Meraki Global Advisors Announces the Appointment of Scott Kurtis as Chief Operating Officer

Scott Kurtis Joins Meraki Global Advisors as Chief Operating Officer

Park City, New York and Hong Kong, May 9, 2023 – Meraki Global Advisors (Meraki), a leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced that hedge fund veteran Scott Kurtis has joined the firm as Chief Operating Officer.

In Scott Kurtis’ new position, he will oversee Meraki’s financial, operational, and administrative functions; this includes governance and execution of systems and processes that support its growing outsourced trading mandates. Among his responsibilities, he will be implementing processes and technology that leverage data to drive efficient operations.

“In his position as COO, Scott Kurtis will focus on innovation, process improvement and efficiency across our global offices. His extensive background trading globally across many asset classes for both traditional and hedge fund investment managers, and his wide-ranging experience in operational and technology functions will play a major role in propelling our firm into the future,” said Benjamin Arnold, Founder & Managing Partner of Meraki.

To date, Kurtis’ hedge fund industry career has focused on trading, technology, treasury functions, middle and back-office operations. He’s well-versed in internal and external audits, compliance, operational assessments, process improvement, software selections, outsourced C-Suite management, risk management. Specific risk expertise centers on portfolio, operational and counterparty risk.

Most recently, Kurtis worked as a Senior International Trader for Artisan Partners and Harris Associates where he specialized in European and Asian equities. Previous positions also include serving as Director of Operations, Head Trader, and Partner at Asian Century Quest Capital (ACQ), a New York-based hedge fund focused on Asian investments with satellite offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. During ACQ’s nine-year growth from $5 million to $2 billion in assets under management, he built the fund’s operational framework, risk management systems, and treasury operations. Prior to ACQ, he worked as an Asian trader for Maverick Capital and as an international sales-trader for Goldman Sachs in Chicago.

He earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in 2018 and graduated from Northwestern University in 2001 with a BS in Journalism and a dual degree in Economics. He received the 2000 Vandy Christie Award for outstanding loyalty and dedication to the tennis program as a member of the varsity tennis team.


About Meraki Global Advisors

Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver truly conflict-free services to asset managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced global multi-asset trading, leverage management, and capital introduction services to the asset management industry. Meraki Global Advisors LLC is a FINRA member and SEC Registered. Meraki Global Advisors (HK) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

For more information visit the Meraki Global Advisors website and LinkedIn page
Contact:
Mary McAvey
VP of Business Development
(646) 666-7041
mm@mga-us.com

Meraki Global Advisors Expands Business Strategy Team with Tom O’Leary

Tom O’Leary Joins Meraki Global Advisors as a Senior Business Strategist

Park City, New York and Hong Kong, February 2023 – Meraki Global Advisors LLC (Meraki), a leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced that Tom O’Leary has joined the company as a Senior Business Strategist. O’Leary will be responsible for advancing Meraki’s strategic growth plans by emphasizing and aligning the key functions of strategy planning, business development, and process improvement.

“The need for a sophisticated outsourced trading service capable of trading all asset classes globally is only increasing as asset managers contend with competitive pressures, growing cost burdens, and sub-optimal trading operations,” said Benjamin Arnold, Founder and Managing Partner of Meraki Global Advisors. “Tom is a seasoned Wall Street executive with a strong strategy orientation who has deep industry experience and a proven track record leading major initiatives and businesses at premier global investment banking and capital markets firms. The growth of the company internally reflects Meraki Global Advisors’ client expansion globally, supporting the increasing demand for our differentiated and premium outsourced trading services.”

O’Leary brings over 35 years of extensive industry experience in strategic planning and business development, leading high performing teams, and integrating information technology for improving processes at companies building and scaling their capital markets business infrastructure. He joins Meraki from HSBC Global Banking and Markets, where he served as Managing Director and Head of Equities for the Americas focusing on managing the equities business across the globe, and a member of the Global Equity Executive Committee. Prior to HSBC, O’Leary was a Senior Managing Director with Bear Stearns in a variety of leadership positions, including Co-Head of the Global Equity Sales Division and Head of International Equities.

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About Meraki Global Advisors

Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver conflict-free and best of breed services to asset managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced global multi-asset trading, leverage management, and capital introduction services to the asset management industry. Meraki Global Advisors LLC is a FINRA member and SEC Registered. Meraki Global Advisors (HK) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

For more information visit the Meraki Global Advisors website and LinkedIn page
Contact:
Mary McAvey
VP of Business Development
(646) 666-7041
mm@mga-us.com

Meraki Global Advisors Continues Expansion in Asia Pacific with Hire of Former Tora Trader, Jeffrey Ho

Park City, New York, and Hong Kong, August 22, 2022 – Meraki Global Advisors (“Meraki”), a leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced that Jeffrey Ho will join the Hong Kong team as Managing Director of Trading. Mr. Ho will be based in the newly launched Hong Kong office where he will help meet the growing demand for its Outsourced Trading services in the Asia Pacific region.

