2026 Middle East Forum

Stuart Fiertz

SBAI Trustee; Co-Founder, President and Director of Research, Cheyne Capital Management

Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board.

Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing. Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.

Alan Shaffran

Senior Portfolio Manager, Magnetar Capital (UK) LLP

Mr. Shaffran runs Magnetar Capital’s European Fixed Income business and the firm’s London office. He serves on Magnetar's Management Committee and Investment Committee.

Prior to joining Magnetar in 2008, Mr. Shaffran was Global Head of Structuring at Rabobank in London, where he was responsible for Rabobank’s structured products businesses across asset classes ranging from credit and rates to equity and fund derivatives and was on the Management Team of Rabobank’s Global Financial Markets business. Previously he spent more than 19 years at Citigroup, and its precedent firm, Salomon Brothers, where from 2001 to 2006 he was Managing Director and Head of European Credit Derivatives in London. Prior to that, he was a founding member of Salomon Brothers’ Credit Derivatives and Emerging Markets Credit Derivatives trading desks in New York, and had roles in the firm’s Debt Capital Markets and Bond Portfolio Analysis groups.

Mr. Shaffran earned a BS in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and a BS in Systems Science and Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Alishia Sullivan

Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Since 2008, Alishia K. Sullivan has been a resident in the United Arab Emirates where she advises pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors in connection with their global investment activities across asset classes and regional and global investment managers in connection with fund formation and management in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC). Alishia advises institutional investors, focusing primarily on investments in private funds, including leveraged buyout, hedge, infrastructure and real estate funds, and direct and co-investments.

Alishia is a former member of the board of directors of two non-profit organizations whose missions focus on the care, empowerment, and education of women and children. Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Alishia was a partner at another global law firm. She previously worked as inhouse counsel for a state-owned petroleum company in the Middle East and was a member of the global projects group of the Washington, DC, office of an international law firm.

Martin Källström

CEO & Partner, Lynx Asset Management

Martin Källström holds a MSc degree in Finance from Stockholm University. After having started his career as an actuary at Watson Wyatt, Källström later created and headed the in¬vestment and actuarial consulting business for Aon in the Nordics for three years.

Prior to joining Lynx, Källström worked for The First Swedish National Pension Fund (AP1) for 11 years as Head of Alternative Investments. At AP1 he built a team and a USD 10 bn portfolio of Hedge Funds, Private Equity and Real Assets. Källström joined Lynx in September 2018 as Senior Managing Director and Partner. In 2023 he became the Deputy CEO at Lynx and in September 2024 he transitioned to the role as CEO of Lynx.

Benjamin Pollock

CEO, Jasper Capital Hong Kong Ltd

Benjamin Pollock is CEO at Jasper Capital Hong Kong Limited. In this role, he oversees the daily operations of the firm and the strategic development of Jasper Capital's offshore business. He was formerly Head of Business Development and Investor Relations at Jasper Capital Hong Kong Limited.

Prior to joining Jasper Capital in March 2017, Mr. Pollock was Senior Vice President at CEBM Group, a Shanghai-headquartered macroeconomic research and consultancy firm. Prior to CEBM, Mr. Pollock spent over five years living in China, where he studied China’s real estate sector and macroeconomy as a Property Sector Research Analyst at Cushman Wakefield (previously known as DTZ).

Mr. Pollock holds a master’s degree in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a bachelor’s degree from Providence College.

Philip Seager

Head of Portfolio Strategy , Capital Fund Management

Philip is the Head of Portfolio Strategy and advises on portfolio development across each CFM investment program. He chairs the monthly Investment Committee and participates in many steering committees within the firm. Philip originally joined CFM in 2000 to work on the Discus CTA program and to build its intraday component. He was named Head of Directional Strategies in 2004 and then subsequently took responsibility for the development of CFM’s efforts to diversify away from core offerings, including the launch of alternative risk premia, in 2015.

Prior to his work at CFM, Philip obtained a two-year European Fellowship to work at the CEA, France, working on a search for the charged Higgs boson at CERN, Switzerland.

Philip has a PhD in experimental particle physics from Lancaster University.

