MFA West 2023 - Speakers

SOFYA ABRAMS is counsel in the firm’s Los Angeles office and practices in the Investment Funds group. Her practice focuses on the representation of managers in the organization and re-organization of their investment advisory businesses and on the structuring, formation, and operation of domestic and offshore hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, and a wide variety of other types of private investment

funds, using a broad range of investment strategies and targeting a broad range of asset classes. Sofya regularly advises clients on regulatory and corporate matters related to domestic and international fund securities offerings as well as U.S. federal and state investment adviser regulation and compliance. She also represents clients in negotiated transactions that include managed account agreements, single investor funds, investor side letters and “”seed”” investment arrangements.Sidley’s award-winning Investment Funds group provides top-tier service to all aspects of the private funds industry. Chambers USA awarded the group top band rankings in Hedge Funds every year since 2008. Sidley has also been named “”Law Firm of the Year”” in Private Funds/Hedge Funds Law in U.S. News – Best Lawyers 2022 “”Best Law Firms.”” Sofya additionally represents clients in a variety of general corporate transactions.”

Peter Alpern is responsible for sales and origination to Institutional Clients across HSBC’s Platform Solutions business. Peter started his career at Lehman Brothers in their Structured Credit Trading unit, ultimately rising to market maker and product manager. As the Global Financial Crisis set in, Peter transitioned to Deutsche Bank to sell prime brokerage to credit and multistrategy hedge funds. Now at HSBC, Peter covers several of the Bank’s largest hedge fund clients and is responsible for consultative thought leadership and the development of capital introduction services. Peter is a Chartered Financial Analyst, has a BS in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester.

Mike Asaro is a leader of Akin’s white collar defense and global investigations practice. He focuses on white collar criminal defense, SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigations, corporate internal investigations and complex commercial litigation. Mike also regularly advises investment fi rms with respect to compliance with the federal securities and commodities laws.

Mike is a former assistant U.S. attorney from the Eastern District of New York, where he served as deputy chief of the Business and Securities Fraud Section. During his tenure, the office prosecuted numerous complex and high profile securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery and money laundering cases.

Earlier in his career, Mike served as branch chief in the SEC’s New York office, supervising staff attorneys as they worked on regulatory investigations and enforcement actions. While he was at the SEC, he was appointed as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York.

Chambers USA has described Mike as “an absolute expert in this practice area” who is “incredibly responsive, and understands his clients’ business and how to factor in commercial concerns.” He regularly counsels companies and individuals in matters involving:

• Insider trading
• Market manipulation and disruptive trading
• Accounting irregularities and public company disclosure issues
• Investment advisor and broker/dealer regulation
• Conflicts of interest and breaches of fiduciary duty
• Anti-bribery and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
• Complex commercial litigation.

Darcy Bradbury is a managing director of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. and serves as Head of Public Policy for the D. E. Shaw group. In that capacity, Ms. Bradbury is responsible for managing government and regulatory affairs for the firm globally and analyzing the impact of government policies on various investments. She has more than 30 years of experience in finance in the private sector, including with The Blackstone Group L.P., Credit Suisse First Boston Corp., Bankers Trust Corp., and Mezzacappa Management, LLC, and in government, where she served as Assistant Secretary for Financial Markets in the U.S. Department of the Treasury and Deputy Comptroller for Public Finance for the City of New York.

Ms. Bradbury has held numerous leadership roles in industry organizations and currently serves on the board of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association, where she chairs the Legal & Policy Committee, and is vice chair of the Global Markets Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She previously served on the boards of the Alternative Investment Management Association and Managed Fund Association and was a member of the Investor Advisory Committee of the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission and Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Ms. Bradbury is active in civic associations as the chair of the board of trustees of the Population Council, chair of the board of trustees of the Educational Alliance, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and The Economic Club of New York. She received an M.B.A. with honors from Harvard Business School and an A.B. in social studies, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

Ashley leads the Prime sales effort for Barclays on the West Coast, based in San Francisco. Having started his career over 25 years ago, Ashley held various roles in Prime at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank before joining Barclays in 2019. He has worked in London, Hong Kong and New York prior to moving to California.

Ryan Castle is a cybersecurity expert with over 17 years of private sector and government experience. His expertise spans not only the technical elements of a wholistic security program but includes both the procedural and compliance elements as well.

