Zug-based FX specialist QCAM Currency Asset Management has added three experienced members to its Supervisory Board and appointed of Martin Pendert to the Executive Board. Previously serving as an advisor to QCAM, Gary Klopfenstein will strengthen the international competence of the Board. Klopfenstein is a pioneer in the specialised currency management industry and has extensive experience in the field of alternative investment management. As a senior managing director at Mesirow Financial in Chicago, he established the institutional currency management practice and expanded it to over USD50 billion in less than ten years. In other career positions, he worked as Chief Executive Officer of Berenberg Asset Management, the US asset management business of the Hamburg-based bank, and as Chairman of the private investment company GK Investment Management LLC. Klopfenstein is an author and a sought-after speaker at conference for institutional investors.
Hélie D’Hautefort, also an authority in the industry, is the second prominent new addition to the QCAM Board of Directors. He was the founder of Overlay Asset Management, a company that focused on currency overlay, which was acquired by BNP Paribas Asset Management in 2001. In its successful 10-year partnership with BNP Paribas Asset Management, the company managed client assets in excess of USD20 billion. Today, D’Hautefort is CEO of OptimInvest, an Asset Manager focused on quantitative investment strategies based in Geneva, and CEO of Reserve Currency Solutions AG in Zug, a company that offers digital currencies in the blockchain.
“We are particularly pleased that Ekaterina Schiess is the first woman to be appointed to our Board,” says QCAM CEO Thomas Suter.
The polyglot, internationally experienced Swiss citizen has a degree from the University of St Gallen (HSG), Swiss Institute for Banking and Finance with a doctorate in finance with the degree Dr oec HSG. Last year she successfully completed the post-graduate studies as Chief Digital Officer at SIB Zurich. Her 20-year career in the financial industry includes management positions at UBS, Clariden Leu, Bank Hofmann and Verum Capital.
“Her qualifications and experience in the field of digitalisation and FinTech are particularly valuable for our future strategic direction,” says Suter.
The trio join existing supervisory board members Martin Wiedmann (Chairman), Suter (CEO and Delegate of the Board), Jens Mühlhoff and René Kurmann.
Having worked as a portfolio manager in the company since 2012, Pendert now becomes a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Pendert has over twenty years of experience in the financial markets having worked in London, Milan, Frankfurt and Zurich.
“We are pleased that we were able to win Martin Pendert to strengthen our management. Martin Pendert’s appointment to top management is the consequence of his many years of dedication and great loyalty to our company. His outstanding investment expertise and wealth of experience are particularly in demand in these challenging times,” says Suter.
