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.

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.

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.

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.