Ahmed Talhaoui

Managing Director, Head of the Blackrock Systematic Group for EMEA & APAC, BlackRock

Ahmed Talhaoui, CFA, Managing Director, is the Head of the Blackrock Systematic Group (BSYS) for EMEA and APAC.

He is a member of the Global and European Operating Committees and the EMEA Investment Committee and was previously head of Middle East and Africa and head of Product Strategy for Fixed Income, EMEA.

Paul Blank

President & COO, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors

Paul Blank is the president and chief operating officer of Kayne Anderson. In this role, Blank co-manages the firm on a day-to-day basis, serves as the firm’s universal investment committee member across all investment strategies and is a member of Kayne Anderson’s board of directors. Blank manages the firm’s operating committee, comprised of the chief financial officer, general counsel, chief compliance officer, head of human resources and CFO of finance. Blank also works with each portfolio management team to maintain an integrated approach across the firm, providing insight into relative risk/reward across sectors, and strategic positioning. In addition to this broader role, Blank serves as the portfolio manager and capital allocator on cross-strategy strategic relationships and is responsible for the overall communications and public affairs strategy for the firm.

Blank first joined Kayne Anderson in 1999, serving as the firm’s first energy analyst and was an integral part of the launch of the energy infrastructure platform in 2000. From 2003-2010, Blank left Kayne Anderson to launch a political/public affairs firm providing senior strategic counsel, media relations and campaign management to corporations, non-profits, unions, and political leaders worldwide. Blank helped pioneer the use of cutting-edge technologies in communications campaigns and served in leadership positions on two Presidential campaigns and as a senior adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown’s successful 2010 gubernatorial election. Blank rejoined Kayne Anderson in 2011 as the head of strategy with the objective to unify the investment, client relations, operational and administrative functions across the firm.

Blank earned a B.A. in Political Science from Duke University and is a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy.

Dr Chris Jones

Head of Solutions & Chief Executive, Graham Capital Management

Chris Jones, Ph.D., is Head of Solutions and Chief Executive (London) at Graham Capital Management, L.P. (“Graham”). Dr. Jones works with Graham’s clients to develop customized solutions that best fit their portfolios, utilizing the broad range of strategies across Graham’s investment platform. Dr. Jones also oversees the management of Graham’s London office.

Prior to joining Graham in 2016, Dr. Jones was Managing Director and Head of Investment Advisory at bfinance, an investment consultancy specializing in large pension plans, from March 2012 to February 2016, where he advised a variety of global institutional clients. From January 2005 to February 2012, Dr. Jones was Chief Investment Officer of Key Asset Management, a fund of hedge funds, where he was responsible for the oversight of the investment and risk management of several funds of hedge funds.

Dr. Jones is currently an Honorary Fellow in Finance at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, where he lectures MFin and MBA courses on Alternative Investment Management. Dr. Jones has co-authored a number of published academic papers about liquid alternatives and hedge fund strategies as well as having authored a book on the subject.

Dr. Jones received a BA in Mathematics from Oxford University in 1992 and a PhD in Mathematical Finance from the University of Cambridge in 2000.

Ben Yaffee

Global Head of Business Development & Client Relationship Management, Innocap Investment Management

As the Global Head of Business Development and Relationship Management, Ben is responsible for fostering and developing all client relationships for the firm. In this role, Ben articulates and implements the firm’s strategy to drive growth and position Innocap as the Dedicated Managed Account platform market leader. Ben strives to educate clients on industry trends and product solutions so that they are best positioned to solve their challenges and optimize their investments.

Ben was previously HedgeMark’s Head of Business Development. He has more than 20 years of experience working with institutional investors in the hedge fund industry. Prior to joining HedgeMark in 2012, he was President of Nighthawk Partners Inc., a third party marketing firm for hedge funds, where he was responsible for sourcing product and leading distribution in North America and Europe. Ben began his career in alternative investments at Asset Alliance Corporation, a hedge fund seeding business and early user of managed accounts. Ben received a BA in Economics from Union College and holds FINRA Series 7, 24 and 63 licenses with HedgeMark Securities LLC.

Jane Buchan

SBAI Chair; CEO, Martlet Asset Management

Jane is Chief Executive Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet is based in Newport Beach, CA and was founded in July 2018. The firm’s strategies include alternative risk premia and developing liquid strategies with a focus on fixed income.

