Effie Datson is Senior Managing Director and Head of Hedge Funds at UBP, which she joined in April 2018. Prior to joining UBP, Effie spent more than 25 years in the hedge fund industry with major banks and financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, as well as high-profile allocators and quantitative hedge funds and CTAs. She has expertise in product and business development for complex financial solutions across hedge funds, derivatives and structured products, and investment expertise in multi-hedge fund portfolios. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA magna cum laude from Harvard College. She was a founder & board member of the 100 Women in Hedge Funds (now, 100 Women in Finance) organisation in EMEA for 15 years.

Odi is the CEO of MJ Hudson Allenbridge, the Investment Advisory Division at MJ Hudson. He also acts as an adviser to pension funds, family offices, wealth management firms and charities. Odi is trustee director and the Chair of the Investment Sub-Committee of a FTSE250 corporate pension scheme, a Director of a Dutch Private Markets ESG Advisory company and is a Non-executive Director of a European asset manager. As an investment professional, Odi has, over the past several years, specialised in alternative investments and their application for institutional investors. More broadly his career has been centred on investment management, risk and governance. He has worked primarily in the private sector, but also spent a number of years in the public sector, in supervision at the Canadian financial regulator OSFI. Prior to forming Allenbridge, he was a Vice President and Head of the Alternative Investment Group at Moody’s Investors Service in London.

Stephen Oxley is a Managing Director and Partner and is involved in all stages of the investment process. He also manages institutional client relationships. Prior to joining PAAMCO, Stephen was a partner and Senior Investment Consultant at Watson Wyatt, LLP in London, where he provided investment advice to a number of large pension fund clients. In addition, he was head of the hedge fund research team and took part in the management of that firm’s investment practice. Stephen is a frequent guest speaker at investment conferences and writes regularly in various industry publications. In 2012 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Hedge Funds Review in recognition of his longstanding service to and championship of the global Fund of Hedge Funds industry. He has completed the three investment management programs at London Business School and in addition holds the Investment Management Certificate. Stephen has thirty-one years of investment management experience with institutional investors.

Helen Thomas CFA has almost two decades of experience working in financial markets for banks and fund managers. Most recently she was Head of Currency Alpha at SSGA. She was also an adviser to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and Director of the Financial Markets Reform Programme at Policy Exchange. She’s a Board Member of CFA UK and a Freeman of the City of London.

Stuart MacDonald serves as Trustee or in an Advisory capacity with several Charities, Community and Arts organisations, with which his engagement ranges from governance and financial management to outreach and fund raising. Professionally, he is Managing Partner at Bride Valley Partners. Bride Valley Partners works on corporate finance, advisory and capital raising mandates for companies, funds and projects across a range of alternative investments and bankable technologies. He has won several industry awards and is often invited to Chair or Moderate at top alternative investment conferences. Stuart presents the award-winning alternative investments radio show, the Naked Short Club on London's Resonance (104.4 FM in London or www.resonancefm.com, worldwide). He was for several years Visiting Lecturer in Political Economy at London University.

George Osborne is the Editor of the London Evening Standard and he is an adviser to BlackRock Investment Institute. 
 
George served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 - one of the longest periods anyone has held the office. Following the successful election of a Conservative Government in 2015, he served as First Secretary of State. As a prominent campaigner for Britain to remain in the EU, George left the government in July 2016 following the outcome of the referendum.

During his time as Chancellor the fortunes of the British economy dramatically improved, and George left office with the strongest growth record in the G7, the deficit greatly reduced, corporate tax rates at a record low and the employment rate at an all-time high. He also oversaw major reforms including: the regeneration of the north of England through the 'Northern Powerhouse'; forging a new 'golden era' of relations with China; and an overhaul of the UK pension and welfare systems.

On his appointment in May 2010, George was the youngest Chancellor since Randolph Churchill in 1886. Prior to that he was elected as the youngest Conservative MP in 2001, he served as Shadow Chancellor for five years, ran David Cameron's successful campaign to become Leader of the Conservative Party and helped negotiate the formation of Britain's first Coalition Government since the Second World War.

George is also the Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a not-for-profit organisation he established with business and civic leaders to promote economic development in the North of England. He is the inaugural Kissinger Fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership.

In August 2016, George was made a Companion of Honour by Her Majesty the Queen.

He has a Masters Degree from Oxford University in Modern History, and was a Dean Rusk Scholar at Davidson College, North Carolina.

George lives in London, is married to the writer Frances Osborne and they have two teenage children.

Mr. Bass is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, an investment manager of private funds focused on global event-driven opportunities.  

Mr. Bass is a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China.  He is also Chairman of the Board of The Rule of Law Foundation (https://rolfoundation.org/).  Mr. Bass is the former Chair of the Risk Committee of the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), which manages approximately $45 billion. Mr. Bass has testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. In 2015, Bass was recognized as one of the Top 25 Most Influential People in the Global Patent Market as named by Intellectual Asset Management magazine. Mr. Bass has lectured on global economics at various universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Texas, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Bass was the recipient of the 2019 Foreign Policy Association Medal for his responsible internationalism.  

Before forming Hayman, Mr. Bass was a Managing Director at Legg Mason and a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns. He graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in finance. Mr. Bass serves on the board of the Texas Department of Public Safety Foundation (www.texasdpsfoundation.org) and is on the advisory board of Predata, a machine learning and predicative analytics platform.

Alexander M. Ineichen is founder of Ineichen Research and Management AG, a research boutique established in October 2009 focusing on nowcasting and risk management.

