Judges
2016-2017 Competition
Jim Chanos, Founder & President - Kynikos Associates
Jim Chanos is the founder and Managing Partner of Kynikos Associates LP. As the world’s largest exclusive short selling investment firm, Kynikos Associates LP provides investment management services for domestic and offshore clients. Through investment funds, partnerships, corporations, and managed accounts – domestic and offshore – Kynikos Associates LP maintains private portfolios of securities for clients. The Ursus, Kriticos and Kynikos Opportunity funds seek to profit from the unusually high alphas found on the long and short side of the U.S. and non-U.S. equity markets.
Mr. Chanos opened Kynikos Associates LP in 1985 to implement investment strategies he had uncovered while beginning his Wall Street career as a financial analyst with Paine Webber, Gilford Securities, and Deutsche Bank. Throughout his investment career, Mr. Chanos has identified and sold short the shares of numerous well-known corporate financial disasters; among them, Baldwin-United, Commodore International, Coleco, Integrated Resources, Boston Chicken, Sunbeam, Conseco, and Tyco International. His celebrated short-sale of Enron shares was dubbed by Barron’s as “the market call of the decade, if not the past fifty years.” The media has noted his prescience in alerting finance ministers and others about the global financial crisis well before it occurred. His views on the lessons from the crisis, capital markets regulation, and investment strategies, among other topics, are regularly covered by news organizations worldwide.
Mr. Chanos is chairman of the Coalition of Private Investment Companies, whose members are diverse in their size and investment strategies. The members’ clients include pension funds, asset managers, foundation, other institutional investors, and qualified wealthy individuals. In that role, Mr. Chanos has testified before Congress and provided comments to regulations proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chanos is currently a Lecturer in Finance and Becton Fellow at the Yale School of Management, teaching a class on the history of financial fraud.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mr. Chanos lives in New York City, and has four children. He is President of the Board of Trustees of The Browning School, and serves as a Trustee at The Nightingale-Bamford School and The New-York Historical Society. Mr. Chanos received his BA in economics and political science in 1980 from Yale University.
Eddie Tam, CEO & CIO - Central Asset Investments
Eddie Tam is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Central Asset Investments. Mr. Tam founded Central Asset Investments in April 2005, and oversees the management of the firm, as well as the CAI Global Fund and the CAI Special Opportunities Fund. Primarily, Mr. Tam is responsible for top down asset allocation between strategies, asset classes, geography and themes. Under his leadership, the CAI Global Fund has an annualized return of over 18% since its inception in September 2005. The fund was ranked the #1 best-performing multi-strategy hedge fund globally according to Bloomberg (based on 5 year annual returns) and Barclayhedge in 2013. Mr. Tam has over 20 years of experience within the industry. Prior to founding Central Asset Investments, Mr. Tam was at Fore Research & Management as the Chief Portfolio Manager of the Fore Opportunity Fund. Before joining the buy-side, Mr. Tam worked with equity derivatives, first at Merrill Lynch, and then at Credit Lyonnais where he was most recently the Head of Sales and Marketing of Asian derivatives. During this time, Mr. Tam was credited as one of the pioneers in Asian equity derivatives. Mr. Tam received his MPPM from Yale School of Management in 1993, holds an M.A.Sc., a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and is currently an active board member of the International Center of Finance and the Greater China Advisory Board at the Yale School of Management. In October 2010, Mr. Tam was named one of the 25 most influential people in Asian hedge funds by Asian Investors. Mr. Tam is a frequent guest on leading financial and business television channels, including CNBC and Bloomberg TV, where he shares his latest macroeconomic views and investment strategies with viewers. Central Asset Investments Central Asset Investments is an established Asia-focused multi-strategy investment firm. Founded in 2005, Central Asset Investments capitalizes on the firm’s Asian investment background and strength in equities, convertible bonds, and fixed income in order to provide investors with long term, superior absolute returns. The Central Asset Investments team consists of professionals in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen, working across portfolio management, research, risk management, investor relations and operations. Central Asset Investments was voted as the “Asia Focused Multi-Strategy Investment Firm of the Year” by Acquisition International in 2014. Central Asset Investments manages the CAI Global Fund and the CAI Special Opportunities Fund. The CAI Global Fund has an annualized return of over 19% since its inception in September 2005. The fund is ranked the #1 best-performing multi-strategy hedge fund globally according to Bloomberg (based on 5 year annual returns) and Barclayhedge in 2013. The fund was also voted “Best Multi-strategy Hedge Fund” in 2011, “Best Hedge Fund Asia-Pacific” in 2010 and “Best Hedge Fund Asia (Ex-Japan)” in 2008 by Asian Investor.
