OUR SPEAKERS
Scott Davies
CDAM (UK) Ltd
CDAM (UK) Ltd
CFA. Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Scott founded CDAM in April 2006 with former colleague Adam Chamberlain. Prior to forming the investment manager, Scott spent four years as Senior Portfolio Manager for the proprietary investments at Manulife Financial. Previous to this Scott was a Vice President of Proprietary Trading at TD Securities Inc. from April 1999 until November 2001. From 1991 to 1999 Scott worked primarily in Toronto and London in the fixed income capital markets at J.P. Morgan.
Scott earned the professional designation of Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) in 1994. He is registered with the CFA Institute and is a member of the London Society of Financial Analysts. He graduated from Trinity College at the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Commerce, with a specialist in Finance and Economics.
Kathryn Schwartz
Pawleys Capital Management
Pawleys Capital Management
Founder & CEO
Kathryn built her knowledge working at Dean Witter and Charles Schwab, having been promoted quickly through diverse management roles. She specialized in areas including institutional equity trading and municipal credit, and spearheaded development of new portfolio management processes for affluent clients. From 2004-2009, she headed operations for a start-up international coffee company, and delivered financial performance enabling them to advance from angel-investor private-equity financing to an initial public offering of stock.
In 2009, she relocated from California to the beautiful coast of South Carolina, where she founded Pawleys Investment Advisors and Pawleys Capital Management. In 2012, Kathryn was appointed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority as a securities Arbitrator.
A Columbia University, New York, NY graduate holding her B.A., Kathryn also holds a Master’s Certificate in Six Sigma Process Improvement from Villanova University in Philadelphia, PA. For 13 years, Kathryn has volunteered in Winter Park, CO with the National Sports Center for the Disabled teaching blind skiers and skiers with various physical and cognitive disabilities, including terminally ill children.
Probabilities Fund Management
Managing Partner, Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Mr. Childrey developed an investment philosophy that incorporates the principles of behavioral finance and trend following. He launched and managed the Probabilities Fund L.P., a long/short hedge fund, for six years before converting the fund to a mutual fund. Mr. Childrey served private and institutional clients at Wells Fargo/AG Edwards for 15 years, starting his career at PaineWebber. An inventor, Mr. Childrey co-invented with Jon Jewitt a patented product in the consumer electronics industry that is marketed and sold worldwide. Mr. Childrey graduated from Western Maryland College with a BA in Sociology.
Joseph B. Childrey
Probabilities Fund Management
Jonathan C. Angrist
Cognios Capital
Cognios Capital
President & Chief Investment Officer
Prior to co-founding Cognios Capital, Mr. Angrist was a Co-Owner of and Portfolio Manager at Helzberg Angrist Capital (“HAC”), the predecessor firm to Cognios. HAC was an alternative asset investment firm specializing in deep value, long/short equity hedge fund management. Prior to HAC, Mr. Angrist was a Portfolio Manager for a mutual fund company, The Buffalo Funds, where he launched and managed the Buffalo Micro Cap Fund. Mr. Angrist also served as a Principal with the private equity firm Harvest Partners, Inc. in New York City. Prior to that he was a senior consultant for a leading, independent management consulting firm. Mr. Angrist’s educational background includes an MBA and a B.S. (Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa) from Tulane University. Mr. Angrist currently serves on the Board at University Academy, a top performing charter school in Kansas City, MO.
Joel D. Hirsch
Kovitz Investment Group
Kovitz Investment Group
CFA, Principal, Portfolio Manager
Joel focuses on portfolio management of the long/short and long-only equity strategies at KIG. Prior to joining Kovitz Investment Group in 2006, Joel worked as an equity research analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets, a Division of McDonald Investments.
In his previous role, Joel focused on fundamental research in an award-winning basic materials research group. Joel has been published in CFA Magazine and quoted in Bloomberg, Value Investor Insight and Chicago Sun-Times. He is a member of the CFA Society of Chicago’s Education Advisory Group.
Joel graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. He is a CFA® Charterholder and member of the CFA Society of Chicago. Joel is licensed with FINRA under Series 7, 86, 87, 63 and 66.
