David A. Geffen, a veteran of Wall Street and the asset management industry, has founded Geffen Advisors, a consulting firm for the hedge fund industry.
The consultancy offers advice and solutions to hedge funds spanning treasury management, counterparty risk management and fund launch. The firm also provides outsourced COO solutions and training and advice on prime brokerage and related activities.
"The alternative investment industry is poised for significant growth, and many fund managers will benefit from advice on how to successfully prepare their businesses to meet the best practice standards which investors now expect," Geffen says. "The firm's goal is to provide guidance to hedge funds so they can be more rigorous in their decision-making and how they do business with their strategic business partners. The firm will work with its clients to enhance their success."
Geffen Advisors is targeting new hedge funds as well as established funds that want to optimize their prime brokerage and other counterparty relationships with regard to credit and operational risk.
Geffen was a managing director at BlackRock and Barclays Global Investors (BGI), where he created and led the Securities Finance group that managed BGI and Blackrock's prime brokerage, financing, futures clearing and counterparty credit relationships. Before that, he was the managing director of Finance and Chief Credit Officer at Connecticut-based hedge fund Amaranth Group. He has also held roles at Goldman Sachs and Citibank.