Management team

Andrew W. Lo, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer

Andrew oversees all research for AlphaSimplex and is responsible for its investment processes and models. Andrew and our staff of senior research scientists apply leading-edge statistical techniques to design, enhance, and implement proprietary strategies for capturing alpha and adapting to changes in market dynamics. Andrew chairs the AlphaSimplex Investment Committee, which is responsible for vetting, approving, and documenting all investment products and processes, as well as for assessing performance results and proposing and implementing enhancements.

Prior to founding AlphaSimplex in 1999, Andrew consulted with a number of prominent Wall Street firms in the development of their proprietary investment products and trading technologies.

In addition to his responsibilities at AlphaSimplex, Andrew is a tenured faculty member at MIT where he pursues a separate but complementary research agenda that is focused on basic research in quantitative finance. Examples of this research include: his pioneering studies on measuring illiquidity risk in hedge-fund returns, alternative betas and hedge-fund replication, the growth of systemic risk in the hedge-fund industry, and his Adaptive Markets Hypothesis. These innovative insights provide the academic foundation for the applied research and product engineering agenda at AlphaSimplex that generate a steady flow of new investment models and products.

Andrew has published three books—Hedge Funds: An Analytic Perspective (2008), A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street (1999) and The Econometrics of Financial Markets (1997) and has also published numerous journal articles including the widely read article "What happened to the quants in August 2007?"

Andrew received a BA in economics from Yale University and a PhD in economics from Harvard University.

Jeremiah H. Chafkin, President and CEO

Jerry joined the firm in 2007 and brings twenty-four years of industry experience, Jerry is responsible for all aspects of the day to day operations of AlphaSimplex. The head of each business function—Research and Trading, Risk and Compliance, Technology, Finance &Administration, and Client Service and Marketing—reports to him. He is also a member of the AlphaSimplex Investment and Risk Committees.

Prior to AlphaSimplex, Jerry was responsible for all Natixis’ affiliated asset managers in the United States and Asia. He came to Natixis from the Charles Schwab Corporation where he was a member of its Executive Committee and was President of its Advised Investor Division with responsibility for equity research, mutual fund ratings, and all direct advice services the company provided its retail clients. Previously at Schwab, Jerry headed Schwab’s asset management and mutual fund divisions. Before Schwab, Jerry was the CEO of Structured Investment Management for Bankers Trust Company which was one of the largest asset managers in the United States. During his fifteen-year tenure there, he held several other senior management positions including COO of U.S. Asset Management, Chairman and President of Japan Bankers Trust Company, and Co-Head of Fixed Income.

Jerry earned a BA in Economics from Yale University and an MBA in Finance from Columbia University.

Gilles A. Guerin, Managing Director,
Product Engineering and Client Servicing

Gilles focuses on matching up the investment capabilities of AlphaSimplex with the product structuring needs and risk parameters of prospective clients. He is responsible for all marketing and client service. Gilles joined the firm in 2007 with over twelve years of industry experience.

Prior to joining AlphaSimplex, Gilles was the President of Natixis Global Associates which was dedicated to cross-border distribution activities for Natixis-affiliated investment managers. In this role, he raised more than $20 billion for affiliated managers. From 1996 to 1998, he developed and sold highly sophisticated fixed-income derivative products to corporations and investors for Commerz Financial Products.

Gilles graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in France and from Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Aeronautique where he specialized in Signal Theory and Electronics.

Arnout M. Eikeboom, Chief Compliance and Risk Officer

In addition to his role as Chief Compliance Officer role, Arnout chairs the AlphaSimplex Risk Committee which is charged with the responsibility of reviewing and managing the risk exposures of all investment products and services. He has been with AlphaSimplex for eight years and has fourteen years of industry experience.

Prior to joining AlphaSimplex, Arnout held several positions at Goldman Sachs between 1994 and 2000, including manager of the Derivative Price Verification Group within the firm wide Risk Department. In addition to dealing with valuation questions internal to Goldman Sachs, he interacted extensively with auditors and regulators on questions regarding derivatives pricing and regulatory capital computations dependent on pricing and Value-At-Risk models.

Arnout received the equivalents of a BA in Econometrics and an MA in Operations Research from the Free University in Amsterdam followed by a PhD in Management (specializing in Finance) from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Kendall A. Walker, Chief Financial Officer

Kendall is responsible for both business and portfolio accounting. He joined AlphaSimplex in 2005 with nine years of industry experience.

Prior to joining AlphaSimplex, Kendall was Senior Vice President and Controller for Santa Barbara Alpha Strategies (SBAS), a registered investment adviser to the Santa Barbara fund of funds family, which ran a leveraged portfolio of approximately sixty underlying managers using structured financing and derivatives. Preceding SBAS, Kendall served as an audit manager in the hedge fund group of Ernst & Young in Dallas, Texas where he coordinated the audit and tax relationships for a diverse portfolio of hedge funds clients. Before that, he was an audit manager in the Cayman Islands office of Ernst & Young and worked on an international portfolio of hedge funds, large global private banks and special purpose vehicles.

Kendall received a Bachelor of Commerce degree (majoring in Finance) from the University of Calgary. He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst.