Philippe has over thirty years of experience in the financial sector in consulting, risk management and business lines. As Senior Director and Head of SSG, Philippe is responsible for providing SSG with management direction and operational oversight. SSG provides specialist risk assessment expertise in credit, market, and operational risks, as well as subject matter expertise in corporate governance, risk surveillance and analytics, model validation and approvals, anti-money laundering, and regulatory compliance.

Prior to joining OSFI in September 2015, Philippe was Managing Director at Promontory Financial Group (PFG), where he advised Canadian and international financial services companies on corporate governance, business strategy and restructuring, finance and risk management. Prior to joining PFG in 2012 he was Chief Risk Officer of Coast Capital Savings, which was at that time Canada’s second-largest credit union. Philippe has also held senior positions in risk management and in business lines at positions at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, PMI Group, CIBC and BMO.

Philippe holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com.) from McGill University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the école des Hautes Études Commerciales de Montréal(HEC).

David Ha is currently a Brain Resident at Google focusing on Machine Learning Research.

Prior to joining Google Brain, David worked as a derivatives trader for ten years. He previously ran the fixed income trading business at Goldman Sachs Japan as a Managing Director. He also worked at Barclays Investment Bank and TD Bank in London, Toronto, and Hong Kong.

He did his undergraduate and graduate studies in Engineering Science and MMF from the University of Toronto. David speaks Cantonese and a bit of Japanese.

Brijesh Chopra is the Managing Director of OMERS Capital Markets (OCM) Risk Management group. Brijesh leads a team of risk management professionals, overseeing the investment risk and control function, analytics and strategy within the capitals markets business at OMERS. Brijesh’s team is primarily focused on aspects of risk including market, credit, rates, liquidity, trading and model risk management. Providing governance and oversight, the team also oversees valuation and risk methodology for OCM. Brijesh joined OMERS in 2014.

Brijesh is a member of the Portfolio Management Committee and chairs the Trade Management Oversight Committees of OCM.

Prior to joining OMERS, Brijesh worked for Ernst & Young in the advisory practice for Capital Markets and Banking. Brijesh’s clients included major banks and financial institutions across Canada and the US. Before EY, Brijesh held senior level positions with BMO Capital Markets, Toronto DominionBank and the Royal Bank of Canada.Brijesh holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics from York University, and an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario.

Brent Humphries joined AB in 2014 as a founding member and President of AB Private Credit Investors, where he has primary responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the business, including investor relations, investment originations, structuring and underwriting, as well as ongoing portfolio management and compliance. He previously held the same position with Barclays Private Credit Partners. Prior to joining Barclays, Humphries served as group head, generalist financial sponsor coverage for the Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group, and later led its structured private equity initiative. Before that, he served as a partner and managing director of the Texas Growth Fund, a middle-market private equity firm. Humphries previously worked in leveraged finance with NationsBank and J.P. Morgan, and as a financial analyst with Exxon. He holds a BBA in finance with an emphasis in accounting from the University of Oklahoma and an MBA from the Harvard Business School

Alyson Bailey-Flynn is a member of the Enterprise Risk team within Global Risk Management, with key responsibilities for Strategy & Execution. She oversees the OSFI regulatory review process, and ensures there is a consistent view of regulatory risks across the Bank. She also is responsible for developing a robust risk reporting framework to keep pace with evolving regulatory requirements and enhancing portfolio analytics within enterprise risk management. From 2013 to 2016 Ms. Bailey-Flynn was the Regional Chief Auditor for the UK, Ireland and the rest of Europe and the Middle East. In Internal Audit she built out a team of local auditors that provided coverage to the Global Banking and Markets and Group Treasury activities within the region. Prior to moving to London, she managed the Counterparty Credit Risk (CCR) and Credit Value Adjustment (CVA) projects and analytics for the trading floor. She was responsible for the roll-out of a new counterparty credit risk system across the Bank for Potential Future Exposure (PFE), CVA and Capital. Since joining Global Banking and Markets in 1999, she has worked on new business and technology initiatives for Securities Finance, Interest Rate Derivatives and helped to design the Credit Derivatives trading infrastructure for Global Banking and Markets. She holds a Master’s of Mathematical Finance from the University of Toronto, and a BSC in Physics & Math from Saint Mary’s University

While a graduate student at the University of Toronto, Professor Saunders was an associate member of the Quantitative Research group at Algorithmics Inc., a leading provider of software for financial risk management. He worked on numerous projects including mutual fund ratings, applications of optimization duality to pricing derivative securities, stochastic programming for risk management, and the development of software for a general system for solving financial stochastic optimization problems (a joint project with the University of Cambridge).

