Stephan Solomon is the Chairman of Thalēs Trading Solutions. Mr. Solomon has been a leading figure in the futures industry and a pioneer of raising capital for over 40 years. Prior to co-founding Thalēs in 2012, Mr. Solomon spent 10 years at Société Générale as Senior Managing Director and Principal of the Financial Services Group. Over his career, Mr. Solomon held various senior positions and built businesses at Merrill Lynch, E.F. Hutton, and Prudential Securities. Mr. Solomon holds a bachelor's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Marc Cohen is the Chief Executive Officer of both Thalēs Trading Solutions and Thalēs Capital Partners and as such, he is responsible for the day-to-day management of these companies. Mr. Cohen has an extensive background and a distinguished career in the alternative investment industry. In his role at Thalēs Trading Solutions, Mr. Cohen has worked with some of the world’s premier firms, providing brokerage services to hedge funds, CTAs, endowments, merchant firms, pension funds, banks, family offices and other institutional investors. In addition, Mr. Cohen and his team provide capital raising and advisory services through Thalēs Capital Partners to leading hedge fund managers across a wide variety of strategies. Prior to co-founding Thalēs in 2012, Mr. Cohen was Managing Director and Principal of the Financial Services Group at Société Générale for 10 years. Prior to that, Mr. Cohen held the positions of Senior Vice President and Senior Sales Manager at Prudential Securities. He began his career in the foreign exchange market, working for Republic National Bank of New York, Fuji Bank, and Merrill Lynch. Mr. Cohen holds a B.S. in Finance from Fairleigh Dickinson University and received an MBA in International Finance from the University of Miami.
Tim O’Shea is President and Chief Operating Officer of Thalēs Trading Solutions and Chief Financial Officer of Thalēs Capital Partners. He is responsible for key corporate functions and manages the complete day-to-day operation of the firm. Prior to joining Thalēs in 2012, Mr. O’Shea was Managing Director of the Financial Services Group at Société Générale in Chicago. During his 19 years at Societe Generale, Mr. O’Shea worked in a variety of areas including operations, technology and sales. He started his career in 1986 on the floor of the CBOT working for Barnes & Co. Mr. O’Shea is a graduate of Roosevelt University with a B.A. in Business Management.
Edouard Robbes is a Partner at Thalēs where he leads the firm's manager sourcing, capital introduction, and capital raising efforts. Before Thalēs, Edouard held a similar position at Société Générale in New York. Prior to this, he was a hedge fund analyst and portfolio manager at AXA Investment Managers and began his career in 2002 as a hedge fund analyst at SG Asset Management. Edouard received a B.S. in Economics and a M.S. in Finance from Université Paris-Dauphine, France.
Chris Carleton is Director of Client Services for Thalēs Trading Solutions. Mr. Carleton manages the daily trade flow and service relationships for Thalēs. He brings over 8 years of experience in financial services specializing in listed derivatives and OTC cleared products. He acted as the Middle Office Supervisor for the Financial Services Group at Société Générale. Mr. Carleton is a graduate of Southern Oregon University with a B.A. in History.
Peter Lacalamita is Managing Director, Sales and Relationship Management for Thalēs Trading Solutions. He is responsible for developing new relationships for Thalēs. Prior to joining Thalēs, Mr. Lacalamita was a Managing Director in Prime Broker Sales at J.P. Morgan and a Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns, managing teams, and originating new relationships with hedge funds and institutional investors. In those roles Mr. Lacalamita was responsible for driving revenue growth across asset classes including Equities, Fixed Income, Futures, OTC Clearing, Foreign Exchange, and Prime Custody. Additionally, Mr. Lacalamita was the Key Account Manager for significant hedge fund clients with global accountability across the entire J.P. Morgan franchise. Before joining Bear Stearns, Mr. Lacalamita was the Head of Foreign Exchange Sales for Prudential Securities, where he worked closely with Mr. Solomon and Mr. Cohen. Mr. Lacalamita is a graduate of Fordham University.
Patrick Mannix is Director of e-Trading at Thalēs Trading Solutions. Mr. Mannix is responsible for the coordination and implementation of all aspects of E-Trading Solutions, including direct market access and straight through processing initiatives. Prior to joining Thalēs, Mr. Mannix worked with the Financial Services Group at Société Générale as the e-Trading implementation specialist. Mr. Mannix received a B.S. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
David Modiano is a Managing Director of Capital Strategies at Thalēs Capital Partners. Most recently, David was a Partner and Head of Business Development at Mill Hill Capital, a New York-based credit hedge fund launched in 2016. Prior to that, David spent ten years sourcing, seeding, onboarding and growing early-stage hedge funds as second in command of the seeding team at Investcorp and Lyxor Asset Management. During his time at Investcorp and Lyxor Asset Management, David has personally reviewed, met with or performed in-depth diligence on nearly 1,500 hedge fund managers as a senior investment professional. David negotiated and closed sixteen hedge fund seed deals and drove manager growth.