Alexander started his financial career in derivatives brokerage and origination of risk management products at Swiss Bank Corporation in 1988. From 1991 to 2005 he had various research functions within UBS Investment Bank in Zurich and London relating to derivatives, indices, capital flows and alternative investments, from 2002 in the role of a Managing Director. From 2005 to 2009 he was in the investment committee of Alternative Investment Solutions, a fund of hedge funds within UBS Global Asset Management.

Alexander is the author of “In Search of Alpha” (October 2000) and “The Search for Alpha Continues" (September 2001). These two white papers were the most often printed research publications in the documented history of UBS. He is author of two books: "Absolute Returns" (Wiley Finance, October 2002) and “Asymmetric Returns” (Wiley Finance, November 2006). The two books are the author's manifesto for active risk management.

Alexander has also written several research pieces pertaining to equity derivatives and hedge funds and contributed to several chapters to financial books. In 2008 he wrote "AIMA’s Roadmap to Hedge Funds" which was at that time the most often downloaded document from AIMA's website. A completely revised second edition was published in 2012.

Alexander holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Major in General Management from the Universities of Applied Sciences in Business Administration in Zurich (HWZ), Switzerland. Alexander also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations and is a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM). He is on the Board of Directors of the CAIA Association. His extracurricular activities include art that he makes public on alexart.ch.

In 2013, Joey built a point of sale system enabling Bitcoin payments with sound and Bluetooth. In 2014, he left Pomona College to cofound one of the first projects and the first ICO on Ethereum called Augur, a decentralized prediction market platform and solution to the oracle problem designed to allow people to speculate on anything. He also started an AngelList syndicate which is now in the top 15 by backing. In 2017, he joined Pantera Capital to help manage its Hedge Team.

Pantera Capital is the first investment firm focused exclusively on bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the blockchain tech ecosystem. In 2013 Pantera launched the first crypto-currency fund in the United States — when bitcoin was at $65 /BTC. The firm subsequently launched the first exclusively-blockchain venture fund and recently concluded raising its third venture fund. Pantera was also the first firm to offer a pre-auction ICO fund. Pantera Bitcoin Fund has returned over 5,300% in six years and has returned billions to its investors. Pantera currently manages $430mm in capital in seven funds across three product groups – passive, hedge, and venture.

Tyler Spalding is currently a Co-Founder at Flexa, a blockchain payments company based in New York City. He has been preaching/mining/coding cryptocurrencies since 2011.

Tyler is the former Chief Technology Officer at Raise, the world’s largest gift card marketplace with over $1B in sales and $150M in venture funding. Tyler has more than 20 years of technology experience, has founded and sold three software companies, and is an active seed-stage investor in 25+ startups.

He is author to more than 50 technology patents, and was previously an aerospace engineering faculty member at two universities. Tyler is also a proud former engineer for the United Space Alliance, the United States Air Force, NASA Mars Crew Module, and the NASA Space Shuttle Program.

Tyler has spoken at a variety of retail, payments, and blockchain events including: Money 20/20, Consensus, ShopTalk, Intersect Retail, Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition, and the E-Commerce Conference and Exposition (International Keynote).

Specialties: Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, Payments, Anti-Fraud Systems, Smart Contacts, Mobile Product Development, Retail Recommendation Systems, Scotch Whisky 

Tom Capasse is a principal and co-founder of Waterfall Asset Management. Mr. Capasse has over 30 years of structured credit experience globally, having founded, with Jack Ross, Merrill Lynch’s industry-leading ABS Group in the 1980s where they completed many first-time ABS issues and purchased non-performing loans from the Resolution Trust Corporation. Mr. Capasse subsequently managed structured credit Banking & Trading groups at Greenwich Capital, Nomura Securities, and Macquarie Securities. Mr. Capasse began his career as a Fixed Income Analyst at Dean Witter and Bank of Boston and received a B.A. from Bowdoin College in 1979.

For over 20 years Robert Gibbins has applied his fascination with the development and transition of economies and societies to the management of global macro and emerging market portfolios and investments – a distinctive focus that has personified Autonomy since he founded the firm as CIO in 2003. After earning a BS in Economics from Wharton, he began his career at JP Morgan in 1992, traded northern European FX and interest rates at Lehman Brothers for two years, and headed their Emerging Markets and Global Macro Proprietary Trading for seven more years, before deciding to start a company for professionals who share his blend of passion and pragmatism.

Former President and Head of Systematic Trading, BlueCrest. Leda joined BlueCrest from Cygnifi Derivatives Services (a J.P. Morgan spin-off) in October 2001. At Cygnifi she formed part of the management team and was head of its Valuation Service. Prior to Cygnifi, Leda spent nearly seven years at J.P. Morgan as a Quantitative Analyst in the derivatives research team. Her past experience includes modelling of interest rate exotics, FX/interest rate hybrid instruments and equity derivatives. She holds a PhD in Engineering from Imperial College London, where she worked as a lecturer and led research projects for over three years prior to joining J.P. Morgan.

