|
|
Speakers 
 Mr Maurus Bossi,
Chief Executive Officer,
AlphaSwiss Group
Maurus Bossi, CFA is Chairman and CEO of the AlphaSwiss Group, Switzerland, an investment group focused on alternative investments with a scientific and quantitative approach. He has a degree in Economics and Business Administration (lic. oec. publ.) from the University of Zurich. Over fifteen years in the asset management business, he served as a quantitative analyst at UBS and was head of marketing and of product development at Zurich Cantonal Bank (ZKB) Asset Management and a member of the ZKB investment committee.
|
 Karsten Bromann,
Chief Risk Officer,
ISPartners Event Linked Securities Fund
Dr. Bromann, Chief Risk Officer of ISPartners Alternative Risk Advisors manages the Event-Linked-Securities Fund together with his colleague Stefan Mueller. His background is physics and alternative risk transfer solutions. Karsten Bromann holds a Ph.D. in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (Dr. sc. techn. EPFL) and is a qualified actuary DAV. From 1998 to 2005, he worked with Zurich Insurance Company, first as a pricing actuary, then as head of quantitative analysis, and finally as vice-president and technical deal architect, responsible for the management of Zurich Corporate Solutions' alternative risk transfer portfolio in Europe. Dr. Bromann has published many papers and has earned several awards for his outstanding scientific work.
|
 William Browder,
Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
Hermitage Capital Management
William Browder is the Founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management, the premier asset management firm specializing in Russian equities. The firm has over US$4 billion under management. The Hermitage Fund was named EuroHedge “2005 Fund of the Year” (Emerging Markets Equities category). The Fund has also been ranked among the best emerging market and global hedge funds by agencies including Nelson’s, Lipper and Micropal.
Mr. Browder is a leading shareholder rights activist and advocate for better corporate governance in Russia. Hermitage, through its shareholder activism, has been credited with a number of breakthroughs improving corporate governance standards at major Russian companies, including Unified Energy Systems, Sberbank and Gazprom. Mr. Browder serves as Chairman of the Russia Task Force for the Institute of International Finance and is a member of the OECD/World Bank Roundtable on Corporate Governance in Russia. He was named a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute, received a 2004 Industry Achievement Award by Global Fund Analysis and was designated a 2005 “Person to Watch” by the Financial News. Before founding Hermitage in 1996, he was Vice-President of Salomon Brothers, as well as a management consultant with the Eastern European practice of the Boston Consulting Group in London. He obtained an honorary BA in Economics from the University of Chicago and an MBA from the Stanford Business School.
|
 Romy Cabrera,
Assistant Vice President, Global Investment Service,
EFG Bank
Romy Cabrera has been in the financial industry for 11 years. In her role as a hedge fund specialist, she is the co-manager of two EFG Bank multi-strategy Fund of Hedge Funds as well as responsible for the analysis and selection of hedge funds placed on the platform used by EFG Bank's private bankers. Romy has a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of Miami double majoring in International Relations and Latin American studies. She also holds various NASD securities brokerage licenses - Series 24 (General Securities Principal), Series 7 (Registered Representative), Series 55 (Equity Trader), and Series 63 (Blue Sky Laws) and has passed the level one of the CAIA examination.
|
Ricardo Cordero,
Partner, CEO Fund Management,
Reichmuth & Co Private Bank
|
 Mr Sean Corrigan,
Chief Investment Strategist,
Diapason Commodities Management, Switzerland
Having studied science and engineering - including an emphasis on metallurgy and materials science while at Cambridge - Sean Corrigan began a 20-year career in financial markets as a fixed-income trader, working mainly in a proprietary function at various City institutions.
Changing direction in the 1990s, he became chief strategist for the major markets division of a well-known third-party research provider, before striking out on his own and forming Capital Insight in late 1999, just in time to warn readers of his Capita Letter of the likely consequences of the impending tech & telecom crash.
He recently joined Diapason Commodities Management as Chief Investment Strategist, having performed a similar role for Sage Capital, Zurich, managers of the Edelweiss fund, over the previous two years.