Kovitz Investment Group (KIG), is an independently-managed, registered investment adviser, founded in 2003. KIG is dedicated to providing best-in-class investment solutions for high net worth individuals, institutions, and financial professionals.
William Ehrman
Paix et Prosperite Funds
Paix et Prosperite Funds
Founder & CEO
Bill Ehrman has over 35 years of direct investment and risk management experience. He was co-head of the investment committee at Century Capital Associates with noted Wall Street strategist Byron Wien. Assets under management grew from $100mm to $2.6 billion in six years at which point the firm was sold to a Canadian Industrialist. After the sale of Century Capital, Mr. Ehrman became head of global investments and partner at the George Soros led Quantum Fund. Assets under management for the eight years Bill led the investment committee grew from $300mm to over $8billion. Mr. Ehrman then founded his own firm called EGS Partners where assets grew $800mm under his leadership.
He recently started a new fund group called Paix et Prosperite Funds and has been successfully managing separate accounts for the last two years. In addition he publishes a weekly blog read by over 40000 people. His global perspective and in depth research continues to set him apart from other money managers
Kevin T. Carter
Big Tree Capital
Big Tree Capital
Founder
Kevin T. Carter is the Founder of Big Tree Capital, an investment firm focused on Emerging and Frontier Markets. He is the Portfolio Manager of the Big Tree Capital Opportunity Fund, L.P. and the Founder of EMQQ, The Emerging Markets Internet ETF (NYSE: EMQQ). Mr. Carter has worked with Princeton Economist Dr. Burton G. Malkiel in the development of both active and index-based investment strategies since 1999. He has been a featured speaker for organizations including Columbia Business School, Bloomberg, Guggenheim Partners, Morningstar and the China Hedge Fund Association. Mr. Carter received a BA in Economics from the University of Arizona and began his career with the investment management division of Robertson Stephens & Company in San Francisco in 1992.
Evan Rapoport
HedgeCoVest
HedgeCoVest
Founder & CEO
In 2002, Mr. Rapoport founded HedgeCo and launched HedgeCo.Net, one of the world’s most trafficked databases for hedge fund information. In 2008, Mr. Rapoport led HedgeCo through the strategic acquisitions of HedgeCo Securities and G&S Fund Services, forming HedgeCo Networks. His latest endeavor is the development of HedgeCoVest, an innovative new tool for investors to allocate to alternative investment providers.
Prior to HedgeCo Networks, Mr. Rapoport was a Senior Vice President at Broadband Capital Management, a NASD member brokerage firm in New York. At Broadband, he managed assets for institutions and high net worth clients, and participated in many private placements and PIPE transactions. Before Broadband, Mr. Rapoport was the youngest Senior Vice President in history at NYSE member Oscar Gruss’ Private Client Group. He started his career in a Chairman’s Council member’s office at Paine Webber in New York.
Mr. Rapoport currently holds Series 3, 7, 24, 55, 63, 66, 79 and 99 securities licenses. He has been featured and regularly appears on network news broadcasts and in leading publications. Mr. Rapoport holds a B.A. from the University of Florida.
Brett Hickey
Star Mountain Capital
Star Mountain Capital
Founder & CEO
Mr. Hickey is the Founder & Chief Executive Officer, and an Investment Committee Member of Star Mountain Fund Management, LLC (“Star Mountain”). Backed by some of the most sophisticated and well connected institutional and strategic high‐ net‐worth investors, Star Mountain is a specialized asset management firm investing primarily in the U.S. lower‐middle‐market. Star Mountain invests (I) as a strategic fund‐of‐funds investor assisting with capital, deal flow, portfolio management and operational best practices, (II) as a secondary fund investor helping provide liquidity to other limited and general partners and (III) as a direct investor, often co‐investing to help support the fund managers Star Mountain invests in through its unique “Collaborative Ecosystem” approach. Star Mountain and its partner fund managers provide companies with a unique “One Stop Shop Flexible Capital Solutions” platform including (i) senior stretch loans, (ii) mezzanine investments, (iii) junior growth equity capital and (iv) full acquisition equity capital for businesses that generally have between $10 million and $150 million in annual revenues. Star Mountain and its partner fund managers can provide companies with any or all parts of their capital needs.