Alex Roepers, a 28-year hedge fund industry veteran, leads Atlantic Investment Management's 14-member investment team. The highly experienced analyst team has an average of 18 years of industry experience and an average firm tenure of 10 years, which has provided a strong foundation for investment process consistency and true collaboration across the team. Atlantic Investment Management is a fundamental, value-oriented equity investment firm founded by Alex Roepers in 1988. The firm’s investing methodology is differentiated by its: (1) well-defined universe of quality publicly-traded industrial / consumer companies; (2) concentration of capital and research on its highest conviction investments; (3) private equity-like due diligence; (4) constructive engagement with managements and boards to enhance and accelerate shareholder value; (5) strict adherence to its buy/sell cash flow focused valuation discipline; and (6) maintenance of liquidity to allow for opportunistic trading around core positions. Besides its flagship concentrated long-only U.S. and global best ideas funds, the firm manages long-biased hedge funds for each of the U.S., Europe, Japan and Asia ex-Japan markets. Atlantic has been a Registered Investment Adviser since 2006 and has 26 employees located in New York and Tokyo.

Harold is the architect of our Diversified Trend Program, responsible for research & development, portfolio management and trading. Harold was born and raised on a dairy farm in Drenthe. And from a young age, he has been intrigued by linking mathematics to the real world around us. In the final phase of his studies, while working on the project that would later become Transtrend, he became fascinated by the concept of leptokurtosis – or ‘fat tails’ – in probability distributions, a topic which has inspired him throughout his career.

Harold’s approach to markets is best described as a combination of a farmer’s common sense and mathematics, never losing sight of the underlying fundamentals.

Russell Clark is an Investment Manager at Horseman Capital Management Limited. He began his investment career at UBS Wealth Management in 2000, and in 2002 was transferred within the UBS group to GAM London as an Investment Analyst, a post Mr. Clark held until he left in January 2006. Mr. Clark received the EuroHedge Award for the New Fund of the Year (Equity Strategies) in January 2008.

Ruud Smets started working at Theta Capital in 2005 and is the portfolio manager of Legends Fund. Ruud has a broad background in investing, with a specialization in hedge funds. Before joining Theta, Ruud worked at NIBC and FundPartners. Ruud has obtained his master’s degrees in Business Economics and Information Technology from Tilburg University in 2002 and is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).

Remko van der Erf joined Kempen Capital Management (KCM) in April 2008. Prior to that he completed a business plan for Dutch private bank Theodoor Gilissen Bankiers to launch two funds of hedge funds. From 2002 to 2007 he worked as a Senior Investment Manager for Robeco Alternative Investments and Robeco- Sage Capital Management. During his tenure at Robeco, Remko van der Erf co-managed funds of hedge funds. He started his career in 2001 at AEGON where he worked on the development of one of the first capital guaranteed funds of hedge funds in the Dutch market. Remko holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Erasmus University Rotterdam (2001).

Mr. Gavaudan co-founded Boussard & Gavaudan Asset Management, LP in 2002 and has been a partner of the Investment Manager and chief executive officer of the general partner since that date. Prior to this, he spent over 13 years at Goldman Sachs in London and Zurich. He served first as a portfolio manager for very large family offices, trusts and foundations, managing equities, bonds, derivatives and currencies. He served as portfolio manager for a diversified SICAV Part II using all asset classes between 1994 and 1998. He became a Managing Director in 1998 and went to Zurich as the General Manager of Goldman Sachs & Co Bank, responsible for all divisions of GS in Switzerland. He returned to London in 2000 as Partner in the investment management division. He joined the European Management Committee, the board of Goldman Sachs International, the board of Goldman Sachs & Co Bank as well as the PWM Global Operating Committee. Mr. Gavaudan obtained his MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a JD in Law from Paris University-Assas. He is a graduate of the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP)

Christoph Englisch is Senior Vice President, Investment Research, at EnTrustPermal Ltd. in charge of equity strategies in Europe and Asia incl. Japan. He joined the Permal Group in 2015 from Lyxor Asset Management where he was Global Head of Equity Strategies charged with global fund selection for equity strategies on the Lyxor Managed Account Platform, Lyxor UCITS Platform and direct investments. Mr. Englisch, who spent ten years at Lyxor, held a variety of other roles, including Head of European Fund Selection (2011) and Head of European Equity and Event Driven Strategies (2009), and was based at various times in the London, Paris and Tokyo offices. He holds a Masters in Finance from the University of Vienna, where he specialised in International Finance and Venture Capital, received a Joint Study Scholarship to study at the University of Washington in Seattle and graduated with Honours from the Vienna Business School. Mr. Englisch is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).

Cyrus Amaria is Head of Business Development Northern Europe for Lyxor Asset Management, overseeing the sales team across the UK, Netherlands and Nordic countries. Prior to this role, Cyrus was Deputy Head of Alternatives for Lyxor and responsible for the strategic development of Lyxor’s managed account capabilities and alternative investment offerings to investors. Cyrus joined Lyxor in February 2013 from Man Group where he spent the previous nine years as a Senior Portfolio Manager for their multi-manager business and was Executive Director for Man Investments Ltd. Cyrus worked in Switzerland, London, and Singapore during this period. He has longstanding experience in investing in hedge funds and managed accounts and was responsible for some of Man’s largest institutional clients globally with a particular focus on Japan. Cyrus started his career with Hedge Fund Intelligence where he worked on data analysis of the hedge fund industry. Cyrus graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Economic History and is also a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Gijs co-founded 747 Capital and is a Managing Partner of the firm. His responsibilities include new product development and he is actively involved in portfolio management, due diligence and manager selection. He is a member of the Investment Committee and holds various board seats. Prior to 747 Capital, Gijs was founder and General Partner of Triad Media Ventures, a $50 million venture capital fund that made direct investments in US companies. In addition, he was Director of Financial Services for Icon International, a member of Omnicom Group. He started his career at the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, a diplomatic function, in New York. Gijs received a M.B.A. from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a B.A. from Webster University.