Meraki has achieved considerable growth since the firm’s inception in 2019, as buy-side firms become aware of the advantages that a multi-asset outsourced trading partner can provide. As of late, portfolio managers’ desire to trade across all asset classes in response to the pandemic and market dislocations has soared. Meraki has been well positioned in the APAC region to assist asset managers who trade up and down the capital structure through a sophisticated outsourcing model which is fully aligned and integrated with their investment teams.

“With the recent official launch of our Hong Kong based operation, we are thrilled to be welcoming Jeffrey to Meraki as part of our high caliber team of global traders”, said Donald Lee, Managing Director, and Head of Asia Pacific for Meraki. “The demand for more bespoke and differentiated services continues to grow along with the steady adoption of outsourced trading services. With the addition of Jeffrey and his deep and lengthy experience in trading Asia Pacific markets our ability to provide cross asset trading solutions to asset managers based in Asia and around the world will be further enhanced”.

Jeffrey Ho has over 25 years of buy-side experience trading global markets in both Europe and Asia. Before joining Meraki, Jeffrey was a trader at Tora Outsourced Trading where he focused on global multi-asset trading. Prior to Tora, he was a Trader at Segantii Capital Management for two years. Jeffrey also spent 15 years at with Deutsche Bank (DB) in Hong Kong where he was a Director and Senior Cash Trader. In this role he managed risk associated with principal/facilitation portfolios, hedged multi-currency baskets and sourced block liquidity. Jeffrey began his career on the proprietary trading desk at ING Baring in Hong Kong.

About Meraki Global Advisors 

Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver truly conflict-free services to asset managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced global multi-asset trading, leverage management, and capital introduction services to the asset management industry. Meraki Global Advisors LLC is a FINRA member and SEC Registered. Meraki Global Advisors (HK) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong.

Media Contact

+1.435.214.0772
info@mga-us.com
https://www.merakiglobaladvisors.com/

Meraki Global Advisors Expands Business Development Team with Mary McAvey

Mary McAvey joins Meraki Global Advisors as Vice President of Business Development from With Intelligence (HFM)

Park City, New York and Hong Kong, June 9, 2022 – Meraki Global Advisors (“Meraki”), a leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced the expansion of their Business Development team. Meraki welcomes Mary McAvey to the position of Vice President of Business Development as they continue to experience significant growth, including the recent launch of their Hong Kong office. Based in Meraki’s New York office and working alongside Michael Ashby, the firm’s COO, Mary will be responsible for enhancing global business development efforts amid growing demands for its outsourced trading and capital introduction services.

“Meraki is excited to announce the addition of Mary McAvey as Vice President of Business Development. Ms. McAvey will oversee efforts to identify new business opportunities within the outsourced trading market, as well as support other functional growth areas – including relationship management, market capture, and proposal development,” said Benjamin Arnold, Founder and Managing Partner of Meraki Global Advisors. “Mary comes to us having built a reputation as a professional, which is evident based on her strong connections in the financial and hedge fund industry. She has excelled in the sales and account management role, and we are excited to have Mary join Meraki as we continue to evolve our innovative suite of trading services and tools.”

Mary McAvey joins Meraki after spending three years at With Intelligence as a Commercial Sales Manager. At With Intelligence, Mary managed the flagship brand HFM and after the acquisition was also responsible for heading up commercial sales for HFA. Mary began her career in the financial services industry at Enfusion, where she was a Pre-Sales and Marketing Analyst. She earned her BA in Political Science and Government from University at Albany, SUNY

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About Meraki Global Advisors

Meraki Global Advisors is a global leader in outsourced trading. Founded in 2019 with a rebellious determination to deliver conflict-free services to the asset management industry, we deliver Global Multi-Asset Trading, Leverage Management, and Capital Introduction services to a sophisticated and diversified client base. Meraki’s partnership model creates a true extension of an asset manager’s investment process. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong. FINRA member and SEC Registered.

For more information, please contact Michael Ashby at info@merakiglobaladvisors.com

TradFi Outsourced Trading Firm an Early Entrant to Crypto – Meraki has recently added digital-assets trading to its broad list of supported asset classes

A traditional finance outsourced trading operation that dabbles in everything from equities to structured products is entering the cryptocurrency arena. 

