In this fifth annual Hedge Fund panel organized by the Chicago Booth Alumni Club of New York, we bring together professionals from the alternative investment world.
Program
6:00 PM-6:45 PM: Registration
6:45 PM-7:45 PM: Panelist Discussion
7:45 PM-8:30 PM: Questions and Answers
8:30 PM-9:00 PM: Networking
Speaker Profiles
Thomas Coleman PhD (Panelist)
Senior Risk Adviser, Potomac River Capital, LLC
Thomas S. Coleman is Senior Risk Advisor at Potomac River Capital LLC. For 2012-2014 Mr. Coleman was Executive Director and Senior Advisor at the Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics. Prior to returning to academia in 2012 Mr. Coleman worked in the finance industry for more than twenty years – in trading, risk management, and quantitative modeling. Author of Quantitative Risk Management (Wiley) and A Practical Guide to Risk Management (Research Foundation of the CFA Institute), Mr. Coleman earned his PhD in economics from the University of Chicago and his BA in physics from Harvard College.
Andy Sparks (Panelist)
Managing Director, Technical Product Management (Risk Management Analytics), MSCI
Andy Sparks is the Head of Technical Product Management for the Risk Management Analytics business at MSCI. Andy and his team provide product vision and leadership in the ongoing build-out of MSCI's market leading multi-asset risk platforms. In this role, Andy is able to leverage his extensive knowledge of indices, valuation models, and portfolio risk tools. Prior to joining MSCI in 2011, Andy had been Head of Product Management at Barclays Capital for the POINT portfolio analytics platform. Andy was named the founder and Head of the POINT Marketing group at Lehman Brothers in 2004. Prior to his role in POINT, Andy had held other senior level positions at Lehman including Head of Mortgage Strategies and Head of U.S. Rate Strategies. Before joining Lehman, Andy had been Head of Mortgage and Rates Research at Citicorp Securities. Andy has an M.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Economics from UCLA.
Vince Matsui (Panelist)
Head of Credit, Gottex Fund Management
Vince Matsui brings extensive experience in credit and capital markets to his role as strategy head for credit at Gottex Fund Management. Vince began his career as a commercial lending officer, subsequently transitioning to fixed income trading. He led Citibank's first efforts to market OTC derivatives to institutional investors, and later became a portfolio manager for some of Citibank's defined contribution products. He moved to Swiss Re, becoming global co-head of its structured credit underwriting business. Most recently, Vince was head of Fitch Ratings' CDO Asset Manager Rating program. Vince received his BA in comparative literature from Brown University, and his MBA in finance from the University of Chicago. He is also a graduate of the US Marine Corps' Officer Candidate School.
Ben Axler (Panelist)
Managing Partner, Spruce Point Management
Mr. Axler is the founder of Spruce Point Capital Management and co-founded Prescience Point Research Group, a short-focused research firm. Mr. Axler is an activist short-seller and has exposed over $1.0 billion of alleged frauds on the Nasdaq and the NYSE. Prior to founding Spruce Point in 2009, Mr. Axler spent eight years as an investment banker with Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital. Mr. Axler holds an M.A. from Yale in Statistics, and both a B.A. in Statistics and a B.S. in Business Administration from Rutgers College, where he graduated with Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors.
Craig Bergstrom (Speaker)
Partner, Chief Investment Officer, Corbin
Craig leads investment research and portfolio management and has responsibility for investment process and results across Corbin. He also has direct investment research responsibilities for Corbin’s investments in credit and relative value strategies, including portfolio management for our credit opportunity program, direct and co-investments and our hedge overlay program. Craig is a member of the Investment Committee, the Valuation Committee and the Hedging and Allocation Committee. Prior to joining Corbin in January 2002, Craig was the Risk Manager at Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (“GMO”), a then $20+ billion institutional investment management firm, where he had responsibilities for firm wide market risk management, hedge fund product development and derivatives strategy. Prior to joining GMO, he was a Vice President in the Equity Derivatives group at Salomon Smith Barney, and previously worked in the Equity Structured Products group at Morgan Stanley. Craig graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Government, and he was awarded the CFA charter in 1997.
Gilbert Ong, CFA (Moderator)
Executive Director, MSCI
Gilbert Ong is a Executive Director in the hedge fund consulting group at MSCI, currently covering Hedge Funds and Fund of Funds in the East Coast and Midwest for Risk Management Analytics. He also started and managed the Americas Risk Management Analytics Presales Team which worked on $11 million of pipeline and closed deals in 2014. Prior to joining MSCI in April 2011, Gilbert was a Quantitative Analyst/Strategist at hedge fund, Platinum Partners. During his 11 year career in the capital markets business across New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, Gilbert has successfully started structured product business lines at CIBC World Markets and Fitch Ratings, where he rated and structured two "Deal of the Years" and China's first performing project finance CLO. He also worked in the managed synthetic CDO groups at UOB/OCBC Asset Management and started his career in Asian Equity Research in Salomon Smith Barney in 1999. Gilbert has a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a MA in Statistics from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Accounting (Honors) from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is also a CFA Charterholder.