Featured Speakers
Donna F. Anderson, CFA
Head of Global Corporate Governance
T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.
Donna F. Anderson is head of Global Corporate Governance for T. Rowe Price & Assoc., an investment management firm with more than $400 billion under management across a diverse line of individual and institutional portfolios. In her current role, Ms. Anderson leads the policy- formation process for proxy voting, shepherds the firm’s engagement efforts with portfolio companies, and co-chairs the Proxy Committee.
William Brennan
President & Managing Partner
Aqua Terra Asset Management
William Brennan joined Boenning & Scattergood in 2004 as Director of Equities and serves as the President & Managing Director, overseeing Aqua Terra's Asset Management Investments. Mr. Brennan is responsible for creating the firm's water investment management presence and also serves as the Portfolio Manager of the Praetor Global Water Equities Fund in Luxemburg. He was also responsible for the portfolio selection for the Claymore Global and Domestic Water UITs, the first water investment products launched in the US.
Don Brownstein
CEO
Structured Portfolio Management
Before creating Structured Portfolio Management in 1997, Mr. Brownstein founded and managed CDC Servicing, Inc., a specialized investment subsidiary of the Caisse des Depots et Consignations, for four years. From 1988 - January 1993 Mr. Brownstein worked in portfolio management at Franklin Savings Association, a leader in the development of quantitative methods for the management of mortgage-backed securities. Between 1969 and 1989 Mr. Brownstein was a professor in the Philosophy Departments of the University of Kansas and the University of Texas. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota, a B.A. from Queens College in New York City and was a fellow at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University.
Shane Burn
Chief Investment Officer
Insana Capital
Shane I. Burn is the Chief Investment Officer of Insana Capital Partners, an SEC registered investment advisor with over $100MM in assets under management. Prior to Insana, he was a Senior Analyst at ACAM Advisors where he was responsible for sourcing, selecting and conducting qualitative and quantitative analytical reviews of hedge fund managers. Prior experience includes: Double Alpha Group where he was a senior trader and assistant portfolio manager in Statistical Arbitrage; J.P. Morgan Securities where he was a Vice President in Equity Derivatives and structured OTC derivatives and developed and marketed special situations and volatility trade ideas; and Niederhoffer Investments, where he traded currencies, futures and options for the funds as a proprietary trader. Mr. Burn began his career in 1988 at Sanford Bernstein as a Portfolio Management Administrator for high net worth equity and bond portfolios. Mr. Burn has an M.B.A. in Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University, where he was a Leonard N. Stern Scholar, and an undergraduate degree in Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Jaeson Dubrovay
Senior Consultant, Hedge Funds
New England Pension Consultants
Mr. Dubrovay joined New England Pension Consultants in 2006, with over eighteen years of investment experience. Mr. Dubrovay focuses on Hedge Fund Research in the Alternative Investments Group.
David Ellis
Managing Director
Global Investment Advisors
DAVID T. ELLIS, CFA is a senior portfolio manager/analyst of Global Investment Advisors (“GIA”). Mr. Ellis is the high yield sector specialist and is responsible for the management of Collateralized Debt Obligations. He is also the credit analyst covering the telecommunications, cable/media and healthcare sectors.
Prior to joining GIA in November 1999, Mr. Ellis was one of two portfolio managers responsible for over $2 billion in high yield assets at J.P. Morgan Investment Management, Inc. (“JPMIM”). Mr. Ellis also successfully initiated an institutional bank loan investment effort that managed over $150 million in bank loan assets. Prior to becoming a portfolio manager at JPMIM, Mr. Ellis was the U.S. credit analyst and Global Credit Sector Head for Telecommunications and Cable/Media. He was responsible for analyzing U.S. companies and advising European and emerging market analysts on U.S. and foreign investments.
