Jim Liew, Ph.D. - Chairman of the Stern Hedge Fund Association Board of Directors

Dr. Liew is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Finance at New York University Stern School of Business, where he teaches the course, "Hedge Fund Strategies." Dr. Liew also taught the courses in "Statistical Arbitrage/Algo Trading," at Columbia, Baruch and Johns Hopkins. Previously, he worked at a large macro quant fund and at an ultra-high frequency stat arb fund, where he built, back-tested and implemented systematic investment strategies.

Dr. Liew has extensive business experiences within the fund-of-funds industry, which includes: starting a successful hedge fund-of-funds business that eventually spun out of The Carlyle Group, managing The World Bank's pension fund direct investments into hedge funds and sourcing hedge funds and creating institutional investment products at a well-known managed account platform. He has published numerous articles on hedge fund investing and quantitative investment strategies. Dr. Liew currently advises hedge funds, individuals and institutions on alternative investment opportunities.

Dr. Liew obtained his Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia Business School and undergraduate degree in Mathematics from University of Chicago. He currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Journal of Portfolio Management.

LEON M. METZGER has been a lecturer since 2006 at Yale School of Management, and an adjunct professor since 2007 at New York University, where he teaches advanced seminars on hedge funds. He was Associate Editor of Judaism and Economics (Oxford University Press, 2010). An expert witness (11 times), arbitrator (22 times), and authority on asset management, operational controls, and hedge fund infrastructure, he was associated with the hedge-fund-management firm, Paloma Partners Management Company, for 18 years, ultimately, as its vice chairman and chief administrative officer. Metzger has testified before Congress on capital markets, hedge funds, and operational controls, and has appeared as an expert on valuations and hedge funds before various government agencies. The New York Times has profiled his hedge funds course. He holds an MBA from Harvard and a BS in economics from Wharton. Metzger has taught at a number of other schools including, the engineering schools of Columbia and Cornell Universities; the business schools of Tel Aviv University and the University of Pennsylvania; Yale Law School; and Yeshiva University.

EDWARD I. ALTMAN is the Max L. Heine Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business, New York University. He is the Director of Research in Credit and Debt Markets at the NYU Salomon Center for the Study of Financial Institutions. Prior to serving in his present position, Professor Altman chaired the Stern School's MBA Program for 12 years. He has been a visiting Professor at the Hautes Etudes Commerciales and Universite de Paris-Dauphine in France, at the Pontificia Catolica Universidade in Rio de Janeiro, at the Australian Graduate School of Management and MacQuarie in Sydney, University of Western Australia in Perth, Luigi Bocconi University in Milan and CEMFI in Madrid. Dr. Altman was named to the Max L. Heine endowed professorship at Stern in 1988.

Dr. Altman has an international reputation as an expert on corporate bankruptcy, high yield bonds, distressed debt and credit risk analysis. He was named Laureate 1984 by the Hautes Etudes Commerciales Foundation in Paris for his accumulated works on corporate distress prediction models and procedures for firm financial rehabilitation and awarded the Graham & Dodd Scroll for 1985 by the Financial Analysts Federation for his work on Default Rates on High Yield Corporate Debt and was named "Profesor Honorario" by the University of Buenos Aires in 1996. He is currently an advisor to the Centrale dei Bilanci in Italy and to several foreign central banks. Professor Altman is also the Chairman of the Academic Advisory Council of the Turnaround Management Association. He received his MBA and Ph.D. in Finance from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was inducted into the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame in 2001, President of the Financial Management Association (2003) and a FMA Fellow in 2004 and was amongst the inaugural inductees into the Turnaround Management Association’s Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2005, Prof. Altman was named one of the “100 Most Influential People in Finance” by the Treasury & Risk Management magazine. He also received an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University, Sweden in May 2011.

Professor Altman was one of the founders and an Executive Editor of the international publication, the Journal of Banking and Finance and Advisory Editor of a publisher series, the John Wiley Frontiers in Finance Series. He has published or edited two-dozen books and over 150 articles in scholarly finance, accounting and economic journals. He was the editor of the Handbook of Corporate Finance and the Handbook of Financial Markets and Institutions and the author of a number of recent books, including his most recent works on Bankruptcy, Credit Risk and High Yield Junk Bonds (2002), Recovery Risk (2005), Corporate Financial Distress & Bankruptcy (3rd ed., 2006) and Managing Credit Risk (2nd ed. 2008). His work has appeared in many languages including French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.