Ryan is currently Founder and CEO of Conduit Security, a SaaS solution that prevents socially-engineered wire fraud to protect the assets of alternative investment managers. Given his investigative and technical background, Ryan developed the concept and wrote the software behind Conduit’s innovative solution.

Additionally, Ryan was COO of TraceSecurity, a cybersecurity company responsible for assisting banks and credit unions meet regulatory information security compliance requirements. As COO, Ryan was responsible for day-to-day operation of the business as well as developing services and solutions to meet the changing cybersecurity needs of financial institutions.

Prior to TraceSecurity, Ryan was an Implementation Team Lead and Forward Deployed Engineer for Palantir Technologies. Ryan collaborated with federal and local law enforcement agencies to deploy Palantir’s Gotham analysis platform. The deployment required manipulation and integration of a variety of disparate and disjointed data sets, with highly sensitive information necessitating extensive security reviews.

Before Palantir, Ryan was an FBI Special Agent in New York City where he worked complex, criminal computer intrusion cases. Ryan’s investigative work led to the dismantling of large criminal organizations, including one that infected 4 million computers across the world. His investigative work led to several successful convictions. As an agent, Ryan was responsible for source development, investigative activities, forensic examination of digital evidence, and development of tools used internally by agents and analysts to expedite investigative efforts.

Prior to the FBI, Ryan was a software developer and system administrator. He has both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from Vanderbilt University.

Daphne Chester, Partner & President, joined Ward Ferry Management in November 2013 and is responsible for the non-investment team. Prior to joining Ward Ferry, Daphne was a Portfolio Specialist at Neuberger Berman working for the Quantitative Investment Group and the Greater China Equity Team from 2010 until 2011. Before that, Daphne was an Associate in the Alternatives Advisory & Placement Group at Neuberger Berman from 2009 until 2010. Previously, Daphne was an Analyst in the Client Development Team of the Absolute Return Strategies Group of the Lehman Brothers Investment Management Division from 2007 until 2009. Daphne began her career as Investor Relations at U.S. Shipping Partners from 2005 until 2007. She graduated with an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

Kathleen Clapper is a Managing Director in NFA’s Compliance Department. In this role, she helps oversee the department’s examination, investigation, and financial surveillance programs. Prior to joining NFA, Ms. Clapper served as Chief Compliance Officer for R.J. O’Brien & Associates, LLC where she was responsible for leading a team of compliance professionals, administering the policies and procedures of the futures commission merchant (FCM) to ensure compliance with applicable rules and regulations, and developing strategic compliance initiatives. Ms. Clapper also spent more than 12 years at CME Group in roles supporting the exchange’s self-regulatory organization functions, including performing financial and compliance examinations of FCMs. Ms. Clapper received a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from DePaul University. She is a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner.

Andrew Collins joined the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS) as Director of ESG Investing in 2018. In this role, he leads responsible investing and corporate governance activities across the $30+ billion Plan. He joined SFERS from State Street Global Advisors where he was an ESG Investment Strategist. Prior to that he was Technical Director of Standards Setting at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) where he was the lead author and key architect of SASB’s 77 industry standards. He has also held roles in environmental auditing and consulting, and he began his career as a corporate sustainability manager for the Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra. Andrew holds a BS from Yale University and is a Fundamentals of Sustainability Accounting (FSA) credential holder.

“Sarah is the head of Enterprise Risk and Chief Compliance Officer for Wellington Management’s Private Investments business. She leads a team that is responsible for the design and management of the private investments compliance program and for providing ongoing regulatory compliance advice and support to the privates investment platform, product and infrastructure teams. She also oversees resources dedicated to assessing and mitigating operational risk for private investments.

Prior to joining the firm in 2021, Sarah co-led the private funds regulatory compliance consulting practice at Promontory Financial Group (2019 – 2021). Prior to that, Sarah worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the Division of Examinations in various roles, most recently as a manager in the Private Funds Unit (2005 – 2019). Sarah started her career as a sell-side fixed income sales trader (2003 – 2005).

Sarah earned her BA in International Economics from Fordham University (2003).”

