Axa Investment Managers strengthens fund of hedge funds business

Date: Friday, February 8, 2008
Author: Hedgeweek.com

Axa Investment Managers has strengthened its fund of hedge funds business division with the appointments of Rajiv Jaitly as chief operating officer, Sharmila Soosaipillai as senior operational due diligence analyst and Shiblee Alam as product specialist for hedge funds.

Jaitly, who reports to global head of fund of hedge funds Chris Manser, has responsibility for the operational direction of the business in line with Axa Investment Managers' objective to grow the fund of hedge funds platform. He has more than 20 years' operational and corporate due diligence expertise in the financial services sector and was previously managing director and chief risk officer of the alternative investments group at Banco Santander.

Soosaipillai, who reports to Jaitly, will strengthen Axa Investment Managers' operational and due diligence team. She also joins from Banco Santander in the UK, where she was head of the operational risk team and a member of the management committee at fund of hedge funds subsidiary Optimal Investment Services.

'Rajiv's and Sharmila's appointments reinforce our commitment to building a first-class operational platform,' Manser says. 'Their depth of knowledge and experience in the sector are a huge asset to us in our drive to strengthen our expertise and offering in this key growth area.'

Alam, who joins the product specialist unit within Axa Investment Managers' fund of hedge funds business, reports to head of hedge fund distribution Aarnout Snouck Hurgronje. He has been a structurer on their hedge funds derivatives desk at Lehman Brothers since 2004. Says Hurgronje: 'Shiblee will reinforce the global distribution of funds of hedge funds whilst drawing on his structuring experience to leverage all marketing channels.'

Axa Investment Managers is the asset management arm of the Axa insurance and wealth management group and one of the largest European-based asset managers, with some 3,100 employees in 21 countries and EUR548bn in assets under management at the end of last year.