Alternative investments eyed

The Cayman Alternative Investment Summit will be held from 1-2 November, 2012, at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. 

The conference aims to develop a new narrative for the alternative investment industry on what it stands for and what it can deliver in the post-crisis world. The financial crisis is also an opportunity to create a more vibrant industry.  

This summit will bring together leaders and visionaries from around the world to address economic challenges that affect the alternative investment industry. More than 400 delegates are currently registered for the Cayman Alternative Investment Summit, with over 100 attending companies and 20 international media partners.  

The Cayman AI Summit will present an ideal opportunity to network with leaders from the world of institutional investors, hedge funds, private equity and other alternative investments in one of the world’s top international financial centres. Over 70 of the industry’s most influential experts will speak at the conference. Over the next few weeks we will focus on some of the key event speakers. 

Speakers 

Max Darnell has served as First Quadrant’s Chief Investment Officer since 2002. He is responsible for overseeing the firm’s investment products, with emphasis on strategic research and development initiatives. Along with Curt Ketterer and Joseph Germain, Mr Darnell serves in the firm’s executive office. He began his career at First Quadrant in 1991, managing derivatives research throughout the decade. In 2000 he was named director of Research, overseeing both equities and derivatives products.  

David N. Brooks is the general counsel of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a publicly traded alternative asset investment manager that raises, manages and invests private equity funds and hedge funds. He joined Fortress in 2004 as the deputy general counsel from Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, where he was a corporate associate specialising in public M&A work. Mr Brooks oversees the legal and compliance departments at Fortress in his role as general counsel. 

Jane Rowe, senior vice-president of Teachers’ Private Capital, is responsible for strategic portfolio growth and deal stewardship of the private investment department of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Canada’s largest single-profession pension plan with $117 billion in net assets as of 31 December, 2011. Ms Rowe’s strong background in credit and equity investing was developed during a more than 20-year career at the Scotiabank Group of companies where she held a number of senior roles.  

Lawrence Powell is deputy chief investment officer for Utah State Retirement Fund, a public pension plan managing the retirement benefits of more than 150,000 public employees in the State of Utah. Prior to joining URS, Mr. Powell served as Managing Director, External Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Previously, he was president and chief investment officer of a macro hedge fund firm, which he founded in 1987.  

Gil Raviv is a senior managing director and the general counsel of the general partner and is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day legal affairs of Millennium. Mr. Raviv began his legal career at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in 1996 and became a partner in 2004. At Fried Frank, Mr. Raviv specialised in corporate and securities law, focusing primarily on the structuring and offering of hedge funds, funds of funds, private equity funds and a variety of other alternative investment products. Mr. Raviv received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School and his AB, magna cum laude, from Cornell University. 

Anne Richards is chief investment officer and head of Aberdeen Solutions. She is also head of the EMEA region. Anne was chief investment officer and joint managing director of Edinburgh Fund Managers, which was acquired by Aberdeen in 2003. Prior to joining EFM, she worked for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Ms Richards graduated with first class honours in Electronics and Electrical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and has an MBA from Insead. 

Steven Shenfeld is president of MidOcean Credit Partners.  

Prior to joining MidOcean, he was a general partner and founder of MD Sass Macquarie Financial Strategies, an asset management private equity fund for MD Sass, a $6 billion investment management organisation. Mr Shenfeld was previously a general partner with Avenue Capital Group LLC, a multi-billion dollar distressed debt and credit investment platform. He was also a managing director for Banc Boston Robertson Stephens and Bankers Trust, supervising various business units including Leveraged Finance, High Yield Capital Markets and Global Finance Sales and Trading.  

Mark W. Yusko is the founder, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment adviser formed in July 2004 to provide investment management and advisory services based on the University Endowment Model of investing to wealthy families, individuals and institutional investors. Morgan Creek currently has $ 8.4 billion in assets under advisement in non-discretionary accounts, discretionary funds and joint ventures. Prior to forming Morgan Creek, Mark served as the Chief Investment Officer for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 1998 to 2004.  

Omar Kodmani is president of the Permal Group, managing all day-to-day aspects of the business. He was previously senior executive officer, responsible for monitoring Permal’s international investment activities as well as asset gathering initiatives. Before joining Permal in 2000, Mr. Kodmani spent seven years with Scudder Investments in London and New York where he developed the firm’s international mutual fund business. Prior to Scudder, Mr. Kodmani worked for four years at Equitable Capital (now part of Alliance Bernstein).  

Robert P. Swan III is an original principal of Lighthouse. He is responsible for managing the Lighthouse Operations Department, chairman of the Lighthouse Risk and Valuation Committee and a member of the Lighthouse Executive Committee. Mr Swan was previously the senior treasury consultant for Computer Sciences Corporation, where he provided treasury and risk management system implementations. Prior to CSC, Robert was the Director of Accounting for Trout Trading Management Company, Ltd based in Bermuda.