Goldman Sachs veteran Ben Arnold’s Meraki Global Advisors has been building out its initial crypto book with a small number of digital-asset-focused hedge funds and plans to expand further into the space in short order. The venture is one of the first — if not the inaugural — traditional finance outsourced trading firms entering digital assets. 

Park City, Utah-based Meraki is also in the process of inking a number of partnerships with crypto-native operations, including Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital. Arnold and his team are aiming to start by executing spot crypto trades during US trading hours, with plans to expand in Asia down the line. The firm already has a presence in Hong Kong and New Zealand.

There’s also a plan for a capital-introduction-like service to help crypto natives with promising strategies who lack the requisite expertise to woo institutional investors and the Wall Street crowd more broadly. 

Institutional investors’ moving into crypto has brought with it the demands for solid service providers considered a prerequisite for traditional finance hedge funds — which Arnold said he sees as an opening. 

Michael Ashby, Meraki’s chief operating officer who is leading the crypto effort, said an increasing number of hedge funds are becoming “crossover funds,” or introducing crypto to their stock-trading strategies.

Considering the value of new launches in traditional finance has shrunk in the past couple of years as deep-pocketed limited partners redeem funds from underperforming portfolio managers, digital assets offer Meraki another revenue stream, according to Ashby. The firm’s median client now oversees about $1.3 billion in assets under management. 

Meraki has about half a dozen incoming or trial clients. 

Traditional finance veteran Duncan Simmons, who is prepping his own digital assets-focused hedge fund launch, said he’ll be one of Meraki’s first clients once his startup kicks off trading. Simmons’ venture, Aqxa Research, plans to start trading this summer. 

Simmons, who previously worked in stock-picking roles for firms including Coatue Management and Iridian Asset Management, said if launching a traditional finance-focused hedge fund is “difficult,” then getting an institutional crypto strategy off the ground is “extremely difficult, given the immaturity in the industry.” 

“Service providers and the trading ventures are fractured,” he said. “So, that all has to be solved with people…having a service provider that can give you that kind of service is extremely useful.”

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Meraki Global Advisors Hires Former Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Executive to Lead Asia Pacific Expansion

 Park City, New York and Hong Kong, May 3, 2022 – Meraki Global Advisors (“Meraki”), a leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced that Donald Lee will lead its expansion into the Asia Pacific region as Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific. Based in Meraki’s newly launched Hong Kong office, he will be responsible for leading the growth of Meraki’s business in the region amid growing demands for its outsourced trading services as well as significantly increasing Meraki’s local staff over the next year. 

“We are excited to have Don join our management team. He brings a wealth of insights and deep knowledge of the regulatory and operational risk framework required to succeed in the Asia Pacific markets,” said Benjamin Arnold, Founder and Managing Partner of Meraki Global Advisors. “Asset managers in Asia have complex and evolving requirements—both within the region and as they increasingly reach beyond Asia Pacific markets. The strategic decision to open the APAC headquarters in Hong Kong enables us to provide flexible and bespoke outsourced trading solutions to meet these growing demands. At the same time, being firmly planted in the region under Don’s leadership bolsters our position as a trusted multi-asset outsourced trading partner for managers based across the world seeking customized solutions in Asia.” 

Mr. Lee joins Meraki with an expansive network of relationships throughout Asia, Europe, and the US. He has a proven track record of building high caliber teams and successful businesses, transforming them into recognized market leaders across Asia Pacific – all with the central goal of advancing the success of clients by putting their needs as the top priority and providing best in class solutions. 

“Adoption of outsourced trading is growing worldwide and entering a particularly exciting stage in Asia,” said Mr. Lee. “I’m proud to join the Meraki team and look forward to delivering our uniquely independent, and, more importantly, fully unconflicted model to asset managers in the region. The operating environment in Hong Kong is undoubtedly challenging right now—but we are committed to making a long-term investment in what we firmly believe will remain as the critical resource center and important gateway to Greater China and the entire Asia Pacific region. I am confident our clients will benefit from the proven advantages of having direct access to our fully dedicated resources in the heart of the region.” 

Mr. Lee joins with more than 25 years of experience overseeing top client-facing businesses in Asia Pacific financial markets. Most recently, he served as co-head of Asia Pacific execution services for Deutsche Bank. Previously, Mr. Lee spent more than 17 years at Credit Suisse. Initially based in Seoul, where he oversaw the growth of the firm’s institutional equities trading business in Korea, he was then promoted to lead the firm’s Asia Pacific client trading and execution services as well as the Asia Pacific cash equities business from Hong Kong. Mr. Lee started his financial services career in Seoul in equities sales and trading for various local and international brokerages, including Morgan Stanley and Peregrine Securities. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario, Canada. 

