Agora Uncorrelated Strategies Conference
Tuesday June 8, 2021

Powered by Agora, our capital introduction portal, this virtual event will bring together a group of industry experts in a minimal footprint and eco-friendly format. The conference will feature presentations from select hedge funds based on the uncorrelated nature of their strategies. In addition, thought leaders will be sharing their perspectives and knowledge in a series of informative panel discussions focusing on hot topics for hedge funds.

Keynotes | Panels

Panel | Return of the Commodity Supercycle

Commodity markets may be about to embark on another supercycle according to many market commentators. Many drivers are behind the current upswing, with several markets appearing to be in structural deficits just as the post-pandemic economic recovery is gathering pace. A debate is underway around how prolonged the current bull market could be, with many participants speculating that we are witnessing the return of the commodity supercycle.

Panelists

Edouard Robbes's Photo

Edouard Robbes

Moderator


,

Edouard Robbes was a Partner at Thalēs where he led 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.

Zal Masani's Photo

Zal Masani

Senior Managing Director
Castleton Commodities International LLC

Senior Managing Director, Castleton Commodities International LLC

Mr. Masani is the Head of CCI Europe and leads the following businesses: Global Oil, Global Multi-Commodities, and European Gas and Power. Since joining CCI in 2008 Mr. Masani has built and led commodity trading and principal asset investments businesses across multiple markets in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to CCI, Mr. Masani was an investment banker at Citigroup focused on mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs for financial institutions. He began his career in the commodity trading divisions of Enron and American Electric Power.

Mr. Masani holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he serves on the Economics Advisory Committee, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Marwan Younes's Photo

Marwan Younes

Chief Investment Officer
Massar Capital Management LP

Chief Investment Officer, Massar Capital Management LP

Marwan Younes is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Massar Capital Management. Mr. Younes has over 15 years of experience trading macro and commodity portfolios. Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Jamison Capital Partners where he traded a macro commodity portfolio.

Mr. Younes joined Jamison Capital Partners from Graham Capital Management where he was a discretionary Portfolio Manager and primarily traded commodity and macro futures. He also was a trader on the Index Arbitrage desk at Morgan Stanley Commodities and worked as an Equity and Capital Markets Analyst in the Financial Advisory department of Lazard Frères.

Mr. Younes received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from ENSTA in Paris (with a major in Applied Mathematics), and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

Xing Yuan's Photo

Xing Yuan

Partner, Portfolio Manager
Statar Capital LLC

Partner, Portfolio Manager, Statar Capital LLC

Xing Yuan has over a decade of trading experience in the commodity markets across preeminent sell side and buy side firms, Morgan Stanley and Balyasny Asset Management.

Xing joined Balyasny Asset Management’s Multi Strategy platform in 2016 as a standalone Portfolio Manager specializing in commodities. Leading a team of three, Xing quickly grew his capital allocation as a direct reflection of positive performance trading primarily cross-sectional futures and volatility relative value strategies. In additional to alpha generation, Xing played an active role in building out the risk and analytic infrastructure for Balyasny’s expansionary efforts in the commodity asset class.

Prior to Balyasny, Xing spent 8 years in Morgan Stanley’s Commodity Trading Division, where he ran the industry leading Commodity Index Trading business from 2012 onwards. While overseeing a global team of 7 traders and strategists, Xing consistently delivered proprietary P&L throughout changing market environments.

Xing graduated from MIT in 2008 with dual B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Management with concentration in Finance, as well as a minor in Economics. In 2015 Xing was recognized by Forbes with the “30 Under 30“ award with distinction in Finance.

David Lilley's Photo

David Lilley

Co-CIO
Drakewood Capital Management Ltd

Co-CIO, Drakewood Capital Management Ltd

Mr. Lilley established DCML in 2017. Since qualifying as an economist Mr. Lilley has over 30 years of metals trading experience. He started his career in 1987 with Cargill, moving to Philipp Brothers and then joining the Metal & Commodity Company (a subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft) at its inception. These were the top physical copper and metals trading companies of their day and he had responsibilities covering all aspects of the non-ferrous metal trade. In 2004, Mr. Lilley co-founded Red Kite with Lord Farmer who together led Red Kite, sharing responsibilities for strategy formation and the day-to-day operation of the group.

