2010 Capital IQ Investor Leadership Breakfast (Los Angeles)

Dr. Andrew L. Berkin received his B.S. with honors in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1983, and his Ph.D. in general relativity from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. He subsequently was a postdoctoral research fellow in astrophysics at Waseda University in Japan. In 1992 he started work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory pursuing research into the visualization and analysis of large scientific data sets, with the result of that effort winning the 1996 NASA Software of the Year Award. Andrew joined the research group at First Quadrant in 1997, and is currently a Director. He is the Portfolio Strategist for the firm’s Small Cap equity products. His work includes modeling both stock returns and asset allocation, estimating and analyzing transaction costs, developing analysis software, and investigating tax efficient investment strategies. He has published numerous articles in investing, as well as scientific visualization and general relativity. Andrew is an instructor at the CFA review course for the Los Angeles Society of Financial Analysts.

 

 

Mr. Boneck is managing director of Capital IQ’s Quantitative Research Group which specializes in uncovering new anomalies and differentiated stock selection strategies that investors can exploit to outperform the market. Previously, he was a director and senior quantitative analyst at Quantitative Services Group and a quantitative analyst at Schwab Soundview Capital Markets and its predecessor firm, where he constructed stock selection models used by more than 100 institutional investment managers. Mr. Boneck began his career in investment management as a manager of a boutique investment consultancy which performed third-party equity valuation for investment banks, investment managers, and Fortune 100 companies. He serves as chairman of the Candidate Services Advisory Group of the CFA Society of Chicago. Mr. Boneck holds a BA degree in finance, international business, and Spanish from Indiana University.

 

Tim Garry is the risk manager of Passport Capital and a member of the portfolio management team. He joined Passport in December 2007 as a portfolio manager focused on quantitative strategies and market timing algorithms. Prior to joining Passport, Tim was a Vice President and quantitative portfolio manager at State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) in the Absolute Return Strategies Group where he managed the US Market Neutral Fund. He was also a portfolio manager on the SSgA Energy Fund.

He received a MS in Finance from Boston College in 2006. He received an AB in Philosophy and English from Boston College in 2000. He is a CFA charter holder and a member of the Boston Security Analyst’s Society.

 

Steve co-founded Dalton Investments LLC in1998. He oversees Dalton’s distressed debt strategies and manages Dalton’s Distressed Credit Strategy. Steve generated a 12.6% annualized return for the Dalton Global Opportunity Fund from July 1, 1999 until June 30th, 2006 when Dalton returned capital to investors because of a lack of high quality long side distressed opportunities. Now that the world has created a variety of distressed opportunities, he is excited to be again deploying capital in the distressed credit space.

Mr. Persky has over 28 years of fixed income experience. He received his credit training at Citibank, where he was a senior credit officer. He then joined Salomon Brothers, where he traded high yield and international fixed income securities in New York and Tokyo. Prior to founding Dalton, he was a Vice President at Payden & Rygel, a Los Angeles based investment advisor, where he managed institutional fixed income portfolios.

Mr. Persky holds an A.B from Harvard College (1980) where he majored in Asian Studies. He is a CFA charter holder (1994) and a member of the CFA Society of Los Angeles, Inc and the CFA Institute. He frequently speaks about investing in distressed credit and authored a chapter in “Credit Derivative Strategies,” published by Bloomberg Press in 2007.

 

Richard L. Peterson MD works at the intersection of investor psychology and financial markets. He is the managing director of MarketPsy Capital LLC, a quantitative psychology-based asset management and market research firm (www.marketpsychadvisor.com). Additionally, through his training firm MarketPsych LLC (www.marketpsych.com) he instructs financial professionals in the use of psychological insights to improve their investment decisions, marketing, and strengthen client relationships. His financial psychology research has been published in leading academic journals, textbooks, and profiled in the financial media. His book, Inside the Investor’s Brain (Wiley, 2007), was praised as “outstanding” and a “seminal text” by Barrons. Dr. Peterson earned cum laude degrees in electrical engineering (BS), arts (BA),and medicine (MD) from the University of Texas, performed post-graduate neuroeconomics research at Stanford University and is Board-certified in psychiatry. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.