As a long-time devotee of the Austrian School, Sean has been published by, and has spoken regularly at, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and was honoured to deliver the Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture at its 2004 Scholars' Conference.
|
 Philipp Cottier,
Chief Executive Officer,
Harcourt Investment Consulting AG
Dr. Philipp Cottier is the CEO of Harcourt Investment Consulting AG. Prior to joining Harcourt in 1998, Dr. Philipp Cottier served as an investment adviser on the investment committees of several funds of hedge funds managed by SBC Warburg in Hong Kong and New York. Prior to that, he was a hedge fund analyst for SBC Private Banking in Basel. Dr. Cottier started at Swiss Bank Corp. Zurich in Futures and Options Management in 1994. He has diverse international experience, including having worked for the Boston Consulting Group in Sydney. Dr. Cottier graduated from the University of St. Gallen in 1992 with a degree in Finance & Accounting. He holds a further degree in Political Science and published his doctoral thesis ‘Hedge Funds and Managed Futures’ in 1997 at Paul Haupt Publishers in Bern.
|
Louis-Frédéric de Pfyffer,
Deputy Director and Head of Alternative Investments,
Heritage Bank & Trust
Deputy Managing Director of Heritage, Head of Alternative Investments and CIO. He joined Heritage in 1992 to develop Heritage’s capabilities in
structuring alternative investment products for institutional and private clients. From 1985 to1992 he was General Manager of Gutzwiller SA (Geneva)
which he established and organized. Prior to that he was employed by Prudential Bache Securities in New York and Geneva. Mr. de Pfyffer holds a degree in Economics from the Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC) in Lausanne.
|
 Alexander Dimai,
Founding Partner,
DL Investment Partners
Alexander Dimai is a founding partner of DL Investment Partners, Zug, Switzerland. DL Investment Partners is advising institutional investors on tailored investment solutions. The company focuses on alternative asset classes and active investment management. Prior founding DL Investment Partners in 2006 he was head of project business at Complementa Investment-Controlling AG, Switzerland, on of the leading pension advisors in Switzerland. Between 1999 and 2002, he was a manager consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Zürich. At The Boston Consulting Group, he was member of the financial service practice group.
Mr. Dimai graduated with a degree in physics from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland, and holds a PhD in technical science from the same university. He is a CFA Chartholder.
|
 Sebastian Dovey,
Managing Partner, Head of Consulting,
Scorpio Partnership
Sebastian Dovey heads consulting services at Scorpio Partnership, an eight-year old firm that acts as a wealth management solutions consultant between financial services firms and family offices and high-net-worth individuals. The firm has worked with family offices whose combined wealth exceeds $3 billion, and with vendors including UBS Private Banking, Capital International, Credit Suisse, HSBC Republic, JP Morgan Private Bank, Citigroup Private Bank, Deutsche Bank, ABN Amro, BNP Paribas, Lloyds TSB, Barclays, SEI Investments, Merrill Lynch, Bessemer Trust, UBP and Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch. As well, he has direct input into business development of competitive intelligence surveys and business solutions. He is also actively building education-based solutions for various client initiatives.
Dovey has been an advisory board member of the Wealth Congress since 2003. He is also the creator and faculty director of the International Wealth Management Academy, developed in association with the Financial Times group. Before establishing the firm in mid-1998, Dovey was the London based managing editor of Global Private Banking.
Dovey holds a first class BA (Hons) degree in modern history from University College London, and was awarded an MSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics.
|
 Jan P. Eckert,
Managing Director,
Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Corporate Finance (Schweiz) AG
Jan P. Eckert, born as Swiss Citizen on the 8th of August 1964 in Wiesbaden,
graduated his studies of business administration at the HWV Zurich in 1991.
In 1997 he graduated successfully as a certified public accountant (CPA) and in 1999 as real estate economist at the European Business School (ebs) in Germany. He started his professional career in 1991 with Arthur Andersen in the audit and advisory division. In 1997 as a Partner of Andersen, Jan Eckert founded Andersen Real Estate in Switzerland and successfully integrated this activity in Ernst & Young – developing the practice into one of the most successful and recognized real estate advisors in Switzerland. On December 1st, 2005 the entire real estate team of Ernst & Young transferred to the newly established Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Corporate Finance (Switzerland) AG where Jan Eckert leads this real estate corporate finance team as Managing Director. In the last years he conducted real estate transactions with a volume of over CHF 6 bn. In addition, he has been responsible or the valuation of real estate assets of numerous private and listed real estate companies and investment trusts. Major mandates include the IPO of Allreal, the acquisition of the Oscar Weber Holding (EPA), the Merger and reorganisation of the Tertianum Group as well as the co-lead advisory in the merger of REG und PSP to the leading Swiss real estate company. Further important mandates were the definition and the implementation of real estate strategies of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and COOP. Since 1st of December 2005 he is in charge of developing the Real Estate Investment Advisory as well as the Real Estate Investment Banking at Sal. Oppenheim in Switzerland. He is Member of the EPRA (European Public Real Estate Association), INREV (European Association for Investors in non-listed Real Estate Vehicles) and a MRICS of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (R.I.C.S).