Panel | Powershift Between Managers and Investors

How did the COVID 19 crisis impact the balance of power between managers and investors? As competition for talent heightens, are we witnessing a powershift where managers hold a stronger hand in negotiations of investment structures, fees, liquidity, transparency, and capacity rights? Are there landmarks from the pre-2008 era that can't be retested?

Panelists

David Modiano's Photo

David Modiano

Moderator

Managing Director
Thalēs

Managing Director, Thalēs

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.

Ari Glass's Photo

Ari Glass

Managing Member
Boothbay Fund Management LLC

Managing Member, Boothbay Fund Management LLC

Ari Glass is the Founding Partner and Managing Member of Boothbay. As Head of the Investment Committee, Mr. Glass oversees all investment decisions including strategy allocations and is responsible for risk management. As Managing Member, Mr. Glass also oversees all aspects of the overall business.

Previously, Mr. Glass served as President of Paine Heights Management LLC. At Paine Heights, Mr. Glass managed a special opportunity hedge fund that invested in the SPACs and advised on a Solar Energy transaction. From 2007 through 2009, Mr. Glass was the President of Platinum Management (NY) LLC.

From 2000 to 2007, Mr. Glass served as the Chief Operating Officer of “Tiger Cub” Intrepid Capital Management (“Intrepid”), a $2.5 billion hedge fund organization seeded by Soros Fund Management. At Intrepid, Mr. Glass oversaw all business-related activities. In 2004, Mr. Glass launched Intrepid Associates, an affiliated entity that added fund managers to Intrepid’s platform, including funds focused in the healthcare and utilities sectors. From April 1998 until August 2000, Mr. Glass worked as Chief Financial Officer at Vector Capital Management (“Vector”), a statistical arbitrage hedge fund in Norwalk, CT. From 1995-1998 Mr. Glass worked in Business Assurance at Coopers & Lybrand, LLP and was an associate at Prudential Securities from 1994-1995. Mr. Glass graduated in 1993 from Queens College, with honors, with a B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems.

Laura Lincoln's Photo

Laura Lincoln

Senior Portfolio Manager
Utah Retirement Systems

Senior Portfolio Manager, Utah Retirement Systems

Laura Lincoln is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Utah Retirement Systems. She leads the Public Markets+ team, which is responsible for the plan’s equity, fixed income, and absolute return allocations. Before joining URS in 2008, she worked in the non-profit sector, focusing on microlending and financial literacy for resettled refugees. Laura holds an MBA from the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Michael Oliver Weinberg, CFA's Photo

Michael Oliver Weinberg, CFA

Managing Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Alpha
APG Asset Management

Managing Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Alpha, APG Asset Management

For 25 years Michael has invested directly at the security level and indirectly as an asset allocator in traditional and alternative asset classes. He is a Managing Director, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, and on the Investment Committee at APG. Previously he was the Chief Investment Officer at MOV37 and Protege Partners. Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School, where he teaches Institutional Investing, an advanced MBA course that he created.

Michael also testifies as an expert witness in financial and technology litigation. He was a portfolio manager and global head of equities at FRM, a multi-strategy investment solutions provider. Prior to that, Michael was a portfolio manager at Soros, the macro fund and family office, and at Credit Suisse. Before that he was a Real Estate analyst at Dean Witter.

Michael is a board member of AIMA and on its Research Committee. He is on the management advisory council for the Michael Price Student Investment Fund and a Special Advisor to The Tokyo University of Science’s Endowment. Michael is a former co-founder of Project Punch Card, a not-for-profit organization, and The Artificial Intelligence in Finance Institute. He is a member of The Economic Club of New York. He is a former Chair at CFANY, where he has received multiple awards, including Volunteer of the Year. Michael is a research contributor to The World Economic Forum on the impact of AI on Finance.

