Sky Road, a managed services provider of customisable trading and risk solutions, has opened a New York City office to better service both domestic and international institutions.   The expansion comes on the heels of recent new client successes and strong headcount growth, including the addition of Richard Itri who will serve as principal and lead the office.   The staff additions associated with the New York office opening increase Sky Road’s headcount by 32 per cent and add resources to the client services and engineering teams supporting both new and existing clients.   Dr John E Borse, founder and

Athena International Management, an independent directorship services provider in the Cayman Islands, has expanded its team and its geographic reach to include New York.   Daniel Strachman, a financial services expert with more than 17 years of Wall Street experience, has joined Athena to provide corporate governance services to the alternative investment fund industry.   Throughout his extensive career in financial services, Strachman has worked with both traditional and alternative investment funds in product development, marketing, institutional brokerage and investment management at firms including Cantor Fitzgerald & Company, Morgan Stanley & Company and The Orbitex Group of Funds.   “Athena

SS&C Technologies, a provider of financial services software and software-enabled services, has appointed Michael Daniels to the company’s board of directors.   "Michael Daniels is widely recognised for his contribution in helping to build IBM’s Global Services business. He brings significant knowledge and a wealth of expertise gained over his extensive career at IBM,” says Bill Stone, chairman and chief executive officer, SS&C Technologies. “His contribution as a member of the SS&C Board will be invaluable as we continue building a global business built on world class systems and integrating them with subject matter expertise.”   Daniels (pictured) retired from

EEA Fund Management has brought on board Oriel Asset Management duo David Urch and Tim Hall and added their long/short directional UK equity market fund and its long-biased sister strategy to the firm’s product range.   The high-conviction, multi-cap UK funds have been renamed the EEA Absolute Return Fund and TB EEA UK Equity Market Fund.   The EEA Absolute Return Fund is a Cayman-domiciled long/short directional equity fund, launched in August 2009. It has a bottom-up investment approach, underpinning an active momentum strategy focused on identifying and harnessing positive change in UK-listed companies. The managers source ideas from across

HSBC Global Asset Management (USA) has appointed Mary Bowers as a senior global high yield fund manager in its global fixed income team, based in New York. The team manages approximately USD3bn in the high yield capability. Bowers will manage the HSBC GIF Global High Yield Bond Fund and the recently launched HSBC GIF Global Short Duration High Yield Bond Fund which have USD1.1bn and USD20m in assets respectively. Bowers joins from Aberdeen Asset Management/Artio Global Investors (formerly Julius Baer Asset Management) in New York, where she had ten years of experience in global high yield portfolio management, co-managing approximately

ConvergEx Group, a provider of global brokerage and trading-related services, has appointed Oliver Bailly as a senior vice president and head of its ETF desk.   Miguel Ruiz has joined the firm as a senior vice president on its global portfolio desk.   Based in New York, Bailly and Ruiz will report to James Bossert and Sean Wagner, co-heads of ConvergEx’s global portfolio and ETF execution business.    "Oliver and Miguel are highly respected professionals and bring a wealth of ETF and portfolio expertise to ConvergEx Group," says Craig Lax (pictured), ConvergEx Group executive managing director and head of global

Custom House Global Fund Services, a provider of financial services to the alternative investment sector, has opened a New York office and expanded its business development team. Custom House now has seven global locations, over USD40bn of assets under administration and 200 staff. Joining Custom House in New York is Peter McCulloch and Anthony Stanziano as commercial directors. Both positions will report to Scott Price, head of sales for the Americas, who is located in the company’s US headquarters in Chicago. Internally, Greg Colanto has also been promoted to commercial director in Chicago. “The opening of a New York office

HSBC Securities Services (HSS) has made key appointments in sales for North America and Europe. Kevin Skorzewski joins as head of sales for North America. In this new role, Skorzewski will be responsible for building out HSBC’s securities services franchise in the region and will focus on serving the complex needs of asset managers in North America. He will work closely with the product, sales and business development functions to ensure effective delivery of its global platform to clients in the region. Skorzewski will be located in New York. Skorzewski joins from JP Morgan Chase, where he held the role

Federated Investors has expanded its capabilities in trade finance and emerging market debt with added personnel at its London office.  Three investment professionals specialising in trade finance strategies and two specialists in emerging-market strategies have joined Federated Investors (UK).  In addition, Christopher P McGinley, portfolio manager and senior investment analyst, will relocate to London from Federated’s corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh to lead Federated’s trade finance effort in the UK. The new personnel in London will supplement Federated’s experienced trade finance and emerging-market portfolio managers and analysts in the US. "We look forward to continuing to help clients interested in opportunities for