Maria C Ricci has joined KStone Partners as senior managing director and member of the firm. Ricci will focus on business development and on raising awareness of KStone’s funds of hedge funds with family offices, individual investors and institutions. Joseph H Marren, president and chief executive of KStone Partners, says: “We are delighted to have Maria join the team and given her history of success we are confident that she will provide our investors with an exceptional level of service.” Ricci has over ten years of experience working with high net worth individuals, wealth advisers and leading institutions. Previously, she

Dalia Cohen and Eric Storch have joined Oak Hill Advisors as managing directors. Cohen (pictured) joined the firm on 1 August as managing director and head of investor relations, a new role within the client coverage group. Storch joined the firm last week as managing director and has taken on senior responsibilities relating to the firm’s business development, client coverage and marketing activities. Bill Bohnsack, president of OHA, says: "Dalia and Eric have been hired at a time of significant growth in demand for the firm’s distressed and performing credit investment capabilities. Dalia brings more than two decades of experience,

Direct Access Partners, a diversified institutional financial services enterprise, has acquired the listed equity derivative trading team from IA Englander.  The Direct Access options team will focus on dynamic hedging, yield enhancement, stock replacement and volatility strategies for client portfolios. The team will implement its strategies through listed equity derivatives, including single stock, ETF and index options.  They will be fully integrated into the firm’s equity and fixed income trading teams.   The team joining Direct Access from IA Englander includes Harry Silver, Mark Neuberger, Martin Field and Steven Goldfarb. Each team member has over 20 years of option trading

Investment specialist Dalton Strategic Partnership (DSP) has appointed Eleanor Lee as an analyst to work on its European equities team. Lee is based in London and reports to Leonard Charlton, head of the European equity team and fund manager of the Melchior European and Melchior Selected Trust European Absolute Return Funds.  She joins David Robinson, Benjamin Billiard and Keith Busuttil working on the Melchior European equity long short strategies.   In addition to absolute return products, DSP’s European equities team also manages the Melchior Selected Trust European Opportunities Fund, a top decile long-only European equity fund that has outperformed the

The Hedge Fund Association, an international organisation that represents investors, hedge funds and service providers, has appointed Don Steinbrugge, chairman of Agecroft Partners, to its board of directors.  Steinbrugge (pictured) will join the segment of the group’s board which represents the interests of hedge fund investors.  The HFA also selected Joel Schwab, managing director of Hedge Fund Research (HFA), to be its new Midwest chapter director and Kislay (Sal) Shah of McGladrey to fill the newly created role of Connecticut chapter director. Shah also continues to serve on HFA’s board of directors representing the interests of hedge fund service providers.

Cheyne Capital Management (UK) has appointed Arron Taggart to its real estate debt team. Taggart is joining Cheyne as loan originator in the real estate debt team, which is headed by Shamez Alibhai and Ravi Stickney.   Shamez Alibhai (pictured), partner at Cheyne Capital, says: “Arron’s significant experience across the real estate sector will help us to develop our loan origination strategy in the UK and Northern Europe. He will be a great asset to the team as we continue to develop our real estate debt activities and take advantage of the investment opportunity arising from the dislocation in the

Ardel has put in place a new senior management team as it looks to further grow the range of trust, corporate and fund administration services it offers its international client base. Rick Brooks (pictured) has been made chief executive officer of Ardel. Having joined the company as chief operating officer in 2004, Brooks will take on overall responsibility for strategic and tactical corporate development, product development, strategic business intelligence and operational management across Ardel’s business areas and jurisdictions. With over 30 years’ experience in fiduciary management, private banking administration and relationship management, Brooks has worked for over 20 years in

Newedge has made two appointments in its alternative investment solutions (AIS) group, a part of Newedge’s prime clearing services. Leslie Richman and Duncan Crawford have been appointed co-global head alternative investment solutions. Richman is based in Chicago and has been leading alternative investment solutions in the US for nearly two decades. Crawford is based in London and has run capital introductions globally for the past 12 years. Previously, he held various senior management and trading roles with Newedge and its predecessor firms since 1991. Keith Johnson has been appointed global head of capital introductions, based in Chicago. He was previously