About Meraki Global Advisors 

Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver truly conflict-free services to asset managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced global multi-asset trading, leverage management, and capital introduction services to the asset management industry. Meraki Global Advisors LLC is a FINRA member and SEC Registered. Meraki Global Advisors (HK) Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong. For more information visit www.merakiglobaladvisors.com

Meraki Global Advisors Hires Head of Asia Pacific Trading to Meet Growing Demand for Their Outsourced Trading Services

Simon Kelt joins Meraki Global Advisors as Head of Asia Pacific Trading

Meraki Global Advisors, the industry’s leading global multi-asset outsourced trading firm, today announced the hire of Simon Kelt as Head of APAC Trading to meet the growing demand for its outsourced trading services in the Asia Pacific region.

Meraki has achieved considerable growth since the firm launched in Park City, Utah nearly two years ago as more buy-side firms become aware of the advantages that a multi-asset outsourced trading partner can provide. As of late, portfolio managers’ desire to trade across all asset classes in response to the pandemic and market dislocations has soared. Meraki has been well positioned to assist asset managers who trade up and down the capital structure through a sophisticated outsourcing model which is fully aligned and integrated with their investment teams.

Kelt brings more than 15 years of global multi-asset trading experience from roles based in Hong Kong, India, and London. He spent the last ten years in Asia, most recently at HSBC in Hong Kong trading Asian equities and derivatives with a focus on greater China where he was instrumental in developing and building out the business. Simon began his career at JP Morgan in London where he worked on the equity swaps desk before progressing to trade European equities for Libertas Capital.

Meraki’s full-service outsourced solutions are tailored to the individual needs of each manager. The integrated, supplemental, and emerging manager solutions they provide are designed to meet the unique demands of managers of all sizes and maturities, while also being completely customizable. “Meraki understands the challenges facing fund managers who want to execute their global cross-asset strategies and grow their businesses. We help them execute on their strategy while saving them the burden of building and maintaining an in-house trading desk. Adding value to investment teams through bespoke solutions is Meraki’s alpha model. Managers receive the same internal desk feel and function from traders with unrivaled Asia expertise, buy- and sell-side experience, and pedigree”, noted Kelt.

“Adding Simon is the first step towards Meraki’s overseas expansion ahead of our official launch of a Hong Kong based operation slated for later this year. Building upon the strong momentum and client adoption for our services in the Asia Pacific region, we are confident that our expansion to the region will greatly enhance the services we provide our diverse and growing client list”, said Benjamin Arnold, Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Meraki. “Adding a high caliber multi-asset trader like Simon to our roster of accomplished buy- side traders is very exciting. We anticipate he will have a significant impact on our clients and the differentiated outsourced trading services we provide them.”

About Meraki Global Advisors

Meraki Global Advisors was founded with a rebellious determination to deliver conflict-free services to Asset Managers. Headquartered in Park City, Utah with offices in New York and Hong Kong, Meraki provides outsourced Global Multi-Asset Trading, Leverage Management, and Capital Introduction services to the Asset Management industry. Meraki’s unique model adds value to asset managers through bespoke solutions under a structure that investment teams can identify with and understand. FINRA member and SEC Registered.

For more information on Meraki Global Advisors LLC, please email info@merakiglobaladvisors.com

Webinar Replay: Launching Your Hedge Fund, The New Normal with Michael Ashby, Head of Strategy at Meraki Global Advisors

From building a team and raising assets, to selecting service providers, to creating a compliant and efficient infrastructure, launching a hedge fund can be daunting. Watch the replay of the HFA/Meraki webinar presented on Thursday, October 14 and learn from industry experts about what it takes to succeed in 2021 and beyond.

WATCH THE LIVE REPLAY

Webinar Replay: Achieving Greater Trading Efficiency with Ben Arnold, Founder & Managing Partner of Meraki Global Advisors

Ben Arnold, Founder & Managing Partner at Meraki Global Advisors joined the Achieving Greater Trading Efficiency webinar on Tuesday, October 12, 2021 presented by ISS LiquidMetrix. Watch the replay as he discusses a wide variety of tools outsourced trading desks use to improve performance and reduce trading costs. 

Topics included:

  • How you can work with an outsourced trading desk to create a tailored solution to your trading needs and investment strategy
  • Leveraging the resources of outsourced trading desks to enhance best execution

Watch The Live Replay

Navigating Rough Waters: Current Insights to Managing Risk Across Emerging Markets – Webinar Replay

Ben Arnold, Founder & Managing Partner of Meraki Global Advisors, joined a live panel webinar presented by SGX considering topics such as the macroeconomic trends in emerging markets, the regulatory landscape in China’s rapidly developing tech policy and the varying success that emerging markets economies have had in combating COVID-19.

Watch the Live Replay