The latest appointments within the hedge fund industry

Independent mid-market institutional derivatives and securities dealer Conduit Capital Markets has appointed Rakesh Chhabra as chief financial officer. Previously he was finance manager at Knight Equity Markets International overseeing corporate accounting.

Broker dealer Uhlmann Price Securities has appointed Alan Delcorse as a director of the institutional services group. He has an extensive background in non-traditional investments including convertible securities, managed futures and hedge funds. Previously Delcorse was an executive vice president of Man Investments working with advisors and their clients primarily in the western US.

BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research has appointed Doug Leggate as senior large-cap US oils and refining analyst covering integrated oils and exploration and production companies. He will be based in Houston as part of the energy/utility team and will report to Steve Haggerty, head of Americas equity research. Working with Leggate are research US oil analysts Rhett Bruno, Keri Leo and Shin Kim, as well as analyst Paul Sciarrata, who is also joining from Howard Weil.

Global consulting company Watson Wyatt has promoted Damien Loveday to global head of hedge fund research, taking on the role from Craig Baker, who also leads the wider global manager research team. The role is one of four global manager research leadership roles. The others are bonds (Margaret Frost), equities (Martin Knowles) and private markets (Jane Welsh). Loveday will report to  Baker. The hedge fund research team is structured along four specialist areas, with Loveday continuing to head the fixed income hedge fund team, Leon Beukes heading the long/short equity and multi-strategy hedge fund teams and Craig Stevenson heading the fund of hedge fund team.

Investec Asset Management has experienced record net inflows of over $2 billion over the year to date. The company recently hired Jeff Burch as global co-head of credit. Theodore Stamos has also joined the credit team. He comes from Blue Mountain Capital, a specialist credit hedge fund, where he was a senior credit analyst.

Odey Asset Management has appointed Simon Todd and Michael Nickson to run the group's global equities strategy. The pair managed over $20 billion at US asset manager MFS Investment Management and built a strong performance record in global and European equities. Todd invested across various global and European strategies at MFS. Nickson, who trained at Goldman Sachs, worked alongside Todd on his European strategies and co-managed MFS’ international research funds with responsibility for utilities, capital goods and financials. The two will be  managing a new unconstrained global equities long-only fund, the Odey Global Allegra Fund, part of the group's Allegra range.

Principal Investment Management, a private client portfolio management specialist, has expanded its investment team with the appointment of two investment managers, Palak Patel and Robert Allinson. Patel joins from UBS, where she worked for the company as an investment manager and associate director. Allinson joins as senior investment manager from Heartwood Wealth Management, where he was associate director of managed funds.

The international arm of RBC Wealth Management, headquartered in London and part of the Royal Bank of Canada, has appointed Matthew Yong as president and Frank Mu as CEO of its Asia operations. The company has also unified its Asian operations under one umbrella called RBC Wealth Management, Asia. Yong will be responsible for sales and distribution activities in Asia. Mu will continue to lead the advisory team while also focusing on client solution support and functional support. Yong is based in Singapore and Mu is based in Hong Kong. Both report to Doug Gunton, head of Asia and Canadian international centres, RBC Wealth Management.

Colm Ryan joins the London office of Phoenix Partners Group, an interdealer credit and equity derivatives broker, reporting to managing director Alex Hucklesby. He will be responsible for building the European high grade cash business while helping to develop the existing high grade CDS business. He joins following five years at RBS as managing director where he established and ran hedge fund sales in all credit products.

Shoreline Trading Group, a provider of prime brokerage and agency execution services to hedge funds, asset managers and registered investment advisers, has appointed Fredrik Schilling as managing director to focus focusing on prime brokerage sales operations. Previously Schilling was global head of prime brokerage services for Barclays Capital. In August four of Shoreline’s top prime brokerage executives left the company and joined FBR Capital Markets to launch a prime brokerage business. The four that left were Michael Murray, Matthew Ventura, Paul Havens and Donald Marigliano.

Nils Bolmstrand, the recently appointed chief executive of Skandia Investment Group has announced his executive team. Former finance director Marc Bulstrode become chief operating officer in charge of finance, operations and human resources while James Millard remains chief investment officer in charge of portfolio management and research. Richard Vincent becomes head of propositions in charge of product development and open architecture while Rob Williams becomes global investment sales and marketing director in charge of institutional sales and business development marketing. Roy McKean, chief risk, legal and compliance officer, adds legal affairs to his risk and compliance brief.

Threadneedle has announced that Kris Haber will join the company mid-November to develop and lead Threadneedle’s business in North America. Based in New York he will also take charge of and manage Threadneedle’s hedge fund business globally. Haber will report to CEO Crispin Henderson.  Most recently Haber was managing director - global alternative investments at Lazard Asset Management.
Threadneedle has also appointed Campbell Fleming as head of distribution, also joining the company in November to lead Threadneedle’s global distribution. He also reports to Henderson. Campbell was instrumental in developing JP Morgan Asset Management’s UK business where he has held a number of roles, most recently as managing director, head of UK business.

UBP Asset Management, a fund-of-funds management company of Union Bancaire Privée (UBP), has appointed Daniel Kelly as chief risk officer of alternative investment, a newly created position. He will be based in New York. Most recently he was at Harvard Management Company where he was chief risk officer of the Harvard University endowment since 2005. He will report to Matthew Stadtmauer, CEO of UBP Asset Management.
UBP made three key hires in July and August: Sara Sprung was appointed chief investment officer of alternative investment following her tenure as chief risk officer of Fortress Investment Group's liquid markets business; Jonathan Morgan was appointed head of research for alternative investments after serving as head of Barclays Global Investors' Hedge Fund Management Group; and Matt Auriemma, formerly the head of operational due diligence for Barclays Wealth, was hired to co-head UBP's alternative investment structural risk analysis division.
In a separate move UBP has appointed Richard Wohanka, former CEO of Fortis Investment Management, as the CEO of the bank’s new asset management and alternative investments division. Wohanka, who is a finance specialist, also becomes a member of the bank’s executive committee. Christophe Bernard, chief investment officer and André Gigon, head of institutional clients and product distribution will report to Wohanka.

100 Women in Hedge Funds has appointed Sandra Urie to its association board. Urie is the president and CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global provider of independent investment advice and research to institutional investors and private clients.