Christopher B. Davis. Chris Davis is a Managing Director and the Deputy General Counsel of Tudor Investment Corporation. Mr. Davis provides legal advice and support on a wide range of subjects, including transactional, regulatory, technological and corporate governance matters. Prior to joining Tudor in April 2012, Mr. Davis was an associate at Linklaters LLP in New York and London (2008-2012). Mr. Davis is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the University of Texas School of Law.

Reggie started her career in 1997 as an attorney at Anderson, Kill & Olick in New York. Reggie now focuses her practice on corporate, regulatory, governance, and ESG-related matters. Reggie is currently the chairperson of AIMA’s Sound Practices Committee and sits on the board of EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation. She joined Emso in 2013. Reggie earned a BA in Philosophy and a JD both from the University of Michigan, and has an MBA from London Business School.

Peter Donovan is MFA’s Executive Vice President & Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for MFA operations and finance, including accounting, budgeting, human resources and technology. He also leads and directs all efforts related to membership retention, development and growth. Mr. Donovan divides his time between MFA’s Washington D.C. and New York offices.

Mr. Donovan is a respected industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience. He joins MFA from Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he has served since 2004 in a variety of leadership roles in Fixed Income Prime Brokerage, sales and relationship management. He was previously co-head of U.S. prime brokerage sales at Morgan Stanley. Mr. Donovan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Lehigh University and a MBA from Fordham University.

Saul joined Citi in 2021 as a Director of Prime Sales and Origination. Prior to joining Citi, Saul served as Senior Director of Client Development & Sales at CME Group. As a member of the Prime sales team, Saul is responsible for introducing Citi offerings, generating new client leads and closing new mandates across Prime, Futures, OTC Clearing and FXPB.

Saul earned a bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in political science and history at New York University and earned a Juris Doctorate degree at New York Law School. He is a licensed attorney in New York and New Jersey.

Saul is an avid sports fan, loves to travel and fish. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Carly and two kids, Benjamin (7) and Elle (4).

Jillien Flores serves as Executive Vice President, Managing Director, Head of Global Government Affairs at MFA.

Flores joined MFA after six years at Vanguard, one of the world’s leading asset managers. There, she advocated before Washington policymakers on a range of issues related to US capital markets, tax, and retirement policy. Leveraging policy depth, strategy, and relationships, Flores achieved policy outcomes beneficial to Vanguard’s clients on issues including equity market structure, ESG and corporate governance, and systemic risk.

Throughout her career, Flores has sought opportunities to advance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion within the financial services sector, serving in leadership roles of related efforts at Vanguard.

Prior to joining Vanguard, Flores was Director of Government Relations at Porterfield, Lowenthal, Fettig & Sears, where she represented clients before Congress and the federal financial regulators in the asset management, insurance, securities, and biotechnology sectors. She was involved in the legislative and rule-writing process for several financial services laws and regulations, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.

Flores earned a B.A. from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Chris Georgs is Chief Operating Officer, Institutional Client Group and based in London. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry having started his career at Merrill Lynch where he held positions in Corporate Strategy and Research including as an analyst covering the Retail sector.

Chris joined HSBC as COO and Head of Research for the Americas in New York in 2004, before moving to Hong Kong where he led the Asia-Pacific Equity Research team from 2006 to 2011. In 2011, he relocated to London as Global Head of Equity Research and was also responsible for the day to day management of Equity Research in Europe and CEEMEA before joining the Management team in Markets in 2013.

Chris holds his MBA from Columbia Business School and his MA in International Relations from Boston University.

Isaac Haas has been associated with HBK since 2015 and serves as HBK’s General Counsel, with primary responsibility for managing the firm’s legal function. Prior to joining HBK, Isaac was an attorney at Haynes and Boone, LLP, where he advised investment funds and operating companies on corporate and securities matters. He began his legal career as an associate at Jones Day. Isaac received a B.B.A. degree in Finance and Risk Management & Insurance in 2004 from Baylor University. He received a J.D. degree magna cum laude in 2011 from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he was a Sumners Scholar and served on the editorial board of the SMU Law Review Association.

Jennifer Han serves as Associate General Counsel at Managed Funds Association (MFA).  In her position, she advocates and shapes legislative and regulatory policies affecting the alternative investment industry in the U.S., Europe and Asia.  She advises on, develops and implements strategies for MFA members in seeking legal, regulatory and compliance changes and/or guidance for investment advisers, commodity trading advisors and commodity pool operators.  She has extensive experience working with policy makers and regulators, such as throughout the financial crisis, post-crisis and to refinement of today’s regulatory framework.  She works regularly with legislative policy makers and regulators, including the SEC, CFTC, Department of Treasury, Federal Reserve, NFA, ESMA, UK FCA and IOSCO, among many others.