Prior to this, Ms. Buchan co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).

Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.

Dr John Claisse

CEO, Albourne Group

John Claisse joined Albourne in July 1996, relocated from London to San Francisco in July 2003 and became Albourne Group CEO in August 2015. John is an equity partner and member of Albourne’s Executive Committee and also chairs the firm’s Corporate Planning Council, which comprises Albourne’s function and region heads. John helped develop the firm’s proprietary risk analytics and was formerly the Senior Analyst for quantitative equity strategies and multi-strategy hedge funds. John remains a Portfolio Analyst working with several public and corporate plans, large endowments and foundations. John also serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Sussex Business School, on the Board of Trustees of Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), and on the Governing Board of The Robert Toigo Foundation.

John holds a first class Mathematics Degree and a PhD from Sussex University.

Albourne is an independent advisory firm focused on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate and dynamic beta. Founded in 1994, Albourne has over 350 clients with over $750bn invested directly in alternative investments.

Stuart Fiertz

SBAI Trustee; Co-Founder, President and Director of Research, Cheyne Capital Management

Stuart Fiertz is the Co-Founder, President and Director of Research of Cheyne Capital. From 1991 to June 2000, and prior to establishing Cheyne Capital, Stuart worked for Morgan Stanley where he was responsible for the development and implementation of customised portfolio strategies and for credit research in the convertible bond management practice.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stuart was an equity research analyst for the Value Line Investment Survey, and a high yield credit analyst in Boston at Merrill Lynch and in New York at Lehman Brothers. Stuart is a CFA® charterholder and a CAIA designee. He is chairman of the Alternative Credit Council (ACC) and a Founder & Trustee of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI). From 2014 until 2020, Stuart was also a council director of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) board.

Stuart has been awarded the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing. Stuart was educated at the International School of Geneva and at Dartmouth College where he was awarded a BA degree in Political Science and Economics.

James Gilbert

Head of Client Solutions, Winton

James Gilbert is responsible for Winton’s client relationship management, business development and marketing activities globally. He is a member of the firm’s executive management committee.

As Head of Client Solutions, James has overseen the enhancement of Winton’s product offering to a targeted range of investment solutions, while forging deeper relationships with the firm’s long-term strategic clients.

James joined Winton’s business development team in 2012 and relocated to the United States in 2014 to establish the firm’s New York office. In 2016, he returned to London to lead an executive office function reporting directly into Winton’s founder, before his appointment to his current role in 2018. Prior to Winton, James worked in equity derivatives sales at Goldman Sachs.

James holds a first-class Honours degree in economics from University College London, and a Master’s degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge.

Mario Therrien

SBAI Trustee; Head of Investment Funds and External Management, La Caisse

Mario Therrien leads CDPQ’s investment funds activities. The teams he oversees invest in private investment funds and credit in private markets, as well as in venture capital in Québec and internationally. They are also responsible for external management in equity markets, as well as developing and managing strategic and institutional relationships. His mandate consists of adding value by building portfolios with the best external managers, while improving in-house management through the sharing of knowledge and expertise. He sits on the Investment-Risk Committee.

Prior to this role, Mr. Therrien was Senior Vice-President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Developed Markets. He joined CDPQ in 1993 as an Analyst before taking on the role of Portfolio Manager in the group responsible for absolute return activities. Subsequently, he was mandated to develop external management activities in liquid-asset classes.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s degree in Finance from Université de Sherbrooke. He has also completed the Canadian Securities Course given by the Canadian Securities Institute, and is a CFA charter holder.

Dr Jamil Baz

MD & Head of Client Solutions & Analytics, PIMCO

Mr. Baz is a Managing Director and Head of Client Solutions and Analytics. Previously at PIMCO, he was a portfolio manager on the global team.

Prior to rejoining PIMCO in 2016, he was a senior managing director and chief investment strategist of the Man Group. Previously, he was a managing director in macro proprietary trading at Goldman Sachs in London and global chief investment strategist at Deutsche Bank. Earlier in his career, he co-ran European fixed income research at Lehman Brothers and worked in derivatives and liability management at the World Bank.

He has 39 years of investment experience and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an SM degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a master's degree from the London School of Economics.