Mike McGrath is an Executive Vice President at Thalēs Capital Partners and runs the Private Client Solutions Group, the firm’s consulting and distribution practice that assists asset managers in developing and structuring new investment products, creating targeted marketing plans and assisting with distribution into targeted financial advisor networks. His process drives product innovation, awareness, product education, and sales conversion in selected distribution networks.
Mike has had executive management responsibilities across both traditional and alternative asset classes and has also had operating responsibilities for traditional, alternatives and wealth platforms globally. His focus is helping asset management firms re-invigorate sales and investor relations efforts, development of innovative investment products and strategic planning. Previously, he founded and continues to operate MPM Advisors LLC, a consulting firm that assists asset managers on strategic initiatives focused on the individual investor client segment. Prior to that, Mike was a partner at Perella Weinberg Partners, where he led the individual investor client segment. He has also held executive roles at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management including Global Head of Alternative Investments, Chief Operating Officer of Private Wealth Americas and Global Head of Product Development. Mike earned an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and a BA from Saint Peter’s University.
Marc Quintavalle is the Director of Marketing at Thalēs Trading Solutions. He is responsible for building, driving and leading the Brand, Digital, Marketing, and Communication efforts for Thalēs products and services. Before joining Thalēs, Mr. Quintavalle was an Assistant Vice President of Social Media at CIT Group, a Marketing Manager at E*TRADE and a Social Media Communications Manager at Putnam Investments. In those roles, Mr. Quintavalle was responsible for lead generation, digital campaign management, and content creation. Additionally, Mr. Quintavalle has helped elevate the digital presences of multiple financial services leaders and business development teams. Mr. Quintavalle is a graduate of Boston University.
Pasquale Tondi is Chief Administrative Officer for Thalēs Trading Solutions and Chief Compliance Officer for both Thalēs Trading Solutions and Thalēs Capital Partners. Mr. Tondi is responsible for all administrative aspects of Thalēs, including account onboarding and compliance. Prior to joining Thalēs, he acted in the same capacity at Société Générale and Prudential Securities alongside Mr. Solomon going back to 1986. Mr. Tondi is a graduate of Queens College with a B.A. in Business Psychology.
Peter D’Angelo is the President of CAM Capital. He assisted in the formation of Caxton Associates in 1983 and retired as President on December 31, 2011. Prior to Caxton, he was Vice President of Commodities Corporation until April 1983. Earlier, he was a Vice President at Marine Midland Bank, managing the corporate lending group responsible for credit and foreign exchange lines to commodity trading companies and brokers until 1981. He began his career at Marine Midland Bank in 1973 in the International Banking Department with responsibilities in strategic planning and budgeting. Mr. D’Angelo is Chairman of the Board of Trustees of St. John’s University in New York.
He received a B.A. degree in economics at Queens College of the City University of New York and was awarded an M.B.A. in finance by St. John’s University.
Gary DeWaal focuses his practice on financial services regulatory matters. He counsels clients on the application of evolving regulatory requirements to existing businesses and structuring more effective compliance programs, as well as assisting in defending and resolving regulatory disciplinary actions and enforcement matters. Gary also advises buy-side and sell-side clients, as well as trading facilities and clearing houses, on the developing laws and regulations related to cryptocurrencies and digital tokens.
Previously, Gary was a Senior Managing Director and group general counsel for Newedge, where he oversaw the worldwide Legal, Compliance, Financial Crimes Prevention (including AML) and Regulatory Developments departments. He also worked for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Enforcement in New York. For several years, Gary taught a course in derivatives regulation as an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. He currently serves as a practitioner, faculty and mentor for the State University of New York Buffalo Law School’s New York City Program on Finance & Law.
Gary is frequently quoted in the media for his thoughts on the international financial services industry and has published numerous articles on futures and securities industry issues. He regularly lectures or appears as a speaker at futures and securities industry conferences or in training sessions for international regulators. Gary is the sole author and publisher of Bridging the Week, a blog addressing issues in the financial services industry.
Michael Geismar co-founded Quantitative Investment Management with Jaffray Woodriff in 2003. As the President of QIM, Michael oversees the implementation of the firm's investment models and its portfolio management. Michael also manages investor relations and QIM's general business affairs.
Michael and Jaffray first worked together from January until July 1994, when Michael was an assistant trader at Blue Ridge Trading. Michael then worked as an actuary and benefits consultant for Towers Perrin from September 1994 until August 1996, Coopers & Lybrand from August 1996 until October 1997, and William M. Mercer from October 1997 until October 1998, when he joined Capital One Financial as an analyst. In February 2000, he re-joined Jaffray, assisting in the development of an equities investment program and later a futures program that led the two to co-found QIM. Michael graduated from the University of Virginia in 1994 with a B.A. in Mathematics and a minor in Statistics.