As background, MFA represents the global alternative investment industry and its investors by advocating for sound industry practices and public policies that foster efficient, transparent, and fair capital markets. MFA, based in Washington, DC, is an advocacy, education, and communications organization established to enable hedge fund and managed futures firms in the alternative investment industry to participate in public policy discourse, share best practices and learn from peers, and communicate the industry’s contributions to the global economy. MFA members help pension plans, university endowments, charitable organizations, qualified individuals and other institutional investors to diversify their investments, manage risk, and generate attractive returns over time. MFA has cultivated a global membership and actively engages with regulators and policy makers in Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia and many other regions where MFA members are market participants.

Prior to joining MFA, Jennifer was a staff attorney in the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations at the SEC, where she conducted inspections and examinations, and advised on legal and compliance matters relating to developments in securities regulations and industry practices.  Jennifer began her legal career as an associate with Pickard and Djinis LLP, a boutique securities law firm in Washington, D.C.  She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University and her Juris Doctor from American University.  While in law school, she was an Editor of the American University International Law Review.  Jennifer is a member in good standing of the Virginia bar.

Mr. Hedberg is chief financial officer for AB CarVal. In addition to leading finance and operations globally for the firm, Mr. Hedberg also manages capital formation activities, including investor relations and fund financing strategy. He serves on the Executive and Portfolio Investment committees for the firm and co-chairs AB CarVal’s Responsible Investing committee. Mr. Hedberg joined AB CarVal in 2002 and has held a variety of financial management positions, including serving as global controller for AB CarVal’s corporate credit business. Prior to joining AB CarVal, Mr. Hedberg was with Cargill Inc. and Dain Bosworth. He received his M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas and his B.S. in finance, magna cum laude from the University of Colorado.

Jamie is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Whale Rock Capital Management LLC. Jamie joined Whale Rock in 2017. Jamie has over 21 years of compliance and legal experience working in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Whale Rock, Jamie was a Vice President with responsibility for equity capital markets compliance at Wellington Management in Boston.  Jamie previously held senior compliance and legal roles at Bain Capital, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan. Jamie currently serves on the board of CSforMA, Inc.  Jamie received a JD from Fordham University School of Law in 2002 and a BA from Middlebury College in 1997.

Sandra Hurse is the Chief Human Resources Officer for GCM Grosvenor (www.gcmgrosvenor.com). In this capacity Ms. Hurse is responsible for the development and execution of the firm people strategy and leads the firm’s real estate and facilities efforts. She also serves on the ESG Committee and the Diversity & Inclusion Governance Committee. Prior to joining GCM Grosvenor, Ms. Hurse held various positions at Bank of America, most recently serving as Global Head of Human Resources for Corporate and Investment Banking. Previously, Ms. Hurse also held leadership roles in Talent Management and Talent Acquisition at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Bernard M. Baruch College and her Master of Business Administration in Marketing from the University of Michigan. Ms. Hurse serves as a Corporate Board Member for Angi, Inc. where she is a member of the Executive Compensation and Compensation Committees. She also serves on the non-profit boards of the Harlem School of the Arts, the Council for Urban Professionals (co-chair of the Nominating Committee), and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (member of the Finance Committee).

Brendan Kalb is the General Counsel of ExodusPoint Capital Management, LP. Prior to joining ExodusPoint, Brendan was a partner in the Investment Management Group at Morgan Lewis in New York. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Brendan was the General Counsel at AQR Capital Management, LLC, a quantitative registered investment adviser based in Greenwich, CT, where he was responsible for managing the full spectrum of the firm’s legal affairs. Prior to joining AQR, Brendan worked as an associate at the law firms of Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Seward & Kissel. Brendan received his JD from Cornell Law School and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in International Relations & Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Brendan has served as a member of the Board of the Directors of the National Futures Association and as a member of the Managed Funds Association’s Investment Adviser and Government Affairs Committees, and as Chairman of the MFA’s CTA, CPO and Futures Committee. Brendan also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Institute for Law and Economics, a joint research center between the Law School, the Wharton School and the Department of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania

“Mary is the Chief Operating Officer at MPowered, bringing significant finance, technology and operations expertise. She is responsible for all business operations as well as supervising MPowered’s third-party administrator and other vendor relationships.

