Hedge Funds Challenges & Opportunities

During a thirteen-year career as a securities analyst. Mr. Lauer’s success as one of the nation’s top stock-pickers was recognized by the prestigious Institutional Investor Magazine, which ranked him as an All-Star Analyst for seven consecutive years. Other securities analyst rating institutions, such as the Wall Street Journal and Greenwich Associates also bestowed top laurels on Mr. Lauer’s analytical skills.

Having enjoyed exceptional success as a securities analyst/investment banker, Mr. Lauer launched his long/short equities hedge fund organization. During the subsequent ten years, the funds generated a compounded annual rate of return north of 40%, net to investors.

Mr. Lauer ‘s MBA concentration is in Finance, while his undergraduate major is in International Relations and Russian Studies (Mr. Lauer is trilingual).

Further reflecting Mr. Lauer’s passion for performance-driven activities, Mr. Lauer is an avid global participant in motorsports, having raced in amateur and professional events, including at the “Triple Crown” of endurance racing, the “24 Hours of Le Mans,” “24 Hours of Daytona” (winning the class in 2002) and the “12

Deepak Narula, Ph.D is the Founder and Managing Partner of Metacapital Management an SEC-registered investment adviser specializing in MBS and structured credit.

Mr. Narula has 30 years of experience in mortgage trading and investments, including Agency and Non-Agency MBS, ABS, CMBS, CRE Debt, and other structured credit products.

He is Metacapital’s Chief Investment Officer and is involved in all aspects of the firm’s overall development and investment strategy.

Mr. Narula is responsible for ensuring the firm’s adherence to its fundamental investment philosophy, communicating with clients regarding investment products and strategies, and providing his experience to major investment decisions.

Prior to founding Metacapital in 2001, Mr. Narula was Managing Director and head of mortgage backed securities trading desks at Lehman Brothers. Previously, Mr. Narula worked in Mortgage Research and was Head of the Mortgage Strategy Group at Lehman Brothers until 1995. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Narula was a ranked analyst on the Institutional Investor All-American research team for his work on mortgage backed securities.

Mr. Narula holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from Columbia University and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. In addition, he has taught courses at Columbia University and Columbia Business School.

Stanford Silverman is President of Silver Betty, Inc./Devotion Internet, Inc. and Founder & CEO of Minerva Capital Management; a hedge fund focusing on the education space.

Silver Betty, Inc. is one of the largest proprietary education marketing and advertising companies in the United States. The agency has represented over 200 private and publicly traded universities, colleges and schools. The success of an investment in the Education Space requires the ability to leverage social media, search engine optimization, web site design, pay per click and pay per lead advertising to generate new student leads which translates to students in chairs and revenue. Stanford is an authority in these areas.

Stanford’s experiences have also brought him to his present position and visionary of Minerva Capital Management. His attention has been focused on bringing together a powerful operational education management team headed by his colleague and co-founder, Dr. Jon Coover. The team has an impressive track record of R.O.I for its investors over three decades and continues to generate a significant rate of return for new investors.

Stanford holds his B.S. in Economics from Hofstra University and graduate, MBA work at Hofstra and at New York University.

As Co-CIO, Mr. Gayeski has oversight of all the firm’s investment activities alongside Ray Nolte. As Senior Portfolio Manager, Mr. Gayeski continues to manage the firm’s discretionary portfolios (SkyBridge Multi-Advisor Hedge Fund Portfolios – Series G, SkyBridge G II and Legion Strategies) and institutional separate accounts.

Mr. Gayeski’s responsibilities include portfolio management, manager sourcing, research, and due diligence across a wide variety of strategies.

A regular speaker and commentator, Mr. Gayeski appears as a frequent guest on various broadcast networks including Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, and CNBC.

Prior to joining SkyBridge, he performed similar duties in the Hedge Fund Management Group at Citigroup Alternative Investments (CAI), Bank of America and Yankee Advisers. Mr. Gayeski received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MIT and is a CFA charterholder.

Ziad K. Abdelnour is Founder, President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc. a private “family office” in the business of originating, structuring & acting as equity investor in strategic corporate investments and co-Founder of Aeros-Blackhawk Partners; a trading platform focusing on the financing of real estate and project finance properties throughout the US.

Founder & Chairman of the Board of the Financial Policy Council ; a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization designed to give its select group of supporters the opportunity to have direct face-to-face dialogue with the nation’s quintessential power brokers and policymakers

A member of TIGER 21, a peer-to-peer learning group for super high net worth individuals and of Young Presidents Organization (YPO) – a private group of global chief executives whose companies employ 16 million people and generate 6-trillion USD in annual revenues

Author of the bestselling book “Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics” and of the upcoming book ” Startup Saboteurs: How Incompetence, Ego, and Small Thinking Prevent True Wealth Creation” to be published in Summer 2019.

Mr. Abdelnour has over 30 year experience on Wall Street backing over 125 companies & serial entrepreneurs worth in aggregate over 20 billion dollars in the private equity, high yield bond and distressed debt markets.

He holds a MBA in Finance Summa Cum Laude from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania & BS in Economics, Summa Cum Laude, from the American University of Beirut

Today, Mr. Abdelnour continues to be featured in hundreds of media channels and publications every year and is widely seen as one of the top business leaders by millions around the world.

He was just recently been featured as one of the 500 Most Influential CEOs in the World.