London School of EconomicsSU | Alternative Investments Conference2008
Daoud Zekrya joined Marshall Wace in July 2001. Prior to joining the company, Daoud with over 8 years of Equity sales experience, in Europe and the US, at JP Morgan and Cazenove, developed an extensive knowledge of fundamental Equity investment research tools and sales relationships. At JP Morgan, Daoud was a member on the European Equities Management Committee. Daoud holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics.
Daoud has been a portfolio manager on the Marshall Wace, manger driven, ‘Core’ product, which since the inception of the company in 1997 has formed an important component of the flagship Eureka Fund. In recognition of the exceptional risk adjusted performance of this sub-component of the flagship fund, Daoud was made product manager of ‘Core’ and a Partner of Marshall Wace in 2005.
In 2006, the sub-strategy was launched as a standalone product. Under his direction the team has expanded to consist of 7 senior investment professionals focused on European investment opportunities. This highly concentrated investment portfolio of 30 to 40 stocks is built to exploit an analytical and information edge based on interaction with our investments. In this regard the team proactively engages with managements to pursue value creating strategies and the team often presents to Boards, advisors and other shareholders to gain support for their proposed actions.
The Core Strategy manages $3bn in assets with a balance sheet of $10bn and is one of the largest European long/short funds. The ‘Core’ Investment process will be expanded to other Geographies in the near future.
About Marshall Wace Asset Management: Europe’s largest independent and privately owned alternative asset manager. The company was founded in 1997 by Paul Marshall (ex CIO, Europe, of Mercury Asset Management, now Merrill Lynch) and Ian Wace (ex Head of Trading at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell) The firm consisting of 12 Partners, 130 staff in London, New York and Hong Kong, manages $15bn of Equity Long/Short strategies
Click here for information on Mr. Zekrya's participation in the LSESU Alternative Investments Conference