TEAM

Jean-Francois is a financier and investor with more than 25 years of experience working in the banking, asset management and private equity sectors. In 2007, he founded Abrax Amaerus, a merger arbitrage fund, which today is a top-five performer in its category and served as director of that company until 2017. In 2015, Jean-Francois acquired AUM Asset Management, which at the time was not an active manager, and transformed the business into one of the largest fund managers in Malta. He has served as an advisor on the Board of Directors of Storm Mountain Corp. since 2010, a Canadian real estate development company that he co-founded with the company’s management in 2010, and has also served as a board director for several other international companies across a variety of sectors, including insurance, re-insurance, asset management and technology.

Patricio is a graduate in Business Administration, Management, Finance from the Universidad de ‘San Andrés’. With wealth of experience as a director and business developer, he is the Founder of Quantum Dao, an alliance of entrepreneurs that has nurtured successful businesses in different sectors including insurance, hospitality, real estate, blockchain, investment banking and corporate management. Patricio has always been involved in building models to execute the future envisioned in the plans, from finance to strategy, from investment banking to technology. He continues to be involved directly in governance structuring and business development through his involvement and directorship roles.

Grégoire is a graduate in Business Management from Clark University in the USA. He combines over 30 years of experience in the financial sector. After a career start at BNP Paribas, and at Arthur Andersen as a Financial Auditor, he got specialized over the last 15 years in the Fund Management Industry, mainly at RAM Capital and EIM, where he directed marketing and development activities for 10 years in Europe and Asia.

Steven has extensive experience as a fund manager for HSBC Global Asset Management in Malta, where he managed 12 long-only open ended funds. In 2006, assets under his management exceeded the EUR 1 billion mark. His consultancy services mainly consist in providing third-party financial derivatives and other over-the-counter assets’ valuations as well as treasury, portfolio and other types of asset under management services to financial institutions registered in Malta.

Anthony is a business consultant mainly working on projects to deliver improvements in service delivery performance and project management.

Keith graduated from the University of York with an MSc with distinction in Finance and is approved by the MFSA as a Chief Risk Officer within the fund management and banking sectors. He has a strong background in banking and fund management with over 10 years of experience in the financial sector; previously Chief Risk Officer at Markham Rae (Malta) Management Company, Head of Risk Monitoring at Markham Rae LLP, Head of Risk Architecture at MeDirect Bank plc and a member of ALCO and involved in the oversight of the Bank’s liquidity, credit, market and operational risks. He lectured in areas related to risk, financial markets and derivatives, economics and mathematical economics at various levels. Prior to that, he occupied a technical position with the Central Bank of Malta where he made significant contributions to a bank capital model. Keith has a strong skill set in risk modelling, stress testing and liquidity and capital planning; ICAAP and ILAAP.

Matthew is responsible for the management, operations and on-going compliance of Malta registered financial businesses, including collective investment schemes and trusts. Received the Bar Admission from the Superior Court of Malta.

Alexia initially focused on investments services, where she has lead teams in client- facing roles and operational functions, assisting wealth management and institutional clients and overseeing the implementation of a number of important regulatory milestones. She has been an authorised trader on the Malta Stock Exchange.
In 2013 Alexia successfully obtained, with distinction, her Masters in Finance at Trinity College, Dublin, with specialisation in Risk Management. She has since held executive and non-executive directorship posts on the board of a number of regulated financial services companies such as funds, investment services companies, and other non-regulated companies.
Alexia Farrugia is approved by the MFSA in the roles of Risk Manager and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (MLRO). She has helped a number of institutions to set up their risk management divisions and banking infrastructures in an advisory capacity.
She is supported by the team members at Ataco Financial, the Advisory firm she has founded.

Jean-Francois is a financier and investor with more than 25 years of experience working in the banking, asset management and private equity sectors. In 2007, he founded Abrax Amaerus, a merger arbitrage fund, which today is a top-five performer in its category and served as director of that company until 2017. In 2015, Jean-Francois acquired AUM Asset Management, which at the time was not an active manager, and transformed the business into one of the largest fund managers in Malta. He has served as an advisor on the Board of Directors of Storm Mountain Corp. since 2010, a Canadian real estate development company that he co-founded with the company’s management in 2010, and has also served as a board director for several other international companies across a variety of sectors, including insurance, re-insurance, asset management and technology.

Xavier is part of the IC of the Company. Xavier has a combined experience of 23 years in the Merger Arbitrage investment and in the M&A advisory Industries. Prior to his role at AUM AM Ltd and for the Abrax Merger Arbitrage Fund, he was a Senior Investment Analyst at Dexia Asset Management in Paris where he was responsible for similar event driven/merger arbitrage portfolios with combined assets of €3 billion. From 1997-2006 he worked at Lehman Brothers and Citigroup in M&A investment banking focused mainly on the TMT sectors, in Europe and in the US. Xavier started his career in 1995 as a proprietary M&A arbitrage trader at BNP Paribas in New York. Xavier holds a Civil Engineering Degree from the Ecole Supérieure des Travaux Publics and an MSc in Finance from ESSEC (Paris).

Steven has extensive experience as a fund manager for HSBC Global Asset Management in Malta, where he managed 12 long-only open ended funds. In 2006, assets under his management exceeded the EUR 1 billion mark. His consultancy services mainly consist in providing third-party financial derivatives and other over-the-counter assets’ valuations as well as treasury, portfolio and other types of asset under management services to financial institutions registered in Malta.

Ryan attained a B.Com (Hons) Banking & Finance degree from the University of Malta in 2009. He is highly versed on the world’s financial markets, particularly equities, bonds and futures, and also takes a keen interest on developments in Information Technology. He has extensive experience in trading and fund management and is personal-questionnaire-approved by the MFSA. Recently he was awarded the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK.

Ray has been advising the Company on Insurance matters for the past few years and has recently joined the Investment Committee for that purpose. He has extensive knowledge of Insurance and reinsurance through over sixty years of experience in the Insurance markets and has held senior underwriting positions for such companies as AIG, CIGNA, ACE (now CHUBB), XL (now AXA XL) and Liberty Mutual. He is based in London and has run his own insurance consultancy for the past decade.

Jean-Francois is a financier and investor with more than 25 years of experience working in the banking, asset management and private equity sectors. In 2007, he founded Abrax Amaerus, a merger arbitrage fund, which today is a top-five performer in its category and served as director of that company until 2017. In 2015, Jean-Francois acquired AUM Asset Management, which at the time was not an active manager, and transformed the business into one of the largest fund managers in Malta. He has served as an advisor on the Board of Directors of Storm Mountain Corp. since 2010, a Canadian real estate development company that he co-founded with the company’s management in 2010, and has also served as a board director for several other international companies across a variety of sectors, including insurance, re-insurance, asset management and technology.

Matthew is responsible for the management, operations and on-going compliance of Malta registered financial businesses, including collective investment schemes and trusts. Received the Bar Admission from the Superior Court of Malta.

Mark has experience in HR recruitment and training. He works as an independent non-executive covering corporate services, as well as overseeing and monitoring the implementation of investment and operational strategies.

Grégoire is a graduate in Business Management from Clark University in the USA. He combines over 30 years of experience in the financial sector. After a career start at BNP Paribas, and at Arthur Andersen as a Financial Auditor, he got specialized over the last 15 years in the Fund Management Industry, mainly at RAM Capital and EIM, where he directed marketing and development activities for 10 years in Europe and Asia.