The Team

At ACPI we have built a team of professionals with strong investment backgrounds and significant market expertise. We are committed to hiring high calibre investment professionals and encourage career development within the firm offering, where possible, the appropriate training and opportunities to develop skills and knowledge.

• Management Team

  • Alok Oberoi

    Co-Chief Executive Officer

     
    Alok co-founded ACPI in 2001 and now serves as Co-Chief Executive Officer. His role encompasses a broad range of responsibilities for both the Private Wealth and Institutional Asset Management arms of the business.

    Before the founding of ACPI, Alok had a 14 year career with Goldman Sachs, culminating as Head of International Private Wealth Management. Previous roles included Co-Chief Operating Officer of Global Private Client Services (New York) and Head of Private Client Services for Asia (Hong Kong). He was named a General Partner of the firm in 1996 and a Managing Director in 1999. He began his investment management career with Goldman Sachs in 1987.

    Alok earned both a Master’s in Business Administration and a Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University in 1987 and 1986, respectively. He is a trustee of the Agastya Foundation, which offers hands-on science education programmes to rural schools in southern India.

  • Brett Lankester

    Co-Chief Executive Officer

     
    Brett has been a Co-Chief Executive Officer of ACPI since 2009, with responsibility for the organisation’s Private Wealth Management and Global Distribution functions. He joined ACP Partners in 2007 as Managing Partner.

    Brett was previously with Goldman Sachs for 14 years. His last role at the firm was that of Managing Director and Head of UK Business for the Private Wealth Management division. Before he joined Goldman Sachs, Brett spent three years with the accountancy firm KPMG.

    Brett earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Cape Town and is a Chartered Accountant.

  • Simon Clark, ACA

    Chief Operating Officer

     
    Simon joined ACPI in January 2011 with overall responsibility for all operational aspects of the firm’s business, including finance, information technology, operations, human resources and compliance.

    Before joining ACPI, Simon was Chief Financial Officer at Heartwood, a boutique wealth management firm where he had a similar set of responsibilities. Prior to this, Simon held a number of senior finance and business support positions at RBS Financial Markets, including responsibility for the integration of the non-UK investment banking businesses of RBS and NatWest Until the merger between RBS and NatWest, Simon was COO of Greenwich NatWest in New York City. He began his career at Credit Suisse First Boston.

    Simon graduated with an engineering degree from Newcastle University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992.

• Fixed Income Team

  • Steven O’Hanlon

    Chief Investment Officer, Fixed Income

     
    Steven has been with ACPI since its inception in 2001.

    Prior to joining ACPI, Steven worked with Millennium Asset Management developing proprietary investment management systems covering all the major asset classes but specifically specialising in fixed income and emerging markets. Before Millennium, Steven worked for Equinox Finance LLP (Dublin and New York) as a fund manager and trader for the Equinox Cross-Market Arbitrage Fund, which predominantly invested in emerging markets and commodities.

    Steven received his Bachelor of Business Studies and M.A. in Finance and Economics from Trinity College Dublin before receiving his Masters in Quantitative Finance at the University College Dublin, where his studies included research into absolute return investment strategies.

  • Alia Yousuf

    Portfolio Manager, Head of Emerging Markets

     
    Alia Yousuf manages ACPI’s Emerging Markets Fixed Income UCITS Fund. She has wide experience in investing across sovereign, corporate and financial sectors covering all emerging markets regions and Sub-Saharan Africa.

    Alia was previously Head of Emerging Markets for Standard Bank’s Principal Investment Management (PIM). She was responsible for fund strategies and investment selection targeting absolute returns within emerging markets fixed income and was actively involved in the development of PIM’s Africa exposure. Before PIM, Alia managed the emerging market bond portfolios at First State and worked as an emerging market debt portfolio manager at Fischer Francis Trees and Watts. Her previous experience also includes economic analysis for Emerging Markets Economics (EME) and the World Bank. At EME, she was heavily involved in structural reform programmes across Africa relating to trade policies and infrastructure development.

    Alia holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Econometrics and a Master of Science degree in Economics, both from the London School of Economics. She is a CFA Charterholder.

  • Karan Singh Chadha

    Portfolio Manager, Head of Specialist Credit

     
    Karan is Head of Specialist Credit at ACPI. His role involves expanding new hedge fund strategies at the firm and launching an Indian Credit Opportunities Fund focused on capitalising on arbitrage opportunities in Indian fixed income securities. He also oversees ACPI’s investments in illiquid credits.