Mary has worked in the alternatives industry for 15 years and her diverse set of experiences allows her to provide value added consulting to the managers in MPowered’s investment portfolio.

Prior to joining MPowered, Mary was the Chief of Staff for Technology at Värde Partners. Previously, she ran special projects at Pine River Capital Management and worked on the implementation team at Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services where she launched or onboarded funds onto the platform. She has experience at Ernst & Young where she performed audits on asset management firms.

Mary received a B.A. in Accounting and International Business from Drake University and her M.B.A. in Finance and Organizational Behavior from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She is a CPA (inactive).”

Ms. Kelner is a Co-Founder of Sandglass Capital Management. During her career, Ms. Kelner held senior roles in emerging markets asset management in executive management, trading, and investment roles, including as Senior Partner at Prince Street Capital, and other roles at SAC Capital, Tudor Investment and Hermitage Capital. Ms. Kelner began her career in investment banking at JP Morgan. Ms. Kelner serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and the Board of the Marks JCH, a Jewish community center in Brooklyn. Ms. Kelner graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia, where she studied finance and economics. She is fluent in Russian and conversant in French.

Tyler Kirk joined the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust in 2019. His primary responsibilities include managing the legal and compliance program and providing legal advice to the Trust on its investment and internal operations. Mr. Kirk earned his bachelor’s degree in economics from Georgia State University, master’s degree in economics from North Carolina State University, and juris doctor from the University of Miami. Before joining the Trust, Mr. Kirk served as senior counsel in the Division of Investment Management at the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC where he was a member of the SEC’s first digital asset working group from 2013 to 2016. Afterward, Mr. Kirk was an associate in the Washington, DC offices of two international law firms. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and Florida.

Emi Mioara Larson is the Chief Operating Officer for UCLA Investment Company where she oversees the daily operations of the organization and leads the operational due diligence efforts across all asset classes.

Ms. Larson has extensive experience in asset management having worked with both investment advisers and institutional investors. Her focus and expertise are on business development, operations, compliance, and risk management. Prior to joining UCLA, she managed the investment operations and operational due diligence for the investment office at Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Prior to that, Ms. Larson was the Director of Operations at Barlow Partners, a New York based, institutionally-focused, long/short fund of hedge funds. Earlier in her career, she was the Operations Manager at Old Square Capital Advisors, a frontier and emerging markets investment adviser.

She received her undergraduate degree from University of Bucharest and holds a MS in Enterprise Risk Management from Columbia University.

Co-leader of Morgan Lewis’s global financial institutions practice, Christine Lombardo advises investment managers and broker-dealers on financial regulatory matters. She concentrates her practice on securities regulation for a broad range of financial firms including retail asset managers, private fund managers, family offices, broker-dealers, other professional traders, and high-net-worth individuals. Christine also counsels legal, compliance, and business personnel on the structure, operation, and distribution of advisory programs, including digital advisory offerings, and investment products, including hedge funds, private equity funds, venture capital funds, real estate funds, and other alternative investment products. Christine also counsels financial firms through examinations by industry regulators, as well as on enforcement related matters. She also serves as a co-leader of the firm’s financial technology (fintech) industry team. Before joining Morgan Lewis, she was an associate at an international law firm in New York and worked for the Division of Enforcement at FINRA.

Veena is currently Regulatory Counsel at Marshall Wace North America L.P. Prior to joining the firm, Veena held positions in legal and compliance at BC Partners, CCMP Capital and Centerbridge Partners. Veena earned a Bachelors of Arts from Emory University and a Juris Doctorate from American University, Washington College of Law.

Tony is Mercer’s Leader of the Americas for the Mercer Sentinel Group. Tony is responsible for leading Mercer Sentinel Group in providing risk and governance services to investment organization. Tony joined Mercer’s Investments business in 2009 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tony brings 20+ years of financial services experience. Prior to joining the Mercer Sentinel Group, Tony was a senior leader within Mercer’s Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) team focused on client & business functions, including: client implementation, transition management, product development, investment operations and pricing/business development.