After graduation, Professor Saunders was CLR Chair in Corporate Finance and deputy director of RiskLab Cyprus (a financial risk management research laboratory) at the Cyprus International Institute of Management, as well as a research fellow at the HERMES European Center of Excellence on Computational Finance and Economics at the University of Cyprus. He then joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as director of the department’s Professional Science Masters Program in Mathematical Finance, and supervised numerous collaborative projects between students and financial institutions including RiskMetrics (default boundaries and inverse problems in credit risk), Toronto Dominion Bank (calibration of credit risk models, optimal capital allocation, fast pricing of Bermudan swaptions), PNC Bank (default correlation and CDO pricing, statistical methods for operational risk), and Mellon Bank (mathematical models for operational risk).

Professor Saunders has served as a consultant for many financial institutions including the Bank of Nova Scotia (efficient computation of value at risk for Bermudan swaption portfolios), the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (interest rate risk management), the Cyprus Development Bank (credit portfolio management, equity risk management), and the Central Bank of Cyprus (market risk management).

Dr. Santiago Carrillo Menéndez has been the CEO of Quantitative Risk Research, S.L. (QRR) since June 2006. Santiago has been a professor in the Math Department of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), a position he has held since October 1st 1976. He is Board Member and Chairman of the Risk Committee of BME Clearing (CCP), since September 2013. Santiago received his PhD in Mathematics from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris), and his 2nd PhD in Science from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. In 1990 he became Director of the Department of Mathematics at UAM and held this position for 3 years. He then became the Dean of the Science Faculty at UAM (two mandates) for the next 6 years. Since 1998, Santiago has been the Director of RiskLab-Madrid at UAM. He is an instructor with the MMF Program and has authored many prestigious articles and papers.

Professor Zagst conducts research in the field of applied financial mathematics with the goal of modeling financial markets, evaluating financial products and quantifying the risks of financial projects. His research activities focus on financial engineering, risk management and asset management.

After studying business mathematics at the University of Ulm he received a doctorate in 1991 from the same university for his work on stochastic dynamic optimization. He subsequently pursued a career in the financial industry. He was head of new product development in the Institutional Investment Management Division of HypoVereinsbank, head of consulting at Allfonds International Asset Management, and managing director of RiskLab – Private Research Institute for Financial Studies.

He has lectured and acted as a visiting professor at the Universities of Augsburg, St. Gallen, Munich, Ulm and Singapore. He received his postdoctoral teaching qualification (habilitation) in 2000 from the University of Ulm for his work on applied mathematics and finance.

In 2001 Professor Zagst joined Technical University Munich where he holds the chair of Mathematical Finance.

Ela Karahasanoglu is an Executive Director, Multi-Asset Strategies in the Investments Division of WSIB, which manages roughly a $30 billion portfolio. Ela is the Portfolio Manager dedicated to managing WSIB’s c. $6bn diversified markets and absolute return investment portfolios, which include hedge funds and active currency mandates.

Prior to joining the WSIB in July 2016, Ela was the Vice President & Institutional PM of Currency and Asset Allocation team at CIBC Asset Management, responsible for currency management, asset allocation, and absolute return strategies. Prior to CIBC Asset Management, Ela was a Principal and Senior Manager Research Consultant in the Alternatives team within Mercer, covering currency, managed futures, commodities, global macro and multi-asset strategies among other hedge fund products.

Ela was previously head of research and trading for six years at a New York-based quantitative hedge fund and also worked in the areas of credit derivatives at Merrill Lynch New York and started out her career as a currency and bond trader in Turkey. She also worked in Germany as a liaison between the European Union and the Turkish Ministry of Finance. Ela has over 18 years experience in the investment industry with over 12 years dedicated to research, trading and portfolio management in the hedge fund and absolute return space. Ela holds a Master of Business Administration from Georgetown University. She has been a CFA charterholder since 2002 and a CAIA charterholder since 2010

Dr. Hamid Arian is a Senior Risk Manager at Royal Bank of Canada and adjunct professor of Finance at Ryerson University. Prior to his current role in Bay Street-Toronto, Dr. Arian worked at the World Financial Center in Wall Street-New York. He has lectured courses in Modern Portfolio Theory, Investment Management, Quantitative Finance, Market Risk Management and Derivatives Modeling. Dr. Arian regularly speaks at international conferences and workshops and has published technical articles in finance.