    Previously, Karan worked at Aladdin Capital Management as a Senior Portfolio Manager in emerging markets and high yield credit. He was also a Senior Portfolio Manager and Partner at Washington Square Investment Management, where he ran a team that managed over $450 million in various credit products and was responsible for listing “Carador”, the first CDO equity fund on the London Stock Exchange. At Oaktree Capital Management (Los Angeles), Karan was a member of a team responsible for investing a $9.5 billion high yield and leveraged investments fund. His career began as an analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group of J.P. Morgan Securities (New York City) where he structured and syndicated leveraged loans, high yield bonds and mezzanine debt for leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, acquisition financings and debtor-in-possession transactions.

    Karan earned a bachelor of arts in Political Science and Economics from Franklin and Marshall College (Pennsylvania, USA).

  • Richard Ward, CFA

    Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income

     
    Richard manages segregated fixed income accounts on behalf of a number of clients and is a member of the allocation team. Richard is primarily responsible for monitoring risk in the portfolios and ensuring the fund is compliant with the current investment strategy.

    Prior to joining ACPI he worked at JPMorgan Asset Management where he had worked in a number of areas including equity derivatives and fixed income performance and risk.

    Richard is a CFA Charterholder and has a Masters Degree from the University of Nottingham Business School.

  • Matthew Barnes

    Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income

     
    Matthew co-manages ACPI’s Global Credit Funds. He has extensive expertise across a broad range of industries across the credit spectrum. He is also a key contributor of corporate credit ideas across ACPI’s fixed income fund range.

    Prior to joining ACPI, Matthew worked as a specialist credit asset manager at New Bond Street Asset Management for five years. He played an integral role in the credit selection and active management of a €4 billion fixed income portfolio. Matthew has also worked at Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas in Senior Credit Analyst positions. He began his career analysing corporate credit in 1997.

    Matthew received his Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

  • James Galvin

    Portfolio Manager, Fixed Income

     
    James is primarily responsible for monitoring risk within the fixed income funds and developing internal fixed income market monitors and models.

    Prior to joining ACPI he worked at Rabobank on the Debt Capital Markets team in a risk management capacity and before that spent four and a half years at ABN AMRO in the Fund Derivatives Group where his role involved structuring investment products.

    James received his bachelor in Business and Economics from Trinity College in Dublin in 2003 and received an MSc in International Securities, Investment and Banking from the ISMA Centre in Reading in 2004.

• Equity Team

  • Marco Pabst, CFA

    Chief Investment Officer, Private Wealth Management

     
    Marco is the Chief Investment Officer of ACPI’s Wealth Management business. He is also involved in the management of equity products. His specialisation is in Pan-European equities. In addition, Marco also looks at special situation and private equity investments to be made by partners and clients.

    Marco started his career at Sal Oppenheim as a research analyst for mid-cap companies, before moving to UBS Warburg to cover European software and services companies. He then joined Wiener Privatbank as the Head of Asset Management. He has worked at ACPI since 2005.

    Marco received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, with a focus on finance. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002.

  • Daniel Pasini, CFA

    CIO - Equities

    Daniel started his career working for Gruppo Mediolanum, then joined Goldman Sachs Investment Management Division in London managing private client portfolios. In 2001 he left Goldman Sachs to join the founding team at ACP (subsequently ACPI), focusing exclusively on Equities. At ACPI, Daniel focuses on portfolio management of both long-only portfolios and funds, as well as long/short equity funds. In addition, Daniel has been responsible for completing due diligence on various private equity investments made on behalf of partners and clients of ACPI. Daniel received a Master’s Degree in Economics from Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Milan) and a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University (Chicago). He has been a CFA charterholder since 2001, and speaks English, Spanish and Italian.

• Alternative Investments Team

  • Markus Kreutzer

    Chief Investment Officer, Alternative Investments

     
    Markus joined ACPI in 2008 and leads the Alternatives Investments Team primarily researching macro, commodity and systematic trading strategies. As CIO, Markus leads a team of five analysts and portfolio managers. He is ultimately responsible for all investment decisions for the long-only and hedge fund portfolios, as well as asset allocation decisions and the risk management process. His responsibilities also comprise of developing the Alternative Investments product range and coordination with the firm’s Private Client teams. Markus is Head of the Investment Committee and is a member of the ACPI Executive Committee.