Dr. Altman's primary areas of research include bankruptcy analysis and prediction, credit and lending policies, risk management and regulation in banking, corporate finance and capital markets. He has been a consultant to several government agencies, major financial and accounting institutions and industrial companies and has lectured to executives in North America, South America, Europe, Australia-New Zealand, Asia and Africa. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, the New York State Senate and several other government and regulatory organizations and is a Director and a member of the Advisory Board of a number of corporate, publishing, academic and financial institutions. He has been Chairman of the Academic Council of the Turnaround Management Association since 2002.

Dr. Altman is Chairman Emeritus and a member of the Board of Trustees of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and a founding member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of American Finance.

STEPHEN J. BROWN is David S. Loeb Professor of Finance at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. He graduated from Melbourne High School and Monash University in Australia and studied at the University of Chicago, earning an MBA in 1974 and a Ph.D in 1976. Following successive appointments at Bell Laboratories and Yale, he joined the faculty of New York University in 1986. In 2002 he was appointed Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He has served as President of the Western Finance Association and Secretary/Treasurer of that organization, has served on the Board of Directors of the American Finance Association, and was a founding editor of the Review of Financial Studies. He is a Managing Editor of The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Finance and other journals. He has published numerous articles and five books on finance and economics related areas. He is currently a member of the Academic Advisory Board of Russell Investments, has served as an expert witness for the US Department of Justice and has testified on his research before a Full Committee Hearing of the U.S. Congress House Financial Services Committee in March 2007. In 2010 he served as a member of the Research Evaluation Committee of the Excellence in Research Australia initiative on behalf of the Commonwealth Government of Australia.

TONY KAO is a Managing Principal and Chief Investment Officer of SECOR Asset Management, an asset management firm based in New York and London that offers investment advisory, solutions-focused portfolio management and multi-strategy alpha products. Prior to founding SECOR, Tony was the Chief Investment Officer of General Motors Asset Management (GMAM), where his was responsible for the management of the $130 billion global employee benefits plan primarily for General Motors and its affiliates.

He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Investment Management and the Journal of Investment Consulting. In the past, he also served on the editorial board of Financial Analysts Journal and Program Committee of the "Q" Group. He was the recipient of the R.L. Rosenthal Award for the Innovation in Investment Management/Corporate Finance in 1991. The yearly award is to recognize the contribution of under-35 year old professionals to the fields of literature, medicine, filmmaking and finance in the United States. He also received the National Asian-American Corporate Achievement Award in 1992. He earned his M.B.A. in Finance from New York University. His articles have been published extensively in various finance journals and books.

MICHAEL P. HENNESSY is a Co-founder and Managing Director at Morgan Creek Capital Management. Morgan Creek provides investment services based on the University Endowment model of investment management. Morgan Creek is a joint venture partner with Salient Partners and Hatteras Partners. Total assets are roughly $8 billion.

Prior to joining Morgan Creek in 2004, Mike was Vice President and Co-Founder of UNC Management Company (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Prior to joining UNC in 1999, Mr. Hennessy was an Investment Director at Duke Management Company (Duke University). Before joining Duke in 1991, Mr. Hennessy was an Associate at Smith Breeden Associates, a quantitative investment management firm.

Mr. Hennessy received his M.B.A. with a concentration in Finance from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and holds a B.S. in Philosophy, Psychology and Mathematics from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Mr. Hennessy is Treasurer of Duke University Federal Credit Union, a member of the Carolina Friends School Investment Committee, a Trustee of the Morgan Creek Foundation, a member of the College of William & Mary Foundation Board of Trustees and Chair of its Investment Committee.

ROY C. SMITH has been on the faculty of the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business since September 1987. He is a Professor of Management Practice and is the Kenneth Langone Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance. Prior to assuming this appointment he was a General Partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co., which he joined in 1966, specializing in international investment banking and corporate finance. Upon his retirement from the firm to join the faculty, he was the senior international partner. During his career at Goldman Sachs he served as President of Goldman Sachs International Corp. while resident in the firm's London office in the 1980s.

Professor Smith received his B.S. degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1960, and his M.B.A. degree from Harvard University in 1966.

Professor Smith's principal areas of research include international banking and finance, all forms of entrepreneurial finance and institutional investment practice, professional conduct and business ethics. He is a frequent guest lecturer at other business schools in the U.S. and in Europe.

In addition to various articles in professional journals and op-ed pieces, he is the author of The Global Bankers, E.P. Dutton, 1989, The Money Wars, E.P. Dutton, 1990, Comeback: The Restoration of American Banking Power in the New World Economy, Harvard Business School Press, 1993, The Wealth Creators, St. Martin's Press, 2001, and Adam Smith and the Origins of American Enterprise, 2002, and Paper Fortunes - The Modern Wall Street, 2010. He is also co-author with Ingo Walter of several books including Street Smarts, Harvard Business School Press, 1997, High Finance in the Euro Zone, FT-Prentice Hall, 2000, Global Banking, Oxford University Press, 2003, and Governing the Modern Corporation, Oxford University Press, 2006.