Prior to joining Mercer, Tony has held relationship management, product development and investment operations roles at firms such as, Wellington Management, State Street Global Advisors & MFS Institutional Advisors.

Tony received a BA degree from Western New England University. Tony also holds the Claritas® Investment Certificate by the CFA® Program.

Arthur Melkonian previously worked at State Street Co. and International Fund Services. Mr. Melkonian joined Equinox Partners in 2011, as the COO he oversees all fund and business operations. Equinox Partners is a global value, registered investment manager with a 35+ year track record. Mr. Melkonian holds a B.S. in International Business Relations from Johnson & Wales University and an MBA in Finance from Nova Southeastern University.

Michael Mendelson is a Principal and portfolio manager at AQR Capital Management. Michael has managed both equity and macro strategies and has been active in developing AQR’s investment infrastructure, organizing its risk management efforts, overseeing portfolio financing and leading the effort to better serve the senior leaders of our strategic clients. Prior to AQR, Michael was the founder of the quantitative trading group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Michael is a member of the Managed Funds Association’s Board of Directors and has been Chairman of its Trading and Markets Committee and its Government Affairs Committee and is also a Governor of the Investment Company Institute (ICI).

Erin Mullen is the Chief Compliance Officer for Woodline Partners, LP. Previously, Erin worked at Citadel supporting the Fundamental Equities businesses and Citadel’s alternative data initiative. Prior to joining Citadel, she worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in a number different of legal and compliance roles. Erin began her career working at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Chadbourne & Parke. Erin attended the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Minnesota.

Andrew Nathanson is the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of Suvretta Capital Management, LLC.  Prior to joining Suvretta Capital, Mr. Nathanson served as Legal Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer for Mirae Asset Global Investments (USA).  Mr. Nathanson earned his BS in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School.

David Nissenbaum is co-head of the Investment Management Group. He primarily represents institutional and entrepreneurial investment managers, financial services firms and private investment funds in all aspects of their businesses. David’s expertise spans the alternative investment fund sector. He is known for his extensive knowledge of market terms, and for combining legal expertise with a commercial approach to evaluating risks and handling client negotiations.

For many years, David has been named a “Leader in His Field” by Chambers USA and Chambers Global. He is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers USA for his work in hedge funds. Peers note that David is “considered one of the top fund lawyers around, and deservedly so.” He is “praised by clients for his unwavering commitment,” and is described as “very engaged, thorough, thoughtful and extremely useful as our quarterback.”

David advises a long and diverse list of successful clients. He has extensive experience structuring and advising credit, hedge, private equity, hybrid, distressed investing, activist and energy funds, co-investments, funds of funds, multi-manager platforms and co-investment platforms. David has been at the leading edge of industry developments in “Upper Tier” management company partnerships, compensation plans and succession plans, seed and strategic investments and spinoffs of investment teams. Working with his Regulatory & Compliance colleagues at SRZ, who themselves are recognized leaders in their specialties, his work includes counseling clients on finding practical solutions to regulatory and compliance requirements, including the Volcker Rule, and managing conflicts of interest.

David has been recognized as a key player in private fund formation by The International Who’s Who of Private Funds Lawyers, PLC Cross-border Private Equity Handbook, The Legal 500 US, and Expert Guide to the World’s Leading Banking, Finance and Transactional Law Lawyers. He is a past member of the Advisory Board of The Financial Executives Alliance and the Banking Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association. Works he has authored or co-authored include the chapter “Management Company Structures and Terms” in Hedge Funds: Formation, Operation and Regulation, published by ALM Law Journal Press; “Just Like Starting Over: A Blueprint for the New Wall Street Firm,” published by The Deal; and “Succession Planning,” published by SRZ. A sought-after speaker, David has spoken at conferences and seminars on a range of topics, including fundraising, merchant bank structures, managing conflicts of interest, liquidity events, credit and lending funds and coinvestment vehicles.

Jennifer (Ginger) Norman serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Empyrean Capital Partners, LP in Los Angeles. Prior to joining Empyrean, she served as Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of Canyon Partners, LLC. Ms. Norman has extensive experience with a wide variety of corporate transactions, regulatory and compliance matters, fund structuring and formation, and human resources. Prior to joining Canyon, she was a member of the Funds Practice at Sidley Austin, LLP. She previously practiced at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York. Ms. Norman received her JD from the Columbia University School of Law in 2003, where she was twice named a James Kent Scholar. She received her BA and BFA from Southern Methodist University in 1995.