Hamid holds a PhD in Financial Mathematics from University of Toronto and is a FRM charter-holder. He wrote his doctorate thesis at the University of Toronto under supervision of Professor Luis Seco on the impact of stochastic correlation in financial markets.

Hložek studies a variety of problems in theoretical and observational cosmology through observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background, Type Ia supernovae and Baryon Acoustic Oscillations.

Using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, her research focuses on constraining cosmological models, as well as determining the structure and amount of dark energy in the Universe.

She uses Baryon Acoustic Oscillations to constrain and test models of the Universe, and is interested in methods of extracting the signal from both spectroscopic and photometric galaxy surveys.

She also developed BEAMS, Bayesian Estimation Applied to Multiple Species, a statistical method for performing parameter estimation in the presence of contaminated cosmological data, which she applies to datasets such as the SDSS-II SN survey.

Hložek studied at the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town. She received her DPhil from the University of Oxford in 2011, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Before coming to the Dunlap, she was a Lyman Spitzer Jr. Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University and the Spitzer-Cotsen Fellow in the Princeton Society of Fellows. She is also a Senior TED Fellow.

Rebecca Hellerstein joined Investcorp in 2014 and is the Head of Cross-Asset Investments in the Alternative Investment Solutions group, setting top-down asset allocation views across its products, and Head and Portfolio Manager of its Alternative Risk Premia Funds. Before joining Investcorp, she was a Global Strategist and a member of the Investment Committee of the Global Multi-Asset Group at JP Morgan Asset Management, setting asset allocation views for its $120bn AuM and building out its cross-asset investment framework. Prior to that, she spent nine years at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, most recently as a Senior Economist in the International Research Group. While at the Fed, she developed and published econometric models on such topics as the sources of exchange-rate volatility and the estimation of global term premiums and also contributed regularly to monetary policy briefings. A former adjunct associate professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, Rebecca graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard College and obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Her articles on global macroeconomics and finance have been published in, among other journals, the American Economic Review and the Review of Economic Studies

Bill is a Portfolio Manager where he oversees quantitative investments and portfolio engineering. Prior to joining Thematic Investing he worked in External Portfolio Management where he focused on portfolio strategy and construction and also gained experience on manager selection. Before joining CPPIB in 2011, Bill was an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Sobey School of Business. Prior to this, he was a Senior Quantitative Analyst at Capula Investment Management in London.

Bill holds a PhD in Finance from the University of Toronto, an MSc in Financial Mathematics from the University of Warwick, an MSc (with Distinction) in Structural Engineering from the University of Manchester, and a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Calgary.

Ranjan’s role includes serving on a joint investment committee of a large institutional investor’s liquid alpha portfolio. Dr. Bhaduri conducts origination, due diligence, and hedge fund research. In addition, Dr. Bhaduri is part of the executive management team at Sigma Analysis.

Dr. Ranjan Bhaduri was previously the Chief Research Officer at AlphaMetrix Alternative Investment Advisors where he designed, implemented, and led an institutional due diligence and research program. Dr. Bhaduri worked closely with institutional clients on portfolio matters. Dr. Bhaduri was a Vice President and on an Investment Committee at Morgan Stanley where he conducted due diligence and helped design customized portfolios of Alternatives. Earlier, he was at a Canadian Fund of Funds, and at a multi-billion dollar capital management firm where he was involved in all aspects of its fund of hedge funds and structured finance business. He has also worked with two major Canadian investment banks in the Financial Strategy Consulting Group and in Global Risk Management & Control, respectively.

Dr. Bhaduri has held advisory roles at the East-West Center, a leading think tank on the Asia-Pacific region, and at ClassMouse, an early stage software company. He has taught finance and mathematics at several universities and lectured on Derivatives for the Montreal Exchange. He has done free-lance consulting. He has published papers on, and been invited to speak worldwide regarding hedge fund issues, and advanced portfolio and risk management techniques. In 2009, he was selected by the CME to be part of a delegation that spoke to regulators in Beijing and Taipei on hedge fund issues.

