AuM, including the AllBlue and BlueCrest Capital International funds.
PIMCO co-founder and CIO William H Gross is leaving the firm to join Janus Capital Group where he will manage the recently launched Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and related strategies.
Gross joins Myron Scholes, PhD, and other members of the Janus team focused on global asset allocation. His employment will be effective 29 September, 2014 and he will begin managing the Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and related strategies from 6 October, 2014.
PIMCO has a succession plan in place and its Management Board, comprised of its Managing Directors, is expected to confirm shortly the election of a new
Lombard Odier Investment Managers (LOIM) has appointed Andrea Argenti as country head for its business in Italy, effective December 2014.
Argenti joins from BlackRock Investment Management where he spent the last 14 years and since 2006 was head of retail Italy for that business.
Before joining BlackRock in 2000, Argenti was a sales manager at Société Générale Asset Management in Milan and began his career at Alcor, Solvay Group.
He will be based in Milan and report to Hubert Keller, chief executive of LOIM and a managing partner of Lombard Odier.
“Italy is a key market for
Deloitte has strengthened its hedge fund practice with two key appointments for the UK and EMEA regions.
Chris Farkas joins Deloitte as UK hedge fund leader. He was Deutsche Bank’s European head of hedge fund consulting in its prime brokerage group, working with global top 100 hedge funds and significant hedge fund start-ups.
Prior to Deutsche Bank, Farkas was head of sales at GlobeOp and executive director on the Goldman Sachs European hedge fund consulting team.
Farkas’ appointment follows the announcement that Deloitte’s Brian Forrester will take on the role of hedge fund leader for the Europe, Middle
BTIG is expanding its futures and commodities desk with the hires of Eric Silverman and Jordan Lichtenstein.
Silverman and Lichtenstein are based in BTIG’s New York office and will report to Robert Gagnon, head of commodity futures.
“These hires complement the expertise of the futures and commodities desk and will broaden our reach into the energy segment of the futures and OTC market,” says Gagnon. “Between Eric’s buy-side experience and Jordan’s sell-side experience, we can offer our clients balanced insight from both the institutional and commercial client base.”
BTIG launched its futures and commodities trading desk in 2010
SEI has appointed Andrew Daly to the firm’s US institutional advisory team.
Daly serves as a client investment strategist and is responsible for working with SEI's institutional retirement, foundation, endowment, and healthcare clients on their alternative portfolio strategies, providing strategic advice on various investment vehicles for their unique goals and objectives.
The role is new to the advisory team and was created to support the expansion of SEI's alternatives solution for its investment outsourcing business. SEI currently has more than 475 institutional outsourcing clients worldwide, representing USD74.1 billion in assets under management.
"As SEI's investment outsourcing business continues
International law firm Akin Gump has appointed four partners from Bingham McCutcheon in the firm’s corporate, restructuring and funds practices in London and Hong Kong.
The new partners are: Vance Chapman (corporate, London), Thomas John Holton (funds, London), Matthew Puhar (corporate, Hong Kong) and Thiha Tun (funds, London).
These practitioners join 22 partners from Bingham McCutchen who, as announced on September 17, will be joining Akin Gump in London, Hong Kong and Frankfurt over the coming weeks.
Akin Gump chairperson Kim Koopersmith says: “We were thrilled with our announcement last week, and the chance to welcome these additional
The Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), the global hedge fund industry association, has formed a new AIMA Council, its global board of directors.
The former US SEC commissioner Kathleen Casey (pictured) continues as non-executive chairman.
The newly elected members of the AIMA Council are:
· Karl Wachter, general counsel, Magnetar Capital;
· Eva Sanchez, general counsel, Citadel Europe; and
· Choo San Yeoh, director, Albourne Partners (Asia).
Those continuing their directorships of AIMA are:
· Olwyn Alexander, partner, EMEA hedge funds leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers;
· Andrew Bastow, vice-president – head of European structuring and regulatory affairs, AQR
Sussex Partners, a specialist advisory firm focused on alternative investments, has appointed Frederic Neefs as a partner of the firm.
Neefs was for 14 years head of investments for Credit Agricole Asset Management where he co-headed the development of a series of fund of hedge funds, the "Greenway Funds", totalling over EUR20 billion in AUM.
Most recently, Neefs was a partner of Lozé & Associes, a Paris based capital introduction company and parent company of fund of funds business Alternative Leaders, for which Neefs acted as chief investment officer.
Neefs has more than 30 years' experience of the
BlueBay Asset Management, a manager of fixed income and alternative investments, has appointed Wike Groenenberg in the newly-created role of alternatives strategy director – macro.
Groenenberg will head up the strategy direction of the BlueBay Macro Fund as well as the fund’s investor relations function.
Groenenberg was previously managing director and head of emerging markets strategy at Citi in London, responsible for devising investment themes and generating specific directional and relative value trade ideas as well as marketing those ideas to a wide range of investors.
“I’m delighted Wike will be supporting our team,” says Neil Phillips, partner