Eric is a Managing Director, Senior Controller and Head of Valuations at Sculptor Capital Management. In his role, he oversees all aspects of the valuation process for all of Sculptor’s investments.

Prior to joining Sculptor Capital Management, Eric worked in the Real Estate Investment Banking group at Barclays. Prior to joining Barclays, he held positions at UBS, Merrill Lynch and BlackRock.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts in Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration in Real Estate and Finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Thomas Redburn is the Chair of the firm’s Securities Litigation practice and has extensive experience representing clients in a wide range of commercial disputes involving securities and complex financial transactions. Tom’s practice is focused on representing clients in litigation arising under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, opt-out cases, fiduciary duty and derivative litigation, state blue sky litigation, shareholder activism, debtholders litigation, structured finance litigation with a focus on mortgage-backed securities, litigation arising from mergers and acquisitions, and other complex litigation.

He has obtained significant victories and recoveries, including representing institutional investors in federal securities law actions arising from disclosures at Marrone Bio Innovations Inc., American Realty Capital Properties Inc. (n/k/a VEREIT Inc.), Barrick Gold Corporation, and Ocwen Financial Corporation. Tom recently defeated a motion to dismiss in a multimillion-dollar securities fraud case and represented a high net worth financial institution in a shareholder derivative suit on behalf of shareholders of TerraForm Power Inc. He represents Appaloosa Investment Limited Partnership I in a highly contested CMBS matter and successfully argued before the Second Circuit an appeal relating to that matter. Tom applied his keen analytical skills to successfully argue in the First Department of New York’s Appellate Division on behalf of holders of bonds issued by Global A&T Electronics (GATE), obtaining reinstatement of the bondholders’ claims that the company breached its agreement with creditors.

Tom regularly litigates in federal and state courts in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, California, Florida, the District of Columbia, and other jurisdictions all over the United States. He has an active pro bono practice and sits on the board of North Star Academy.

Education

• Cornell University Law School (J.D. 1995), magna cum laude; Editor, Cornell Law Review
• The Johns Hopkins University (B.A. 1992), with University and Department honors

Bar Admissions

• New York
• New Jersey

Prior to joining MFA, Nora was at Bank of America Securities as a Director in the Prime Brokerage Business Consulting team. Prior to that, Nora worked in both the U.S. and London offices of Bank of America as a prime brokerage account manager. She has more than thirteen years of experience serving equity, multi-strategy, and quantitative hedge funds of various sizes from new launches and emerging managers to institutionalized funds.

Nora graduated with honors from Fairfield University with a B.S. in mathematics and economics.

Mr. Russo serves as General Counsel and a Managing Director at ZAIS Group, LLC. Mr. Russo was appointed General Counsel in April 2017. Before joining ZAIS in February of 2007, Mr. Russo was an attorney at Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP in the Structured Finance Practice Group from 2004 to 2007. He received a B.S. with distinction from The Pennsylvania State University and a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law.

Mr. Saginor joined EJF in 2014 and is responsible for the management of infrastructure, networking and cyber security, vendor relationships, development, strategic technology planning, and help desk services.

He brings more than 10 years of information technology experience, having worked as a consultant and virtual CIO for clients in New York and Washington, DC. Mr. Saginor has also written several articles concerning technology and public policy for various periodicals and websites.

Adrian Sales is a Partner and Global Head of Operational Due Diligence at Albourne, a specialist investment consultancy specializing in alternative investments, and is based in their Stamford, CT office. He joined Albourne in 2001 and set up their due diligence practice which now has a team of over 130 staff. Prior to Albourne he was Finance Director at Viacom UK and a manager at Ernst & Young. He is a chartered accountant and graduate of Manchester University, UK.

Bill Saltus is a director on the Wells Fargo Equity Finance Business Consulting team. He joined Wells Fargo in April 2017 and is responsible for best practices consulting around hedge fund operations and workflow, maintenance of vendor and service provider relationships, and development of strategic content, including thought leadership pieces and benchmarks of hedge fund performance and operational metrics.

Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Bill was a director within the Citi Prime Finance business advisory services team. He has also held vice president positions at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers, within Prime Services business units. Earlier in his career, Bill managed a consulting team at Advent Software, and held buy-side portfolio accounting and operations roles at Lazard Freres Asset Management and Jennison Associates.