Paul Gleize, Managing Director, joined TIG as Junior Analyst in 2011 and served as an Analyst from 2015 to 2017. In July 2017, Mr. Gleize was promoted to Managing Director. As a generalist, Mr. Gleize travels globally in his research pursuits and has comprehensive experience in conference and corporate management meetings. Prior to TIG, Mr. Gleize interned at BGC Partners during the summer of 2009 where he worked on the derivative and structured products desk. Mr. Gleize attended HEC Lausanne where he completed his B.A. in Finance and Economics in 2010. While attending HEC Lausanne, he also completed a year abroad at McGill University with specialized studies in Quantitative Finance and Derivatives.

Mr. Bruce Jeffrey Richards serves as the Chief Executive Officer, President, Co-Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at Marathon Asset Management, LP. Mr. Richards co-founded Marathon Asset Management, LP and is responsible for general oversight of its capital across its funds and managed accounts. His day-to-day presence is critical in maximizing Marathon Asset Management’s synergies and leveraging the intellectual capital throughout Marathon. He serves as Portfolio Manager of Marathon Structured Product Strategies Fund, LP. He serves as Manager of Marathon Special Opportunity Fund Ltd. Mr. Richards served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Marathon Capital Finance Corporation. Previously, he worked on Wall Street for 15 years, including ten years as a Managing Director in the fixed income divisions of Smith Barney and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette where he was head of a trading desk responsible for principal investments and market making. Mr. Richards also worked at Shearson Lehman Hutton ('Lehman Brothers') as a Trader in their Fixed Income Division, after starting his career with Paine Webber. He serves as the Chairman and Trustee of Marathon Real Estate Mortgage Trust. He served as the Chairman and Director of MAREX Financial Limited. He served as Chairman and Director of Marathon Capital Finance Corporation. Mr. Richards served as a Director of Marathon Real Estate Finance, Inc. Mr. Richards is a member of Phi Beta Kappa at Tulane University and received his B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, in 1982.

At Unilever, Thomas Heidstra started as a senior portfolio manager, responsible for restructuring the US $1.5 billion of Unilever pension fund assets invested in hedge fund structures. He then took over the responsibility for heading up the newly formed Equity and Alternatives team, responsible for long-only equity, private equity, real estate and hedge funds. Previously, he was Senior analyst of hedge funds at Theta Capital in Amsterdam (peak assets of US $1.5 billion), monitoring existing hedge fund investments and analyzing promising new investment candidates. From 2004-2006, he was Senior account manager at Rabo Securities in Amsterdam, a position that involved identifying and researching opportunities in the Benelux market. From 2001-2004, he was an analyst with the small and mid cap research team at JP Morgan Cazenove in London. He began his career as a graduate trainee and telecoms analyst on the EMEA team at ABN AMRO in London and Amsterdam. Thomas attended University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands and graduated with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management (first class honours) with a specialization in logistics. His eight-month final year project investigated the commodity futures markets of Amsterdam, London, Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. He is DSI registered and is a CFA charterholder. He has dual Dutch and Irish nationality and speaks both English and Dutch as a native speaker and is fluent in German.

Director, Digital Asset Strategy at VanEck (VanEck is a $50B+ investment firm, pioneer in early access investment vehicles; Responsible for managing VanEck’s digital asset initiatives, including investment, technology, and regulatory matters Built first industry standard digital asset indices. Architected and filed for first futures-based bitcoin ETF. Pioneered and leading digital asset investing and market structure discussions with U.S. and global regulators (such as SEC, CFTC and various EU regulators). Joined VanEck in 2014 Previously member of the ETF product management team. Prior to joining VanEck, held several finance research positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard College, and Williams College. George Soros Scholar, 2011-2014; Edgar Bronfman Fellow, 2012. BA, Mathematics, German, Sociology, Williams College. In his free time, Gabor likes to solve discrete mathematics problems, plays StarCraft competitively and is an ardent fan of Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball

Loïc Fery is Chief Executive and co-Chief Investment Officer of Chenavari Investment Managers, a group of regulated asset management companies (London, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and New York) focused on credit, structured finance and private debt markets. Loïc Fery started Chenavari Investment Managers at the end of 2007. As of April 2017, Chenavari Investment Managers has approximately $5.5 billion assets under management and employs over 100 credit professionals. Chenavari Investment Managers’ clients include institutional investors, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and family offices globally. Chenavari credit funds steady performance was recently acknowledged with several industry awards, such as Institutional Investors, Eurohedge and Risk Magazine. Prior to setting up Chenavari, Loïc Fery was Managing Director, Global Head of Credit Markets of the investment bank of Credit Agricole. He was responsible globally for Credit, Structured Credit & High Yield activities of the bank, including Trading, Structuring and Sales activities. Loïc Fery graduated from the French leading business school HEC and started his career in credit markets in Hong Kong -where he lived for 4 years- while running the Asian Credit Trading desk for Societe Generale. Loïc Fery is often mentioned as one of market participants who pioneered the development of corporate credit derivatives market. He co-authored several books on credit derivatives and securitisation topics, focusing on the convergence of credit markets activities and funds/private equity activities. He is also an occasional lecturer on alternative asset management and credit matters at industry conference and business schools. Loïc Fery, 42, lives in London and is married with 3 children. As a personal interest, he is involved in a French Premier League football club (FC Lorient).