Michael is a published author, having written for The New York Times, Institutional Investor and investment books. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and Reuters. Michael is a frequent panelist, moderator and lecturer for investment banks, institutional and family office organizations and business schools, including Milken, SALT and Harvard. Michael has a BS from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kunjal Shah's Photo

Kunjal Shah

Chief Investment Officer
Lyxor Asset Management Inc

Chief Investment Officer, Lyxor Asset Management Inc

Kunjal Shah joined Lyxor Asset Management Inc. (“Lyxor Americas”) in August 2014 as the Global Head of Hedge Fund Research. He was appointed as Chief Investment Officer in May 2020. Mr. Shah is responsible for supervising the Portfolio Management and Hedge Fund Research teams, as well as developing advisory investment offerings and customized hedge fund solutions. Mr. Shah brings more than 20 years of experience in hedge fund manager selection, due diligence, and monitoring to his position. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Shah was employed by Arden Asset Management, where he was a Partner and Managing Director. Prior to that, he was a Director and Co-Head of Hedge Fund Credit Risk Management for the Americas at Deutsche Bank AG. He was also an integral member of the Hedge Fund Credit Risk Management team at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York, where he led due diligence and monitoring of hedge funds.

Mr. Shah holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Manchester, and an M.B.A. in Finance, Management and Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Manager Sessions

Lenny Hochschild's Photo

Lenny Hochschild

Partner, Environmental Commodity Partners LP
Strategy: Environmental Markets

Partner, Environmental Commodity Partners LP

Lenny has 18 professional years working in environmental commodities and is primarily responsible for Investments and firm-wide operations at ECP. Lenny previously was Managing Director at Evolution Markets (2003-2017), the global leader in environmental commodity market brokerage, where he was the head of Evolution’s Global Carbon desk (consistently voted Best Carbon Markets Brokerage Team), and the Western U.S. Renewable Energy desk.

Ron Ozer's Photo

Ron Ozer

Chief Investment Officer, Statar Capital LLC
Strategy: Energy Trader

Chief Investment Officer, Statar Capital LLC

Ron has extensive experience trading futures and commodities at two of the world’s premier buy side commodity market participants, Citadel and D. E. Shaw & Co.

Ron began his career at D. E. Shaw & Co. in 2008 in the equities/futures systematic trading business creating, improving and executing for models. Only one year later, Ron was promoted to a portfolio manager role in the firm’s energy group, where his focus was on trading natural gas futures and options. In 2015, Ron was hired to Citadel as the head portfolio manager for US natural gas. Ron was promoted after his first year at Citadel to reporting directly to the firm’s founder.

Ron graduated from MIT in 2008 after three years of study with a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Economics. He graduated with a GPA of 5.0/5.0, earning membership into the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.

Marwan Younes's Photo

Marwan Younes

Chief Investment Officer, Massar Capital Management LP
Strategy: Global Macro

Chief Investment Officer, Massar Capital Management LP

Marwan Younes is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Massar Capital Management. Mr. Younes has over 15 years of experience trading macro and commodity portfolios. Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Jamison Capital Partners where he traded a macro commodity portfolio.

Mr. Younes joined Jamison Capital Partners from Graham Capital Management where he was a discretionary Portfolio Manager and primarily traded commodity and macro futures. He also was a trader on the Index Arbitrage desk at Morgan Stanley Commodities and worked as an Equity and Capital Markets Analyst in the Financial Advisory department of Lazard Frères.

Mr. Younes received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from ENSTA in Paris (with a major in Applied Mathematics), and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

Full Agenda

02:30 p.m. – 03:00 p.m.

Manager Session | Massar Capital Management LP

View Fund

Massar Macro Commodity Strategy is a discretionary global macro strategy with an emphasis on capturing investment opportunities across liquid futures markets. The primary investment objective of the strategy is to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns that are uncorrelated to broad based indices, while limiting volatility and preserving capital through disciplined trade selection, portfolio construction and risk management. The strategy intends to maintain broad diversification across markets, investment themes, and time horizons. By leveraging technology and data analytics, Massar Capital Management is able to seamlessly cover over 70 markets through automation of the research process in a scalable and repeatable manner. The manager will seek to profit primarily from relative value and directional mispricings across commodity, fixed income, equity index and currency futures based on proprietary analysis of fundamental data and trading flows.

Marwan Younes's Photo

Marwan Younes

Chief Investment Officer
Massar Capital Management LP

Chief Investment Officer, Massar Capital Management LP

Marwan Younes is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Massar Capital Management. Mr. Younes has over 15 years of experience trading macro and commodity portfolios. Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Jamison Capital Partners where he traded a macro commodity portfolio.

