Melvyn Teo
Centre Director

Melvyn Teo is Professor of Finance and Associate Dean of Research at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He is also Director of the BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre at SMU. Melvyn's research spans hedge funds, institutional investors, and capital markets. His articles on these topics have appeared in top peer-reviewed finance journals including the Journal of Financial Economics and the Review of Financial Studies , and have garnered awards from the European Finance Association, Inquire, AIMA, and INSEAD. At SMU, he was conferred the Lee Foundation Fellowship and the Lee Kuan Yew Fellowship for Research Excellence. Melvyn has also taught or consulted for Fullerton Fund Management, Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management, Standard Chartered Bank, State Street Bank, The Government Investment Corporation of Singapore, and United Overseas Bank. Melvyn holds a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.

Patrick Fauchier
Founder, 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.

Christopher Fawcett
Chairman, Advisory Board

Christopher co-founded Fauchier Partners in 1994. Previously, he worked at Euris SA, a French investment holding company with substantial investments in private equity and hedge funds. He gained experience in the securities industry with Morgan Grenfell, Industrial Technology Securities, a venture capital company of which he was co-founder, and at the Duménil Group. He is an appointed member of the Council of the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), a Trustee of the Hedge Fund Standards Board Limited (HFSB), a Director of the CFA Society of the UK and a Director of Mirabaud Gestion SA. Christopher has an MA in Law from Oxford University , an MBA with distinction from INSEAD, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Raj is the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Singapore Management University and Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in e-Commerce and Marketing & Director, Emory Marketing Institute, Goizueta Business School, Emory University.

Raj is a leading authority on brand and marketing strategy and is well known for his contributions to marketing metrics. He is considered a pioneer on topics such as returns on strategic marketing investment and strategies for driving shareholder value. His work on the impact of market-based assets on shareholder value in the Journal of Marketing received both the 1998 Maynard and MSI/Paul Root Awards for the article judged to contribute most to the theory and practice of marketing, respectively, and more recently the Sheth Foundation Award for long-term contributions to the Marketing discipline.

Raj has served on the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin , Emory University and Singapore Management University . He has also served as a visiting faculty at London Business School , Indian School of Business and Helsinki School of Economics. He holds a B.Tech. from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur , MSIE from the University of Rhode Island , and MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

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.

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.

Howard Thomas, Fellow of the British Academy of Management, American Academy of Management, Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Directors and the Strategic Management Society. He is LKCSB Chair in Strategic Management and Dean of Lee Kong Chian School of Business at Singapore Management University.  Howard came to Singapore from Warwick Business School, where he was Dean for 10 years. Prior to that appointment, he was Dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration and was James F. Towey Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (U.I.U.C.).

Howard is the past Chair of AACSB International, the Association of Business Schools (A.B.S) in the UK and the Global Foundation for Management Education (GFME). He was Vice President for Business Schools for EFMD for 2000-07. He is also a current Director of State Farm Bank in USA.

Cited as an outstanding teacher in executive programs at London Business School, University of Illinois, Kellogg School, Northwestern University and the Australian Graduate School of Management, Howard has taught/consulted numerous global organisations.

Daryl Ee is responsible for business development for BNP Paribas Investment Partners' alternative investment solutions for the Asia ex-Japan region. He joined BNP Paribas Asset Management Singapore Limited in Apr 2007. Prior to this, Daryl worked at EIM, a Swiss fund-of-hedge-funds group, where he was General Manager of EIM's Singapore Office. From 1999 to 2005, Daryl worked for the Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) and held the position of Assistant Director. At MAS , Daryl was in charge of formulating and implementing strategies to develop Singapore 's fund management industry. Between 2002 to 2004, Daryl was based in London , where he spearheaded MAS ' promotional efforts in Europe . Daryl graduated from the National University of Singapore with a Bachelor of Business Administration (1 st Class Honours) in Finance.

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.

Kelvin is currently project manager at BNP Paribas Hedge Fund Centre. He completed his MBA in Finance at University of British Columbia in 2011. Prior to that, he spent a few years at Panasonic, and Fujitsu. Kelvin also holds a Masters in Software Engineering from National University of Singapore, and a  B.S. in Engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University. He completed his CFA Level I examination in 2010.

Karyn obtained a diploma in Business Management from the Management Development Institute of Singapore in 2004. Prior to joining SMU, she worked in Singapore Airlines. Her duties at the centre include secretarial support as well as administrative support for the seminars, conferences and executive education programmes.