Rokos Capital Management has enlisted a top White House economist

Rokos Capital Management has taken on a senior economist in the White House as it continues its recruitment drive.

Benjamin Harris, the chief economist and economic adviser to the vice president of the United States has been working as an economic adviser to the hedge fund this year. Chris Rokos, a former star trader at Brevan Howard, launched Rokos Capital Management in 2015 after successfully contesting a five-year non-compete clause with his former employer and has been making some big hires this year.

Rokos has been recruiting both portfolio managers and economists in 2017. Harris has been working as an adviser to the hedge fund alongside his role in Washington and his job as a visiting professor at Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management.

Harris joined the White House economics team in 2014, having previously worked as policy director for the Hamilton Project – an economic research group within think-tank the Brookings Institution in Washington. His main areas of expertise are tax, budget and retirement security.

There’s a pattern to the recent hires at Rokos. Its economics division has primarily focused on bringing in people who worked within government institutions. In May, it hired Benjamin Nelson, the economic assistant to the governor of the Bank of England, as a senior economist focused on macro research. Antonello D’Agostino, a senior economist at Rokos who joined in January 2016, previously worked at the European Stability Mechanism.

Rokos was reportedly planning to double its number of portfolio managers to 10 people this year in a renewed hiring push, and has taken on some big names from investment banks.

Ramnek Matharu, a former Goldman Sachs managing director who retired from the bank in 2014, was the first big name to join Rokos in May. His appointment was followed by former Barclays MD Omar Gzouli, who traded equity derivatives at the bank, and Robin Wilson, who held various senior roles during 20 years at Credit Suisse including head of emerging markets trading for Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Contact: pclarke@efinancialcareers.com

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