Abria Hires CFO and Investment Head

Date: Monday, August 9, 2004

Dominic Staniscia and Michael Doran have joined Abria Financial Group. Mr. Staniscia was responsible for all investment finance operations at the C$75 billion (US$57 billion) Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board for the last seven years. As part of his role at the pension fund, he focused on operational due diligence reviews of external managers including hedge fund managers. Now as chief financial officer at Abria, he initially will be supporting the investment management process in overseeing the operational risk management program for all of the fund investments. Mr. Doran joins Abria as senior vice president of investment management. Previously, Mr. Doran was the director of University of Toronto Asset Management Corp., where he was in charge in all North American equity investments, which included commodities and hedge funds. According to University of Toronto officials, Philip Paroian, who is managing director of public equities replaced Mr. Doran, who left his post three months ago. The university’s long-term investment pool and pension fund totals C$3.6 billion as of June 30. “The additions of Michael Doran and Dominic Staniscia to the investment team gives Abria the bench strength that institutional investors desire,” said Henry Kneis, founder, chief executive and chief investment officer of Abria. Abria manages more than C$250 million in multi-manager, alternative investment strategy vehicles. The firm earlier this year expanded a guaranteed notes offering that had grown beyond officials’ initial expectations.