Pre-conference workshops

New alternatives - how hedge funds will tap into additonal sources of return , led by Bank Leu

About your workshop leaders:

Peter W. Grünblatt, Head Investment Products, Bank Leu Ltd., Zurich
Peter Grünblatt worked for Credit Suisse’s corporate finance team Asia-Pacific in Zurich, Seoul and Singapore before joining the Julius Baer Group as Vice President and head of Asian trading and corporate finance. In 1997 he was entrusted with the building of a competence center ‘hedge funds’ and appointed head of the non-traditional fund business. In June 2001 Peter Grünblatt joined Bank Leu to head its alternative investment business with responsibility for absolute return strategies (hedge funds), alternative risk transfer and private equity. Since July 2003 he is responsible for all investment products of Bank Leu. Peter Grünblatt is a graduate of the University of St.Gallen.

Niklaus Hilti, Head Alternative Investments, Bank Leu Ltd., Zurich
Niklaus Hilti joined Bank Leu as head of Alternative Investments in June 2004. He focuses on the implementation of cutting edge risk management tools as well as the development of new insurance linked investment products. Niklaus Hilti started his career at Zurich Re which later became Converium. There he was responsible for the pricing of natural catastrophe re-insurance risks. Prior to joining Bank Leu he was in charge of the re-insurance mathematics team at Helvetia Patria, a major Swiss insurance company. Niklaus Hilti studied theoretical physics and meteorology at the University of Basle and Hamburg. He spent three years in research and was part of a research project at the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg. His latest contribution to science is a joint effort with the University College of London and the Benfield Group and aims at developing arbitrage strategies based on seasonal forecasts of hurricanes and Re-insurance products.

Alain Chioléro, Portfolio Manager Insurance Linked Securities, Bank Leu Ltd., Zurich
Alain Chioléro, prior to joining Bank Leu as Portfolio Manager in Insurance Linked Securities Products, gathered broad experience in the reinsurance industry. He started his career at Converium where he was responsible for pricing traditional reinsurance treaties and performing DFA studies for selected cedants. He then joined Partner Re in Zurich where he was responsible for various tasks in underwriting and risk management within the Natural Catastrophe and the Financial Guarantee group. Alain Chioléro holds a Master in Computational Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich as well as a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Prof Mark Saunders, Head of Meteorological Hazards and Seasonal Forecasting, Benfield Hazard Research Center at University College London (UCL)
Mark Saunders is the Lead Scientist and Project Manager for Tropical Storm Risk. He is also Professor of Climate Prediction in the Department of Space and Climate Physics at University College London (UCL) and Head of Meteorological Hazards and Seasonal Forecasting at the Benfield Hazard Research Center at UCL.
Mark Saunders leads a research group specialising in the long-range prediction and monitoring of climate extremes. These others, include Atlantic, US and Caribbean hurricanes, Northwest Pacific typhoons, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Arctic Oscillation, North Atlantic and European winter storminess, drought, and UK and European temperatures.
His team uses cutting-edge science and technology to carefully develop innovative forecast products to benefit risk awareness and decision making in business, government and society. In 2004 Tropical Storm Risk won the prestigious British Insurance Award for London Market Innovation of the Year (presented at the Royal Albert Hall). This is the first occasion that an academic led venture has won such an award.
Mark undertakes commissioned research and consultancies for the reinsurance and risk management industries, and has sound links to humanitarian aid agencies. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and workshops.
Mark Saunders holds a BSc (First) in Geophysical Sciences from Southampton University, a PhD in Space Physics from Imperial College, London, and has published nearly 300 scientific research papers and articles.

Markus Schmutz, Head of Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) Structuring, Swiss Re Capital Markets, New York
Markus Schmutz, Managing Director, joined Swiss Re Capital Markets in 1999 and is head of insurance-linked securities (ILS) structuring. He has been a key driver of the unit's growth as one of the leading participants in the ILS markets. Prior to joining the capital markets group, Markus Schmutz worked for five years at Swiss Re’s headquarters in Zurich where his main responsibilities included risk modeling and pricing complex transactions. Markus holds a masters degree in mathematics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich.

Moritz Roever, Managing Director, Scope Group, Berlin
Moritz Roever is Managing Director at Germany based Scope Group, a leading rating agency in the closed-ended investment fund sector. He started his career as equity analyst at Bloomberg New York. Further stages of his career were in the investment banking departments of Citibank and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein in Frankfurt. He joined Scope Group in 2003 where he leads a research team specialized, amongst others, in secondary market life settlements. He holds a Diploma in Finance and Entrepreneurship from the Commercial College Leipzig and is currently completing his PhD at University RWTH in Aachen.

Daniel Riediker, Partner & CEO, Alegra Capital Ltd., Zurich
Daniel Riediker is the former CEO of Centre Solutions Ltd., Zurich, and was heading up Centre’s European CDO group. During his 8 years with the Centre Group, he collected a broad experience in the area of structured finance and alternative risk transfer. He acquired, structured and executed transactions in the areas of ABS (CDO), contingent equity and structured (re-)insurance. Daniel Riediker started his career with Zurich Financial Services, where he was responsible for strategic planning and business development of the Zurich group reinsurance business. He received a magna cum laude degree in economics from the University of Zurich.

Pierre Guillemin, Head of strategic Asset Allocation, Swiss Life, Zurich
Pierre Guillemin, as a Managing Director at Swiss Life Asset Management, is responsible for Asset Liability Management, Quantitative Research and Alternative Investments. Previously, he was Head of Asset Management at Swiss Life Asset management (France) where he developed quantitative techniques for asset allocation, credit management and directional trading. Pierre Guillemin graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris and specialized in stochastic processes a t Université des Sciences de Paris.

Harald Reczek, Head Investment Products – Distribution, Bank Leu Ltd., Zurich
Harald Reczek graduated with an MBA in International Economics and Business Studies from Leopold-Franzens University in Innsbruck, Austria. As part of this international program he spent one year at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), School of Management. After a consultant position at a large multinational industrial group, and two years as a senior consultant for a multiple family office organization, which he helped build as an upstart, Harald joined an investment banking partnership in Zurich and became a partner himself. Before joining Bank Leu he was head of the Zurich Office of one of the top fund of hedge funds providers in Europe. Harald Reczek joined Bank Leu in January of 2004.

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