|
 Heinz Ehrensberger,
Partner,
PFS Pension Fund Services AG
|
 Mr Patrick Fenal,
Chief Executive Officer,
Unigestion
Patrick Fenal is Chief Executive Officer of Unigestion. He joined the company in 1978 and held various positions in the area of asset management including bond manager before supervising the hedge funds activities. He is heading the hedge funds investment committee and brings his experience and expertise at each step of our hedge funds process.
|
 Florian Fenner,
Managing Partner,
UFG Asset Management
Florian Fenner, CFA, aged 35, (German), joined UFG Asset Management as Managing Partner in July 2002. He is an investment manager with over ten years experience in Russia. Prior to joining UFG, he was head of the representative office of Unifund with responsibility for a Russia portfolio exceeding several hundred millions of USD. He served as Deputy Head of Research at Brunswick Brokerage, one of Russia’s leading investment banks, in 1996 before joining Brunswick Capital Management in 1997. He managed and co-managed several funds and managed accounts as IMRO registered fund manager. Before coming to Russia, he worked for Schröder Münchmeyer Hengst Co, a German investment bank. Mr. Fenner is a Chartered Financial Analyst, based in Moscow and speaks fluent Russian.
|
 Reto Grau,
Senior Portfolio Manager,
RMF Investment Management
Reto Grau is a senior portfolio manager for RMF Investment Management, based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland.
Prior to joining RMF in 2002, he spent two years with Swiss Life Hedge Fund Partners as head of the Global leveraged finance team. Previously, Mr Grau spent one year with Schroders AG Zurich specialising in interest rate proprietary trading. Prior to this he worked for ABB World Treasury Center from 1994 to 1998, and was responsible for interest rate management in various currencies. From 1991 to 1994 he was a trader of equity and fixed income derivatives at JP Morgan in New York and Frankfurt. Mr Grau started his career in 1987 with Schweizerische Volksbank, working in the Futures & Options division.
Mr Grau holds a degree in economics (lic. oec. publ) which included a particular focus on finance, from the University of Zurich, Switzerland (Master's equivalent). He is a CFA and CAIA (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst) charterholder and a member of the Swiss Society of Investment Professionals (SSIP).
|
 Pierre Guillemin,
Head Quantitative Asset Management, Head Alternative Investments,
Swiss Life
Pierre Guillemin, as a Managing Director at SwissLife Asset Management, is responsible for Quantitative Asset Management and Alternative investments.
Previously, he was Head of Asset Management at SwissLife Asset Management (France) where he developped Quantitative techniques for Asset allocation, credit management and directional trading. Pierre Guillemin is graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris and Université des Sciences de Paris (DEA Statistics and Stochastic Processes).
|
 Rolf Helbling,
Portfolo Manager,
BZ Fund Management
Rolf is managing BZ Infra, an equity fund investing in the infrastructure and utility sectors. The fund's investment strategy focuses on companies active in the power and water utilities, air- and seaport and the rail industry. Before joining BZ Group in 2001, he was partner in a private equity company.
|
 Simon Hopkins,
Chief Executive Officer,
The Fortune Group
Simon Hopkins has over 20 years' experience in the European investment business. He started his investment banking career with SG Warburg & Co in 1986, joining UBS in 1988 as a European equity specialist. From 1990 to 1996 he spent over six years as a French equity market specialist in Paris, first with HSBC James Capel, then the Japanese giant Nomura in France, where as director of French equities he built a highly-rated equity sales and research business. Simon established Fortune, a diversified hedge fund management and advisory firm, and its research affiliate Global Fund Analysis in 1996. Earlier this year, Close Bros plc, a leading UK merchant bank, managing alternative assets of in excess of USD 7 billion, acquired a controlling interest in the firm. Today Fortune manages proprietary hedge funds including the Market Wizards Fund and the Fortune family of funds overseeing over 1 billion USD in total for a wide range of institutional clients including insurance companies, private banks, family offices and endowments. The firm has also seeded 15 single strategy funds over the last decade through its unique emerging manager program. Simon brings to the Fortune team a deep understanding of global investors and the driving forces of fund investing. He is a regular commentator on fund industry topics in the financial media and has addressed numerous conferences, the OECD and the London School of Economics on hedge fund investing. He graduated with honours from the University of Bristol's Faculty of Law.
|
 Klaus-Wilhelm Hornberg,
Senior Vice President, Alternative Investments,
Oppenheim Kapitalanlagegesellschaft m.b.H.
