Phil Simotas, Row Asset Management

Row Asset Management

philip-simotas-photo-originalPhilip Simotas joined ROW Asset Management in May 2015 as the Chief Operating Officer. As COO, Mr. Simotas oversees several functions which include managing the business development, product development and marketing processes as well as the general operations of the company.

Prior to joining ROW, Philip Simotas was one of the principals of FX Concepts, where over a 20 year period spanning from 1993 to 2013, he built one of the premier investment management firms specializing in foreign currency and global fixed income management. At its peak in 2008, FX Concepts managed about $14 billion in assets. While as President of the firm, he oversaw all aspects of the company’s day to day operations, his primary areas of focus and expertise included portfolio and risk management, research and product development, as well as business development and marketing.

Overall, his experience in currency and derivatives trading spans almost 30 years having begun his career as a currency trader for Dean Witter in 1986. Mr. Simotas is a cum laude graduate of Yale University with a degree in Economics.

 

 


John Sinclair, Infusion Global

Infusion Global

john-sinclairJohn is an experienced investment management professional, having been an analyst, portfolio manager, and senior executive at some of the preeminent global asset management firms.  Prior to founding IGP, John was Managing Director, Head of Research for Fidelity Investments, where he was responsible for the strategic direction and priorities of Fidelity research and directly responsible for the performance of the following research teams: core technology, real estate, diversified analysts, international small cap and India.  At Fidelity, John managed over 45 analysts and portfolio managers investing over $550 billion in assets.  Prior to Fidelity, John was Senior Equity Analyst, Director of Research and head of consumer research for Pioneer Investments.  He outperformed the market by 300bps over his two years managing Pioneer’s research fund.  John was also a portfolio manager at Prudential and Montgomery Asset Management.  While at Montgomery, he managed over $3b billion in assets for institutional clients.  Earlier John was a Senior Global Equity Analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein for 6 years.

 

In 2009, John left Fidelity to start, incubate and invest in new ventures.  To date he has founded Cellucomp, Longbridge Financial, Education Funding Partners, and most recently Infusion Global Partners.  John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University with concentration in Finance and East Asian Affairs.  John is  fluent in Japanese.

 


John “Morgan” Slade, CloudQuant Capital Mgt

CloudQuant Capital Mgt

CEO/Chief Investment Officer-CloudQuant Capital Management

Morgan has over 20 years of experience as a trader, portfolio manager, executive and entrepreneur in the financial services industry. He is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of CloudQuant Capital Management LLC (www.CloudQuant.com), a crowd-researcher powered quantitative investment fund, with an impressive six-year track record, utilizing machine learning and other artificial intelligence research techniques to generate returns.

Morgan’s career has included leading roles as a Portfolio Manager, and executive of several of the world’s largest hedge funds, investment banks and CTAs. These include Millburn Ridgefield, Merrill Lynch, Carlson Capital LP, Penson Worldwide, Citadel Investment Group, Allston Trading and Wolverine Securities. His proven track record in quantitative investing, portfolio management and risk management made him ideal to lead the CloudQuant initiatives.


Chaya Slain, AdCap Inc

AdCap Inc

Chaya Slain is the Chief Investment Officer for AdCap Inc, a single family office based in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to AdCap, Chaya spent more than a decade at Parkwood, a single family office.

Chaya spent the first five years of her career in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs. She attended Columbia University where she earned a BA in received a mathematics degree.  Chaya is a CFA charterholder and CAIA charterholder.   She is actively involved in her community and sits on the board of directors for a number of nonprofit organizations.


Brian Smiga, Alpha Venture Partners

Alpha Venture Partners

Brian Smiga is a co-founder and partner at Alpha Venture Partners, an innovative late-stage venture fund that invests growth capital in category-leading technology companies sourced from a network of 260+ early stage venture firms. Brian also serves as an advisor to Pritzker Group Venture Capital, a twenty-year old venture firm that’s invested in 180+ technology companies.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the CEO and founder of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed popular photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Mr. Smiga was CEO at 3Path, (sold to Cadmus), an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed early “Dropbox”, and the SVP of Product & Marketing at 1ClickCharge, an early “Paypal”, where his leadership resulted in a profitable exit to CMGi.

In the 1990s, Mr. Smiga began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, and in Silicon Valley, was cofounder and President of Portfolio Software and Actioneer, where he co-authored five collaboration software patents and licensed award-winning software to Apple, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, and Mastercard. Brian received a BA from Swarthmore College, and graduated first with a Masters of Philosophy from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is founder of         TEDxAsburyParkBrian Smiga

As Operating Partner, Brian builds and works with Alpha’s early stage venture network to source and evaluate investment opportunities and strategy. Brian also advises Pritzker Group Venture Capital on deal origination and relationships.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the founder and CEO of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Mr. Smiga was CEO at 3Path, an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed startup, and the SVP of Marketing at 1ClickCharge, where his product launch resulted in a sale of the company to CMGi.

Since first working with Mr. Brotman at 1ClickCharge, Mr. Smiga advised Brotman-backed portfolio companies: Altruik, Headliner, Knovel, and Mobile Commons. In the 1990s, Mr. Smiga began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, and in Silicon Valley was cofounder and President of Portfolio Software and Actioneer, where he co-authored six collaboration software patents and licensed top-rated software to Apple, IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, and others. Brian received a BA in Liberal Arts from Swarthmore College, and a Masters of Philosophy in Literature from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is the founder of TEDxNavesink, a top-ranked TEDx conference, hosted at Asbury Park Boardwalk.