Katalin Gingold, Co-Head of Equity Research - Cartica Capital
Katalin Gingold is Managing Director, Equity Research at Cartica Capital. Prior to joining Cartica, Ms. Gingold was a Portfolio Manager at Artio Global Investors, a multi-billion dollar long-only fund manager based in New York. She oversaw all Emerging Markets equity investments across geographies, sectors, and capitalization ranges for Artio’s International Equity Funds. She served as core member of the international equity investment team, contributing to industry-leading investment performance and several-fold increase in assets under management. At Artio, Ms. Gingold conducted macroeconomic country analysis, currency and political risk assessment for the universe of MSCI Emerging and Frontier Markets. She led a team of sector analysts in mapping out global- and market-specific industry trends and investment opportunities, as well as generating investment ideas based on long-term fundamental factors.
From 2000-2003, Ms. Gingold was an Associate at HVB Capital Markets, where she focused on Emerging European Equity Research Sales.
Ms. Gingold earned the equivalent of a B.S. in Economics and an M.S. in Business Administration with specialization in Finance from Budapest University of Economic Sciences in Hungary. She also earned a Certificate of Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
2015-2016 Competition
Jim Chanos, Founder & President - Kynikos Associates
Jim Chanos is the founder and Managing Partner of Kynikos Associates LP. As the world’s largest exclusive short selling investment firm, Kynikos Associates LP provides investment management services for domestic and offshore clients. Through investment funds, partnerships, corporations, and managed accounts – domestic and offshore – Kynikos Associates LP maintains private portfolios of securities for clients. The Ursus, Kriticos and Kynikos Opportunity funds seek to profit from the unusually high alphas found on the long and short side of the U.S. and non-U.S. equity markets.
Mr. Chanos opened Kynikos Associates LP in 1985 to implement investment strategies he had uncovered while beginning his Wall Street career as a financial analyst with Paine Webber, Gilford Securities, and Deutsche Bank. Throughout his investment career, Mr. Chanos has identified and sold short the shares of numerous well-known corporate financial disasters; among them, Baldwin-United, Commodore International, Coleco, Integrated Resources, Boston Chicken, Sunbeam, Conseco, and Tyco International. His celebrated short-sale of Enron shares was dubbed by Barron’s as “the market call of the decade, if not the past fifty years.” The media has noted his prescience in alerting finance ministers and others about the global financial crisis well before it occurred. His views on the lessons from the crisis, capital markets regulation, and investment strategies, among other topics, are regularly covered by news organizations worldwide.
Mr. Chanos is chairman of the Coalition of Private Investment Companies, whose members are diverse in their size and investment strategies. The members’ clients include pension funds, asset managers, foundation, other institutional investors, and qualified wealthy individuals. In that role, Mr. Chanos has testified before Congress and provided comments to regulations proposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Chanos is currently a Lecturer in Finance and Becton Fellow at the Yale School of Management, teaching a class on the history of financial fraud.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Mr. Chanos lives in New York City, and has four children. He is President of the Board of Trustees of The Browning School, and serves as a Trustee at The Nightingale-Bamford School and The New-York Historical Society. Mr. Chanos received his BA in economics and political science in 1980 from Yale University.