Klaus Wilhelm Hornberg, Senior Vice President for OPPENHEIM Kapitalanlagegesellschaft, has worked within Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie. since 1994. Following his graduation in Macro Economics at the University of Goettingen, Mr. Hornberg was employed as a Portfolio Manager for institutional mandates at Commerzbank Investment Management in Liechtenstein (Frankfurt/Main). Subsequently, he worked for J.P.Morgan (Frankfurt/Main) and later Sal. Oppenheim (Switzerland) in the private client department, where he was accountable for investment strategy. Since May 2000, Mr. Hornberg has been responsible for institutional clients at OPPENHEIM Kapitalanlagegesellschaft and has specialised in alternative investments.
|
 Simon Hotchin,
European Head of Asset Liability Management,
Morgan Stanley
Mr. Hotchin is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, where he has responsibility for all client ALM work in Europe, covering insurance companies, pension funds corporates, banks, and sovereigns.
Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 1999, Mr. Hotchin ran the Risk Advisory Group at Societe Generale in London for 2 years and before that performed a similar role for 4 years at Tokai Bank Europe, including much project work for the same broad client base in Japan and other countries in the Asian time zone. Prior experience includes 1 year in the Risk Advisory Group at Bankers Trust and 6 years at BP working firstly in the Corporate Planning Department and then in BP Finance working with the internal business to identify risks and implement hedging solutions.
Mr. Hotchin holds an M.A., B.A. in Economics from Cambridge University.
|
 Lars Jaeger,
Partner and Head, Alternative Beta Strategies,
Partners Group
Dr. Lars Jaeger, Partner, Head of Alternative Beta Strategies:
Lars Jaeger holds a PhD degree in theoretical physics from the Max-Planck Institute for Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden. He studied physics and philosophy at the University of Bonn, Germany, and Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. After his post-doctorate studies in Dresden, Lars began his finance career as a quantitative researcher on econometric and mathematical modeling of financial markets at Olsen & Associates AG in Zurich. He subsequently joined the Hedge Fund group of Credit Suisse Asset management, where he was responsible for risk management and quantitative strategy analysis. Lars is a founding partner of saisGroup, an investment firm specializing on alternative investment strategies which merged with Partners Group, where he is now heading the group “Alternative Investment Research”. Lars holds the CFA charter and is a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM). He is the author of numerous research publications and the books “Risk Management of Alternative Investment Strategies”, published in 2002 with Financial Times Prentice Hall, “The New Generation of Risk Management for Hedge Funds and Private Equity“ (ed.) published by Euromoney in 2003, and “Through the Alpha Smokescreen: A guide to hedge fund return sources”, published by Institutional Investors (2005).
|
 Peter Kandl,
Head of Risk & Solvency Affairs,
Swiss Insurance Association / Schweizerischer Versicherungverband
Peter started his professional career as risk analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, where his main responsibility was the timely preparation of statistical parameters used for the internal model approach measuring market risk. In addition, he was actively involved in model validation.
Peter then joined PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to advise on different risk related projects, many of them carried out for corporate treasuries in the electricity and chemical industry. His subsequent main focus was the design, support and implementation of risk measurement methods for both market and credit risk in the banking industry. He has also been involved in treasury projects for large corporations in selecting treasury systems.
From 2000 to the end of 2004, Peter was the Head of Risk Management and Deputy Chief Risk Officer at Swiss Life, a Swiss life assurance company. His responsibilities included the definition, timely production and delivery of risk reports as well as the implementation of a risk controlling framework tailored to the specific needs of Swiss Life, focussed on ALM asset liability management). His last responsibility was the conceptualisation, measurement and reporting of operational risks on a group wide basis.
Peter then joined RiskBusiness in 2005, focussing amongst other things on the application of the RMA's KRI Library to insurance and in the quantification of operational risk for capital purposes.
His current position is head of risk and solvency affairs at the Swiss Insurance Association. His main duties are the coordination of implementing the new reulatory regime (Swiss Solvency Test), Solvency II in Europe and IFRS.
Peter is the regional director of GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals), heading the local chapter in Zurich. He is a frequent speaker at various risk related events and lecturer for applied risk management at the banking institute in Zurich. He is also a course provider, preparing candidates for the FRM exam awarded by GARP.