Joseph Naggar is a Partner, Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Structured Products at GoldenTree Asset Management. In addition, Mr. Naggar is a Senior Portfolio Manager at GoldenTree Loan Management. Mr. Naggar is a member of GoldenTree Asset Management’s Executive Committee and chairs the firm’s Risk Committee. GoldenTree expanded its investing efforts in Structured Products in 2007 with the hiring of Mr. Naggar, who has been instrumental in building the firm’s structured products investment team. Under Mr. Naggar’s direction, GoldenTree built highly sophisticated, proprietary systems to analyze opportunities in structured products, which integrate the firm’s proprietary knowledge of single name credits into the analysis of structured products investments. Prior to joining GoldenTree, Mr. Naggar was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in its Global Fixed Income Division and Global Principal Credit Group.  Mr. Naggar serves on the advisory board of the MIT Center for Finance and Policy. He holds an M.B.A from the MIT Sloan School of Business with a concentration in Financial Engineering and a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University in Mechanical Engineering through the University Scholars program.

Ms. D’Andlau co-founded CIAM in 2009. She is responsible for the fund’s strategy and development. Ms. D’Andlau has 22 years of experience in corporate finance and the event driven sphere. Prior to founding CIAM, Ms. D’Andlau worked at Systeia Capital Management (acquired by Amundi) from 2001 to 2008, first as Head of Research for the Event Driven and M&A strategies, then taking on a portfolio management role from 2003 to 2008. She joined Systeia Capital Management from PriceWaterhouse Coopers where she acquired a solid corporate finance experience between 1995 and 2001, initially within the audit and due-diligence department, then as an M&A advisor. Ms. D’Andlau graduated from Rouen Business School (NEOMA) in 1995.

Mr. de Kloe is a Managing Director of Adamas a private credit fund manager based in Asia. He has over 20 years’ professional experience in investment processes, legal, risk and business development. Prior to joining Adamas, Marc was the Global Head of Alternatives and Funds at ABN AMRO Private Banking, focused on selection of investments including the whole onboarding process, an industry leader of best practices as well as ESG program for funds, responsible for over US$ 4 billion in alternatives and US$ 60 billion in long only funds. Significant exposure to many asset classes and products cross industry experience.

Marc is the Founder and Director of Alternatives 4 Children (www.a4c.nl), a Dutch registered charity raising money from the investment industry for children, which is seen as one of the industry’s leading charities.

Marc was named by Financial News in 2013 as one of the “40 Under 40 Hedge Fund Rising Stars”. Mr. de Kloe has an MBA from Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School in Belgium and a Law degree from University of Kent, Canterbury, UK and an LLM from University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Graham is Investment Director at Fulcrum Asset Management and member of the Investment Team. Graham has a 25 year career in the industry including working in Hong Kong and London. His career includes working in stockbroking, investment banking, asset management and hedge funds. His experience covers multiple asset classes including a deep understanding of liquid and illiquid alternatives. He also holds the distinction of managing macro and structured credit funds with strongly positive performance through the GFC as well as several highly regarded funds and products in the alternative credit universe over the past ten years. Now at Fulcrum, Graham is focussed on multi-asset absolute return products managed on behalf of a broad array of international institutional investors.

Fulcrum Asset Management, Investment Director (2017-present), Cairn Capital, Chief Investment Strategist (2010-2017), Credaris Portfolio Management, Partner, Portfolio Manager (2004-2010), ABN Amro, Global Head of Strategy (2003-2004), HVB, Proprietary Trader and Strategist (2001-2003), Bear Stearns, Strategist (2000-2001), Asia Equity and BNP Paribas, Strategist (1993-2000), University of St Andrew’s, MA Economics (1988-1992)

Emmanuel Weyd has over 25 years of experience in European corporate credit and has been CIO Credit of Eiffel Investment Group since 2009. Previously, Emmanuel served as Managing Director with J.P. Morgan, in London, where he spent 13 years and successively held responsibilities as Managing Director in the credit group of J.P. Morgan’s Proprietary Positioning Business (2007-2009), as head of region (France, Benelux, Switzerland, others), in charge of debt origination, advisory and structuring for corporate and financial borrowers (2002-2006) and as Co-head of J.P. Morgan’s European credit research (1996-2002). He started his career in credit research at Standard & Poor’s, in New-York, where he oversaw the credit ratings of European corporates in several sectors. He holds a Master in Economics and Finance from ESSEC Business School.

