Convexus Advisors, a quantitative hedge fund startup in San Francisco, has hired Richard Griffin and Jonathan Ross, co-founders of the derivatives structuring group at Babcock & Brown, as ceo and coo respectively. Convexus is targeting an April 1 launch for its Master Fund and Griffin is the main architect of the firm's trading models. Prior to Babcock, he had trading stints at Salomon Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch.
Griffin declined all comment and details of the fund's strategy could not be determined. It is expected to focus initially on U.S. equities and will be based on proprietary research in the fields of behavioral and computer sciences, according to one of the firm's marketing presentations.
The firm also has hired Matthew Kratter, former head trader at Clarium Capital Management as its cio. A Clarium spokesman said Kratter had not yet been replaced, but that his duties had been temporarily assumed by coo Michael Harte. Clarium and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel has taken a minority position in Convexus. Calls to Thiel were returned by a spokesman, who declined to comment, citing the personal nature of Thiel's investment.
