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New York – November 3, 2010 -
Julian Croxall, an 18-year
financial IT veteran and former
Merrill Lynch Vice President,
announced today the formation of
Cambridge CTO to provide hedge
funds and private equity funds
with senior level technology
management at a fraction of the
cost of hiring a full-time chief
technology officer. Croxall
founded Cambridge CTO in
response to growing demand for
technology executives who have a
360-degree understanding of the
importance of proper technology
controls and processes.
“If fund managers want to
attract institutional assets,
they must meet institutional
standards of technology
governance. Today, institutional
investors care as much as about
technology controls as financial
ones,” says Croxall. The
problem, according to Croxall,
is that many hedge funds and
private equity fund managers
spun off from proprietary
trading desks are unaware of the
array of technological services
that these large financial
institutions had been providing.
For instance, Croxall says it is
vital that fund managers be able
to demonstrate who has access to
a fund’s proprietary algorithms
or other intellectual property,
what procedures are in place in
case of an energy blackout and
who oversees the numerous
vendors supplying the investment
firm with computer services.
Croxall says asset management
firms need to see the chief
technology officer as a business
management role, not a technical
support role. As hedge funds and
private equity funds grow, their
technology management demands
can become overwhelming. IT
infrastructure integrators,
although they have IT expertise,
do not have the objectivity to
assess other vendors, including
themselves, impartially. As
Croxall puts it, they are not
vendor agnostic. They may also
lack experience managing
business controls relating to
banking or client services,
which are key in asset
management. “The chief
technology officer is not a
hands-on technical role, fixing
desktops and servers,” says
Croxall.
Cambridge CTO [Chief Technology
Officer] and its team of
experienced IT specialists use a
proprietary system to provide
four levels of service to assist
hedge funds and private equity
funds with their technology
infrastructure needs. The most
comprehensive level, the
‘Fractional CTO’ level supplies
a chief technology officer who
fully integrates with the
investment management firm, but
a much lower cost than an
in-house CTO. The second level –
called the ‘Partner CTO’ level -
assists larger firms that have
an in-house CTO by taking over
routine management tasks. The
‘Startup CTO’ service level will
guide new managers as they
disentangle from trading desks
of major securities houses and
set up their own operations.
Finally, for more narrowly
focused needs, the ‘Program
Manager’ level provides
start-to-finish oversight on a
specific project.
Mr. Croxall, a native of
Britain, has spent 18 years
assessing and implementing
technology controls, including
nearly five years as Vice
President at Merrill Lynch where
he conducted technology reviews
of companies under consideration
for acquisition by the financial
services giant. He also served
as a Vice President at Morgan
Stanley and, before forming his
own company, as a director at
Richard Fleischman & Associates,
a technology services firm based
in New York. Mr. Croxall has
also advised some of the
foremost names in finance such
as Barclays Capital, Morgan
Stanley and Credit Suisse.
About Cambridge CTO
(www.CambridgeCTO.com)
Cambridge CTO provides senior
level IT management to hedge
funds and private equity funds
without the cost associated with
hiring a full-time employee.
Clients that engage with
Cambridge CTO will be provided
with their own fractional CTO
who will become an integral
member of their team on a
part-time and as-needed basis.
Through its iCTO framework,
Cambridge CTO helps members of
the alternative investment
industry by devising and
executing a comprehensive
technology strategy and
providing ongoing support so
that managers can focus on
providing value for their
investors rather than the
minutia of their technology.
This cost-effective solution,
designed to meet the investment
management industry’s gold
standard for technology controls
and processes is ideal for firms
of all size but especially for
emerging and medium sized
funds. Cambridge CTO
specializes in infrastructure,
market data, trading systems,
software development,
telecommunications, data
centers, business continuity,
documentation, contract
management, business process
controls, due diligence and IT
security.
Media Contacts:
Mitch Ackles
Hedge Fund PR
(305) 444-9868
mitch@hedgefundpr.net
Jaye Scholl
Hedge Fund PR
(818) 241-6169
jaye@hedgefundpr.net
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