Sir Michael is the founder, Chief Executive and Senior Investment Officer of CQS, one of Europe’s leading multi-strategy asset management firms. He is also a Senior Portfolio Manager. Prior to establishing CQS, Michael was Managing Director in the Leveraged Funds Group at CSFB where he developed the strategy and management team for the CSFB Convertible & Quantitative Strategies Fund, which later became CQS Convertible and Quantitative Strategies Fund. Before this, Michael was Managing Director and European Head of Convertibles at CSFB, responsible for flow and proprietary trading, sales and research. Before joining CSFB in 1996, Michael worked at Goldman Sachs for 12 years in a variety of roles including Head of UK Equity Trading. From 1984 to 1992 he established and built up Goldman’s Euro Convertible and European Warrants business in London. During this period he sat on a number of committees at the London Stock Exchange, ISMA and LIBA.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs in 1984, Michael worked for Salomon Brothers in New York as a Fixed Income Trader trading Yankee Bonds having completed the firm’s Graduate Training Program in 1982. Michael served for three years in the Australian Regular Army finishing as a Captain in the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. After the Army he worked as an Electrical Design Engineer for Civil and Civic Pty Ltd in Australia. In 2014, Michael was called to serve on the International Advisory Panel for the Australian government’s Financial Services Inquiry and subsequently as a Member of the Market Practitioners’ Panel of the UK’s Fair and Effective Markets Review. He presently serves as a Member of the Vatican Bank Board and sits on the Audit Committee of the Duchy of Cornwall. Michael has significant and wide-ranging philanthropic interests and to consolidate these, the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation was established in 2005. Since inception, over 200 charities have received funding from the Foundation. Major donations have, amongst others, provided funding to Trinity Hospice in south London, the Royal Naval and Royal Marines Charity, established the chair of International Security at the University of Sydney and enabled the restoration of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican. The beneficial impact of the Foundation on cultural organisations in the UK include the Natural History Museum, the University of Oxford Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, sponsorship of the Sculpture and Medieval and Renaissance galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the provision of vital funding to the Old Vic Theatre in London, where Michael is co-Chairman of the Old Vic Endowment Trust. He is a Trustee of the Institute of Economic Affairs and is Vice Patron of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity. Michael was formally a Trustee of the National Gallery, where he assisted in securing Titian’s Diana and Actaeon for the nation. Michael was made a Papal Knight, a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory in 2005, subsequently Knight Grand Cross, and in January 2008 he was honoured as “Australian of the Year” in the UK. In November 2009, Michael and his wife Dorothy received the Prince of Wales Award for Arts Philanthropy. In January 2013, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to the community through philanthropic contributions supporting the arts, health and education. In June 2013, Michael was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his philanthropic services to the arts. Michael is a fluent Russian speaker. He holds a BSc in Physics and Pure Mathematics and a BEng in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Sydney. He also holds an MSc in Acoustics from the University of New South Wales, an MBA from Harvard Business School and received a DBA (honoris) from the University of New South Wales.

Dan founded Pantera Capital Management LP in 2003. He also co-founded and was CEO of Atriax, an electronic foreign exchange platform. Prior to that, he was head of macro trading and CFO at Tiger Management, global head of FX options at Deutsche Bank in London, and managed derivatives trading units and a global macro fund in North America and Japan at Bankers Trust. Dan began his career at Goldman Sachs as a mortgage-backed securities trader. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and received the Carmichael Prize.

Tony Davis is CEO and CIO of Inherent Group, an investment management firm focused on long-term investment opportunities as well as opportunistic dislocations. The firm uses environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors to source and underwrite investments. Through its engagement with companies, the firm aims to inspire investors and managers to incorporate sustainability into their decisions and to encourage business more broadly to address environmental and social challenges.

Prior to Inherent Group, Tony was the co-founder and President of Anchorage Capital Group and served as a Portfolio Manager for all the domestic and offshore funds managed by the firm. From 2010 through 2015, he was President of Anchorage Capital Europe and worked in London. Prior to Anchorage, Tony worked in the Fixed Income, Currency and Commodities division of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

Tony is an advocate for educational opportunity and is involved with various organizations to that effect: board member of Achievement First public charter schools, board governor of the Lauder Institute, and contributor to Educate Girls India and Coalition for Queens. Mr. Davis received his BS degree from Brigham Young University, an MBA from The Wharton School and an MA from The Lauder Institute. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children and enjoys mountain biking and kite surfing in his free time.

A native Armenian who lives in Moscow, David Amaryan graduated from Miami University situated in Oxford, Ohio. He first began his career in the United States in 2001 at Alliance Bernstein L.P., before moving to Russia in 2003 and working for Citigroup in Moscow for two years. Following this, David Amaryan worked at Troika Dialog, a multinational investment banking and asset management firm which today is a subsidiary of Sberbank and formally known as Sberbank CIB.

Now with more than 17 years of investment experience, and a keen focus on global multi-asset class portfolios, David Amaryan holds the position of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Information Officer at Balchug Capital and has done so since its inception in 2010. Balchug Capital is a hedge fund that specialises in offering outstanding expertise in events analysis and event-driven investing. This coupled with a bespoke secular growth strategy is used to balance the portfolio. With offices in Cyprus and Moscow, the firm has already established a strong track record of stable above-market returns and continues to attract large anchor investors. Over the next couple of years, Amaryan has plans to branch out further, and open additional Balchug Capital offices in London, Geneva and New York thereby expanding the firm’s existing investor base.

David Amaryan previously founded and managed Copperstone Capital, which won the prestigious “Best Russian Hedge Fund Award (since inception)”. On receiving this award, Amaryan was quoted saying “we are proud to have the distinction, especially given the strong competition we know to have faced. The key element of the award is the fact that it is voted on by peers. The industry is driven by competition and we are proud to have been selected”. As Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of the business, David has since been responsible for the investment management process of the Fund as well as the day to day operations of the Investment Manager. To this day, the investment management firm manages wealth for ultra-high net worth individuals and institutions through various hedge fund strategies as well as offering comprehensive personal net-worth management and advisory services.

Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Malabar since inception. Set up initial structure, started India office and established relationships with custodians, brokers, industry experts and company managements. India Fund manager at Holding Capital Group (2007-08). Consultant at McKinsey & Company (2001-07). Founding member of the dedicated investment group which advised top private equity and hedge funds on more than 80 investment transactions worth >$10 billions. Focused on India in last two years and made several very profitable investments for clients 6 years of experience in operating roles with P&L responsibilities. Graduated of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.(1989-93) and earned an MBA with Honors in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (1999-2001)

Peter has been investing in emerging markets for 20 years and is as passionate about these markets as ever. He heads up Coronation’s Global Frontiers team, which manages $700m of assets. The Global Frontiers team has regularly won the award for Best Africa Manager during its decade-long track record. Having established the Africa Frontiers investment unit in 2008, Peter has more recently grown its scope to investing in global frontier markets in 2014. The lessons learnt across the African continent have provided invaluable insights to investing in other markets that share similar challenges and opportunities. The Coronation Global Frontiers Strategy’s investment universe includes frontier markets in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The mandate also extends to small cap emerging market stocks, leveraging Coronation’s emerging market DNA and a 25-year track record of delivering superior long-term returns in these markets. Coronation currently manages US$44bn on behalf of clients.

Niki Natarajan is the chief creative officer of In Ink (London), a company specialising in creative content and communication, which she founded in 2014. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a financial journalist, where she focused investment management and institutional investors. For more than 12 years, Niki was the editor of InvestHedge, a title covering the global fund of hedge funds industry. During her time at HedgeFund Intelligence, she hosted the InvestHedge Forum, an annual two-day event held at the British Museum in London and the InvestHedge FoHF Awards, an annual gala dinner rewarding top performing funds of hedge funds. Niki continues to moderate investment-related panels. In the past, she has worked with EuroHedge, AsiaHedge, Absolute Return, as well as Lyxor Asset Management for its annual investor conference and the Amsterdam Investor Forum. Today, she supports HedgeNews Africa’s annual event in Cape Town, Phenix Capital’s Impact Summit Europe in The Hague and Wilson Willis’ hedge fund events in London. Prior to HedgeFund Intelligence, Niki launched the hedge fund and securities finance coverage at Financial News. She was also the launch editor of Global Fund News; editor of Foreign Exchange Letter; and reporter on Global Money Management. A qualified NLP coach and trained yoga teacher, Niki graduated in Geography from Durham University. Her creative engine is driven by the global street art scene, which you can follow at in_ink_london on Instagram.

Mr. Mohan Rajasooria is the Chief Investment Officer of Zaaba Capital. Prior to Zaaba, Mr. Rajasooria was a founding partner at Azentus Capital, an Asian multi-strategy hedge fund specializing in equity long-short, credit and event investments based in Hong Kong. At Azentus, Mr. Rajasooria was responsible for global financials, credit, ASEAN and India investments, amongst other areas. Prior to Azentus, Mr. Rajasooria was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and Singapore, as part of Goldman’s Principal Strategies Group (“GSPS”). At Goldman, Mr. Rajasooria was responsible for GSPS’ Capital Structure Arbitrage activities in Asia, and helped manage GSPS’ equity long-short business in Asia. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Rajasooria was a Director of Investments at Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund in Kuala Lumpur. Mr. Rajasooria was part of Khazanah’s senior investments leadership team. Mr. Rajasooria was also responsible for leading the development of Khazanah’s Government Linked Company transformation program, and was a board member of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (India-listed “IDFC”) and SilTerra Malaysia (wafer foundry). Prior to Khazanah, Mr. Rajasooria was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in Kuala Lumpur. At McKinsey, he was responsible for leading 5-20 person McKinsey and client teams. His experience ranged across most major Asian geographies and Europe, and across sectors, with a focus on financials & corporate finance. Illustrative projects include banking sector M&A and post-merger integration, cement sector M&A, mobile telecom strategy, and developing ten-year master-plans for two major central banks post the Asian financial crisis. Mr. Rajasooria received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2002. Mr. Rajasooria received a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College in London in 1997, and was awarded the Frank-Turner Wilson prize for the best overall student.

Dr. Mark Mobius is seen by many as the founder of the emerging markets asset class. He has a reputation as one of the most successful and influential managers over last 30 years. In May 2018, with two ex-colleagues, he launched Mobius Capital Partners. The firm utilises a highly specialized active investment approach with an emphasis on improving governance standards in Emerging and Frontier Market companies.

Prior to this, Dr. Mobius was employed at Franklin Templeton Investments for more than 30 years, most recently as Executive Chairman of the Templeton Emerging Markets Group. During his tenure, the group expanded AUM from USD 100m to over USD 40bn and launched a number of emerging market and frontier funds focusing on Asia, Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. His career and influence has earned him numerous industry awards.

He received his Ph.D. at MIT and has studied at Boston University, University of Wisconsin, Syracuse University, Kyoto University and the University of New Mexico.

Pierre Andurand is the Founder, Managing Partner & Chief Investment Officer of Andurand Capital, which is a macro fund with a focus on oil and a long volatility bias. Pierre was previously the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Founder of BlueGold, a global commodities hedge fund, which at its peak managed over $2.4 bn and launched in 2008. Under Pierre’s management BlueGold achieved returns exceeding 240% net of fees from February 2008 until May 2012. The annualized return of Pierre’s hedge fund track record across BlueGold and Andurand Capital is +24.5% net as of September 30, 2018. Prior to BlueGold, Pierre was one of the most successful energy traders at Vitol SA. He started with Vitol in 2003 in Singapore and relocated to London where he became a Partner and remained there until 2007. Between 2002 and 2003, Pierre was a principal and oil trader at Bank of America in Singapore. In 2000 Pierre was recruited out of graduate school by Goldman Sachs to be an oil trader for the bank’s commodities trading unit in Singapore. Pierre holds a Master in International Finance from HEC, Paris and an Engineering Degree in Applied Mathematics from INSA, Toulouse, France.

