Our team combines outstanding backgrounds in mathematics, economics and law, with exceptional experience gained at major investment banks, the big four accountancy firms and leading law practices
Dr Alex Pilato
Chief Executive and Founding Shareholder
Alex Pilato, TradeRisks’ principal shareholder, founded the company in 2000. He was the founder of JP Morgan’s risk advisory businesses. He pioneered the development of sophisticated modelling techniques. He established a market reputation in risk management as a trusted advisor to central banks, sovereign debt agencies, ministries of finance, major corporates and financial institutions. He developed, maintained and supervised debt benchmarks for sovereign borrowers and debt agencies. He is a regular speaker on sovereign asset and liability management issues at World Bank and IMF conferences. Chairman of key industry conferences on credit and market risk, and speaker at internal seminars organised by central banks and financial regulators. After 7 years at JP Morgan, Alex moved to HSBC to lead the bank’s global risk advisory services and then to Tokai Bank Europe (TBE) as head of Capital Markets and Merchant Banking. Alex is an experienced manager of trading teams. He managed the client trading teams at TBE over a number of years which included periods of extremely volatile market conditions such as the Asian financial crisis. He was a member of TBE’s Executive, Risk and New Products Committees which were also responsible for the extensive proprietary trading activities of the bank. He has considerable experience on the totality of issues surrounding the management of proprietary trading operations, e.g. capital allocation, recruitment, traders’ compensation, risk management, compliance and regulatory issues.
Theoretical Physics First Class Honours Degree, Queen Mary College, London
Mathematics D.Phil., Magdalen College, Oxford
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Jon Slater
Joint Chief Executive and Founding Shareholder
Jon Slater, TradeRisks’ joint Chief Executive, joined the company in February 2011 from JP Morgan where he was Managing Director and Global Head of Structured Credit Trading, renewing a long-standing working relationship with Alex Pilato. The two previously worked together at JP Morgan from 1989, and also from 1997 at Tokai Bank Europe. Jon Slater subsequently re-joined JP Morgan in 2000 where he spent the next 11 years developing and leading its Structured Credit Trading business. Jon Slater is an experienced structured derivatives trader and has a wealth of experience on risk management, benchmarking and performance measurement. He has also been responsible for the design of front and middle-office securities and derivatives trading and risk management systems.
Mathematics First Class Honours Degree and Postgraduate year: St John's College, Cambridge
Richard Raeburn
Chairman
Richard Raeburn joined as Chairman of TradeRisks in September 2010. Richard was lead partner of the international Corporate Treasury practice at KPMG Consulting and subsequently became Chief Executive of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT). As well as Chairman of TradeRisks, Richard also chairs the European Association of Corporate Treasurers and is a non-executive director and chair of the audit committee of Home Group and Wandle Housing.
Richard has substantial experience as a Chief Executive and Chairman, leading strategic change and growth with a background in financial risk management in the private and quasi-public sectors.
MA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Oxford
MBA, Columbia University
Hon FCT, Association of Corporate Treasurers
Antoine Pesenti
Managing Director
Antoine Pesenti is head of Trading and Risk Management of TradeRisks. He joined TradeRisks in 2002 from the EBRD where he was responsible for the development of Monte Carlo simulation short-rate models for the risk management of government and corporate bond positions.
Prior to EBRD, Antoine was responsible for the development of yield curve and derivatives pricing models and libraries at Refco, where he subsequently became in charge of the OTC Desk risk management.
Before joining the City, Antoine Pesenti had a distinguished mathematics academic career in France and Italy. He was assistant professor of mathematics in Classe Préparatoire aux Grandes Ecoles, Lycée Monge, Chambéry.
Antoine is also a board member of two charities.
MSc in Finance and Economics with distinction, LSE, London
MPhil in Mathematical Logic and MSc in Pure Mathematics, ENS Cachan and University Paris VII
BA in Philosophy, University Paris-Sorbonne
Andrew Hart
Managing Director
Andrew Hart heads TradeRisks’ Corporate Finance function. He joined TradeRisks in 2003 from Devon and Cornwall Housing Association where he was Group Treasurer.
After completing a law degree at the University of Liverpool, Andrew studied to become a chartered accountant, winning prizes at both the intermediate and final examinations. After six years in accountancy practice, he joined Devon and Cornwall Housing Association, where he carried out various roles before becoming group treasurer in 1998. His primary duties involved advising the board on all treasury matters including treasury policy, loan negotiation and refinancing, debt portfolio structure, cash flow and liquidity management. Other responsibilities included investment appraisal, design and maintenance of the group’s long term financial plan and strategic performance measurement across the organisation. He was also finance director of the group’s commercial development subsidiary.