Dr. Bhaduri holds both the CFA and CAIA charters. Previously, Dr. Bhaduri served as a member of the All About Alpha Editorial Board on the CAIA Chicago Chapter Executive.

Dubie Cunningham is the Vice President, Innovation, Digital Banking at Scotiabank. With over twenty years of experience in the financial services and technology sectors, Dubie has held several leadership roles in Scotiabank. In IT&S, she managed the Bank’s relationships with its strategic technology partners, and most recently, led the Innovation Team at the Digital Factory.

In her current capacity, Dubie has an enterprise mandate for thought leadership to support our digital transformation strategy, which includes fintech collaboration, transformational technologies, and university research partnerships.

Dubie enjoys being active with her four kids, and holds an MBA from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland

As Vice-President, Total Fund Architecture, Audrey and her team are accountable for understanding the long-term risks of the plan liabilities, defining the governance framework for the investment program and supporting the investment plan around liquidity governance and investment benchmarking. Audrey joined Ontario Teachers’ in 2005.

Audrey holds a Masters of Mathematical Finance from the University of Toronto, a Master of Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario. She serves on the FSCO Investment Advisory Committee and CEM Global Leaders Advisory Board.

Lisa Martin, Director of Sales & Marketing, graduated in 1997 with a BS in Molecular Genetics from the University of California, Los Angeles. After earning an MBA from the University of Southern California in 2001, Ms. Martin joined CSFB as an associate. In 2004, she joined HFR Asset Management to develop and lead their client relations division working with institutional investors. Ms. Martin joined Crabel in 2008 and leads the global marketing effort, and is responsible for investor education and distribution of Crabel’s programs.

Christophe L’Ahelec is a Senior Principal in the Alternative Investments group at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board where he is responsible for the portfolio construction and risk management of the hedge fund portfolio. He is also researching generic hedge fund strategies and alternative risk premia and has conducted selection, investment due diligence and monitoring of systematic managers (equity and managed futures). On top of his responsibilities within the AI group, Christophe is also in charge of the risk reporting for the Capital Markets department.

Prior to that he was a quantitative analyst and assistant portfolio manager at Mignon Genève SA/Alpstar Asset Management, in Switzerland, where he took part in the creation and portfolio management of the Alpstar Equity Quantitative Strategies Fund, a European systematic market neutral fund. Christophe started his career in the Fixed Income trading room of BNP Paribas in Hong Kong where he was responsible for the support and development of front office applications. Christophe is a graduate engineer in Finance and Applied Mathematics from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique et de Mathématiques Appliquées de Grenoble, France and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Ben is the Senior Director for Portfolio Analytics & Management at Sigma. Ben holds a Ph.D. from the Université Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France (1992). Ben joined Sigma in 2000 after 13 years of experimental research in physics across various labs in France, Canada and the United States. Ben brought to Sigma his experience in data analytics. Ben’s passion is about connecting the dots between the financial "big data" and the macro picture for risk management and informed investment decision making.

My current role at Capco is focused on a multi-faceted change management for a global project spanning four countries, for a top Brazilian bank. Managing client and internal stakeholders, the implementation has streamlined the process of moving a change request from inception through closure for both Capco and the client. In addition, I also conducted requirement traceability, and co-managed the Business Analyst (BA) team. Prior to leading change management, I lead the technical BA on one of five sprint teams, where the primary focus was on requirements gathering and understanding, backlog grooming, and user story creation. My management experience includes training many of the BAs on the team, which has led to opportunities to co-developing a new internal training course in the region titled "Digital Agile BA Training". Outside of the project I coach junior colleagues of the firm, and co-head the Toronto division of Women@Capco, an internal group focused on the empowerment and success of women within the firm.