Mr. Younes joined Jamison Capital Partners from Graham Capital Management where he was a discretionary Portfolio Manager and primarily traded commodity and macro futures. He also was a trader on the Index Arbitrage desk at Morgan Stanley Commodities and worked as an Equity and Capital Markets Analyst in the Financial Advisory department of Lazard Frères.

Mr. Younes received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from ENSTA in Paris (with a major in Applied Mathematics), and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

03:15 p.m. – 04:00 p.m.

Panel | Return of the Commodity Supercycle

Commodity markets may be about to embark on another supercycle according to many market commentators. Many drivers are behind the current upswing, with several markets appearing to be in structural deficits just as the post-pandemic economic recovery is gathering pace. A debate is underway around how prolonged the current bull market could be, with many participants speculating that we are witnessing the return of the commodity supercycle.

Edouard Robbes's Photo

Edouard Robbes

Moderator


,

Edouard Robbes was a Partner at Thalēs where he led 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.

Zal Masani's Photo

Zal Masani

Senior Managing Director
Castleton Commodities International LLC

Senior Managing Director, Castleton Commodities International LLC

Mr. Masani is the Head of CCI Europe and leads the following businesses: Global Oil, Global Multi-Commodities, and European Gas and Power. Since joining CCI in 2008 Mr. Masani has built and led commodity trading and principal asset investments businesses across multiple markets in the U.S. and Europe. Prior to CCI, Mr. Masani was an investment banker at Citigroup focused on mergers, acquisitions, and IPOs for financial institutions. He began his career in the commodity trading divisions of Enron and American Electric Power.

Mr. Masani holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, where he serves on the Economics Advisory Committee, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Marwan Younes's Photo

Marwan Younes

Chief Investment Officer
Massar Capital Management LP

Chief Investment Officer, Massar Capital Management LP

Marwan Younes is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Massar Capital Management. Mr. Younes has over 15 years of experience trading macro and commodity portfolios. Previously, he was a Portfolio Manager at Jamison Capital Partners where he traded a macro commodity portfolio.

Mr. Younes joined Jamison Capital Partners from Graham Capital Management where he was a discretionary Portfolio Manager and primarily traded commodity and macro futures. He also was a trader on the Index Arbitrage desk at Morgan Stanley Commodities and worked as an Equity and Capital Markets Analyst in the Financial Advisory department of Lazard Frères.

Mr. Younes received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from ENSTA in Paris (with a major in Applied Mathematics), and a Master of Science in Financial Engineering from Columbia University.

Xing Yuan's Photo

Xing Yuan

Partner, Portfolio Manager
Statar Capital LLC

Partner, Portfolio Manager, Statar Capital LLC

Xing Yuan has over a decade of trading experience in the commodity markets across preeminent sell side and buy side firms, Morgan Stanley and Balyasny Asset Management.

Xing joined Balyasny Asset Management’s Multi Strategy platform in 2016 as a standalone Portfolio Manager specializing in commodities. Leading a team of three, Xing quickly grew his capital allocation as a direct reflection of positive performance trading primarily cross-sectional futures and volatility relative value strategies. In additional to alpha generation, Xing played an active role in building out the risk and analytic infrastructure for Balyasny’s expansionary efforts in the commodity asset class.

Prior to Balyasny, Xing spent 8 years in Morgan Stanley’s Commodity Trading Division, where he ran the industry leading Commodity Index Trading business from 2012 onwards. While overseeing a global team of 7 traders and strategists, Xing consistently delivered proprietary P&L throughout changing market environments.

Xing graduated from MIT in 2008 with dual B.S. degrees in Mathematics and Management with concentration in Finance, as well as a minor in Economics. In 2015 Xing was recognized by Forbes with the “30 Under 30“ award with distinction in Finance.