Law - LLB Honours Degree, University of Liverpool
Chartered Accountant (ICAEW)
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Fergus Murison
Non-Executive Director
Fergus Murison joined the TradeRisks board in 2008. He has over 25 years of experience in financial markets. Fergus has held the position of Managing Director at three institutions where he was instrumental in developing trading businesses and strongly increasing each group’s profitability: first, at JP Morgan between 1987 – 1994, where he headed the syndicate desk; next at HSBC between 1994 – 1998, where he headed all capital markets trading, including primary and secondary activity and the derivative trading books; and thirdly at Tokyo Mitsubishi International, where he headed all sales and trading activity. Fergus started his financial career at Orion Royal Bank in the foreign exchange markets and, after training in accounting and credit analysis, went on to become a leading figure in the development of the swap market.
Mathematics MA, Worcester College, Oxford
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Jonathan Century
Non-Executive Director
Jonathan Century joined the TradeRisks board in 2008. He has over 35 years financial and economic modelling experience in financial markets, industry and insurance. He is currently a Partner at ADG Holdings LLP.
Jonathan has been a senior member of the risk advisory team at JP Morgan and the Capital Markets Department at Tokai Bank Europe, has managed arbitrage hedge funds at Merrill Lynch and Mako Investment Managers and has developed Value-At-Risk systems at JP Morgan and Mako Global Derivatives.
Furthermore, he has developed front-office trading systems for European Central Banks, has launched the first insurance-linked security, has been head of Quant Modelling for proprietary trading teams and insurance company, has been Senior Financial Economist at British Airports Authority, and has been Senior Corporate Planner at BICC plc.
Mathematics First Class Honours Degree, Manchester University
Operational Research, M.Sc. Brunel University
M.B.A. City University Business
Tim Humphrey
Director
Tim Humphrey, Director, joined TradeRisks in 2012.
He moved to TradeRisks from Lucida, an insurer operating in the pension fund de-risking market, where he was responsible for pricing, structuring and negotiating bulk annuity transactions with pension funds. Prior to joining Lucida, Tim spent eight years working for Watson Wyatt, having qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 2002, where he advised pension scheme sponsors and trustees on a wide range of areas including funding, investment, plan design and corporate transactions.
Mathematics and Statistics First Class Honours Degree: University of Nottingham
Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries
Nathan Pickles
Director
Nathan Pickles, Director, joined TradeRisks in 2008. He is primarily responsible for client trading and risk management.
Nathan moved to TradeRisks from KPMG Corporate Finance where he worked as an advisor and financial modeller, with a particular focus on structuring project finance transactions. Prior to his time at KPMG Nathan also worked as a Senior ALM Analyst at HBOS, and as a Treasury Accountant and Risk Analyst at the Skipton financial services group, where he played a central role in designing hedge accounting systems and derivative pricing models introduced under IFRS fair value accounting.
Nathan was an international prize-winner whilst studying towards his ACMA accounting qualification.
Mathematics and Cellular Biology First Class Honours Degree: University of Durham
Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Passed Finalist
Certificate in Corporate Finance, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Simon Century
Director
Simon Century joined TradeRisks in 2006. He leads the financial modelling function of TradeRisks as well as being heavily involved in all corporate finance and risk management operations.
Simon completed his AMCT Diploma in Treasury with the Association of Corporate Treasurers, specialising in financial mathematics, corporate finance and risk management.
Prior to joining TradeRisks, Simon carried out award-winning research at the University of Liverpool.
BSc in Psychology Honours Degree, University of Liverpool
AMCT Diploma in Treasury, Association of Corporate Treasurers
Certificate in Corporate Finance and Funding, Association of Corporate Treasurers
Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling, Association of Corporate Treasurers
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
William Meers
Director
William Meers joined TradeRisks in 2010 from the Audit team at KPMG working on a variety of FTSE 100 clients and specialised in the audit of treasury functions. During his time at KPMG he also completed a 6 month secondment within the business modelling team working on both model builds and formal model reviews.
MA Mathematics, Brasenose College, Oxford University
ACA Chartered Accountant, ICAEW
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Dasha Sobornova
Associate Director
Dasha moved to TradeRisks from the Royal Bank of Scotland in July 2010. She is responsible for TradeRisks’ legal function. Dasha worked within the Global Restructuring Group as part of a real estate recovery and enforcement team. Prior to joining the Royal Bank of Scotland, Dasha trained as a solicitor with DLA Piper UK LLP, qualifying in 2009. During her time at DLA Piper she worked on a number leveraged finance, private equity and restructuring transactions as well as spent 3 months on secondment to Singapore assisting on project finance deals.