Caroline Bell-Ritchie is a Vice President and Managing Director in Scotiabank’s Global Wealth Management Business. Her primary responsibility is to connect Scotiabank’s Ultra High Net Worth clients to opportunities across the Bank’s international footprint. Prior to joining Scotiabank, Caroline spent 15 years at Morgan Stanley, initially in global equity derivatives and most recently as Head of Prime Brokerage for Canada. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Caroline spent two years with Goldman Sachs. Originally from Montreal, Caroline has worked in Toronto, New York and Boston. Caroline holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University and an MBA from the Columbia Business School. Caroline also serves as President of Project Sunshine Canada, a non-profit organization that provides free educational, recreational and social programs to children and families living with medical challenges and sits on the Canadian Board for 100 Women in Finance. Caroline lives in Toronto with her husband and their three daughters. She is an avid skier and tennis player.

Ludger Hentschel joined ARP Investments as Founding Partner, Investments based in New York. Ludger has over 20 years of experience in quantitative research and investing. Prior to joining ARP Investments, he was Managing Director of Analytical Research at MSCI, based in New York, responsible for leading MSCI’s research on multi-asset-class global risk models, including alternative investments,asset allocation and macroeconomic risk, and liquidity risk. Before joining MSCI, Ludger was head of quantitative research and asset allocation for the hedge fund group at Investcorp, an alternatives investments company. Previously, he headed quantitative equity research at New York Life Investment Management, was an Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Rochester, and served as an Economist for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Ludger earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Yale and a PhD in Economics from Princeton. He has published articles in leading academic finance journals, served as an associate editor for the Journal of Financial Economics, and is a frequent speaker at financial seminars and conferences.

Eva Wong is Co-founder and COO of Borrowell, a fintech lender that offers fast, fair, and friendly personal loans, and provides Equifax credit scores for free. With a background in management consulting and business development, she has worked at Maple Leaf Foods, Oliver Wyman and a number of not-for-profit organizations. Eva has degrees from Queen’s School of Business and Harvard University. She enjoys food blogs and baking projects with her two kids.

I am full professor of Applied Mathematics, Statistical & Actuarial Sciences, and Business at Western University Canada, where I hold the Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Finance.

Prior to working at Western I was a front office trading floor quant at Deutsche Bank (1997-1999) and a postdoctoral researcher in theoretical physiology at the University of Bern (1995-1999).

I received my PhD in Applied Mathematics from Western in 1995. In 1991 I graduated with my B.A.Sc. in Engineering Science at the University of Toronto, where I specialized in Engineering Geophysics. I graduated from Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton in 1987.

My research interests include energy finance, quantitative risk management, and applied operations research. At the bottom of this web page is a list of my recent papers in each of these areas.

In energy finance I work on the optimal control of energy assets, pricing options on carbon markets, and the economic analysis of green energy sources. My background in engineering and my expertise in operational research, together with my research in modern quantitative finance all come in handy in this area.

In quantitative risk management my main interests are in pricing and hedging options, particularly on a large number of underlying assets. I am also working on final revisions of my financial math textbook which will appear later in 2013.

In applied operations research/industrial mathematics, I have helped organizations in industry, government, and health care solve problems ranging from cancer treatment optimization to the detection of naval mines. I am very happy with my strong team of current graduate students in the department of Applied Mathematics at Western and in the Department of Statistical and Actuarial Sciences. I am also very proud of my many past students who go from professional success to professional success.

I am married to Christine, a speech therapist at the Thames Valley District School board and am the proud dad of two boys, Liam (11 years old) and Shawn (9 years old). My personal interests include the outdoors, swimming and boating, literature, and history.

Alexis is a seasoned data practitioner with over 20 years of experience in CRM, Data Analytics, Data Management, Product Development, Data Governance, Strategic Partnerships, Customer Experience, Geo-location and traditional mass media.

In her career, she has led both product development and professional services teams delivering data quality, insights, acquisition and retention solutions for a broad range of industries including retail, financial, telecommunications, and automotive.

A passionate data advocate, Alexis speaks regularly at industry events and has delivered on a long-standing commitment to teaching in areas of Marketing Analytics and Governance.

As the VP of Analytics for Retail Risk Management in Scotiabank, Mark has the responsibility of overseeing the advanced analytics area, risk-return strategy development, and portfolio insights across the Bank’s global footprint in Canada, Caribbean, and Latin America.

Mark has been with Scotiabank since 2009, where he’s lead a number of key areas across retail risk management starting with Credit Cards, and moving on to oversee strategy optimization, model management, and setting global risk appetite controls.