Eddie Tam, CEO & CIO - Central Asset Investments
Eddie Tam is the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Central Asset Investments. Mr. Tam founded Central Asset Investments in April 2005, and oversees the management of the firm, as well as the CAI Global Fund and the CAI Special Opportunities Fund. Primarily, Mr. Tam is responsible for top down asset allocation between strategies, asset classes, geography and themes. Under his leadership, the CAI Global Fund has an annualized return of over 18% since its inception in September 2005. The fund was ranked the #1 best-performing multi-strategy hedge fund globally according to Bloomberg (based on 5 year annual returns) and Barclayhedge in 2013. Mr. Tam has over 20 years of experience within the industry. Prior to founding Central Asset Investments, Mr. Tam was at Fore Research & Management as the Chief Portfolio Manager of the Fore Opportunity Fund. Before joining the buy-side, Mr. Tam worked with equity derivatives, first at Merrill Lynch, and then at Credit Lyonnais where he was most recently the Head of Sales and Marketing of Asian derivatives. During this time, Mr. Tam was credited as one of the pioneers in Asian equity derivatives. Mr. Tam received his MPPM from Yale School of Management in 1993, holds an M.A.Sc., a B.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and is currently an active board member of the International Center of Finance and the Greater China Advisory Board at the Yale School of Management. In October 2010, Mr. Tam was named one of the 25 most influential people in Asian hedge funds by Asian Investors. Mr. Tam is a frequent guest on leading financial and business television channels, including CNBC and Bloomberg TV, where he shares his latest macroeconomic views and investment strategies with viewers. Central Asset Investments Central Asset Investments is an established Asia-focused multi-strategy investment firm. Founded in 2005, Central Asset Investments capitalizes on the firm’s Asian investment background and strength in equities, convertible bonds, and fixed income in order to provide investors with long term, superior absolute returns. The Central Asset Investments team consists of professionals in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen, working across portfolio management, research, risk management, investor relations and operations. Central Asset Investments was voted as the “Asia Focused Multi-Strategy Investment Firm of the Year” by Acquisition International in 2014. Central Asset Investments manages the CAI Global Fund and the CAI Special Opportunities Fund. The CAI Global Fund has an annualized return of over 19% since its inception in September 2005. The fund is ranked the #1 best-performing multi-strategy hedge fund globally according to Bloomberg (based on 5 year annual returns) and Barclayhedge in 2013. The fund was also voted “Best Multi-strategy Hedge Fund” in 2011, “Best Hedge Fund Asia-Pacific” in 2010 and “Best Hedge Fund Asia (Ex-Japan)” in 2008 by Asian Investor.
Katalin Gingold, Co-Head of Equity Research - Cartica Capital
Katalin Gingold is Managing Director, Equity Research at Cartica Capital. Prior to joining Cartica, Ms. Gingold was a Portfolio Manager at Artio Global Investors, a multi-billion dollar long-only fund manager based in New York. She oversaw all Emerging Markets equity investments across geographies, sectors, and capitalization ranges for Artio’s International Equity Funds. She served as core member of the international equity investment team, contributing to industry-leading investment performance and several-fold increase in assets under management. At Artio, Ms. Gingold conducted macroeconomic country analysis, currency and political risk assessment for the universe of MSCI Emerging and Frontier Markets. She led a team of sector analysts in mapping out global- and market-specific industry trends and investment opportunities, as well as generating investment ideas based on long-term fundamental factors.
From 2000-2003, Ms. Gingold was an Associate at HVB Capital Markets, where she focused on Emerging European Equity Research Sales.
Ms. Gingold earned the equivalent of a B.S. in Economics and an M.S. in Business Administration with specialization in Finance from Budapest University of Economic Sciences in Hungary. She also earned a Certificate of Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Kimball Brooker, Deputy Head of Global Value Team - First Eagle Investment Management
Kimball Brooker Jr. is Deputy Head of Global Value Team and Portfolio Manager of the Global Value and International Value Funds for First Eagle Investment Management. Kimball joined First Eagle Investment Management as a senior research analyst in 2009 covering banks, commercial services, financial services and holding companies. He joined the Global Value portfolio management team in 2010. Kimball began his career in 1992 as a financial analyst at Lazard Frères & Co. From there, he joined J.P. Morgan as an associate in the Investment Banking Department's billion-dollar Corsair private equity funds. In 1998, Kimball returned to J.P. Morgan after finishing his MBA. He was named Chief Investment Officer of the Corsair Funds and managing director in 2005. In 2006, Corsair successfully completed a spin-off from J.P. Morgan with nearly $3 billion under management.
Kimball received his BA from Yale University and his MBA from Harvard University.