KEY PEOPLE
Patrick Ghali
Managing Partner, Co-founder
Prior to co-founding Sussex Partners, Mr. Ghali worked for Bear Stearns where he was part of a team that established a global private banking operation in London, and where he advised hedge funds and funds of hedge funds on institutional and pension fund mandates. Before joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Ghali founded Strategic Solutions International, a firm that specialised in capital introduction, due diligence and M&A through which he launched and sold a number of businesses in Europe and the United States. Mr. Ghali is a member of the Board of Directors of Vedra Partners Ltd, a UK based, FCA regulated multi-family office, and has sat on the Boards of a number of asset management and other businesses. In addition, Mr. Ghali was a Founding Mentor of HenkelËŸ, a division of German conglomerate Henkel, tasked with accelerating the group’s entrepreneurial transformation, and is a member of the Human Rights Watch Zurich committee, a leading international non-governmental organisation for advocacy on human rights. A frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributor to the financial press, Mr. Ghali has written articles for Bloomberg, Financial News, the FT’s Mandatewire, and is frequently cited in publications such as the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Pensions & Investments and other financial and sector specialist press. He was named as one of Financial News’ 40 under 40 Rising Stars in Hedge Funds 2015. Mr. Ghali received a B.S. in Finance from the Stern School of Business, New York University, and is a Swiss national.
Jim Neumann
Partner, CIO
Prior to Sussex, Mr. Neumann was Founder & Managing Partner of BN Capital, a structured credit alternative asset manager. As part of that effort Mr. Neumann was also a Board Member, Head of Capital Markets, and Principal at Vendor Assistance Program, a FinTech firm providing funding to vendors getting paid late by US government entities (beginning with Illinois). Mr. Neumann ran North Fork Capital, a hedge fund advisory firm after leaving Ramius Capital. At Ramius, Mr. Neumann was Managing Director and Co-Head of Investments at Ramius Alternative Solutions LLC, which began as a joint venture between Ramius Capital Group and Unicredit / Hypovereinsbank (HVB). At Ramius he served on the Investment Management Committee and was also responsible for underlying manager selection, due diligence, and portfolio and risk management activities. Additionally, Mr. Neumann was responsible for major institutional client relationships including a $1 Billion co-managed fund with Unicredit / HVB. Prior to the joint partnership, he was Managing Director, CEO and CIO at HVB Alternative Advisors with similar duties, working on both the buy and sell sides of the securities industry for fifteen years, primarily in fixed income trading / portfolio management. Prior to HVB Mr. Neumann, was a Portfolio Manager and Trader for Aubrey G. Lanston & Co. for six years, prior to which he was Vice President at BNY Mellon for six years. Mr. Neumann holds a B.S. from Providence College, Rhode Island, and an M.B.A in Finance from Fordham University, New York.
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Kanji Kikuchi
Partner
Prior to joining Sussex Partners, Mr. Kikuchi was Director and Head of Fund Solutions for the private banking department of Credit Suisse (Japan) Securities and was responsible for fund business promotion for nearly 14 years. Prior to Credit Suisse, Kikuchi worked in alternative investment sales and structured solutions at Merrill Lynch as Director, Head of Japan ESS Alternative Investment Business, worked in fund derivatives solutions for BNP Paribas and at Mizuho Securities as General Manager, Alternative Investment Strategies, where he was responsible for fund of hedge funds distribution, mainly to institutional investors in Japan. He launched Japan’s first fund of hedge funds for high-net-worth individuals through a public offering called “The First Square”. He started his career as fixed income sales at Fuji Bank (Currently Mizuho financial group) and now has over 30 years’ experience in financial industries.
Mr. Kikuchi holds a B.A. in Law from Okayama University.
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Solvena Moore
Director
Mrs. Moore is employed with JTC Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd., the Administrator as Director - Institutional Client Services – Cayman. She was previously employed by Julius Baer Group from 1993 to 2009 in its fund administration business. Following the restructuring of the Julius Baer Group, Mrs. Moore became the Deputy CEO of Swiss & Global Fund Administration (Cayman) Ltd. which was acquired by the JTC Group in December 2015 and changed its name to JTC Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd. Mrs. Moore holds a Bachelor of Law (LLB. Honours Degree) along with a Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice Course in Law, a Bachelor of Law Degree in Business Administration and a Master of Science Degree in Human Resource Management.