    Prior to joining ACPI, Markus worked at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management where he was responsible for evaluating, analysing, and recommending hedge fund and fund-of-funds solutions across all strategies for the Bank’s hedge fund research and advisory platform.

    Markus holds a master of arts in philosophy and economics from the University of Bayreuth and a diploma degree in economics from Nuertingen University.

  • Sean Curry, CFA

    Fund Manager, Alternative Investments

     
    Sean is a member of the Alternatives Investment Team and is involved in all aspects of the hedge fund asset management business, including research and portfolio management across ACPI’s diversified product base. 

    Sean has working in the hedge fund advisory industry since 1995. Prior to joining ACPI in 2002, Sean worked as a hedge fund analyst for a London-based asset manager where he worked on the development of bespoke hedge fund products for an institutional client base. He previously worked for the fixed income research department at Lehman Brothers International in London.

    Sean holds a degree in banking and international finance from the Cass Business School and is a CFA Charterholder.

  • Marcus Szemruk

    Fund Manager, Alternative Investments

     
    Marcus joined ACPI in 2005 initially as a member of the Alternative Investments team primarily researching equity related hedge fund strategies. Today he is additionally responsible for all external long-only manager research and manages the ACPI Balanced Fund, in addition to a number of segregated private clients, multi-manager portfolios. Marcus also interacts closely with the firm’s PWM unit liaising on long-only external manager selection and recommendations.

    Markus’s previous roles include working at a London-based fund of hedge funds as an analyst, and before that he was an analyst on the European equities team at Phillips & Drew, UBS Global Asset Management.

    Marcus holds a degree in banking and finance from Loughborough University and holds the Securities Institute Certificate in Investment Management (CertIM).

  • Kenny Voong

    Fund Manager, Alternative Investments

     
    Kenny leads the research effort for fixed income and credit related strategies, both in the hedge fund and long-only universes, and is a member of the Investment Committee. Kenny has co-managed the ACPI Core Strategy Fund since 2009 and also previously managed the ACP Financial Opportunities Fund.

    Before joining ACPI in 2008, Kenny worked at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in the Hedge Fund Investments Group in London and the Global Hedge Fund Research group in New York City.

    Kenny holds a bachelor of science degree from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.

  • Martin Golding

    Head of Operational Due Diligence, Alternative Investments

     
    Martin serves Head of Operational Due Diligence within the Alternative Investments team and is responsible for undertaking operational research on all the hedge fund investments. Since July 2011, he has had additional responsibility as the Operational Risk Manager, assisting in the assessment and review of risks and controls within ACPI as a whole.

    Prior to joining ACPI in 2010, Martin was an Operational Due Diligence Manager at GAM. Previously, he worked as an Operational Risk Business Manager for AXA Investment Managers and AXA Framlington and Operational Risk Manager for F&C Investment Managers. Martin has also been a Risk Consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. His has been working in financial services since 1996.

    Martin received a bachelor’s degree with honours in engineering and business management from Kings College, University of London. He is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and holds the Investment Management Certificate.

• Special Situations

  • Karan Singh Chadha

    Portfolio Manager, Head of Specialist Credit

     
    Karan is Head of Specialist Credit at ACPI. His role involves expanding new hedge fund strategies at the firm and launching an Indian Credit Opportunities Fund focused on capitalising on arbitrage opportunities in Indian fixed income securities. He also oversees ACPI’s investments in illiquid credits.

    Previously, Karan worked at Aladdin Capital Management as a Senior Portfolio Manager in emerging markets and high yield credit. He was also a Senior Portfolio Manager and Partner at Washington Square Investment Management, where he ran a team that managed over $450 million in various credit products and was responsible for listing “Carador”, the first CDO equity fund on the London Stock Exchange. At Oaktree Capital Management (Los Angeles), Karan was a member of a team responsible for investing a $9.5 billion high yield and leveraged investments fund. His career began as an analyst in the Leveraged Finance Group of J.P. Morgan Securities (New York City) where he structured and syndicated leveraged loans, high yield bonds and mezzanine debt for leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, acquisition financings and debtor-in-possession transactions.

    Karan earned a bachelor of arts in Political Science and Economics from Franklin and Marshall College (Pennsylvania, USA).

