UCITS Hedge Fund Conference Speakers

Speakers and Panelists

Marilyn Ramplin, CEO of Ramplin Capital & Founder of UCITS for Hedge Funds

Marilyn is the CEO of Ramplin Capital and Founder of UCITS for Hedge Funds. Ramplin Capital advises on risk, derivatives, safety of assets and Newcits structuring and distribution. The holistic risk framework developed by Ramplin Capital is based on managing the risks that affects not just a return ON assets plus also return OF assets.

Previously Executive Director in JPMorgan Investment Bank, she was the strategic advisor to both European and US hedge funds and traditional asset managers risk, safety of assets and helping managers structure and distribute UCITS hedge funds. Marilyn was previously with Reech Capital as Head of Alternative Investments and hedge fund risk arbitrage trader at Sandell Asset Management.

Peter de Proft, Director General, EFAMA

Peter De Proft is the Director General of EFAMA, a position he took up in October 2007. Prior to his appointment with EFAMA, he was CEO at Fortis Investment Management Belgium (2004-2007). He also previously held the position of Executive Director at Banque Nagelmackers 1747 / Groupe Delta Lloyd (2001-2004).

Mr De Proft has held a number of board positions in the fund & asset management industry, including Chairman of the Board of BEAMA (Belgian Asset Managers Association).  In May 2009, he was appointed Chairman of the International Investment Funds Association (IIFA).A trained lawyer, Mr De Proft was educated at The Free University, Brussels, where he received a degree in Law in 1976, and an additional degree in Economic Law in 1977.

Hugh van Cutsem, Partner, Kepler Partners

Career began in 1997 on the investment funds sales desk at Cazenove which I then left in 2003 to create a funds bu siness for a corporate advisory firm in the City, focused on marketing to and fund raising from the UK Private Client Wealth Management firms. One of the founding partners at Kepler Partners, set up in 2008 to both distribute and market closed ended and UCITS 3 funds to UK investors and also to advise fund management groups looking to create funds for UK investors.

Manfred Schraepler, Head of db Funds, Deutsche Bank AG, London

Manfred Schraepler is responsible for db Funds within Global Markets at Deutsche Bank AG London. Prior to working for Deutsche Bank, Mr.Schraepler was responsible at Nomura International in London for setting up their UCITS funds business. Mr.Schraepler studied public administration and political economy in New York and holds a Master in Public International Law and a Maîtrise in Business Law & Accounting in Strasbourg, France.

db Funds is responsible for developing Deutsche Bank’s systematically managed mutual funds investing in a broad range of asset classes and strategies. Wit h over EUR 13 bio of AuM, db funds is one of the leading providers of systematic funds.

Simon Tortell, Simon Tortell and Associates

Dr. Simon Tortell was a founding partner of Grech Vella Tortell Hyzler-Advocates before setting up Simon Tortell and Associates in 2009. During the past years, Simon was at the forefront of the development of the investment funds industry in Malta, having advised on the incorporation and licensing of the first UCITS III platform in Malta.

Simon is also actively involved in the structuring and development of innovative strategies of UCITS products licensed by the Malta Financial Services Authority. Simon contributes regulary to international journals associated with investment funds and has led a number of training programmes on the UCITS regulatory regime.

Gareth James, Head of Hedge Fund Solutions at Luxembourg Financial Group

Gareth James heads LFG's hedge fund solutions practice. One of its core offerings is a UCITS III hedge platform. Previously he was Global Head of Hedge Fund Derivatives at Deutsche Bank, a 30-man group comprising trading, structuring and origination of fund linked derivatives and finance transactions. This included Deutsche's industry leading managed account platform, X-markets.

He has 15 years of capital markets experience, including over 10 years working in fund derivatives in London and Asia. He is a qualified UK solicitor, having practiced derivatives and securisation as a lawyer with the leading international law firm, Lovells. He obtained an MA Hons in Mathematics from Cambridge University.

Eric Bertrand, Director of New Finance Capital Limited, a Schroders group company

As Schroder Gaia director, Eric Bertrand oversees Schroders UCITS platform for hedge funds. He joined NewFinance Capital at its creation in 2002 as a Partner.

Prior to joining NewFinance Capital, Eric Bertrand was a Managing Director of JPMorgan, a member of the European management committee and co-head of fixed income derivatives for Europe and Asia. He started his career in 1984 at JPMorgan in Paris.

Borja Largo, CEO, Allfunds Alternative

Borja Largo is the Chief Executive Officer of Allfunds Alternative, the subsidiary of Allfunds Bank dedicated to institutional services of advisory of fund of hedge funds.

Allfunds Alternative was founded in year 2008 and is developing relations with institutions worldwide. He is also the Chief Investment Officer of Allfunds Bank where he has direct responsibility over the Fund Research, Portfolio Advisory and Product Specialist teams.

John Bauer, Trustee on Pension Scheme Trust Board, Samba Financial Group

Mr Bauer is a financial services professional with extensive experience in global markets including Europe, the Middle East and the USA. Currently he serves as a Trustee on Samba Financial Group’s UK Pension Scheme Trust Board. Prior to that he was with United Gulf Bank(UGB), Bahrain, the investment banking arm of Kuwait Projects Co.(KIPCO), 2003-2006 as Senior Vice President-Asset Management & General Manager, United Gulf Bank Securities. In 2007 he set-up the asset management and brokerage services businesses for United Gulf Financial Services Co, Qatar, an Investment Banking subsidiary of UGB.

