Judging process

The judging process is rigorous and thorough to ensure that all the entries receive full consideration and that the true winners are chosen. Judges will take part in a judging conference call, where the winners will be decided, with one expert per category will be asked to summarize the judges comments and provide any additional input as required. Judges have discretionary power to move submissions into alternative categories that they think may be more suitable. All judges are required to sign a disclaimer form to keep information about entries and the final winners confidential.

The judging panel

The judges are carefully selected for their wealth of experience and expertise, as well as their absence of conflicts of interest.

PLEASE NOTE: Judges do not judge any categories that their company has been entered in and are obliged to declare that they have no conflicts of interest prior to judging.
  

Nathanael Benzaken
Bruce Berger, chief operating officer and chief financial officer , Atlantic Investment Management
Bruce is currently the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Atlantic Investment Management, a $1.5 billion global long/short hedge fund, responsible for all non-investment activities. Bruce has extensive expertise in the financial services sector including the role of Chief Financial Officer at Advent Capital Management, a $4 billion credit focused asset management firm, and Controller at Maple Financial, a global financial services firm. Prior to Maple, Bruce was a Manager with Arthur Andersen focusing on audit and consulting for financial services firms. In addition to being CPA a member of the AICPA, Bruce has held other licenses including Series 7, 27 and 63 and is a founding board member of the Financial Executive Alliance Association and frequent speaker at industry related forums and events.


Neal Berger
John Ernenwein, chief financial officer, Blue Harbour Group, LLC
John has spent over 25 years managing investment operations on Wall Street. For the last 11 years he has been Chief Financial Officer of Blue Harbour Group, a $3.4BB activist hedge Fund. Prior to Blue Harbour, he spent nine years as Chief Operating Officer of P.A.W. Capital Partners. Prior to P.A.W., he was an Operations Manager at Ardsley Partners. Prior to Ardsley, he managed equity derivatives operations for Citibank. He began his career at Verizon Communications.



Nadya Frukte
Nadya Frukter, chief financial officer, Squarepoint Group
Nadya is the Chief Financial Officer at Squarepoint Group. She has over 20 years of accounting, finance, tax and operations experience in the hedge fund and private equity industry. Prior to joining Squarepoint in September 2014, she was the Chief Financial Officer at Hudson Bay Capital Management LP with responsibility for accounting, operations, financial and tax reporting functions for all Hudson Bay entities since its inception in June 2005. Prior to joining Hudson Bay Capital Management LP, Nadya was a Director of Operations at Refco Alternative Investments, LLC. responsible for corporate and financial funds’ reporting, budgeting, accounting and operations for various alternative investment products. Previously she was an Account Manager with Citco Fund Services (USA), Inc. and held various positions in the Investment Management area at Deloitte & Touche, LLP providing auditing and consulting services to various alternative investment firms.



Kevin Gahwyler
Kevin Gahwyler, chief operating officer and director of business development, Twin Capital Management
Kevin has been at Twin Capital Management since 2010 as the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Business Development. Prior to joining Twin, Kevin was founder of KenCole Capital, a boutique investment bank specializing in hedge fund permanent capital structures and marketing. Prior to that, Kevin served in senior marketing roles at both Pequot Capital and Sagamore Hill. He spent the balance of his 24 years in the hedge fund industry at ING Furman Selz Asset Management in various investment roles. Kevin graduated from Fairfield University with a B.S. in Biological Sciences in 1985 and from Thunderbird School of Global Management with MIM in 1993.


Rick Hanna
Rick Hanna, COO, Man Americas
Rick is Chief Operating Officer of Man Americas, the US arm of Man Group, an $88.7 billion investment management group (as of March 31, 2017) and component of the FTSE 250. He has also been Partner and Chief Financial Officer of Numeric Investors LLC since 2010, which merged with Man Group in 2014. As COO of Man Group, Rick is responsible for matters related to operations, technology, legal, compliance, human resources and real estate. He sits on a number of internal committees including the Risk and Finance Committee, Information Security and Cyber Crime Steering Group, and Strategic Partner Oversight Committee. Prior to joining Numeric, Rick spent nine years at Citigroup in various senior management roles including Managing Director and Head of International Strategy and M&A. Rick was previously Controller of a multi-billion dollar software division at IBM, where he spent ten years in successive financial roles. Rick received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Western Ontario.


Rick Hanna
Louis Thorne, president & global chief operating officer, City Financial
Louis (“Lou”) is President and Global Chief Operating Officer at City Financial. Prior to joining City Financial, Lou was Managing Director and Global Chief Operating Officer of Fortress Investment Group's Liquid Markets business. At Fortress he was responsible for infrastructure and support functions, and was actively involved in firm-wide infrastructure planning and business development. Prior to this, Lou was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer at MissionPoint Investment Partners. He began his career at Tudor Investment Corporation, where he spent over eight years serving in various middle and back office capacities. Lou graduated with a B.S. in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University.


Ken Weiller
Ken Weiller, partner, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer, EVA Capital Management, LLC
Ken joined EVA in February of 2016. Prior to working at EVA, Ken served as a Partner and Chief Operating Officer at Saba Capital Management from 2009 - 2016. He joined Saba at inception and was responsible for all aspects of the firm’s launch as well as management of all non-investment related functions. He also served as the risk manager at Saba during the firm’s first two years of operation. Prior to Saba, Ken served as the Chief Operating Officer of Claren Road Asset Management from 2005 to 2008. In addition to working on all aspects of fund launch, Ken managed the firm’s operations, technology and legal areas. During his tenure at Claren Road he also served as the company’s Chief Risk Officer. Prior to joining Claren Road, Ken worked at S.A.C. Capital Advisors from 1998 to 2005, where he was Director of Trading Administration. His responsibilities included oversight of all administrative aspects of the trading floor, repo, stock loan and derivative products. He was previously Director of Risk Management and Director of Operations at S.A.C. Prior to joining S.A.C., Ken worked at Santander Investment, where he was head of NY Risk Management. He has also worked at Bankers Trust and Citigroup, and was an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. Ken earned an AM and PhD in economics from Harvard University, an MA in economics from Tufts University, and a BA in economics from St. Lawrence University.


Steven A. Yadegari
Steven A. Yadegari, chief operating officer and general counsel, Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn
Steven is Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of Cramer Rosenthal McGlynn, which is a registered investment adviser located in New York City. Steven also serves as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for the CRM Mutual Fund Trust and is a Director of the CRM UCITS. Prior to joining CRM, Steven was a member of the Regulatory Practice Group at K&L Gates and, before that, an associate at Proskauer. Steven also has served as Senior Counsel in the Office of the Chief Counsel, Division of Enforcement at U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and as an Attorney-Adviser in the Division of Market Regulation. He has spoken at numerous conferences and has published articles on securities law topics. In 2007, Steven was recognized as a top twenty “Rising Star of Compliance” by Institutional Investor. He is an adjunct professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and teaches in the areas of dispute resolution and negotiation. Steven is a Past President of the Association for Conflict Resolution of Greater New York, a not-for-profit organization, and is a Past President and former Chairman of the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation. He has received a BA from Brandeis University and earned his JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Steven has been awarded an honorary Master’s Degree from the CCO University, a division of the Regulatory Compliance Association for which he serves as an advisor and senior fellow.