  • Meriem Cherkaoui

    Investment Analyst

    Meriem joined ACPI as an Investment Analyst in March 2009 from Bear Stearns where she was a broker within the Investment Services department in London since 2005. Meriem Graduated from the French High School in Morocco before studying Economics and Accounting at University of Dauphine in Paris. She worked in corporate finance (LBO) at Credit du Nord before graduating from the London School of Economics with a MSc in Accounting and Finance in 2005.

• Private Wealth Management Team

  • Ivan Gavanski

    Co-Head of Private Wealth Management

    Ivan joined ACPI as Co-Head of Private Wealth Management in November 2009. Prior to joining ACPI he was an Executive Director in the Private Wealth Management division of Goldman Sachs, heading up the Russian business. On his departure from Goldman Sachs in September 2009, Ivan was the largest revenue producer for Goldman Sachs in Eastern Europe. Previously he was a Fixed Income Manager and Management Consultant at GM Capital until 2005, and prior to that he was a Management Consultant at Barclays Capital. Ivan studied Investment Management at London Business School and International Law at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

  • Marco Pabst, CFA

    Chief Investment Officer, Private Wealth Management

     
    Marco is the Chief Investment Officer of ACPI’s Wealth Management business. He is also involved in the management of equity products. His specialisation is in Pan-European equities. In addition, Marco also looks at special situation and private equity investments to be made by partners and clients.

    Marco started his career at Sal Oppenheim as a research analyst for mid-cap companies, before moving to UBS Warburg to cover European software and services companies. He then joined Wiener Privatbank as the Head of Asset Management. He has worked at ACPI since 2005.

    Marco received a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) from the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, with a focus on finance. He has been a CFA Charterholder since 2002.

  • Gianluca Bencivenni

    Executive Director

    Gianluca joined ACPI as an Executive Director in July 2009 from Goldman Sachs. Gianluca worked with Goldman Sachs for 7 years and in his previous role he was part of the Markets Solutions Group within the Private Wealth Management division advising large, sophisticated private clients and family offices, structuring bespoke derivatives solutions across all asset classes and working in direct contact with traders. Gianluca holds a masters degree in Management Engineering from the Polytechnic of Milan, Italy.

  • Dotan Lieberman

    Executive Director

    Dotan joined ACPI as an Executive Director in September 2009. Prior to joining ACPI, he was a director in the Wealth Management Group at UBS International, in charge of the Israeli market. Previously, he was in charge of the Jersey office of Bank Leumi and before that he was a fixed income trader for Migdal Capital Markets in Israel. Dotan holds a Master of Science degree in Investment Management from Cass Business School.

  • Meeta Misra, CFA

    Director, Global Distribution Team

     
    Meeta joined ACPI in 2009 as a Client Relations Associate. Today she is the primary contact and relationship manager for a group of ACPI’s institutional clients. She also manages multiple aspects of client service for the firm’s Private Wealth Management team. Meeta is a key ACPI product specialist and is active in business development efforts and new product initiatives.

    Prior to ACPI, Meeta worked with Capital International for three years, in London and Geneva, where she was responsible for advising and servicing their German and Austrian institutional client base. Prior to Capital International, she worked at London-based hedge fund Bailey Coates Asset Management. 

    Meeta graduated from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Economics and is a CFA Charterholder .

• Global Distribution Team

  • Luigi Bellini

    Head of Institutional Sales and Family Offices

     
    Luigi joined ACPI as Head of Institutional Sales and Family Offices in 2009.

    Previously, Luigi was a Managing Director in the Investment Service department at Bear Stearns. He built a large investment management business covering Continental European and Latin American Institutional and Family Office clients. He also built the third-party product platform and Family Office business model. Prior to Bear Stearns, he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston as a Director in charge of Asian Equity Sales into Europe. He began his career at Kleinwort Benson in Investment banking and followed on to UBS Private Banking in London where he was responsible for Italy, Monaco and Switzerland.

    Luigi holds a degree in Economics and a degree in Business Administration.

  • Madilean Coen

    Head of Wealth Management Distribution and Platforms

     
    Madilean currently serves as ACPI’s Head of Wealth Management Distribution and Platforms, leading the firm’s sales initiatives to wealth managers and asset management distribution platforms.