Peter has a masters degree in econometrics and operations research obtained from the University of Zurich and holds a PhD in econometrics and applied mathematics. He recently completed a series of exams to become an actuary. He is also a member of the Swiss Actuarial Association.
|
 David Keel,
Managing Director,
Harcourt Investment Consulting AG
David Keel started his career 1997 at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Zurich as a Corporate Tax Consultant. Prior to joining Harcourt in 2002, David Keel worked several years as an investment advisor at Merrill Lynch in Zurich. David Keel graduated from the University of Fribourg with a degree in Law. Since 2005 he is also certified as Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and since 2006 as Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).
|
 Mr. Rainer Lang,
Managing Director,
Ferro Capital International GmbH
Rainer Lang - Managing Director, Head of Zurich Office. Mr. Lang is responsible for Ferro Capital’s International business development and relationship management. Prior to joining Ferro Capital, Mr. Lang was a Senior Vice President at Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., Zurich. In his function as Head Alternative Sales Europe and Middle East, he was responsible for external Sales & Marketing of Julius Baer's Alternative Investment products and solutions to Institutional and Intermediary Clients. Mr. Lang was a member of the Management committee of the division Sales & Marketing Europe and Middle East. Previously (from 1998 to 2004) he was Managing Director und Member of the board of directors at GAM (Global Asset Management), based in Zurich. In his function as Head of Intermediary & Institutional Clients Switzerland, Germany and Austria he was responsible for GAM's product distribution and marketing activities. Before that Mr. Lang spent several years at Credit Suisse Asset Management, responsible for Third party fund distribution as well as internals Sales to the Business Unit Asset Management, Institutional Sales. Pervious experience includes more than 10 years at UBS in a variety of management functions for Institutional and Corporate business. Rainer Lang has been a frequent speaker at many financial conferences and a featured writer of professional articles. Mr. Lang received a BA in Banking for Professionals from high school Chur. In addition he studied at AZEK/CIIA, Zurich (Certified European Financial Analyst).
|
Mr Darren Lauber,
Senior Portfolio Management,
Integrated Alternative Investments Ltd
Darren Lauber is a Senior Investment Manager within the Integrated Asset Management Group. Prior to joining Attica Alternative Investments (which was acquired by Integrated Asset Management) as a Senior Investment Manager in 2004, he had been an Investment Manager since 2000 at Key Asset Management and Mount Capital Management. Darren is a member of the Investment Committee, is responsible for managing a number of portfolios and is involved in both asset allocation and fund research. Prior to investing in hedge funds, he worked as a sell-side equity analyst within the Technology Group at WestLB Panmure and then as a buy-side analyst at Ansbacher. Darren began his career in 1996 at Coopers & Lybrand, focusing on the audit and corporate finance of mid-cap growth companies. He holds an MA (honours) degree in Economics from Cambridge University (1995). In addition, Darren holds the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation and the UKSIP IMC Investment Management Certificate.
|
Francesca Lieb,
Co-Head of Business Development,
Cambridge Place Investment
Ms. Lieb joined CPIM in November 2003 as Head of Business Development and Investor Relations for Europe with the mandate to co-ordinate the expansion of CPIM’s lines of business by liaising with the investor community for both existing products and innovative structures. Prior to joining Cambridge Place, Ms. Lieb was Managing Director Principal at Bear Stearns where she spent the last 17 years of her career in New York and London as a structured products structurer and analyst. Her most recent primary duties included direct coverage of large French institutions within the Fixed Income Sales team, focusing on highly structured transactions and in-depth portfolio analytics. Ms. Lieb also advised on the launch (September 1999) and development of one of the first European-based Global ABS hedge funds. Ms. Lieb was originally transferred to London from New York in 1992 within the Financial Analytics and Structured Transactions (FAST) team as an ABS/MBS specialist to develop European securitisation and expand Bear Stearns’ presence in Europe for US products. During her seven years in New York, Ms. Lieb was part of the CMO structuring team ultimately heading the reverse-engineering team for MBS and ABS. Ms. Lieb holds a BA in Business Administration from H.E.C. (Hautes Etudes Commerciales), Lausanne, Switzerland.
|
 Dr Graziano Lusenti,
Advisor to Institutional Investors, Managing Partner,
Lusenti Partners LLC
Graziano Lusenti is the founder and managing partner of Lusenti Partners LLC in Nyon (Geneva area), Switzerland, a company created in September 2002 (www.lusenti-partners.ch). It offers consultancy for institutional investors such as pension funds, banks, insurance companies and family offices.
Previously, he was managing director of Robeco (Switzerland) SA (formerly: Robeco Institutional Asset Management (Switzerland SA) in Geneva, a subsidiary of the Dutch fund manager Robeco Group. His former professional assignments were in life insurance, consulting and banking.
