Karim Bennani, who formerly headed up Goldman Sachs’ Advanced Investment Strategies, has just received the go-ahead from the UK regulator to launch his own hedge fund.
Quantum Investing is a quantitative hedge fund that relies on technology platform that processes and collects huge amounts of data to help make investment decisions. It received authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority in June, although Bennani has been involved with the project since August last year.
Bennani left Goldman in June 2014 after 11 years. An MD at the firm, he led a team that researched and implemented quantitative investment strategies.
Paul Sharman, the former CEO of the National Grid’s fund manager Aerion Fund Management (which was acquired by Legal & General last year), is also listed as a director at Quantum. He is the only other current employee.
Bennani isn’t the only senior ex-Goldman MD joining a hedge fund. As we reported last week, Joe Mauro, a former Goldman partner and head of EMEA FICC hedge fund sales is off to a macro hedge fund in New York.
Goldman Sachs has been cutting staff in London and New York City. For senior bankers, hedge funds aren’t the only option. Elie Cuckierman, another Goldman Sachs managing director who left the firm in 2014, has reinvented himself as a fintech entrepreneur. He now heads up a start-up called Monest, which was launched in May last year.
Sheetal Dhanuka, head of European equities principal risk group at Goldman Sachs who left in May last year, now runs his own investment firm, Dhanuka Holding LP.
Other senior Goldman Sachs employees who ‘retired’ have yet to re-emerge. Ramnek Matharu was 40 when he retired from his role as a Goldman Sachs partner, and has yet to take another role. Meanwhile, Jason Ekaireb, a partner who headed up Goldman’s systematic trading strategies group and left in December 2014, now describes himself as ‘self-employed’, but does not work in an FCA regulated role.
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