People
Abacus Financial Services Group (AFSG) has appointed David Stevenson as business development director.
Based in the Isle of Man and Malta, Stevenson will work closely with chief executive officer Paul Kneen, to promote Abacus’ current services offering and explore new business opportunities.
Kneen says: “I am delighted to welcome David to AFSG. David has a wealth of experience in the financial services industry and a proactive attitude to doing business; David will prove invaluable to Abacus and our efforts to maintain our position as a leader in our field.”
Prior to joining Abacus, Stevenson worked in a variety
The Qatar Financial Centre Authority has appointed Yousef Abdulla Fakhroo as director of marketing and corporate communications.
Fakhroo was previously global communications manager at Qatar Petroleum International.
He has also held senior marketing and communications positions at RasGas and Vodafone Qatar, and Qatar Foundation.
Fakhroo says: “I am honoured to be appointed to this important role. The QFC Authority has a strong story to tell and I am looking forward to help communicate it and to contributing to the continued growth of the QFC as it attracts domestic, regional and international firms to its world-class business environment.”
Yousef
Following the retirement of Appleby British Virgin Islands (BVI) office managing partner Michael Burns earlier this year, Hong Kong-based partner Jeffrey Kirk has been appointed to assume the leadership.
Kirk and his family will relocate to the BVI from the Hong Kong office, where he has practised corporate and commercial law for the past five years, in early July.
Kirk has been with the Appleby Group since 2007, first practising out of its London and subsequently Bermuda offices before moving to the Hong Kong office in 2009. In addition to being admitted to practice in the BVI, Kirk has
Timothy Massad has been officially sworn in as the chairman of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal agency that oversees the commodity futures, options and swaps industry.
Massad (pictured), who will assumes his responsibilities immediately, joined the agency after serving as the assistant secretary for financial stability at the US Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the principal US governmental response to the 2008 financial crisis designed to help stabilise the economy and provide help to homeowners.
Prior to joining Treasury, Massad served as a legal advisor
High alpha boutique Argonaut Capital Partners, a specialist in managing European equities, has appointed Keith Speck as sales manager, London & Europe.
Speck joins Argonaut from Baker Tilly Investment Solutions (previously RSM Tenon Investment Solutions), where he led the investment team.
Prior to RSM Tenon, Speck was head of multi-manager at Santander Asset Management, with responsibility for managing the bank’s multi-manager fund ranges, and assets under management in excess of GBP3bn. Speck also managed a fund range for an institutional client, and was responsible for launching the bank’s Portfolio Investments range of funds.
Starting his investment career at
BCS Financial Group, the largest broker of equities and derivatives on the Moscow exchange, has appointed Dr. Vladimir Tikhomirov as its new chief economist.
Tikhomirov will help drive strategic decisions in the BCS Financial Group and will lend his economic weight to helping to grow the business.
Tikhomirov joins BCS from Otkritie Financial Corporation where he has worked as chief economist since 2010. He was also chief economist at at URALSIB Financial Corporation and NIKOIL Brokerage which he joined in 2001.
Joseph Dayan, executive director and head of markets at BCS Financial Group, says: “As BCS continues to
Institutional asset manager Insight Investment has appointed Svein Floden as head of business development for liquid alternatives in the Americas.
Based in New York, he will report to Philip Anker, global head of distribution at Insight.
Floden (pictured) will be responsible for developing products and implementing a distribution plan for Insight’s liquid alternatives, total return and absolute return products across the Americas.
Floden joins Insight from Deutsche Bank Asset and Wealth Management where he has spent the past 14 years, most recently as head of hedge fund sales and marketing for wealth management Americas and director of institutional alternatives
BDO, the accountancy and business advisory firm, has promoted Alex Ellerton and Vanessa Bradley to partner in the firm’s financial services team.
Bradley trained with BDO and qualified as a chartered accountant in 2000. She undertook a two year secondment to BDO USA where she specialised in hedge funds and investment management and qualified as a US certified public accountant. Bradley returned to London in 2003 and was promoted to director in 2012. She has broad audit and advisory experience in private equity, funds, investment management and broker dealers.
Ellerton trained with Deloitte and has spent 14 years providing risk
ERI Scientific Beta, the smart beta index provider offshoot of EDHEC-Risk Institute, has named its international executive team covering the ERI Scientific Beta locations in Boston, London, Nice, Paris, Singapore and Tokyo.
Noël Amenc, PhD, is member of the ERI Scientific Beta management board and CEO. Professor of finance at EDHEC Business School, where he heads EDHEC-Risk Institute, Amenc has conducted active research in the fields of quantitative equity management, portfolio performance analysis, and active asset allocation, resulting in numerous academic and practitioner articles and books. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Portfolio Management,
Euronext, a wholly owned subsidiary of IntercontinentalExchange Group (ICE), has appointed Jos Dijsselhof as chief operating officer with effect from 1 July 2014, pending regulatory approvals.
His role will be to ensure seamless and orderly operations across Euronext’s pan-European markets.
Dijsselhof (pictured) has more than 20 years’ experience in the financial industry. Until this appointment, he was general manager group hubs at Australia and New Zealand Bank (ANZ) based in Singapore, where he created and expanded ANZ’s integrated network of offshore services for banking operations, shared services, technology and corporate functions. This covered 9,000 staff from India, the Philippines, China and