Dr. Lusenti holds a post-graduate degree and a PhD in political sciences from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) of the University of Geneva, as well as the federal degree as a Swiss Pension Fund Actuary.
He is the author of a well established and regularly conducted survey on Swiss pension funds and institutional investors’ investment behavior.
Dr. Lusenti is fluent in French, German, English and Italian. He has published in those languages several books and numerous articles in Swiss and foreign professional magazines or industry journals, as well as newspapers.
|
 Mr Philippe Manet,
CFA, Partner, Style and Portfolio Manager,
Alternative Investment Services
Philippe Manet, CFA is a partner of AIS (Suisse) SA, Portfolio Manager and Relative Value Style Specialist. Prior to joining AIS, Philippe Manet held senior management positions at HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) SA, Geneva (2003-2004) and UBS, SA., Geneva (1999-2003) catering to UHNW client needs. From 1992 to 1999 he ran a single family office in London, on the back of investment banking experience gained at Samuel Montagu & Co Ltd (1988-1992) and Orion Royal Bank Limited (1984-1988).
|
 Christoph Manser,
Head Alternative Investments,
Winterthur
Winterthur Group is one of the leading insurance groups in Europe and a wholly owned subsidiary of Credit Suisse Group. Chris is responsible for the firm's private equity and hedge fund investments totalling approximately USD 5 billion. Prior to joining Winterthur in 1998, he worked for Union Bank of Switzerland as a fixed income analyst and portfolio manager. Chris is a CFA charterholder and serves on the advisory board of a number of private equity partnerships.
|
 Stephan Marti,
Partner,
Alegra Capital Limited
Stephan Marti, Partner (47) started with Alegra as Partner in 2004. He is a former VP of Centre Insurance Company, New York. He developed, structured and executed several groundbreaking mezzanine and equity investments in U.S. loan asset securitizations. Prior to joining Centre in 1996, Mr. Marti was a senior executive with Credit Suisse in Zurich, Switzerland, where he provided structured finance products to export-oriented Swiss multinationals. Before joining CS, he was a Director in Structured Finance with UBS, New York, where he managed a number of the bank’s leveraged finance transactions with U.S. Fortune 1000 companies. Mr. Marti received a degree in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Basel, Switzerland.
|
 Peter Meier,
Professor, Centre for Alternative Investments,
Zürcher Hochschule Winterthur
Peter Meier is head of the Center of Alternative Investments at Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur. He studied at University of St. Gallen where he received a doctoral degree in economics in 1982 and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University. At the Cantonal Bank of Zurich he was Chief Economist before he started to build up a modern asset management unit for institutional and private portfolios as well as mutual funds from 1992 to 1998 for the same bank. As CEO of Swissca Portfolio Management, Peter Meier was responsible for one of the larger Swiss institutional asset management companies.
His research, consulting and teaching experience range from economics to finance and particularly banking, portfolio management, mutual funds and pension funds. Since 2000 he published regularly about alternative investments and hedge funds.
|
Lothar Mentel,
Head of Product Development,
Threadneedle Asset Management Limited
|
 John Morrison,
Chief Executive Officer,
Man Investments
John Morrison is Chief Executive of Man Investments based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland.
John was previously the Managing Director of Man Investments Australia Limited and Chairman of Man Financial Australia Limited. With an extensive legal background, John moved into the managed funds industry with Elders Finance Limited as Head of Derivative Funds Management in 1986. John then joined the Ord Minnett Group in 1989 where he became a Director, a member of the Executive Committee, a Board Member of the Ord Minnett Group and Head of Managed Funds for the Ord Minnett Group. He is a former Chairman of the Managed Futures and Hedge Funds Association. John remains a director of Man Investments Australia Limited, the leader in structured alternative investments in Australia and New Zealand and is also a member of the Investment Management Committee and Director of QFV Investment Management Limited, an Australian equity hedge fund manager.
John Morrison (BLS,) holds a Bachelor of Legal Studies from Macquarie University.
|
John Noorlander,
Portfolio Strategy and Risk Management,
Helvetia Patria
John Noorlander is Head of Portfolio Strategy at Helvetia Patria Insurance and is responsible for asset liability management and investment strategy, including risk control and financial reporting. Previously, he was Portfolio Manager for Institutional Investors at Swiss Bank Corporation. John holds degrees from University of Basel and the London School of Economics.
|
Gareth Owen,
Senior Portfolio Manager,
Cambridge Place Investments
|
 Raymond Porchet,
Executive Director,
IFP Independent Financial Partners
At IFP Independent Financial Partners, Raymond is responsible for the acquisition of new clients and the servicing of existing relationships. Furthermore, he takes care of all business networks to adjacent faculties such as private equity, real estate etc. IFP Independent Financial Partners have approximately 500 million SFR of assets under management.
