London Institutional Investor Roundtable

Edel Bashir

Senior Investment Manager, Abrdn

Edel Bashir is a Senior Investment Manager on the Alternatives team at abrdn. She leads the Alternatives Management team where she is responsible for the desks strategic initiatives. Edel is also one of the five members on the Alternatives Governance and Investment Committee within abrdn.

Prior to this Edel focused on hedge fund selection, covering research of global macro and event driven strategies. Edel has also held the role of Head of Fund Accounting within RBS Asset Management. She also held fund accounting roles at BISYS Hedge Fund Services in Bermuda, Bank of Ireland Securities Services in Dublin and State Street Bank in Boston.

Edel graduated with a BSc Finance degree from University College Cork, Ireland.

Jane Buchan

SBAI Trustee; CEO, Martlet Asset Management

Jane is Chief Executive Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet is based in Newport Beach, CA and was founded in July 2018. The firm’s strategies include alternative risk premia and developing liquid strategies with a focus on fixed income.

Prior to this, Ms. Buchan co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).

Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.

John Claisse

CEO, Albourne Group

John Claisse joined Albourne in July 1996, relocated from London to San Francisco in July 2003 and became Albourne Group CEO in August 2015. John is an equity partner and member of Albourne’s Executive Committee and also chairs the firm’s Corporate Planning Council, which comprises Albourne’s function and region heads.

John helped develop the firm’s proprietary risk analytics and was formerly the Senior Analyst for quantitative equity strategies and multi-strategy hedge funds. John remains a Portfolio Analyst working with several public and corporate plans, large endowments and foundations.

John holds a first class Mathematics Degree and a PhD from Sussex University. Albourne is an independent advisory firm focused on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate and dynamic beta. Founded in 1994, Albourne has over 280 clients with over $550bn invested directly in alternative investments.

Thomas Deinet

Executive Director, SBAI

Thomas Deinet was appointed Executive Director of the SBAI (previously known as the HFSB) in 2008. In 2007, Thomas joined the working group to project manage the development of practice standards proposed by 14 leading international alternative investment managers that led to the establishment of the SBAI.

Prior to joining the SBAI, he was a senior manager at Oliver Wyman, where he extensively worked with major financial institutions in Europe covering asset management as well as corporate and investment banking. Thomas also worked as an analyst in energy trading for a major commodities trading firm.

Thomas is a graduate of the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, with a major in industrial engineering and holds an MSc from Purdue University, USA. Thomas is a CFA charterholder.

Stuart Fiertz

Co-Founder, President and Director of Research, Cheyne Capital Management

Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board.

Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing. Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.

Amy Flikerski

MD, Head of External Portfolio Management, Capital Markets & Factor Investing Department, CPP Investments

Based in London, Amy Flikerski leads the global External Portfolio Management group. Prior to joining CPP Investments in 2012, she was a Senior Analyst at Highbridge Capital Management and Talpion Fund Management in New York. Amy was involved in hedge fund manager evaluation, selection and research as an Associate at PAAMCO and gained investment experience at Moon Capital Management, an emerging markets long/short equity fund, and JGP Gestão de Recursos, a Rio de Janeiro-based macro fund.

Amy began her career as a Senior Associate in the High Yield group at Moody’s Investors Service and has worked in the U.S., UK, Brazil, Canada and Hong Kong.

She holds a BA in Economics from Brown University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Amy sits on the boards of Elis SA, a France-based international multi-service provider, and 100 Women in Finance.

David George

Deputy CIO, Public Markets, Future Fund

David George joined the Future Fund in 2008, serving as Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Public Markets from April 2018.

From 2008 to 2018 he was a member of the Fund’s Debt & Alternatives team, leading it from 2013 to 2018. He held prior consulting and investment roles at Mercer, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Integra Capital.

David holds a degree in economics from Western University in Canada, is a CFA and CAIA Charterholder, sits on the Board of the CAIA Association, and is a trustee of the Standards Board of Alternative Investments.

Erich Gerth

Chief Executive Officer, BlueBay Asset Management

Chief Executive Officer, executive member of the Board of BlueBay Asset Management, member of the RBC GAM and European Executive Committees (Parent Company) and Head of RBC GAM in EMEA & APAC. BlueBay is a London headquartered active fixed income specialist, structured to deliver outcomes tailored for investors seeking to enhance the returns of their portfolios. Investing globally for clients across corporate and sovereign debt, rates and FX, we manage over US$60 billion in AUM and embody the best of alternative and traditional asset management.

Prior to BlueBay, Erich was Chief Executive of APAC, Head of Global Business Development and member of the Executive Committee of London based Aviva Investors. Erich has over 30 years’ experience in financial services and over 15 years managing global businesses, working across institutional and wholesale markets in both traditional and alternative asset classes.

Erich has an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA (Asia Focus) from the National University of Singapore.

Mark Jones

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Man Group

Mark Jones is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Man Group and a member of the Man Group Senior Executive Committee. Previously, Mark was Chief Financial Officer of Man Group and prior to that, Co-CEO of Man GLG.

Before joining Man GLG in 2005, Mark spent time at strategy consulting firm McKinsey, working across a range of industries.

Mark holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from University College London.

Victoria Simmons

Senior Client Communications Manager, CQS (UK) LLP

Victoria is CQS’ Senior Client Communications Manager. She chairs the CQS Diversity & Inclusion Working Group and is also a member of the CQS Engagement Group. Victoria joined CQS in 2012 and during her tenure she has overseen the global client servicing and client communications functions, leading the client service team and supervising all forms of investment and operational due diligence and the production of all marketing materials.

Before this, Victoria spent five years at Eden Financial (now part of Cannacord Genuity Wealth) in asset management marketing, having also spent time as an Investment Adviser managing and trading multi-asset private client portfolios. Prior to this, she worked for a political non-profit, eventually heading Communications and Research.

Victoria holds a BSC (First Class Hons) Politics from the University of Bristol and the Investment Management Certificate. In her time at CQS, the Client Service team was awarded ‘Best Investor Relations Group’ by Hedge Funds Review.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Chair, Head of Investment Funds and External Management, CDPQ

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Stephen Usher

Managing Director and Head of Distribution, Lafayette Square

Stephen Usher is a Managing Director and Head of Distribution at Lafayette Square overseeing the business development activities across all the firm's investment products.

Prior to joining Lafayette, Stephen was a partner at Standard General, an investment firm that manages event driven opportunity funds where he managed the firm's business development activity, resided on the firm's investment committee, and was involved with the firm's trading business. He was formerly a founding partner of Serengeti Asset Management, where he managed the firms business development activity and built out its credit trading business.

Stephen spent close to a decade at Goldman Sachs from 1996 to 2005, during which time he built out Goldman's European distressed bond and bank loan sales and sourcing effort in London, and worked for Goldman's distressed bank loan and bond sales and trading group in New York. He began his career in Citibank's leveraged loan sales group.

Stephen currently serves as a director of Turning Point Brands, Inc (NYSE TPB) and has also served on several non-for profit boards and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of The Harlem School of the Arts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he is currently a member of the Presidents council.

Dale West

SBAI Trustee, Senior Managing Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Dale West is the Senior Managing Director of Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin, Texas. Mr. West's team oversees the Trust's portfolio of publicly-traded securities including both internal and externally managed strategies. TRS’ portfolio includes $17 billion in hedge fund investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Executive team. He is a trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments.

Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets. He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University, and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.