Brett Hickey has been structuring, analyzing, raising capital for, and managing private equity, mezzanine and U.S. Government sponsored investment funds for over a decade. Prior to launching Star Mountain, Mr. Hickey was the Co‐Founder & President of Aegis Capital Group where he ran a multi‐manager platform including 4 U.S. state sponsored small business investment funds through which he made over 50 investments in small and medium‐sized businesses.
Prior to that, Mr. Hickey worked as an Investment Banker at Citigroup Global Markets (fka Salomon Smith Barney) in New York City where he covered global Asset Managers and Financial Institutions. In that role he worked on over $8 billion in completed debt and equity capital raising and restructuring transactions for leading financial institutions including BlackRock. He also served as Senior Analyst on the $16.1 billion public merger of the St. Paul Companies, Inc. and Travelers Property Casualty Corp.
Michael J. Kramer
Mott Capital Management, LLC
Mott Capital Management, LLC
Founder, MS - Thematic Growth Investor
Michael is the founding member of Mott Capital Management, LLC, in 2014. Prior to MCM Michael worked at Gilder, Gagnon, Howe & Co. as a domestic and international equity trader. During this time he was responsible for handling trades in some of the most illiquid equities around the world. In all Michael has been working in the financial services sector since the summer of 1997, his Freshman year of college.
Michael holds a BS in Finance and a BS in Management from LIU Post. He then went on to get his MS in Investment Management from Pace University - Lubin School of Business. In 2014 he received a Certificate in Financial Risk Management from New York University.
Michael searches for investments and growth opportunities by following themes in society. Additionally, he contributes to TheStreet, Seeking Alpha and Trader Planet. Generally he will write about FOMC Policy, Economics and Market Sentiment.
Grand Slam Asset Management
Founder
Mr. Sacks founded Grand Slam Asset Management in April of 2001 to focus on value investing in US small and micro-cap stocks. Prior to forming Grand Slam (named for his 4 children) Mr. Sacks grew a small private business from $8MM to $250MM in revenues. He and his partner also have traditional Wall Street backgrounds in finance. Mr. Sacks believes that this unique combination of managing an operating business and financial markets expertise gives his team an advantage in selecting appropriate companies for his investors.
Mitch Sacks
Grand Slam Asset Management
Jim Gentrup
Val Vista Capital Management
Val Vista Capital Management
Portfolio Manager
Jim Gentrup, CFA is currently portfolio manager of Val Vista Capital Management, a subsidiary of Netzel Financial in Phoenix, AZ. Jim has invested in and researched individual equities for over 25 years, specializing mainly in micro and small-cap stocks. He has also owned and operated a micro-cap research firm called Discovery Investment Research (DIR). DIR provided research ideas and reports to institutional investors in the United States. He also successfully launched Ceiba Capital Partners, LP in 2006, the predecessor to the Val Vista Capital Appreciation Fund, LP. As a result, he has extensive portfolio management and equity research experience. He has authored research reports on numerous smaller public companies and has consulted to micro-cap hedge fund managers. Jim combines strong quantitative skills with a thorough qualitative research process to produce companies whose shares have the potential for substantial capital appreciation. His research process has proven to be successful in many types of markets. He also capitalizes on an extensive network of colleagues and industry experts.
Mr. Gentrup also has extensive knowledge of statistics and research methodologies for the purpose of testing and applying trading strategies, and knowledge of many different industries due to his diverse background in finance, mathematics, construction, and retail. He earned a master's in Mathematics & Education from Arizona State University. Jim is a CFA Charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute.
Avasar Partners
CFA, Principal
Sidarth Kapoor, CFA, is a Principal of Avasar Partners, a fundamental driven investment fund. During the period 2003-10, Mr. Kapoor worked as a Portfolio Manager and analyst with Principled Capital Management, a long/short fundamental fund with AUM of over US $1billion. He began his investment research and analysis career in 2000 as a Credit Analyst focused on highly leveraged debt with the Industrial Bank of Japan (Mizuho Corporate Bank). Mr. Kapoor is a CFA charter holder.