Raymond spent 18 years with Julius Baer in Zurich in different positions, up to institutional asset management as well as mergers and acquisitions. Following that, he became a partner in an independent portfolio management company with special responsibility for private equity, real estate, energy (oil and gas) and insurance as well as any kind of alternative investments known at that time.
After that, he was Head of Private Banking at Chase Manhattan Bank Zurich for some years with the responsibility for the German speaking part of Switzerland, Germany and Austria and then became CEO of Banque Générale du Luxembourg Suisse SA in Zurich, which he built up from a small shop of 6 people to a medium size private bank with some 40 employees before joining IFP Independent Financial Partners. Throughout his career, his focus has been on alternative investments.
Since 2002, I he has been a board member of Rising STAR AG, a company structuring fund of hedge fund certificates for the German market with issuers such as Nomura, Commerzbank, Hauck & Aufhäuser etc. and managers such as AUDA, RPM, Harcourt etc. Their last product was a placement of some 130 million Euros with AUDA in their buy out fund through a German KG.
|
 Rob-Roy Roedel,
Group Chief Investment Officer,
Plenum Family Office
Rob-Roy Roedel is the Chief Investment Officer of Plenum Group. He has multiple years of experience in international financial markets working in Switzerland, Turkey and the United States.
Prior to joining Plenum he managed a portfolio of hedge funds for a family office located in Zurich and various other positions including internal consultant and securities analyst for a major US and Swiss bank. He holds a MBA from INSEAD and a bachelor degree in industrial management and German from Carnegie Mellon University.
Additionally, he is an inactive reserve officer in the US Navy. Rob-Roy speaks fluent English, German and conversational Finnish.
|
 Rainer A. Rueppel,
Chief Executive Officer,
ISPartners Investment Solutions
Dr. Rueppel is the CEO and a co-founder of ISPartners, a company dedicated to alternative investment strategies. His background is computer science and applied mathematics. He holds a Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Dr. sc. techn. ETH) and was Assistant Professor at the University of California in San Diego (UCSD). In 1989 he started his own company R3 Security Engineering AG which became a leading supplier of security solutions for the Swiss banking industry. After he sold his company he worked as investment advisor and business angel in the venture capital community. Dr. Rueppel has published several books and numerous research papers. He holds several board positions.
|
 Laurent Seyer,
Chief Executive Officer,
Lyxor Asset Management
Laurent Seyer is Chief Executive Officer of Lyxor Asset Management. Previously, he was a Managing Director of the Equity Derivatives Division of Société Générale where he headed the Swiss Desk. He holds a diploma from the “Institut d’ Etudes Politiques de Paris”. Laurent has held a number of positions in the Group since joining in 1988 including Deputy Manager of the Group’s internal Audit and Director in the M&A Department in London, where he led SG's acquisition projects and advised Financial Institutions. In 1999, he joined the Equity Derivatives division, and created the subsidiary “Inora Life Limited” which offers structured products based unit linked investments.
|
 Mark Stober,
Specialist, Financial Market Risk, R&D Team,
Bundesamt für Privatversicherungen / Federal Office of Private Insurers
Mark works in the Research and Development team of Bundesamt für Privatversicherungen / Federal Office of Private Insurers with a focus on financial market risk since February 2005. His responsibilities include, among others, the development of the Swiss Solvency Test (SST) and he liaises with companies about the appropriateness of the internal models for SST purposes.
Previously, Mark worked for Swiss Mobilir Insurance Company as a risk manager for two and a half years. He holds a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Konstanz.
|
 Edouard Stucki,
Senior Investment Consultant,
Watson Wyatt
Edouard joined Watson Wyatt in 2003 and is a Senior Consultant in the Investment Consulting Practice based in Zurich, Switzerland.