Simon Judes

Chief Investment Officer, Winton

Simon Judes leads Winton's investment management and research activities. He is a member of the firm’s executive management and investment committees.

Joining Winton as a researcher in 2008, Simon has worked on projects ranging from developing new commodity, macro and equity trading strategies, to leading research into portfolio construction methods. He took over responsibility for Winton's core futures and forwards strategies in 2016 and has since led the design of standalone and bespoke implementations of Winton's CTA strategies. Simon was appointed CIO in 2020 and oversees all aspects of Winton’s research and investment management.

Simon has a first-class Honours degree in physics and philosophy from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in physics from Columbia University, with a thesis on string theory and cosmology.

Enrico Massignani

Chief Risk Officer, Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC)

Enrico is the Chief Risk Officer at Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC). In his role, Enrico is responsible for overseeing the identification, assessment, and mitigation of investment, operational, and strategic risk at ADIC.

A senior risk executive with more than 20 years in the financial services industry, he worked for Assicurazioni Generali Group for over two decades in several positions across Europe, prior to joining ADIC. Enrico was Chief Risk Officer of Generali Investment Asset & Wealth Management for five years, where he led the Risk Management function for the firm covering Investment, Operational and Strategic Risk of over $500 billion AUM and oversight of over 20 asset managers and a bank distributed globally.

Before that, he covered the role of CRO of Generali Insurance Asset Management, CIO and COO of Generali Thalia Investments, a fund of hedge funds asset manager and Associates at GIT SA, an e-banking and fintech startup.

Enrico holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Industrial Engineering & Business Management from the Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy.

Dale West CFA

Senior Managing Director, Public Markets, Teacher Retirement System of Texas

Dale West is the Senior Managing Director of Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in Austin, Texas, the pension plan for 2 million Texas teachers, education employees, and beneficiaries. Mr. West's team oversees the Trust's $122 billion portfolio of publicly traded securities, including both internal and externally managed strategies. TRS’ portfolio includes $27 billion in hedge funds and $9 billion in opportunistic and credit investments. Mr. West joined TRS in 2008 and serves on the Internal Investment Committee and Executive team.

Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets. He also served in the U.S. Foreign Service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Jane Buchan

SBAI Chair; CEO, Martlet Asset Management

Jane is Chief Executive Officer of Martlet Asset Management responsible for firm strategy, organization and performance. Martlet is based in Newport Beach, CA and was founded in July 2018. The firm’s strategies include alternative risk premia and developing liquid strategies with a focus on fixed income.

Prior to this, Ms. Buchan co-founded and led Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO), a Fund of Hedge Funds focused on institutional investors for 18 years. Under her leadership first as CEO of PAAMCO and then co-CEO of PAAMCO Prisma, the firm grew to $32 billion AUM placing it third globally in the league tables by the time of her retirement in July 2018 (HFM InvestHedge Billion Dollar Club).

Jane began her career at J.P. Morgan Investment Management in the Capital Markets Group where she was trained in quantitative fixed income portfolio management. She has been an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She recently served as chairwoman of the board for the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst Association (CAIA) and is a member of the Advisory Board for the Master of Financial Engineering Program at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Jane holds both a PhD and an MA in Business Economics (Finance) from Harvard University. She earned a BA in Economics from Yale University. Jane has thirty-three years of experience in investment management and portfolio construction with institutional investors.

Mark Carhart, PhD

CIO, Kepos Capital

Mark Carhart is the Chief Investment Officer and a founding partner of Kepos Capital LP. Prior to founding Kepos in 2010, Mark was a Partner and the Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, and prior to GSAM he was an Assistant Professor at the Marshall School of Business at USC and a Senior Fellow at The Financial Institutions Center at The Wharton School.

Mark’s publications include articles in The Journal of Finance, The Review of Financial Studies, and the Financial Analysts Journal, and he received the FAJ’s Graham and Dodd Award in 2014. He is also a co-author of Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach.

Mark earned a B.A. from Yale University in 1988, became a CFA Charterholder in 1991, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1995. Mark is a member of the Investment Committee at Carnegie Corporation of New York. He is also a member of the Booth Council at the University of Chicago and serves as the Chairman of the non-profit board of InTandem Cycling, as well as an investment committee member for the Aldrich Museum.