Philippe Khuong-Huu, based in New York, is a founding member and the Chief Investment Officer of Alphadyne Asset Management. Prior to forming Alphadyne in 2005, Mr. Khuong-Huu was a Partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he served as head of the firm’s structured credit group and, immediately prior, as head of the global interest rate products group. Mr. Khuong-Huu was also a member of the risk committee covering fixed income, currencies and commodities. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Khuong-Huu spent ten years at J.P. Morgan where he held various senior management positions within fixed income, equity and credit markets, including as global head of options, exotics and credit derivatives trading (1996-2000), co-head of European swaps (1995-1996), head of U.S. interest rate options (1993-1995) and head of equity derivatives trading in Tokyo (1991-1993). Mr. Khuong-Huu was also a member of Lab Morgan (2000-2001), where he invested in derivatives market platforms including Swapswire and Creditex. Mr. Khuong-Huu began his career at Société Générale in Paris where he was a market-maker in options and then became head of equity derivatives in Tokyo, where he focused on option and index arbitrage (1988-1991). Mr. Khuong-Huu graduated from École Polytechnique and received his Masters in Statistics and Economics from ENSAE. He currently chairs the board of “Friends of École Polytechnique" and serves as a member of FAOU Foundation’s board of directors.
Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, the director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, a research associate of the NBER, and an external faculty member of the Santa Fe Institute. He received a B.A. in economics from Yale University and an A.M. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. His most recent research focuses on systemic risk in the financial system, evolutionary models of investor behavior, and applying financial engineering to develop new funding models for biomedical innovation. He has published extensively in academic journals (see http://alo.mit.edu) and his most recent book is Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought. His awards include Sloan and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Paul A. Samuelson Award, the Harry M. Markowitz Award, the Eugene F. Fama Prize, teaching awards from Wharton and MIT, and election to Academia Sinica, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the Society for Financial Econometrics.
Delfos Machado Neto, CIO, has more than 25 years of trading experience in financial markets. He has spent most of his career focused on Arbitrage trading across derivatives and D1 strategies, most recently at HSBC USA, where he spent 6 years as Head of Equity Trading for the Americas. Prior to HSBC, he worked at 2 different equity-focused hedge funds in Singapore and New York. Over the past two decades, he has also served as the Head of Equity and Derivatives Trading at several of the largest Brazilian banks, having held this position at Banco Itaú BBA, Banco Santander Brasil, and Santander Investment. He began his career on the Proprietary Equity desk at Banco Santander de Negócios in Brazil in 1992 while finishing his BA in business at the São Paulo-based EAESP-FGV school.
Mr. Reed is the Chief Executive Officer and President of Castleton Commodities International. Mr. Reed joined the company in September 2007, became Head of Trading in January 2008 and was appointed to his current position in October 2008.
Prior to joining CCI, he was founding partner and Head of Trading, at Saracen Energy Advisors where he was one of four partners responsible for establishing the fund and growing assets under management from $30 million at launch to $1.4 billion at the time of his departure in September 2007. From 1999 - 2003, Mr. Reed was a Senior Vice President and Head of Trading at American Electric Power Energy Services, which grew to be one of the largest energy trading and marketing companies in the United States during his tenure. Before joining AEP, he was a Director of Power Trading at Enron Corporation.
Mr. Reed earned an MBA (concentration in finance and accounting) from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S., summa cum laude, in mathematics and economics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Edward Rzeszowski is the Managing Member of High Tide Advisors LLC (“High Tide”). High Tide is an independent consulting firm that helps alternative asset management businesses commercialize their organizations and investment products. Mr. Rzeszowski has a proven track record in the alternative asset management industry identifying market dislocations and building successful investment vehicles around these opportunities.
Before establishing High Tide, Mr. Rzeszowski spent over two decades at BlackRock. Most recently Mr. Rzeszowski was a Managing Director and Management Committee member of BlackRock Alternative Advisors (“BAA”), the firm's Hedge Fund Solutions business. Mr. Rzeszowski was a member of the Absolute Return Strategies Manager Research group, his responsibilities included constructing portfolios for large institutional clients globally as well as sourcing, evaluating and monitoring hedge fund strategies.
Mr. Rzeszowski's service with the firm dates back to 1995, including his time with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (“MLIM”), which merged with BlackRock in 2006. At MLIM, Mr. Rzeszowski was a Portfolio Manager and Senior Hedge Fund Analyst within the Hedge Fund Product Development Group. Before joining MLIM in 1995, Mr. Rzeszowski was responsible for the consolidation of managed futures risks at OMR Systems Corporation, a spin-off from Commodities Corporation, which was later acquired by SS&C Technologies Inc.