He is responsible for providing investment advice to Swiss based pension funds of multinationals and for the pension fund of a Swiss canton and of a major supranational organisation in Geneva. He is also involved in business development for pension fund clients in Switzerland. Edouard’s areas of expertise are pension fund governance, investment strategy and investment manager/custodian selection
Prior to joining Watson Wyatt in 2003 Edouard held a senior management position in equities with UBS Global Asset Management. He worked for Zurich Financial Services company for over ten years as an equity and balanced portfolio manager and analyst in Chicago, London and Zurich with responsibilities for local investment strategy and implementation;
While at Zurich Financial Services he also managed a worldwide global custody project and has held various senior investment business management responsibilities. Edouard began his professional career as a fixed income and foreign exchange analyst with Vontobel Asset Management in Zurich.
|
 Indira Tasan,
Chief Executive Officer,
BancoHedge
Indira C. Tasan is journalist and publisher of the only independant Swiss hedge funds newsletter BANCOhedge, as well as editor-in-chief of the Swiss financial magazine BANCO. After finishing her studies of Chinese and Russian at the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, she started her carrier in 1986 at an international publisher in Lausanne, where she was promoted Head of the banking and financial publications departement. In 1995, she founded – together with a partner, Selim R. Chanderli – her own publishing house in Lausanne (Switzerland), Forward SA: in 1996, she launched the first Swiss mutual funds magazine, BANCO, first in French, than – a year later – in German. In 2004, she launched the newsletter BANCOhedge in both french and german versions.
|
 Jens Thumann,
National Finance Director,
Unilever Schweiz
Jens Thumann is National Finance Director at Unilever Schweiz and a member of the investment committee of Pensionkasse Unilever Schweiz and Univest with total assets of CHF 1bn. He was previously Regional Treasurer Europe for Unilever NV and Company Controller at Lever Faberge, Germany. Jens studies mathematics and economics in Hamburg.
|
 Juerg Tobler,
Head of Hedge Fund Investments,
Pensionskasse Zurich-Stadt
Jürg’s responsibilities include hedge fund investments, which amount to CHF 900 million, bond investments and indirect real estate investments. Furthermore, he is responsible for the analysis concerning the fund's overall investment strategy. Previously, he was with Cantonal Bank of Zurich and was responsible for fixed income research among other things. He has a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of St. Gallen and has published in "Financial Markets and Portfolio Management" and the "Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics".
|
 Juerg Trueb,
Managing Director, Environmental & Commodity Markets,
Swiss Reinsurance Company
Juerg is Managing Director of Swiss Re’s Environmental & Commodity Markets team which is active in weather, energy, and emissions markets. In the weather area the team has an estimated market share in the end user business of about 20-30% and it received several industry awards. Further, it closed the first insurance policy covering risks related to the Clean Development Mechanism process. Other areas of responsibility include Swiss Re’s agricultural and nuclear business. Prior to this he was responsible for Swiss Re’s Atmospheric Perils team developing underwriting tools for European Windstorm, Tropical Cyclones world-wide, and methods to steer Swiss Re’s storm exposure. He holds a PhD in Natural Sciences from Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Zurich.
|
 Diego Wauters,
Chief Executive Officer,
Coriolis Capital Limited
Diego Wauters is CEO of Coriolis Capital Limited, a hedge fund company based in London specialised in exotic products in the insurance/reinsurance sector. Coriolis was created in July 2003, following a friendly management buyout from Société Générale.
Prior to the management buyout, Mr Wauters was Global Head of Insurance and Weather Derivatives at SG. He joined the London office in 1998, after spending four years with AIG. Mr Wauters was founder, President and CEO of AIG Combined Risks, which specialised in insurance derivatives and was a pioneer in Catastrophe Bonds and Weather Derivatives. Prior to this, he spent 11 years at JPMorgan in New York, where he was involved in the creation of some of the biggest start up insurance companies established offshore, and London where he became Managing Director in charge of M&A Insurance and Financial Reinsurance.
Mr Wauters, who is Belgian, has five University degrees (including physics and insurance law) from the University of Louvain. He is married with four children.
|
Henrik Wennberg,
Investment Director,
Plenum
Henrik Wennberg (born 1966) has nine years experience managing capital in the Nordic Power Market and was previously investment director with Markedskraft Fonder AB. Wennberg has developed a methodology that has been successful in the market for many years. His experience and methodology will be replicated in the new fund.
From 2004-2005 fund manager for the Markedskraft hedge fund Elexir
From 2000-2004 Henrik was working with managed accounts for Markedskraft Capital Management. He headed the department from 2000 to 2002 and acted as an advisor and trader thereafter.
From 1997 – 1999 Henrik worked as a portfolio manager with Uppsala Energi AB.
From 1986 – 1996 Henrik resided in the USA completing a BA degree in international affairs at Northern Arizona University, and subsequently was employed as an account executive with Chatfield Dean & Company.
|
Bruno Wicki,
Partner,
47°N Capital Management LP
|
|
|
|