Prior to joining JPMIM in 1996, Mr. Ellis was a corporate banker in Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York’s (“MGT”) credit group. He was responsible for analyzing credits and marketing MGT’s credit products to high yield and investment grade clients on the West Coast. He focused on the Telecommunications, Technology, Forest Products, Retail and Utilities industries. Before joining the credit group in 1990, Mr. Ellis held various posts in MGT’s international division covering Benelux and UK companies in the U.S., and prior to that, covering MGT’s affiliate relationships in French Speaking Africa. David received his BA, cum laude from Amherst College in 1983 and spent a semester at Institute d’Etudes European in Paris in 1982.
Peter Fell
Vice President
Kenmar Group LP
Mr. Peter Fell is responsible for manager selection and due diligence at Kenmar. Mr. Fell is a member of the Investment Committee. He joined Kenmar in 2004. From 2000 through 2004, Mr. Fell was a founding partner and Investment Director of Starview Capital Management, an asset management firm that developed and managed multi-manager investment products.
Bruce Fenton
Managing Director
Atlantic Financial Inc.
Bruce Fenton is founder and Managing Director of Atlantic Financial Inc., (www.atlanticfinancial.com). Atlantic Financial is an independent capital management firm with corporate and individual clients across America that focuses on providing access to the growth markets of Middle East to institutional investors. Bruce has spoken at events organized by the Kuwait Ministry of Finance and the Saudi Arabia General Investment Authority. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Fortune, Bloomberg, The National Law Journal and others.
Peter Fusaro
Chairman
Global Change Associates
Peter C. Fusaro is Chairman of Global Change Associates in New York and is the best selling author of What Went Wrong at Enron. His three most recent books have been Cut Carbon, Grow Profits, Energy & Emissions: Collision or Convergence and Energy & Environmental Hedge Funds: The New Investment Paradigm. Peter is an energy industry thought leader noted for his keen insights in emerging energy and environmental financial markets.
Phillip Goldstein
Principal and Co-founder
Bulldog Investors
In 1992, after working twenty-five years as a civil engineer for the City of New York, Phillip Goldstein and his partner, Steve Samuels founded what is now Bulldog Investors, a value oriented group of hedge funds that invest primarily in closed-end funds, small cap operating companies and SPACs. Bulldog Investors began with $700,000 and currently has assets of approximately $500 million. It often employs investor activism to unlock the intrinsic value of its investments and attributes a record of not having had any losing years to its activist approach. Bulldog Investors has conducted approximately 30 proxy contests and several “hostile” tender offers.
Alison Graham
Chief Investment Officer
Voltan Capital Management, LLC
Alison Graham is a principal of Voltan Capital Management and lead portfolio manager of the Voltan Frontier Markets Fund. Ms. Graham has over fourteen years’ experience in emerging and frontier markets finance. Until 1998, she was a partner and senior analyst of Latin American equities at the investment bank Caspian Securities. In 1998, she moved to Moscow, Russia to join United Financial Group where she was responsible for equity analysis and advisory related to the restructuring of the Russian energy system. Since 2000, Ms. Graham has worked on behalf of a variety of global firms with investments and other interests in frontier markets. She holds a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley, is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is fluent in six languages.
Jared L. Landaw
Managing Director and General Counsel
Barington Capital Group, L.P.
Jared L. Landaw is a Managing Director and the General Counsel of Barington Capital Group, L.P., an activist hedge fund located in New York City that has been successful in influencing public companies to make significant operational, strategic and corporate governance improvements to enhance shareholder value. Mr. Landaw chairs an annual symposium on activist investing at the New York City Bar Association.
He has also spoken about hedge funds, shareholder activism and corporate governance as a guest lecturer at Boston University Law School, Fordham University School of Law and Tulane Law School. Mr. Landaw has a B.A. from Colgate University, where he graduated magna cum laude, and a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fisk Stone Scholar and a managing editor of the Columbia Business Law Review.
Adam McNicol
Partner
Fintan Partners
Mr. Adam McNicol is a founding partner of Fintan Partners and is responsible for investor relations and business development. He has over fourteen years of investment management experience, previously managing a large wealth advisory practice with Wells Fargo Private Client Services. Mr. McNicol has a B.A. from University College London, England and is a Certified Investment Management Analyst.