 

As a portfolio manager on the equity team, Steve Sapra is responsible for the ongoing research effort for U.S. equity-based investment strategies as well as the day-to-day portfolio management and trading of such accounts. Prior to joining Analytic Investors, Steve was employed as a Senior Consultant at BARRA, Inc. in Berkeley, CA. He consulted with investment managers in the areas of risk control and strategy implementation. Steve has published papers in The Financial Analysts Journal, The Journal of Portfolio Management, The Journal of Investing, and The Journal of Sports Economics. He currently serves on the board of the Applied Behavioral Finance Group (ABFG). Steve, a Chartered Financial Analyst, received his Ph.D. in Economics from Claremont Graduate University, an MA in Economics from the University of Southern California and a BA in Economics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

 

Fortress Investment Group is a global alternative investment and asset management firm founded in 1998. Fortress has approximately $35 billion in equity capital under management across a variety of private equity, hedge fund, and REIT-like entities.

The Hybrid Hedge Fund Business within Fortress is predominantly active in the debt and credit markets; manages about $15 billion in AUM and invests globally across the investment spectrum, primarily in illiquid, undervalued and distressed credits and portfolios. More recently has begun originating and participating in new private loans, including acquisition financing for private equity sponsors and strategic buyers, refinancings, rescue financings, dividend recaps, consumer and commercial portfolio warehouse lines and acquisitions.

Ian Schnider is a Managing Director of The Hybrid Hedge Fund Business responsible for sourcing, originating and structuring investment opportunities

Ian has over 26 years of commercial finance experience, primarily in middle market lending and investing, portfolio acquisitions, distressed investing, venture debt, portfolio management, workouts and restructuring, bankruptcy and distressed M&A. Ian was previously a principal with the LoftusGroup a boutique turnaround firm, where he led and participated in restructuring and bankruptcy efforts in the telecom, environmental and gaming industries and participated on a turnaround crisis management team in the industrial cleaning and coating industry. Ian was also a partner at Sand Hill Capital, a venture debt fund, a founder of Transamerica Technology Finance and a founder of Greyrock Business Credit. At all three firms Ian held a number of senior positions and was responsible for structuring and managing more than $2 billion of various investments, primarily, senior and junior secured facilities. Mr. Schnider graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting and Business Economics and a Law degree.

 

Professional Background

• Visium Asset Management
  • Started April 2008
  • Covering the international healthcare, food, production, agriculture (anything utilizing biotechnology) sectors
• Lehman Brothers - Equity Research – Biotech
  • 2005 - 2008
  • Covered small-cap to large-cap US biotech
• Navigant Consulting - Life Sciences Practice
  • 2003 - 2008
  • Focused on strategy consulting to pharmaceutical and biotech companies
• ClinTrials Research - Oncology/Central Nervous System,
  • 1993 - 1999
  • Worked on running drug development trials for pharmaceutical and biotech companies

Educational Background

• MBA - Duke University
  • 2001 – Finance
• BA - Case Western Reserve University
  • 1991 – Biology

 

Mr. Sinnott is president and chief investment officer of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and is co-managing partner of the firm’s energy private equity activities, which include the origination and execution of private investments in the oil and gas, oil field services and infrastructure industries. Mr. Sinnott is a director of several energy companies including Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., a large publicly traded MLP.

Prior to joining Kayne Anderson in 1992, Mr. Sinnott was a senior securities officer of Citibank’s Investment Banking Division from 1986 to 1992, concentrating in energy, high-yield corporate buyouts, and restructuring opportunities in Houston, Texas and Los Angeles, California. From 1981 to 1986, he served as director of corporate finance for United Energy Resources in Houston. Mr. Sinnott began his career in the financial industry in 1976 as a vice president and debt analyst for Bank of America, also in Houston.

Mr. Sinnott earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia in 1971 and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Harvard Business School in 1976, after serving three years aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal as a lieutenant j.g.

 

Mr. Spencer is the Chief Operating Officer of Coast Asset Management, a Santa Monica based alternative asset management firm. Mr. Spencer is primarily responsible for overseeing Coast’s non-investment functions. Prior to rejoining Coast in 2006, Mr. Spencer served the role of Vice President and Associate Counsel for Amaranth Group, Inc. Before joining Amaranth in 2005, Mr. Spencer was employed by Coast in a number of capacities. Mr. Spencer initially joined Coast in 2002 as general counsel. Mr. Spencer then served as a convertible bond institutional sales-trader for Coast’s affiliated broker dealer, Coast Asset Securities. Mr. Spencer began his career as a tax attorney focused on complex cross-border tax structuring and private equity transactions. Mr. Spencer earned a B.A. in Economics from the Virginia Military Institute, a joint JD/MBA from the College of William and Mary, and a LL.M in Taxation from the New York University School of Law.