Prior to Scotiabank, Mark held progressive roles across the financial services industry, consultancy and investment research, as well as public policy working as a Federal Economist for Strategy and Innovation research.

Along with his work, he holds Masters degrees from Queens University in Management Analytics and Wilfrid Laurier University in Business Economics.

As the Head of Credit Risk Science within the Financial Advisory - Strategic Analytics & Modeling Group for Deloitte Canada, Gianluigi is responsible for leading engagements that deliver Data Science capabilities or solutions to his clients within the Financial Services Industry. Gianluigi works closely with clients to employ Science to uncover new insights to improve decision making and enhance customer experience.

Prior to joining Deloitte, Gianluigi has spent 14 years working in Financial Services, in both Canada and the U.S., developing deep domain expertise in Consumer and Small Business Credit Risk. He has led Decision Sciences teams throughout the customer life-cycle focusing on Risk Scoring, Loss Forecasting, Spend and Revenue predictions. Most recently, he led the ‘Special Projects’ group within a Top Tier Bank in the US, where he explored and assessed the various Cloud technologies in support of the bank’s Digital Transformation as well as introducing the application of Relevance Analytics to real-time credit and marketing decisions.

Gianluigi received a Master’s in Econometrics (2002) and a Bachelors of Arts - Economics (2001), specializing in Econometrics & Quantitative Finance from the University of Waterloo

As the lead of the Advanced Analytics practice within Retail Risk Management at Scotiabank, Yannick oversees the development, execution and delivery of analytical use-cases to implement innovative Risk-Return strategies across the bank’s retail markets, lending products, and distribution channels including digital.

Yannick has been with Scotiabank since 2015, where he’s led a team driving key elements of the Retail Risk Analytics Roadmap through the adoption of agile principles, the use of non-traditional data and advanced tools, as well as the deployment of creative communicationstrategies.

Prior to Scotiabank, Yannick spent 8 years working in Financial Services and Telecoms in both Canada and the US, holding progressive leadership roles in analytics, consulting and project management.

Yannick holds a Master in Management Analytics from Queen’s University, and a Bachelor in Statistics from St. Cloud State University.

Mr. Friederich is a senior solutions specialist and a director with Allianz Global Investors, which he joined in 2009. As a member of the AllianzGI Global Solutions team, he is responsible for solutions services in the North Americanmarket, working with local business units to develop investment solutions tailored to clients’ individual investment needs. Mr. Friederich previously worked with risklab, the provider of investment and risk-advice services for AllianzGI Global Solutions, to develop risk-management and DC strategies. He also served as an investment advisor for client mandates. Mr. Friederich has seven years of investment-industry experience.

He has an M.S. in finance and information management from the Technical University of Munich and the University of Augsburg. Mr. Friederich is currently working on his Ph.D. thesis in financial mathematics at the Technical University of Munich in cooperation with the University of Toronto.

Sidney is the Chicago-based Founding and Managing Partner/Consultant & Managing Corporate Counsel of SCA Compliance + Consulting Group and SCA Corporate & Compliance Counsel Group, a multi-disciplinary compliance management and operations, strategic, legal and regulatory/compliance consulting group focused on advising asset management firms, other investment/securities firms, investment professionals, and buyers/sellers of investment firms, including private equity firms.

In founding Braintrust Consulting-Counsel Group in 2001 as the predecessor firm to SCA Compliance & Consulting Group, Sidney launched one of the first multi-disciplinary compliance, consulting and counsel groups focused on the asset-fund management and investment sectors which combined integrated consulting, counsel, and related advisory services across investments-securities, business-operations, compliance, regulatory/legal counsel, finance, private equity/M&A and strategic consulting projects.

Sidney is a senior-level compliance adviser and counsel with 20-plus years of expertise and background in regulatory-compliance matters and asset-fund management matters. During his extensive career in varied legal, compliance, and consulting roles, Sidney has designed, developed, and administered the regulatory/compliance and risk management functions of investment firms of all sizes and ranges of assets under management (AUM).

