Q&A Interview: Stephane Marchand and Stephanie Miller of J.P. Morgan

For the last 18 months, J.P. Morgan has been working on its prime brokerage position in Europe, with the intention of better reflecting its global client base removing the stranglehold that Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have in this market. It has focused on interconnectivity between its prime brokerage sales team for EMEA with its alternative fund administration team. Stephane Marchand, who recently took over as head of EMEA prime brokerage sales, has been working closely with Stephanie Miller, who joined 18 months ago from Citco to head up the Alternatives Investment Services  business, to bring across an end-to-end offering to alternative investment clients. The biggest payoff came this year when the bank won a mandate from Man Group, with the service to go live with J.P. Morgan this year. Marchand and Miller talk to Global Custodian about the strategy for the joined up business approach.

What has been your key focus since joining J.P. Morgan?

Miller: To give you a bit of background, I have been with J.P. Morgan for 18 months as Global Head of Alternative Investment Services for fund of funds, single manager, private equity and real estate funds.

Over the past 18 months we have made significant product enhancements and in conjunction with the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) merger, our goal has been for the client to see us as a holistic value proposition. Day to day what this means is, how do we interface with the banks’ other products, tools and teams to bring the best value to the client.  We have expanded our services in administration which includes price verification, investor reporting and comprehensive data extracts for clients. Since the CIB integration we can now do middle-office-only outsourcing in addition to administration, leveraging our colleagues in the Agency Collateral and Clearing entity.

Besides our investment in technology we have also made a significant investment in our most valuable resource – our people, making six hires to the Alternatives Investor Services team. Patrick Dennis has joined as Global Head of Hedge Fund Operations and is responsible for operations service delivery for all hedge fund administration and middle office clients across the globe. Allen Cohen was hired as our Global Head of Technology. He will be responsible for overall technology governance and oversight, risk management and mitigation and product stability. He brings over two decades of industry experience to the role. Stacey Collymore was added as an Executive Director of operations, responsible for middle office operations in the Americas. Lisa Ehrlich comes to us with 20 years experience across multiple disciplines within the financial services industry. She joins as Head of Alternative Investment Client Services for North America. We hired Dana Niblack as Global Head of Investor Relations for the team. And our last hire has been Hans DeWitte, who joins as a managing director of Private Equity and Real Estate Services.
 
We have looked at the industry to increase the bench strength of the management team.

Can you talk us through the Man deal?

Miller: We are providing full service fund of hedge fund administration including fund accounting, middle office, investor relations, and custody for Man. We were the incumbent fund administrator for FRM, and now we have won the entire legacy Man MMF mandate. We were thrilled that our client was so pleased with the entire platform of our services, they decided to give us the full mandate.

Where does the prime brokerage sales business fit in?

Marchand: As Stephanie said, being able to leverage a strong custody, fund administration, clearing and prime brokerage business, allows the EMEA  sales team create the right value proposition to a client.

The Alternative Investor Services sales team is organised by segment, including equity long/short, event driven, quant, fixed income, macro, credit, multi-strategy and managed account platforms.
 
How do those synergies work in practice?

Marchand: In EMEA we are in a client acquisition strategy mode. Working with our partners across the CIB, we focus on high pedigree accounts to deliver the right value proposition. The Man client win is a perfect example of this strategy.