Erik Mayo
Founding Partner
Fintan Partners
Erik Mayo is a founding partner and co-portfolio of Fintan Partners. Prior to Fintan Partners, from 2003 to 2005, Mr. Mayo served as an Investment Associate of Stanford Management Company. In his capacity as an Investment Associate of Stanford Management Company, Mr. Mayo served under the direction of Mr. Klikoff. Prior to joining Stanford Management Company, from 1999 to 2003, Mr. Mayo served as a Systems Analyst of Lizard Asset Management. Mr. Mayo began his professional career in 1998 at Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank), with a focus on risk management and trading systems. Mr. Mayo received a B.S. in Economics with concentrations in Finance and Management Information Systems from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998.
Neil Nag
Senior Analyst
Asset Alliance Capital
Ron Orol
Senior Writer, The Deal
Author of "Extreme Value Hedging”
Ronald D. Orol is the author of "Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers are Taking On the World," a new book that examines the tactics of activist hedge fund managers and how they are shaking up small and large companies and their boards in the U.S. and at a variety of corporations around the globe.
Sonny Saksena
Managing Director
Finles
Kenneth W. Stemme
Director of Research
Larch Lane
Kenneth W. Stemme, Director of Research, joined Larch Lane Advisors LLC in April 2007. Mr. Stemme was previously a Senior Vice President and Director of Hedge Fund Investments at Northern Trust Global Advisors, where he managed approximately $1 billion in assets and chaired the Hedge Fund Investment Committee. Prior to joining Northern Trust in 2003, Mr. Stemme was a Managing Director in the Alternative Investment Group at American Express Asset Management. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Stemme was Executive Director in the Alternative Investment Group at CIBC Oppenheimer, where he was involved in the creation and management of a registered fund of funds. From 1990 through 1998, Mr. Stemme worked at Harris Associates, last serving as a research associate. Mr. Stemme received his B.A. from Cornell University and his M.B.A. from DePaul University.
Riva M. Waller
Head of Investment Structures Group, Product Structuring & Finance
Man Investments
Based in New York, Riva Waller is the Head of the Investment Structures Group for Man Investments. The team, with members in London, New York and Pfäffikon (Switzerland), works with Man Investment Content Engines to provide legal due diligence with respect to investments and allocations for third party managers. In addition, their key area of focus is the structuring and implementation of the Managed Account platform of over 100 managed accounts, giving content engines the ability to allocate funds to hedge fund managers.
Scott Wolfel
Principal
Gregoire Capital
Mr. Wolfel joined Gregoire Capital, LLC in 1998 where he currently directs product development and co-manages the firm’s proprietary F3® funds. He is responsible for the development of the firm’s quantitative evaluation models and the ongoing quantitative and qualitative evaluation of hedge funds and funds-of-funds. Prior to joining Gregoire Capital, he headed his own investment management firm, specializing in sophisticated equity-based strategies. Mr. Wolfel is a graduate of Ramapo College and received an MBA in finance from Rutgers University graduate school of business.
Gregory Zuckerman
Writer
Wall Street Journal
Gregory Zuckerman is a Special Writer at the Wall Street Journal. He writes about hedge funds and writes the Heard on the Street column. He also writes about other investing and Wall Street-related topics and has covered the bond market for the Journal. Greg appears on CNBC-TV twice a week to discuss hedge funds and stocks. He was part of a team that won the 2007 Gerald Loeb award for breaking news coverage of the collapse of hedge fund Amaranth Advisors, and he was part of a team that won the 2003 Gerald Loeb award for breaking news coverage of the demise of WorldCom. He joined the paper in 1996 after writing about media companies for the New York Post. Previously, he was the managing editor of Mergers & Acquisitions Report, a newsletter published by Investment Dealers' Digest. He graduated from Brandeis University in 1988, Magna Cum Laude.