Deals and People January 12, 2015

Commonfund Enhances Investment and Risk Teams

Brian Rondeau is director of Risk Management and Alex Gurvich is director of Commonfund Asset Management Group.
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Commonfund, an investment manager for institutional investors, hired Brian Rondeau, CFA, as director of Risk Management and Alex Gurvich as director of Commonfund Asset Management Group.

Rondeau is responsible for the due diligence of external managers and counterparty credit risk. Gurvich is focused on equities and is responsible for performing quantitative research on asset allocation, risk management and portfolio construction. He will also support Commonfund’s outsourced solutions.

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Prior to joining Commonfund, Rondeau was vice president – risk at Harvard Management Company (HMC), where he led a team responsible for counterparty credit risk as well as investment risk on Harvard’s illiquid asset class portfolios. In addition, he was involved in liquidity risk management, managing HMC’s banking relationships and analysis related to sustainable investing at Harvard.

Prior to Harvard, Rondeau spent four years with RBS Greenwich Capital in risk roles analyzing financial institutions and the asset-backed finance business. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a member of the Boston Security Analysts Society. He earned a BA from Columbia University.

Before Commonfund, Gurvich was a managing partner and quantitative equity portfolio manager at The Rockledge Group, a company he co-founded in 2004. Rockledge employed quantitative sector rotation strategies to trade equities. Gurvich is an adjunct professor of finance at Pace University, where he teaches a course about valuation and alternative investments. Previously, he worked in venture capital for GE Capital, where he invested in infrastructure and software firms and where he earned a Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification. He also started a buyout advisory firm in the former Soviet Union and worked as a management consultant with Bain and Company.

Gurvich holds a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago, an MBA from INSEAD, an MS in Financial Engineering from NYU Polytechnic Institute, and he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Financial Engineering program at Stevens Institute of Technology.

More about Commonfund is at http://www.commonfund.org

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Deals and People January 12, 2015

The Retirement Advantage Hires Installation Manager

Emily Hooyman will oversee the process of onboarding new clients of The Retirement Advantage.
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The Retirement Advantage, Inc. (TRA), a retirement plan solutions provider, hired Emily Hooyman as plan installation manager.

Hooyman will be responsible for overseeing the quality and quantity of work produced by the installation department. She will report to Michelle Zentner, TRA’s director of operations.

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Leading the plan installation team, Hooyman’s primary task is integrating TRA’s plan installation services with its plan provider partners to provide a seamless onboarding experience for new business clients. She will also monitor internal policies and procedures to ensure plan installation service levels meet or exceed commitments made to clients, within regulatory guidelines. In addition, she will be coaching and developing staff members through performance management, goal setting, training and effective employee relations.

Hooyman joins TRA with 18 years of experience in leadership, compliance, consultation, project management, sales, training and retirement administration in the financial services and qualified plans market. She graduated from University of Wisconsin Green Bay with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration; with an emphasis on finance, and a minor in financial accounting.

She has also earned her qualified pension administrator (QPA), American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries, enrolled retirement plan agent (ERPA) and accredited pension administrator (APA) designations.

More about The Retirement Advantage is at http://tra401k.com/.

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