Melvyn Teo
Centre Director

Melvyn Teo is Associate Professor of Finance at the Singapore Management University . His research articles on hedge funds and institutional investors have been published in top finance journals. Melvyn has also consulted for FDO Partners LLC in Boston and Fullerton Fund Management in Singapore . Melvyn received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Mathematics from Cornell University in 1997 and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2002.

Patrick Fauchier
Chairman, Advisory Board

Patrick Fauchier is Chairman of the Fauchier Partners Group he co-founded in 1994. From 1991 to 1994 Patrick ran an information company, VUP, specialising in Hedge Fund data. Prior to that, Patrick was Assistant Professor of Biochemistry at the Université de Paris V and Assistant des Hôpitaux de Paris, as well as running a specialist dental practice for 17 years. Patrick is also Chairman of the Advisory Board of the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at the London Business School , a Director of PAI and sits on the Advisory Board of PerTrac.

Jean-Pierre Bernard is Regional Head for South-East Asia and India , BNP Paribas, Singapore . A graduate of Babson College ( Wellesley , MA , USA ), Jean-Pierre Bernard started his career with the BNP Paribas group in 1973. He has held various management positions in Australia , USA ( Los Angeles , San Francisco , New York ), Singapore and Paris . This is his second assignment in Singapore.

BNP Paribas Private Bank Asia headed by Serge Forti as CEO Asia Pacific. A member of BNP Paribas' Wealth Management Business Global Executive Committee, Serge Forti has a long banking experience with the BNP Paribas Group. He is particularly familiar with BNP Paribas Asia after spending nine years in Indonesia , Hong Kong , Taiwan and from 2000-2004 in Singapore as Head of Private Banking for South East Asia . Most recently, Serge Forti was Head of Private Banking Europe, Middle East and America.

Vasan Srinivasa is Head of Fixed Income at BNP Paribas, Singapore . Vasan started his career as a consultant to the World Bank in 1984. He then worked in various positions at the Paribas Security Corp (and subsequently BNPP Securities Corp) in New York . These positions included senior swap trader, Head of Investor Coverage, Head of Hedge Fund Coverage, and Head of Rates and Mortgage Sales. In June 2006, he became Head of Fixed Income at BNP Paribas, Singapore . Vasan obtained a Masters of Science in Energetics / Chemical Engineering from NYU in 1983 and an MBA in Finance from NYU in 1987.

Winnie is currently Head of the Asset Management Division within MAS' industry developmental function and is tasked to lead a team in developing and promoting the wealth management (private wealth and institutional fund management) and insurance industries. Winnie is also involved in other Singapore Inc agencies' efforts related to the market development for HNWI as well as senior (silver-haired) markets.

Winnie joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore in 1991. After a 2 year management trainee program when she was orientated with stints at the insurance, banking, securities and human resources departments, Winnie spent 5 years with the Banking Supervision Department. Winnie joined the Financial Centre Development Department in 1998, when it was set up as a dedicated function within the MAS. She headed up the fund management team and was involved in the development and promotion of the fund management industry in Singapore , working with the global fund houses, rolling out the MAS funds outplacement program, introducing a regime for boutique fund houses and developing a proactive policy stance towards welcoming the development of the hedge fund industry. Winnie subsequently worked on the development of the equities capital market and was closely involved in the introduction of REITs and ETFs as well as rolling out SGX-MAS Research Scheme in Singapore . In the midst of her career with the MAS, Winnie took a 3-year sabbatical to spend time with her family in Seoul & Beijing.

Annie Koh is Associate Professor of Finance and Dean of Executive Education at the Singapore Management University. She is also the Associate Dean of the School of Business. Prior to joining the academia, Dr Koh was a treasury manager at the Development Bank of Singapore. Dr. Koh has extensive experience in consulting and executive teaching. The companies that she has consulted and taught for include UBS, Citibank, Morgan Stanley, ABN-AMRO Bank, Bank of Indonesia, Maybank, Development Bank of Singapore, Singapore Airlines, Singapore Government Investment Corporation, Singapore Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, and Nokia. Dr Koh’s articles have appeared in The Review of Future Markets, SIMEX Papers, Pulses and others. Dr Koh received her Ph.D. in International Finance from New York University in 1988 where she was a Fulbright scholar. Her current research interests are in private equity funds and corporate risk management. Dr Koh sits on the board of the SGX Journal (Pulses) and is an independent director of a number of companies.

Aaron Low is Principal of Lumen Advisors (US) where he manages investment strategies in the Emerging Markets Hedge Fund. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Government Pension Fund and is a Senior Advisor to Bosera Asset Management. Aaron is also an advisor to the Wealth Management Institute and the Investment Management Association of Singapore and serves on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Futures Market. Previously, he was Senior Portfolio Manager and Head of Asia at PIMCO Global Advisors where he led the investment team in Asia economic and trade strategies. He was nominated by the Benchmark Survey to the “Most Astute Investor” award for several years and also won awards at PIMCO, Morningstar and Lipper as part of the Global and Emerging Portfolio Teams. He was also Head of Fixed Income Portfolio Management at Rosenberg Capital Management before joining PIMCO. He is an Adjunct Professor of Finance at NUS and has taught at SMU, CEIBS and UCLA. His research has been published in international academic and industry journals. He received his PhD from the Anderson School, UCLA, and is a CFA charterholder.

Praveen Kanakamedala is the Head of Risk Management at Fauchier Partners, where he is responsible for measuring and analyzing market risk of hedge fund investments and their contribution to the risk of the firm's portfolios. Prior to joining Fauchier in 2007, he was a Quantitative Analyst at Harris Alternatives, a Chicago-based fund of funds. Praveen holds an MBA from the University of Chicago , with a specialization in Analytic Finance and Statistics/ Econometrics. He also has an MS in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Qiu Yan received her Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National University of Singapore in 2003 and her Bachelors in Information Engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, China in 2001. During her 2-year research period in the Mixed Reality Lab at NUS, she published papers in top Augmented Reality and Human-Computer Interface conferences and journals. Prior to joining SMU, she worked in a software house and a telecommunications company .

Karen obtained a diploma in Business Administration from the Singapore Polytechnic in 2003. Prior to joining SMU, she worked in Tradewinds Tours & Travel (a subsidiary of SIA). Her duties at the centre include secretarial support as well as administrative support for the seminars, conferences and executive education programmes.