The Hedge Fund Association Presents:

Ron Suber
Senior Partner
Head of Global Sales and Marketing, Merlin

Ron Suber has more than 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development across the hedge fund, broker dealer and registered investment advisor industries. Prior to joining Merlin Securities, Ron was President of Spectrum Global Fund Administration. He worked at Bear Stearns from 1992 to 2006 where he was a Senior Managing Director and the Manager of Global Clearing Sales for the Prime Brokerage, Correspondent Clearing & Registered Investment Advisor businesses.

Mr. Suber began his career in 1982 at Pershing LLC. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Suber is a founding member of the West Coast executive committee of Hedge Funds Care and now serves on the National Board of Directors.

Richard Kessner
President & CEO, CommonWealth Group

Richard L. Kessner, President & CEO, has more than 30 years of financial services experience. Rich formed The CommonWealth Group in 1991 after serving as President of Investment Management Associates of Florida, the Southern Region Office of Denver-based Investment Management Associates (IMA). Prior to partnering with IMA, Rich was President of Benefit Consultants Inc, a third party pension administration firm. The firm was involved in the design, administration and investments of over 500 qualified retirement plans of small businesses. The firm was sold in 1986.  

Through Rich’s leadership, The CommonWealth Group has placed over $500 million in assets with independent managers throughout the country. In addition, The CommonWealth Group has expanded and now serves clients from across the country and throughout the world.

David R. Friedland
President, Magnum U.S. Investments

David R. Friedland is President of Magnum U.S. Investments, Inc., which serves as a consultant to a number of funds of funds and hedge funds, as well as a number of banks and institutions. Magnum U.S. Investments, Inc. tracks, evaluates and combines hedge funds into funds of hedge funds to meet specific risk/return criteria for high net worth individuals and institutional clients. He is also president of the general partner of the Magnum funds of hedge funds, and Magnum-sponsored single manager hedge funds available to U.S. taxable investors. Magnum has been involved in the hedge fund industry since 1994.  

He is head of new business development, client relations and the legal department at Magnum, and is a frequent speaker at financial and hedge fund conferences around the world. He has authored several articles on hedge funds, made several appearances on CNBC, and is the President of the Hedge Fund Association. David received a BBA in Finance cum laude and a JD (law degree) magna cum laude from the University of Miami, and is a member of the Florida Bar. He also holds his Series 7 brokerage license.

Kislay (Sal) Shah
CPA, Partner, McGladrey & Pullen, LLP

Kislay (Sal) Shah is a Partner in the New York office of McGladrey & Pullen, LLP and the co-leader of the office’s Financial Services Practice. He brings over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry to his engagements. Prior to joining McGladrey, he served for 14 years with a Big Four accounting firm, working on major alternative investment services engagements.  

Sal has provided advisory and assurance services to investment management companies, including hedge funds, private equity firms, venture capital funds, fund of funds, mutual funds, collateral debt obligation funds and mortgage-backed assets trading and securitization companies. His advises companies that manage up to $6 billion in assets, and representative clients include Bam Capital Management, Rosegrove Capital Partners, American Securities Capital Partners, Psilos, Euclid SR, Kinderhook, HIG Brightpoint, Cornerstone, Jacobson Partners and Dolphin Private Equity Partners.  

Sal has a strong understanding of reporting, compliance monitoring, management and incentive fees, investor capital transactions, portfolio valuation, performance measurement, trade reconciliations and financial instruments, including exotic derivatives. His experience with hedge funds provides Sal with a deep knowledge of investment strategies and valuation methodologies, due diligence, and general and operational evaluations.

He is a frequent speaker at industry events on topics such as FAS 157, Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs), and asset-backed lending and is also a resource to many trade and industry publications. Sal is also editor-in-chief of McGladrey’s Alternative Investment Watch, a quarterly newsletter of developments in finance for alternative investment providers.

Thomas Pearson, CPA
President, Cortland Fund Services LLC

Tom has over 30 years experience in the financial services and accounting industries. Prior to Cortland, Tom was a founder and managing member of IFA USA LLC, a fund administration company with offices in BVI, the UK and the USA. During his career he has served as Chief Financial Officer and senior executive for Peregrine Financial Group, Inc., a regional futures brokerage firm and Gerald, Inc. an international futures brokerage firm. He has extensive experience with fund formation, regulatory compliance and fund reporting.

Tom started his accounting career in public accounting at Arthur Andersen & Company, holds a BSBA from Drake University, and is registered with the National Futures Association as a Series 3.

Andrew Schneider
Co-Founder, HedgeCo Networks

Andrew Schneider is founder and co-principal of HedgeCo Networks, a hedge fund research and services firm. At HedgeCo, Schneider provides consulting services to both new and existing hedge funds. He also oversees a database of over 6,500 hedge funds, including a community of over 35,000 members.

As a financial adviser, Schneider seized the opportunity to offer individual investors, as well as institutional investors a medium, HedgeCo.net, to provide accurate and informed information on the explosive hedge fund community.

Prior to founding HedgeCo, Schneider worked at Morgan Stanley and Prudential Securities. As a vice-president at Morgan Stanley, Schneider managed in excess of 100 million dollars of high net worth individual assets. At Morgan Stanley, Schneider helped manage assets for institutions as well as high net worth clients while participating in many private placements, PIPE transactions and public offerings with a total value of 250 million dollars.

Schneider attended The State University at Albany. He is also a member of the American Heart Association, active in the research and development of alternative remedies to cardiac disorders. Schneider appears regularly on CNBC and his expertise in the hedge fund industry has been requested and quoted in over 200 financial publications.