Robin Nydes
Senior Advisor, Co-Founder
Mr. Nydes spent most of his career working for investment banks in London. These included Salomon Brothers (now a part of Citigroup), Bankers Trust (now a part of Deutsche Bank), where he was the Managing Director responsible for global European fixed income sales and trading, and Daiwa Europe Limited, where he was a Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee, founding the Structured Finance Group. Mr. Nydes received a B.S. Economics (Summa Cum Laude) from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and received his M.B.A from Harvard Business School.
Ben Funk
Partner
Mr. Funk has been serving as "jack-of-all-trades" to his multi-generation family biotech business. He is a Partner of Sussex Partners contributing to the investment research, asset allocation, and client relationship functions of the firm. Previously, he served as Partner, Head of Portfolio Management, and Senior Advisor to Tages Capital. Prior, he was a founding member of Liongate Capital Management where he performed as Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and Head of Research. Mr. Funk managed over 35 staff in numerous offices and was responsible for the portfolio management and research teams of the firm. He was the lead architect of Prima*, Liongate's proprietary risk management system. Ben was a primary liaison between the investment team and its institutional and high-net-worth investor base.
Mr. Funk was named by Institutional Investor as a “Rising Star in Hedge Funds”. He has contributed to the financial press, published research in academic and practitioner journals, and served as Visiting Lecturer of Economics at DePaul University. MR. Funk was previously at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Funk earned a BA from Purdue University, holds an EMBA from Stockholm University, and attained a MRes and PhD from London Business School. Forecasting alternative asset investment performance was central to his Doctoral research. He co-founded the annual Transatlantic Doctoral Conference that continues to be a preeminent summit of researchers from leading institutions around the world.
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Masashi Hirose
Partner
Mr. Hirose has 30 years’ experience in financial services where he has held multiple senior positions and managed his own hedge fund. Prior to joining Sussex Partners Mr. Hirose worked for Pinebridge Investments (formerly AIG) and AIG Japan as a Managing Director. Before this Mr. Hirose was a Director of HVB Capital and managed his own CTA. Before running his own fund, Mr. Hirose was a Director of Barclays Capital in their capital market division and also worked for BZW Barclays Securities, both roles where in Japan. At the beginning of his career he worked for BNP Paribas Capital, Tokyo, and for the former investment bank, Morgan Grenfell, in London. Aside from his financial career, Mr. Hirose stood as a parliamentary candidate in the 2012 Japanese elections and founded an English language school in the 1990s. Mr. Hirose holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics from Waseda University, Tokyo.
Pablo Urreta
Senior Partner, Head of Research
Mr. Urreta joined Sussex Partners in 2006 and is responsible for hedge fund research, selection and due diligence at Sussex Partners. Mr. Urreta has spent over 15 years performing analysis on a large number of hedge funds, and has a successful track record in identifying high-quality funds across different strategies. Previously, he was a Founding Partner and Director of Colombitana Ltd, an international trade business in the agriculture sector funded by venture capital investors. Prior to this, he spent several years in management consultancy and market research in London, primarily involved in financial services and economic research. Mr. Urreta received a B.Sc. in Economics from Universidad Javeriana, Colombia and holds an M.A. in International Management from Regents Business School, London. Mr. Urreta is fluent in Spanish and English, is a Director of Sussex Partners UK Ltd. Mr. Urreta is a frequent contributor to the financial press and has written articles for The Hedge Fund Journal, Investment Week and Bloomberg, amongst others.
Markus Ohlig
Partner
Markus has over two decades of experience working in marketing and distribution for the asset management industry in Europe and Asia. He spent seven years building up Greenwich Associates’ Asian research and consulting business in Singapore, acted as head of strategy and marketing for Vontobel, worked for McKinsey in Paris and Cologne and most recently covered Europe and Asia as Principal in the Strategic Advisory team at Broadridge. Markus has MSc degrees in Electrical Engineering and Finance and speaks seven languages.
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Paul Nathan
Director
Mr Nathan is a director of JTC Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd., the Administrator. Mr Nathan was employed by the Julius Baer Group from 1982 to 2009. Following the restructuring of the Julius Baer Group, Mr Nathan became a director of Swiss & Global Fund Administration (Cayman) Ltd. which was acquired by the JTC Group in December 2015 and changed its name to JTC Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd. Mr Nathan has a BA from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from New York University. Mr. Nathan is a Director of Sussex Partners LTD.