David Lilley's Photo

David Lilley

Co-CIO
Drakewood Capital Management Ltd

Co-CIO, Drakewood Capital Management Ltd

Mr. Lilley established DCML in 2017. Since qualifying as an economist Mr. Lilley has over 30 years of metals trading experience. He started his career in 1987 with Cargill, moving to Philipp Brothers and then joining the Metal & Commodity Company (a subsidiary of Metallgesellschaft) at its inception. These were the top physical copper and metals trading companies of their day and he had responsibilities covering all aspects of the non-ferrous metal trade. In 2004, Mr. Lilley co-founded Red Kite with Lord Farmer who together led Red Kite, sharing responsibilities for strategy formation and the day-to-day operation of the group.

06:15 p.m. – 06:45 p.m.

Manager Session | Environmental Commodity Partners LP

View Fund

ECP finds environmental commodity markets are characterized by: Fragmented regulatory regimes (investment universe of 40+ distinct markets), frequent mispricings due to a scarcity of financial players, dominated by emitters, legal and technical complexity. Uncorrelated to equities, commodities, and other hedge fund strategies, this fund focuses on longer term opportunities in environmental commodity markets. The fund targets strong absolute returns and is structured as a closed-end fund with a five-year life with (two optional one-year extensions).

Lenny Hochschild's Photo

Lenny Hochschild

Partner
Environmental Commodity Partners LP

Partner, Environmental Commodity Partners LP

Lenny has 18 professional years working in environmental commodities and is primarily responsible for Investments and firm-wide operations at ECP. Lenny previously was Managing Director at Evolution Markets (2003-2017), the global leader in environmental commodity market brokerage, where he was the head of Evolution’s Global Carbon desk (consistently voted Best Carbon Markets Brokerage Team), and the Western U.S. Renewable Energy desk.

07:00 p.m. – 07:45 p.m.

Panel | Powershift Between Managers and Investors

How did the COVID 19 crisis impact the balance of power between managers and investors? As competition for talent heightens, are we witnessing a powershift where managers hold a stronger hand in negotiations of investment structures, fees, liquidity, transparency, and capacity rights? Are there landmarks from the pre-2008 era that can't be retested?

David Modiano's Photo

David Modiano

Moderator

Managing Director
Thalēs

Managing Director, Thalēs

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.

Ari Glass's Photo

Ari Glass

Managing Member
Boothbay Fund Management LLC

Managing Member, Boothbay Fund Management LLC

Ari Glass is the Founding Partner and Managing Member of Boothbay. As Head of the Investment Committee, Mr. Glass oversees all investment decisions including strategy allocations and is responsible for risk management. As Managing Member, Mr. Glass also oversees all aspects of the overall business.

Previously, Mr. Glass served as President of Paine Heights Management LLC. At Paine Heights, Mr. Glass managed a special opportunity hedge fund that invested in the SPACs and advised on a Solar Energy transaction. From 2007 through 2009, Mr. Glass was the President of Platinum Management (NY) LLC.

From 2000 to 2007, Mr. Glass served as the Chief Operating Officer of “Tiger Cub” Intrepid Capital Management (“Intrepid”), a $2.5 billion hedge fund organization seeded by Soros Fund Management. At Intrepid, Mr. Glass oversaw all business-related activities. In 2004, Mr. Glass launched Intrepid Associates, an affiliated entity that added fund managers to Intrepid’s platform, including funds focused in the healthcare and utilities sectors. From April 1998 until August 2000, Mr. Glass worked as Chief Financial Officer at Vector Capital Management (“Vector”), a statistical arbitrage hedge fund in Norwalk, CT. From 1995-1998 Mr. Glass worked in Business Assurance at Coopers & Lybrand, LLP and was an associate at Prudential Securities from 1994-1995. Mr. Glass graduated in 1993 from Queens College, with honors, with a B.A. in Accounting and Information Systems.

Laura Lincoln's Photo

Laura Lincoln

Senior Portfolio Manager
Utah Retirement Systems

Senior Portfolio Manager, Utah Retirement Systems

Laura Lincoln is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Utah Retirement Systems. She leads the Public Markets+ team, which is responsible for the plan’s equity, fixed income, and absolute return allocations. Before joining URS in 2008, she worked in the non-profit sector, focusing on microlending and financial literacy for resettled refugees. Laura holds an MBA from the Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Michael Oliver Weinberg, CFA's Photo

Michael Oliver Weinberg, CFA

Managing Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Alpha
APG Asset Management

Managing Director, Hedge Funds & Alternative Alpha, APG Asset Management

For 25 years Michael has invested directly at the security level and indirectly as an asset allocator in traditional and alternative asset classes. He is a Managing Director, Head of Hedge Funds and Alternative Alpha, and on the Investment Committee at APG. Previously he was the Chief Investment Officer at MOV37 and Protege Partners. Michael is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School, where he teaches Institutional Investing, an advanced MBA course that he created.