Hamlin has 18 years of experience doing investment and economic analysis and writing. He has been Contributing Editor to The Hedge Fund Journal since 2010, researching and authoring profiles of hedge fund manager and service providers, as well as surveys such as 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds, and Tomorrow’s Titans.

Hamlin has been analysing, monitoring and carrying out due diligence on hedge funds since 2003. Between 2005 and 2009 he co-managed a fund of hedge funds, for Millennium Global Investments. From 2011 to 2013 he was co-portfolio manager, assisting the CIO, at IMQubator in Amsterdam, which was seeding early stage hedge funds for Europe’s largest pension fund, APG. In April 2014 he became Head of Research for Tomlinson Research, which provides outsourced hedge fund research for family offices. Before entering the hedge fund industry, he was a UK government economist, equity analyst and equity journalist.

Hamlin is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charterholder and a CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) charterholder. He has graded exam papers in the USA for CFA Institute and the CAIA Association. He also helps CAIA Association with curriculum development, and currently sits on the executive committee of the London Chapter of the CAIA Association. He has written for blogs including the CAIA Association’s All About Alpha, and the CFA Institute’s Enterprising Investor and Inside Investing. He also holds the FRM (Financial Risk Manager) designation. He graduated in Economics from the University of Leicester.

William Ackman is the CEO and Portfolio Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P., an SEC registered investment adviser founded in 2003. Pershing Square is a concentrated research-intensive fundamental value investor in long and occasionally short investments in the public markets.

Prior to forming Pershing Square, Mr. Ackman co-founded Gotham Partners Management Co., LLC, an investment adviser that managed public and private equity hedge fund portfolios. Prior to Gotham Partners, Mr. Ackman began his career in real estate investment banking at Ackman Brothers & Singer, Inc. Mr. Ackman received an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College.

Mr. Ackman is the Chairman of the board of The Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC). He is a member of the Investors Advisory Committee on Financial Markets for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a Trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation, a member of the Board of Trustees at The Rockefeller University and a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors of the Harvard Business School.

Rupert Kimber - Joined Quaero Capital (formerly Tiburon Partners) in September 2009 to launch Quaero Capital Taiko Japan Fund. Rupert Kimber is a Partner who joined the firm in 2009 and is lead manager of Tiburon Taiko Fund and related Japanese mandates. Rupert commenced his career at Cazenove in 1984, becoming a partner in 1997. He has spent a substantial part of his career based in Japan.

2007 – joined Belvedere Investment Partners, launched the Belvedere Japan Fund
2005 – joined Polar Capital and built out Tokyo based research team
2003 – took the bulk of his Cazenove team to KBC Financial Products, Tokyo
1997 – became a partner at Cazenove based in Tokyo
1989 – relocated to Cazenove Tokyo office
1984 – joined Cazenove after gaining a degree in politics from The University of York

Shannon McConaghy is an Investment Manager at Horseman Capital Management Limited, where he is focused on the Japanese markets. Prior to this from 2007 to 2014, Shannon was employed as a Japan specialist within the Credit Suisse equity sales team in London. He started his career in 2003 as a credit analyst at Suncorp Bank in Sydney. Shannon obtained a Master of Business in Financial Services from the University of Technology in Sydney in 2003.

Mr McConaghy received the AsiaHedge Award for the New Fund of The Year (Equity Strategies) in 2016.

T.J. Durkin joined Angelo Gordon in 2008 and is a Managing Director, a member of the firm’s executive committee and Co-Head of the firm’s Structured Credit Platform. He is co-Portfolio Manager of the firm’s residential mortgage and consumer debt securities portfolios, CIO of MITT, Angelo Gordon’s publicly listed mortgage REIT and serves as a board member of Arc Home, Angelo Gordon’s affiliated mortgage originator and GSE licensed servicer. Prior to joining Angelo Gordon, T.J. began his career at Bear, Stearns & Co. where he was a Managing Director on the Non-Agency Trading Desk focused on structuring and trading of multiple asset classes, including subprime, Alt-A, second lien and small balance commercial. T.J. earned his Bachelor’s degree in finance from Fordham University and currently serves as a member of the school’s President Council. He is also a board member of VE International, a not-for-profit focused on preparing high school students for college and careers through skills learned in an entrepreneurship-based curriculum.

Jeff is a Senior Portfolio Strategist at Bridgewater. He is a senior member of the research group with expertise in portfolio structuring and the foreign exchange, interest rate, commodity, and equity markets. Jeff also works with Bridgewater’s clients to develop investment strategies that meet their objectives and to provide insight into the research group’s thinking on global markets and economic conditions. He has been with the firm since 1995. Jeff received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and Management Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering.

In his role as a Senior Portfolio Manager at Anchorage Capital Group, L.L.C., a New York based registered investment adviser, he shares responsibility with Kevin Ulrich for overseeing the firm’s portfolio management, risk management, and investment decisions. He is a voting member of Anchorage’s Investment Committee. He is also a member of the U.S. and Europe CLO and CDO Investment Committees. Mr. Allen is also a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fixed Income Market Structure Advisory Committee and has served on the Board of Trustees of Skidmore College since 2014. Prior to joining Anchorage, Mr. Allen spent the previous six years with Morgan Stanley and, in his most recent role, was responsible for North American Credit Trading with a primary focus on leveraged bank loans, high yield bonds and distressed securities. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Allen was a Leveraged Loan Trader at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Allen has a total of 27 years of experience in the financial services industry and received an M.B.A. from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and a B.S. from Skidmore College.