60 seconds with... Kenneth Turchin

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT ROLE?
I have worked in public accounting and hedge funds and in the past eight years have been selling middle- and back-office services to the alternate investment industry.  My role is to build relationships with clients, teach them about SS&C’s products and services, and ensure seamless transactions every time the firm launches a new fund.

IF YOU WERE DOWN TO YOUR LAST £1,000, HOW WOULD YOU INVEST IT?
I would buy THREE shares in Apple and hope for a repeat 383% return in the next five years.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE IN PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SHOES?  
That’s one pair of size 12 shoes I do not want to be in!

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IF THEY MADE A MOVIE ABOUT YOUR FIRM?
Kevin Bacon. He is a versatile actor and the centre of the entertainment universe. I am in sales. Everyone in the industry would be linked to me in six steps or less. My client list would be ridiculous. 

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What's in a name? Roodhals Capital

Roodhals Capital, a Dutch asset manager, takes its name from the red-breasted goose – Branta Ruficollis to Latin-speaking readers – that breeds on the Siberian tundra and spends its winters around the Black and Caspian seas. Its first fund, the Branta Solutions Fund, was formed in 2009 and focuses on sustainability – an apt theme given that Branta Ruficollis was classified as an endangered species in 2008.

Loss of habitat, uncontrolled hunting and climate change were cited as reasons for the decline in numbers of the bird, renowned for its distinct red markings, and investors in Branta will hope it does not prove a bad omen. The fund targets absolute returns worth 13-18% and positions itself around exchange-traded equity corporate credit across five sustainability themes including agriculture and engineering.

Appropriately for a fund named after a bird, Branta received seed investment from IMQubator, which invests in emerging managers and now part owns the fund along with Willem Appel and Cor Timmermans, its two co-founders.

Conservation efforts for the red-breasted goose are currently being implemented and it should be remembered that other near-extinct birds have been saved by similar programmes, such as the Hawaiian Goose in the 1960s and, more…

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60 seconds with... Andrew Rogers

Andrew Rogers, president, Gemini Fund Services, LLC

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT ROLE?
As president of Gemini Fund Services, a provider of comprehensive, pooled investment solutions, and the Northern Lights Fund Trusts, a shared mutual fund trust of independent and separately managed funds, my main responsibilities include business development, operations, and growth of Gemini Fund Services, as well as acting as an officer of the Northern Lights Fund Trusts.

IF YOU WERE DOWN TO YOUR LAST $1,000, HOW WOULD YOU INVEST IT?
I would develop a skill that would enable myself to earn more money.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WERE IN PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SHOES?
I would exit Afghanistan, simplify the tax code and allow people to vote on the internet.

WHO WOULD PLAY YOU IF THEY MADE A MOVIE ABOUT YOUR FIRM?
Tom Hanks – nobody would ever confuse me with Brad Pitt or George Clooney and Tom Hanks is universally respected and liked.

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What's in a name? Conatus Capital Management

Effort, to strive, to persist – that may well be David Stemerman’s daily mantra, judging by the Latin derivative in his hedge fund’s title and its accompanying list of online translations. Conatus can also translate as a ‘vital force in plants or animals, similar to human effort’, or the ‘tendency of all things to persist in their own being’.

After working at Lone Pine Capital and HPB Associates, Stemerman set up Conatus in New York four years ago, with over $2bn in AuM, in what was believed to be the second biggest launch in the first half of 2008. Stemerman did well to strive and persist: the Conatus Capital Management fund, reaching $3.3bn in 2011, was added to Michigan State University’s Common Investment Fund last year, while Connecticut’s Town of Fairfield Joint Retirement Investment Board has also been a recent investor.

The single manager firm specialises in long/short equity, focusing on businesses that become displaced due to competition offering low-cost alternatives.

Conatus is hardly the first hedge fund to plunder the graceful Latin lexicon for a name to reflect its values or work ethic and, undoubtedly, won’t be the last. Future firms take…

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