NIR Group, an alternative investment firm, has appointed David Ratzker as portfolio manager to head the firm’s structured equity investments.

Concept Capital, an institutional broker and total solutions provider for global investment managers, has appointed K.

Sprott Asset Management’s senior portfolio manager, Jean-Francois Tardif, has expressed his intention to retire on 7 July.

Overlay Asset Management, a currency management specialist, has appointed Philip Bond as head of research. Bond has 18 years’ experience in financial markets, both as a quantitative researcher and trader.   He becomes chairman of OAM’s research committee and reports to Hélie d’Hautefort, managing director and chief investment officer of OAM. Bond is also a member of OAM’s investment and executive committees. He will coordinate and oversee OAM’s research team.   During his career, Bond has worked for Credit Suisse and JP Morgan as an arbitrage trader. He developed quantitative trading strategies at Brevan Howard and managed a systematic trading

Ralph Schlosstein has joined Evercore as president and chief executive officer.

Harmonic Capital Partners, a hedge fund manager which employs relative value and technical trading strategies, has appointed Patrik Säfvenblad as an investment partner.

JonesTrading Institutional Services, a brokerage providing institutions with block trading, has hired a derivatives team.

NuWave Investment Management, an alternative investment manager specialising in the application of quantitative investment strategies, has hired Craig Weynand as managing director of bu

IndexIQ, a developer of index-based alternative investment solutions, has added Kevin D. DiSano and Andrew M.

Gain Capital Holdings, a global provider of online foreign exchange (trading services, has appointed Jane Foley as research director, Forex.com. The addition of London-based Foley to Gain’s global research team supports the company’s recently announced expansion of Forex.com into the UK and Europe.   With 20 years’ experience analysing financial markets, Foley will provide Forex.com’s customer base of self-directed retail investors actionable insights on current market themes, with analysis of economic backdrops, central bank policy and political issues. She will work closely with Brian Dolan, Forex.com’s chief currency strategist, and other members of the research team to ensure round the