    Before joining ACPI, Madilean was a founding partner of Blacksquare Capital, an alternative asset management firm. She previously worked for Deutsche Bank as Director and Head of European Retail Distribution for Deutsche Asset Management following its merger with Scudder Investments. She joined Scudder as Regional Sales Director for Europe and the Middle East in 2000. Madilean began her career at Prudential Securities working in the futures and commodities division. Later, as a portfolio and CTA analyst, she selected analysed and optimised multi-manager funds for high net worth clients, institutions and to create retail funds of funds. As a part of the Managed Futures division, she helped grow that division, eventually directing the global sales team.

    Madilean earned her bachelor’s degree from the American University of Paris.

  • Pieter Fourie, CFA, CA

    Head of Strategic Initiatives in South Africa

     
    Pieter is the senior member of ACPI’s distribution team and leads the firm’s strategic initiatives in South Africa and with a selection of institutional clients. He also plays an active role in various investment committees.

    Pieter joined ACPI at inception in 1999 as a portfolio manager for global equity mandates. He subsequently took on the role of COO with overall responsibility for all operational aspects of the business, later stepping down to assume his current responsibilities. Prior to joining ACPI, Pieter worked at Deutsche Bank and was an accountant with Ernst & Young.

    Pieter received a bachelor’s degree in accounting with honours from the University of Stellenbosch in 1994 and became a Chartered Accountant in 1997. Pieter is also a CFA Charterholder.

  • Irma Hattingh

    Director - Global Distribution

     
    Irma joined ACPI in August 2007. Prior to joining ACPI, Irma worked at Absa, a leading financial institution in South Africa. She joined Absa in December 1984 where she obtained vast financial services experience in various sectors of the financial environment ranging from frontline banking, back office banking, investments, loans, securities, bonds & share trading, retail & sales, client services, administration and management. Her last role prior to joining ACPI was a Wealth Support Officer for Private Clients: Investment & Relationship Management.  She is an Associate Member of the South African Institute for Financial Markets (AIFM).

  • Christelle Kupa

    Director, Sales and Marketing

     
    Christelle joined ACPI’s institutional distribution team in 2010. Her remit includes institutional sales in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

    Before coming to ACPI, Christelle was a relationship manager at JP Morgan/Bear Stearns where her responsibilities included advising and servicing hedge fund clients within the equity and fixed income Prime Brokerage business. Christelle also spent time at Deutshe bank and Goldman Sachs as a client services executive and sales assistant on the convertible bond desk.

    Christelle graduated with a bachelor of arts with honours in business and finance from the University of Westminster and is FSA approved. She speaks fluent English, French and Dutch.

  • Dotan Lieberman

    Executive Director

    Dotan joined ACPI as an Executive Director in September 2009. Prior to joining ACPI, he was a director in the Wealth Management Group at UBS International, in charge of the Israeli market. Previously, he was in charge of the Jersey office of Bank Leumi and before that he was a fixed income trader for Migdal Capital Markets in Israel. Dotan holds a Master of Science degree in Investment Management from Cass Business School.

  • Chris Stone

    Investment Analyst

    Chris joined ACPI in April 2009 as an Investment Analyst. Previously Chris was an analyst in the Wealth Management Group at Goldman Sachs International advising on Private Client portfolios. Chris graduated from the University of Cape Town with a Bachelor of Business Science Finance Honours Degree with a major in economics.

  • Meriem Cherkaoui

    Investment Analyst

    Meriem joined ACPI as an Investment Analyst in March 2009 from Bear Stearns where she was a broker within the Investment Services department in London since 2005. Meriem Graduated from the French High School in Morocco before studying Economics and Accounting at University of Dauphine in Paris. She worked in corporate finance (LBO) at Credit du Nord before graduating from the London School of Economics with a MSc in Accounting and Finance in 2005.

  • Meeta Misra, CFA

    Director, Global Distribution Team

     
    Meeta joined ACPI in 2009 as a Client Relations Associate. Today she is the primary contact and relationship manager for a group of ACPI’s institutional clients. She also manages multiple aspects of client service for the firm’s Private Wealth Management team. Meeta is a key ACPI product specialist and is active in business development efforts and new product initiatives.

    Prior to ACPI, Meeta worked with Capital International for three years, in London and Geneva, where she was responsible for advising and servicing their German and Austrian institutional client base. Prior to Capital International, she worked at London-based hedge fund Bailey Coates Asset Management. 

    Meeta graduated from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Economics and is a CFA Charterholder .