CQS hires ex-Standard Chartered MD for portfolio management role

CQS, the $12bn multi-strategy hedge fund run by Sir Michael Hintze, has hired former Standard Chartered managing director Andy Bird as portfolio manager.

Bird joined CQS as portfolio manager from his role as principal at hedge fund Chorus Capital in April, according to sources close to the situation, after less than two yearsat the firm. Before this, he worked at Standard Chartered for nearly 11 years, in various roles, latterly as managing director and head of West portfolio management.

Chorus Capital is a hedge fund specialising in structured credit, set up by ex-Goldman Sachs executive director Gilles Marchesin in 2011. It has just hired Kaikobad Kakalia, former managing director in Royal Bank of Scotland’s fixed income structuring and advisory unit, as partner and chief investment officer. This is another significant departure from RBS – Kakalia had worked at ABN Amro since 1998 before its acquisition by RBS, meaning that he’s effectively been at the same firm for 16 years.

CQS confirmed the appointment of Bird.

Bird has a background in structured credit, having worked as regional Asia head of structured solutions at Standard Chartered and head of investment management (structured credit investments) at Dresdner Kleinwort until 2001.

He has an MSc in Computation from the University of Oxford and a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from Bristol University.

CQS’s expansion this year has largely focused on Asia. It hired a head of Asian credit, Fawaz Habel, in February and has stated its intentions to add to its 16-strong team in Hong Kong.

Aside from Bird, there have been few other significant UK hires at CQS this year. In November 2013, it brought in Greg Sadler from Barclays, where he was a director in bank capital credit trading, and, as we exclusively revealed, Chris Boas joined in July as a senior portfolio manager after he shelved plans to launch his own hedge fund, Longwood Credit Partners.

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