During his 30-year career, John has held executive positions in major financial institutions around the world, including Merrill Lynch, American Express Bank, Bank of America, The Gulf Bank, Kuwait, National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) and Samba Capital Management International (SCMI) in London (subsidiary of Samba Financial Group). He has been instrumental in successfully developing and integrating sophisticated investment and commercial banking products.

Enrique Pardo, Chief Investment Officer, Allfunds Alternative

Enrique Pardo is CIO at Allfunds Alternative, and is responsible for overseeing all Alternative Investment Solution provided to his clients, mainly through Funds of Funds investing in HFs, MACs and Alternative UCITS Funds. He graduated in Economics, and holds a Master degree in Financial Markets from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, and a Masters degree in Quantitative Finances from the Escuela de Finanzas de Madrid. He also holds the CFA

His professional career started as a Bond trader in the early 90´s and he progressed to become a specialist across all fixed income and derivatives instruments, working as a head trader for Banco Santander and BBVA in Madrid. In 1998 he moved to New York as director of Fixed Income and Rates Derivatives at BBVA. Back in Madrid, before joining Allfunds Alternative as Chief Investment Officer, he was Director of Alternative Investment at Ahorro Corporacion.

Odi Lahav, Vice President, Moody's Investor Services

Odi Lahav is a Vice President and Team Leader in the Global Managed Investments Group at Moody's Investors Service in London. His primary responsibilities are hedge funds and other alternative investment ratings. Prior to joining Moody's, Odi was the Director of Hedge Fund Research and Ratings at Allenbridge Group PLC, a London-based, global research and consulting firm.

He also worked at OSFI, the financial institutions regulator in Canada, as a Manager supervising multinational insurance companies. Prior to that, he spent several years in working in pension and investment consulting. Odi is an actuary and graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Maurizio de Martino, Director in Banca Finnat Euroamerica, Fund Distribution Advisory Department

Maurizio was Operating Partner of Garnell Advisory, Managing Director of CAAM AI SGR, Online Sim and BPM Ireland ltd and BPM Ireland Asset Management. He also held various senior managerial posts in financial institutions including: Intesa San Paolo Group, Unicredit Group, TradingLab Banca, Abaxbank and Citigroup. He started his professional career at Coopers & Lybrand (London Office) as an auditor with responsibility for the  Computer Audit Group.

Dominic Hobson, Venom Media Partners

Dominic was a Director as well as Co-founder and principal in Asset International, a financial publishing company which was sold in December 2008 to Case Interactive Media. He remains editor-in-chief of the Asset International title Global Custodian, in which capacity he developed the Prime Brokerage, OTC Derivative Prime Brokerage, Securities Financing, Securities Lending, Hedge Fund Administration, Mutual Fund Administration and Global Custody surveys.

Dominic is now a principal in Venom Media Partners, which owns or part owns a number of web platforms and publications covering technology, algorithmic trading, private education and peer group networks. COOConnect, a peer group network for hedge fund chief operating officers (COOs), will be launched this summer. Venom Media Partners also provides web presentation, data management and survey services to a number of publications and other businesses. He is also a published author of three books - The Pride of Lucifer, Saturn’s Children and The National Wealth, with a fourth in preparation.

Manuel Prenant, EMEA Head of UCITS III distribution, Morgan Stanley

Manuel joined Morgan Stanley in 2009 where he spearheads the distribution for funds and hedge fund products across EMEA, with a particular focus on UCITS III developments. Manuel previously worked for JPMorgan where he launched and headed the alternative investment activity of JPMorgan Mansart Investments and was later in charge of the hedge fund linked products sales for Switzerland and France. Prior to JPMorgan, Manuel was at Lyxor where he worked in the asset allocation and investors relation team. Manuel started his career at Citigroup in 1997 where he was managing global macro hedge funds.

Magnus Ward, Head of Prime Brokerage, SEB

Magnus Ward is responsible for SEB’s Prime Brokerage offering in London since 2008. SEB is ranked as the 7^th largest Prime Broker in Europe and the offering includes a “Newcits” platform which is geared towards alternative and absolute return investment managers. The offering is a “one stop shop” for the manager. SEB can offer the legal structure through an umbrella SICAV as well as the custody and synthetic Prime Brokerage. In addition, Magnus is also in charge of SEB’s strategic sourcing i.e. ensuring that SEB is working with the right lenders of securities.

He was previously the Managing Director for Master Hedge KAG, a German subsidiary of SEB, and was responsible for a unique offering to German hedge funds. Before that he worked with the integration of the equity finance groups within SEB AG and SEB AB as well as the development for hedge fund and equity related products such as Securities Lending and Equity Derivatives. Before moving to Germany in 2003, Magnus Ward was working in SEB’s Stockholm office with the marketing of SEB’s products to hedge funds in primarily the US and the UK.

More details will follow on:

Frederic Muller, European Sales of Alternative Products, First Avenue Partners

and some more.