Paribas Hedge Fund Unit Hires

BNP Paribas hedge fund subsidiary Malbec Partners named portfolio teams for newly launched emerging markets and quantitative multi-strategy funds.

The portfolio manager for Malbec's emerging markets strategy is Bill Geisler. He previously ran Amaranth Advisors' emerging markets strategy, and was global head of Lehman Brothers' emerging markets fixed income business. He is joined by Lars Pedersen as senior research analyst and strategist. Pedersen was a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund in international capital markets, and was chief strategist for the hedge fund coverage group at Lehman Brothers.

The quantitative multi-strategy team is headed by portfolio managers Ryan Sheftel, David Horowitz and Ian McDonald. Sheftel was a director at Citadel Investment Group. Horowitz was a portfolio manager and head of credit research at Morgan Stanley Investment Management. McDonald headed macro strategies at Goldman Sachs.

Both teams report to Jeffrey Trongone, Malbec president and chief executive.

New York-based Malbec Partners was launched last year by bond manager Fischer Francis Trees & Watts, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. The firm expected to raise $1 billion for the two new hedge funds, including an initial $200 million stake from Fischer Francis. Trongone, Malbec's CEO, is a former chief operating officer at activist hedge fund Third Point LLC and was a managing director at JPMorgan Chase.