Sidney has held senior level legal-compliance positions with asset management firms, including serving as senior vice-president and chief compliance officer (CCO), and chief regulatory officer for a New York-based multi-billion-AUM institutional asset management firm and affiliated investment funds group managing equity, fixed income, hedge/alternative, and private equity investments. He has also served as chief legal officer and chief compliance officer for a Midwest-based multi-billion-AUM multi-manager investment firm and funds group. Sidney has also had securities-corporate attorney roles with large corporate law firms, including global-100 law firm Morgan Lewis, which has one of the leading asset management, SEC, and investment funds practice group. Sidney was also with the SEC, having served as a managing counsel & branch chief with the SEC’s New York Office. He earned a BA in political science from the University of Rochester and a JD from Touro-Fuchsberg Law School (Long Island, New York).

Sidney is also a frequent speaker and writer in the field of investment management, and has spoken and written articles about numerous regulatory/compliance topics and the "business of asset management." He has been a panelist for Institutional Investor, Opal Financial, Financial Research Associates/FRA conferences and also a frequent industry expert-commentator for FundFire-Ignites (Financial Times/UK-US), Emerging Manager Focus e-Magazine, The Monitor Magazine (Investment Management Consultants Association/IMCA), Financial Investment News (FIN), FINalternatives, Emerging Manager Monthly and other investment-business publications. He has also written and spoken on private equity/VC topics for national publications and private equity/VC groups, including American Venture Magazine and the Emerging Venture Network-EVN Group.

Sidney also is a member of and participates in a number of investment and regulatory/compliance institutes, associations and programs, including the Association of SEC Alumni (ASECA), Investment Advisers Association (formerly Investment Counsel Association of America), Asset Managers Forum, Investment Company Institute, Closed-End Fund Forum, Managed Funds Association, National Association of Investment Companies, Midwest-Chicago Chief Compliance Officers Group, National Society of Compliance Professionals, Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association, American Bar Association, and American Corporate Counsel Association.

As a Director in the Investment Finance department, Mark Hannoush leads a team that specializes in conducting operational due diligence at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board in Toronto, Canada. His role is to ensure that operational risk management is assessed and mitigated, as well as to provide direct support and assistance with deal implementation for the Plan’s External Manager Program which includes a variety of investment products from Hedge Funds to Managed Accounts and Managed Account Platforms. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan has been a significant investor in the External Manager space, including Hedge Funds, for several years. Mark was formerly in charge of the Finance function for the Public Equities group within the Investment Finance department, where he managed the middle and back office functions and processes for all internally traded and externally managed public equity portfolios. He began his career as an auditor with Ernst & Young LLP in Ottawa, Canada where he earned his CA designation. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Esther is one of Castle Hall’s senior operational due diligence practitioners, bringing over 20 years of professional experience including more than 14 years focused on alternative investment strategies. Prior to joining Castle Hall in 2012, Esther spent five years with Scotia Capital, where she conducted operational due diligence reviews onexternal asset managers supporting multiple business lines, monitored a multi billion dollar portfolio of directly held hedge fund assets, and managed and published the Scotiabank Canadian Hedge Fund index. Prior to joining Scotia Capital, Esther worked with Mapleridge Capital, a Toronto based short-term systematic CTA. Esther is actively involvedwith the CAIA Association as a Senior Exam Grader, member of the Exam Working Group and CAIA Foundation Committee, and is a member of AIMA Canada’s Education and Research Committee.

Sudharshan Sathiyamoorthy is a Vice-President at Alignvest Investment Management. He was previously an Associate Portfolio Manager at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, where he led the search, approval and monitoring process for alternative investment managers with a focus on commodity, reinsurance and global macro managers. He played a similar role at a prominent fund of funds management firm where he also helped to develop proprietary risk analytics. His background includes a rotation through investment banking, equity research and trading at RBC Capital Markets, and post-doctoral research in Oceanography at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Mr. Sathiyamoorthy holds an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, a Ph.D. in Physics and a B.Sc. in Math and Physics (high distinction) both from the University of Toronto and has pursued graduate study in Meteorology at MIT.

Luis Seco is the Director of the Mathematical Finance Program and Professor of Mathematics at the University of Toronto. He is also President and CEO of Sigma Analysis and Management, a portfolio management firm that specializes in absolute return products and research. He has authored numerous papers in financial risk management, investments and market models, and has won a number of research awards. Prof. Seco holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University, is the director of RiskLab, an international research partnership of Universities and companies in the financial risk management sector. He has been a Bateman Instructor at the California Institute of Technology.