Opus Fund Services has launched an operations office in Portland, Oregon, a city with a dearth of administrators but one in which Opus hopes to expand its West Coast presence.
The new downtown location, which has been up and running for the past few weeks, is headed by Senior Vice President Melissa Bockwinkel, who has been with Opus since 2009.
The administrator, founded in 2006, has seen strong growth of late, with 21 funds launching in July alone. Year to date, Opus has helped launch 105 fund through 74 clients, partly due to its absorption of AlphaMetrix360 in January, bringing its total number of funds serviced (either live or in implementation) up to 277.
Looking at longer-term capacity, says Opus CEO Robin Bedford, the firm decided to look at building an operations center in the West Coast to complement its existing centers in Bermuda and Naperville, Illinois. San Francisco would seem a likely choice by expanding the existing sales office there, he says, but in order to control costs, the firm looked into other centers with more affordable office space and salaries.
Plus, setting up in another major West Coast city like San Francisco or Seattle would mean more competition for talent, says Bedford. While companies such as Nike and Intel are attractive workplaces in the Portland area, there are “no major fund administrators there, so we can more easily tap into graduates and finance professionals.”
And while there may not be a major trend of investment funds setting up in Portland, there is a presence in the city already, with one of Opus’ clients based there. Even within Opus’ building in Portland, the team there has crossed paths with other funds. Already, Opus plans to expand its presence within the building.
“We’ve launched with five people, with capacity up to 12. However, we quickly realized that’s not enough,” says Bedford.
As a result, the firm intends to move into larger space within the building in order to accommodate more employees up to a maximum of 40.
Fund Administration Comes to Portland
Opus Fund Services has launched an operations office in Portland, Oregon, a city with a dearth of administrators but one in which Opus hopes to expand its West Coast presence.
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