Bill graduated from Villanova University with a B.S. in Finance, and holds Series 7 and 63 licenses.

Noah Theran is MFA’s Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Head of Global External Affairs.

Noah joined MFA after six years at Internet Association, a national trade association representing more than 40 of the world’s top internet companies, where he oversaw global communications, creative, marketing, events, and grassroots. In this role, he helped grow Internet Association from a startup into a respected voice on tech policy issues.Prior to Internet Association, Noah was Director of Communications at the American Investment Council, the trade association representing the interests of the world’s largest private equity firms. There, his team earned a PRSA Silver Anvil Award of Excellence, Reputation/Brand Management for their campaign to help the private equity industry manage the spotlight of the 2012 presidential election.

Noah also worked at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications in Washington, where he developed and executed communications strategies for a diverse set of clients with broad reputation, image, and crisis management challenges.

Noah earned his B.S. from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.

“Regina G. Thoele is Senior Vice President of Compliance at National Futures Association (NFA). Her current responsibilities include overseeing the Compliance Department’s exam, investigation, financial surveillance, and risk management programs; working on enforcement cases; advising Members on compliance issues; assisting NFA Member committees; participating in industry conferences; and developing and monitoring Compliance Department goals. In addition, Ms. Thoele works with NFA’s Legal Department to develop rules and interpretive guidance, makes presentations to NFA’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors and to other outside organizations, and develops strategic plans and initiatives for NFA’s Compliance Department. From July 1994 until March 1998, Ms. Thoele held the position of Arbitration Manager and was responsible for supervising staff and helping manage the Arbitration program. Ms. Thoele has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she taught a compliance course.

Ms. Thoele attended Indiana University and received a B.S. degree in finance. Ms. Thoele also received her designation as a Certified Regulatory and Compliance Professional through the NASD Institute at The Wharton School, as well as her designation as a Certified Fraud Examiner through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. “

As General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Heather Traeger is responsible for all legal services and compliance for the sixth largest public pension fund in the United States, including those related to the retirement system’s pension plan and two health care programs. She serves as General Counsel for the headquarters located in Austin, Texas and the subsidiary located in London.

Ms. Traeger’s legal practice includes a strong regulatory background, with significant experience advising a variety of financial institutions. She has more than 22 years of experience in the financial services industry, including as Senior Counsel to Commissioner Roel Campos at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Counsel to Commissioner Isaac Hunt, and Senior Counsel in the Division of Market Regulation (now Trading and Markets).

Prior to joining TRS, Ms. Traeger was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, in Washington, D.C., in the Financial Services Practice and served as an Associate Counsel at the Investment Company Institute (ICI). Currently, she serves on the ILPA Legal Advisory Committee, the Board of the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni, and the Board of the National Society of Compliance Professionals. Ms. Traeger is a member of the Texas and District of Columbia bars.

“With over 13 years of experience in-house at institutional investors, Angela has had a frontline view of evolving documentation, structuring, regulatory and asset allocation trends. She is currently Senior Associate Counsel at Vanderbilt University. Since 2014, she has been the primary attorney supporting the ~$10 billion endowment. Angela also advises the university’s public/private debt issuances, securitizations and P3 initiatives. Previously, Angela worked at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas as the public pension plan emerged from the great recession and built a sweeping and sophisticated investment program.

Before entering the non-profit institutional investor world, Angela was in-house at Citigroup and in private practice at Sidley (both in New York City). She earned a BS from Texas A&M University and a JD from the Washington College of Law, American University. “

Mr. Walz joined Element Capital in October 2011.  His responsibilities include managing all legal, compliance and regulatory matters for Element Capital.  From October 2011 through February 2021, Mr. Walz was also Chief Compliance Officer of Element Capital.  Prior to joining Element Capital, Mr. Walz was General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Moon Capital Management LP, since May 2007.  Prior to May 2007, Mr. Walz practiced law at Bingham McCutchen LLP, Bryan Cave LLP and Emmet, Marvin and Martin LLP.   Mr. Walz holds a J.D. from Tulane Law School and a B.A. in Sociology from St. Joseph’s College.  He was admitted to practice law in New York in 1998 and Connecticut in 1997.