BSc Mathematics and Economics Degree, LSE
Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP Law School
Legal Practice Course with distinction, BPP Law School
Solicitor of England and Wales
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Edouard Peers
Associate Director
Edouard Peers joined TradeRisks in 2011. Previously, he worked for Linklaters where he was an associate in the Corporate Department. During his time at Linklaters, Edouard worked on a number of mergers and acquisitions as well as working on other corporate advisory transactions. He also worked in the Capital Markets Department and spent 6 months on secondment in Tokyo.
BA Economics, University of Exeter
Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP Law School
Legal Practice Course, BPP Law School
Solicitor of England and Wales
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Tom Paul
Associate Director
Tom Paul joined TradeRisks from KPMG’s cross-sector infrastructure finance advisory team. Tom has advised on large and complex projects, including Carbon Capture and Storage, UK Military Flying Training System and the Work Programme, and has worked on projects in the energy, transport and social sectors. Tom specialises in structuring deals and financial modelling and his experience of over £6bn capex of deals includes: project finance; public-private partnerships; commissioning; regulation and market management; operational and portfolio reviews; divestments; and governance.
BA in Philosophy, University of Bristol
Advanced Certificate in Economics with distinction, Birkbeck College
Corporate Finance Qualification with Outstanding Achiever Award, ICAEW
Certificate in Corporate Finance, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Elizabeth Snape
Senior Associate
Elizabeth joined TradeRisks in 2011 from the audit team at KPMG where she worked on a number of FTSE and AIM listed clients across the energy, mining, pharmaceutical and private equity sectors.
Elizabeth won a number of prizes at both professional and advanced stage whilst studying for her ACA qualification.
Mathematics First Class Honours Degree, Worcester College, Oxford University
ACA Chartered Accountant, ICAEW
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Ben Fry
Senior Associate
Ben Fry joined TradeRisks in 2011 from Deloitte’s business modelling team where he advised on a number of financial modelling assignments for financial services, infrastructure and media clients.
Prior to joining the modelling team, Ben qualified as a Chartered Accountant within Deloitte’s corporate audit practice where he managed audits across the media and security sectors.
BSc Mathematics, Imperial College London
Associate of the Royal College of Science
ACA Chartered Accountant, ICAEW
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Jack Terry
Systems Manager
Jack Terry joined TradeRisks in 2011 after managing the infrastructure of a publicly listed software house for four years. Jack has also held various other management positions in the IT industry for over 7 years. Jack is well experienced in Exchange messaging, Check Point security, Windows networking, software development environments and VMware virtualisation technologies.
BEng in Product Design and Manufacture Engineering, Loughborough University
Microsoft Certified System Administrator specialising in Messaging
VMware Certified Professional on vSphere 4
Oliver Cartz
Associate
Oliver Cartz joined TradeRisks in 2011 after achieving a Masters in Computer Science with distinction from the University of Birmingham. Prior to this, having been awarded a first class honours degree in Physics in 2009 also from the University of Birmingham, Oliver worked for Steria Limited in an infrastructure support and programming role where, alongside his daily support duties, he created several useful tools from a multitude of programming languages including C++, C# and Visual Basic.
Oliver’s work is focused around maintaining and improving both the Java for the TradeRisks application as well as the C++ used for quantitative analysis.
BSc Physics First Class Honours, University of Birmingham
MSc Computer Science with Distinction, University of Birmingham
Victoria Schaad
Manager, Office of the Chief Executives
Victoria joined TradeRisks in 2011 with responsibility for managing the Office of the Chief Executives.
Following completion of a Mathematics and Statistics degree at the University of Edinburgh, Victoria helped to establish the economics research consultancy, Connolly Global Macro Advisors where she focussed on business development, investor relations and market research.
BSc in Mathematics and Statistics, University of Edinburgh
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Irena Critchley
PA to the Office of the Chief Executives
Irena joined TradeRisks in 2011 with responsibility for managing the Office of the Chief Executives following completion of a Business and Management Honours degree at Oxford Brookes University.
Irena previously worked at J P Morgan within the Unit Trust Pricing and Valuations Department whilst also competing in squash tournaments around the world.
BA Hons Business and Management, Oxford Brookes University
Isobel Stannett
Assistant Manager, Trading Support
Isobel Stannett works within the trading and risk management team, whilst also focusing on quantitative analysis.
Isobel joined TradeRisks following completion of a Mathematics with Management and Finance degree at King’s College London, where she specialised in financial mathematics and focused on derivative structuring and portfolio analysis.
BSc in Mathematics with Management and Finance, King's College London
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
Natascha Uszkurat
Assistant Manager, Landericus
Natascha Uszkurat works within the fund management team, focussing on our German Residential Property Fund, Landericus.
Following completion of a Biochemistry degree at the University of Bristol, she worked for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply in the UK and in Australia where she took charge of member relations, and marketing co-ordination.
BSc in Biochemistry, University of Bristol
Certificate in Investment Management, Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, London