Professor Smith was a Limited Partner of Goldman, Sachs & Co. until its public offering in May 1999. He has been a director of public and privately-held corporations in the US and in the UK, and was a founding partner of a London-based, financial services consulting company.

Ms. Surh heads the NYU Investment Office and is responsible for the design and implementation of policy and investment programs for the University’s Endowment.  NYU’s $2.8 billion Endowment portfolio is globally diversified across asset classes and strategies, and includes a substantial proportion of alternative investments.

Ms. Surh joined NYU in early 2005 as the Director of Investments, was promoted to Deputy Chief Investment Officer in early 2008, and has led the Office since mid-2009.  She also serves ex officio as a member of the NYU School of Law investment committee.

Prior to joining NYU, Ms. Surh was with the Princeton University Investment Company, where she focused on manager due diligence, selection and monitoring, and in particular on sourcing and evaluating new opportunities in Asia.  Previously, Ms. Surh worked as a private equity investor with DCMI, a middle market buyout and growth equity investment manager.  Ms. Surh began her career at Bain & Company, where she worked on strategic and operational issues across a diverse set of industries.

Ms. Surh was elected to the Tufts University Board of Trustees in 2010.  She participates on a variety of industry-related advisory boards, and previously served as an advisor to the Sesame Workshop Investment Committee.  She has been recognized by the publishers of Institutional Investor News as a “Rising Star of Foundations and Endowments” and was honored in 2012 for “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry by an Institutional Investor” by the publishers of Hedge Funds Review.

Ms. Surh graduated cum laude from Tufts University and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School.

She and her husband reside in Brooklyn with their three children.

ROBERT F. WHITELAW is the Edward C. Johnson 3d Professor of Entrepreneurial  Finance and Chair of the Finance Department at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. He has a Ph.D. in Finance from Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, and a B.S. in Mathematics from MIT. Professor Whitelaw teaches investments and capital markets in the MBA and undergraduate programs. He also teaches fixed income securities, equity investments, derivatives, and risk management at the executive level and asset pricing at the doctoral level.

Professor Whitelaw's research interests include the relation between risk and return in the stock and bond markets, the pricing and hedging of fixed income derivative securities, risk measurement and management, and market efficiency. His papers have been published in academic journals such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies, as well as practitioner journals such as the Journal of Derivatives, the Journal of Fixed Income, Risk, the Financial Analysts Journal and the Journal of Investment Management. His research has received awards from organizations including Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the Chicago Quantitative Alliance. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), Program on Asset Pricing, and a past Associate Editor of the Review of Financial Studies and the Journal of Finance. 

Professor Whitelaw is also Chief Investment Strategist and a member of the Academic Board of IndexIQ, a pioneer and leading provider of index-based, liquid, alternative investments. IndexIQ’s philosophy is to democratize investment management by making innovative alternative investment strategies, such as hedge fund replication, available to investors in low cost, liquid, and transparent products.

PAUL ZUMMO is head of the Portfolio Management Group and a member of the JPMAAM Investment Committee. Mr. Zummo co-founded JPMAAM in 1994. Prior to that, Mr. Zummo served as the manager of retirement plan investments for the Interpublic Group of Companies from 1992 to 1994, where he was responsible for analysis, asset allocation and manager selection. From 1990 to 1992 he worked at the former Chase organization as an investment analyst and consultant for institutional clients of the Chase Consulting Group. Mr. Zummo received a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and an M.B.A. from New York University. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and is a member of the CFA Institute.

Daniel Zwirn is Managing Member of Zwirn Family Interests, LLC and Arena Investors, LLC.  From 2001 through mid-2009, he founded and managed the business of D.B. Zwirn & Co. (“DBZ”), of which he was Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer.  Through its ongoing, normal operations, DBZ managed up to $6 billion of equity capital and approximately $12 billion of assets. The firm, directly or indirectly, employed over 1,000 people across 15 core offices and over 75 specialty finance-oriented exclusive joint ventures throughout North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. As CIO he personally committed over $10 billion in capital to over 1,000 special situation illiquid investments in addition to overseeing a global series of liquid credit and equity strategies totaling several billion dollars. In addition, he generated almost $3 billion in gross profits and provided an approximate 95% positive-return months over an approximate eight-year period while the business and predecessor were active.