Joining a new hedge fund, even during a time when large investment banks are cutting headcount, is a risky business. Nonetheless, despite a record number of hedge fund closures, new funds are launching – and they’re hiring.
One example is Broad Reach Investment Management, the emerging markets focused hedge fund set up by former Spinnaker Capital portfolio manager Bradley Wickens in March.
Broach Reach is reportedly a $100m fund that uses the personal funds of Wickens and two other Spinnaker partners including Paulo Remião, who was a portfolio manager in its quant team. It’s now been hiring elsewhere.
Dan Worth, who was most recently a partner and portfolio manager at hedge fund Vinci Zaffarano Capital (which shut this year), has signed up. Worth was previously a prop trader at J.P. Morgan.
Ed Steele, who was most recently the chief risk officer and COO at Nomura’s now shuttered equities business, has the taken same role at Broad Reach.
Lower down the ranks, Isidore Smart, who was an associate within the fixed income strategy team Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York, has joined as an economist. Charlie Bird, who previously worked for Brevan Howard and Och-Ziff Capital Management, is an execution trader.
Yes, this is a small team, but it shows the lure of working for a hedge fund name with the all important track record. Wickens was at Spinnaker for 17 years and his GEM fund returned an annualised 21% over that period.
Similarly, Ben Melkman, who left Brevan Howard in June after seven years to start his own hedge fund, Light Sky Macro, was described as having a “strong and aggressive track record” and investors were keen to give him capital.
Melkman has just started hiring for his new fund and has already attracted some big names. Among them, starting in October, is Joseph Mauro, the former head of European hedge fund coverage at Goldman Sachs.
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