Michael also testifies as an expert witness in financial and technology litigation. He was a portfolio manager and global head of equities at FRM, a multi-strategy investment solutions provider. Prior to that, Michael was a portfolio manager at Soros, the macro fund and family office, and at Credit Suisse. Before that he was a Real Estate analyst at Dean Witter.

Michael is a board member of AIMA and on its Research Committee. He is on the management advisory council for the Michael Price Student Investment Fund and a Special Advisor to The Tokyo University of Science’s Endowment. Michael is a former co-founder of Project Punch Card, a not-for-profit organization, and The Artificial Intelligence in Finance Institute. He is a member of The Economic Club of New York. He is a former Chair at CFANY, where he has received multiple awards, including Volunteer of the Year. Michael is a research contributor to The World Economic Forum on the impact of AI on Finance.

Michael is a published author, having written for The New York Times, Institutional Investor and investment books. He has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Bloomberg and Reuters. Michael is a frequent panelist, moderator and lecturer for investment banks, institutional and family office organizations and business schools, including Milken, SALT and Harvard. Michael has a BS from New York University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kunjal Shah's Photo

Kunjal Shah

Chief Investment Officer
Lyxor Asset Management Inc

Chief Investment Officer, Lyxor Asset Management Inc

Kunjal Shah joined Lyxor Asset Management Inc. (“Lyxor Americas”) in August 2014 as the Global Head of Hedge Fund Research. He was appointed as Chief Investment Officer in May 2020. Mr. Shah is responsible for supervising the Portfolio Management and Hedge Fund Research teams, as well as developing advisory investment offerings and customized hedge fund solutions. Mr. Shah brings more than 20 years of experience in hedge fund manager selection, due diligence, and monitoring to his position. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Shah was employed by Arden Asset Management, where he was a Partner and Managing Director. Prior to that, he was a Director and Co-Head of Hedge Fund Credit Risk Management for the Americas at Deutsche Bank AG. He was also an integral member of the Hedge Fund Credit Risk Management team at Goldman Sachs & Co. in New York, where he led due diligence and monitoring of hedge funds.

Mr. Shah holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Manchester, and an M.B.A. in Finance, Management and Strategy from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

08:00 p.m. – 08:30 p.m.

Manager Session | Statar Capital LLC

View Fund

The manager believes natural gas is a unique, mathematical market due to its high degree of transparency and expansive fundamental data. The backbone of Statar Capital's natural gas investment strategy is the proprietary forecasting of inventory and supply/demand balances. In addition, the cross commodity relative value strategy is based on deep insight into market participant hedging and allocation psychology, capitalizing on wide ranging opportunities derived from market behavioral dynamics. The trading strategy may contain long/short futures and options in a diversified portfolio of commodities. The manager aims to employ a calculated, rigorous drawdown analysis, which is an integral to the Statar Capital portfolio construction process, drawing from both our fundamental and technical models. Statar maintains a liquid portfolio by focusing on trading the prompt contract and liquid spreads.

Ron Ozer's Photo

Ron Ozer

Chief Investment Officer
Statar Capital LLC

Chief Investment Officer, Statar Capital LLC

Ron has extensive experience trading futures and commodities at two of the world’s premier buy side commodity market participants, Citadel and D. E. Shaw & Co.

Ron began his career at D. E. Shaw & Co. in 2008 in the equities/futures systematic trading business creating, improving and executing for models. Only one year later, Ron was promoted to a portfolio manager role in the firm’s energy group, where his focus was on trading natural gas futures and options. In 2015, Ron was hired to Citadel as the head portfolio manager for US natural gas. Ron was promoted after his first year at Citadel to reporting directly to the firm’s founder.

Ron graduated from MIT in 2008 after three years of study with a B.S. in Mathematics and a minor in Economics. He graduated with a GPA of 5.0/5.0, earning membership into the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.