Parala Capital LLP was formed in 2007 by senior investment professionals and academics. The firm focuses solely on developing high interest investable strategies using rigorous quantitative methodologies based on proprietary and academic research. Academics involved with the firm are uniquely incentivised partners in the business and work in close collaboration with Parala Capital’s industry practitioners. Strategies can be delivered as investable indices utilising an independent calculation agent such as Standard & Poor’s, MSCI or FTSE or implemented on an advisory or discretionary basis.
People (listed in alphabetical order)
Ben Gillen, Advisory Board Member
Ben Gillen is a member of Parala Capital’s advisory board and is also responsible for developing and implementing technical aspects of the firm’s forecasting models. Ben is currently an Assistant Professor in Economics at the California Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Economics in May 2010 from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied fields ranging from Bayesian and financial econometrics to structural industrial organization and behavioural game theory. Ben's research focuses on inference using models that relax the equilibrium hypothesis in order to generate robust forecasts and prescriptions for incorporating data into financial decision making. His work includes numerous applications to forecasting returns, estimating covariance matrices with large a number of securities, and designing optimal portfolio strategies.
Leonardo Giangreco, Advisory Board Member
Leonardo Giangreco is a recognised expert in the design, development and distribution of financial products with over 20 years of industry experience. Most recently, he headed equity derivative sales in Europe ex-Spain for BBVA. Prior to this, Leonardo spent 10 years with Bear Stearns as Senior Managing Director in charge of both equity derivative and equity cash sales, EMEA. In addition, he has held several senior management positions with international banks including Merrill Lynch, Natwest Markets and CIBC Financial Products. Leonardo is a regular lecturer at leading universities such as INSEAD and the University of Rome on the subjects of derivatives, risk management and structured products. Leonardo graduated summa cum laude in Economics at LUISS University in Rome and holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Steven Goldin, Managing Partner
Steven Goldin is Managing Partner of Parala Capital. Steven is responsible for the firm’s product, business development and client relationship management activities. He is a recognized expert in investment product design and distribution and is frequently quoted in the press and a requested speaker. He has extensive experience in asset allocation, investment analysis, fund research, portfolio construction, product development, and the marketing and sale of investment products and services across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Prior to joining Parala Capital, Steven was Global Head of Strategy Indices with Standard & Poor’s where under his leadership over 50 new indices across strategies, alternatives and themes were launched resulting in over $25 billion in new index linked assets. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, Steven worked for Enterprise Capital Management a subsidiary of AXA Financial in London as the Managing Director of their European fund business. He started his career with Prudential Investments holding a variety of investment and client facing roles. Steven holds an MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, and a BS in Finance with Distinction from the Pennsylvania State University’s Scholar’s Program.
David Stevenson, Advisory Board Member
David Stevenson is a financial journalist and columnist for the Financial Times, Investor Chronicle, Investment Week and Money Management. He trained as a TV producer for the BBC, but has spent much of the last decade as a media entrepreneur working in corporate communications and viral marketing. David is currently building a small corporate finance business for the media and technology sector called Coalition Partners. When he does manage to find some spare time, he also writes books on investment for the Financial Times. David trained as a political economist.
Allan Timmermann, Founding Partner
Allan Timmermann is a founding partner of Parala Capital where he is responsible for financial research and innovation with particular emphasis on forecasting models. Allan is the holder of the Atkinson/Epstein Chair in Management Leadership at the Rady School at University of California, San Diego where he is also a professor of management and economics. He has been a visiting scholar at the IMF and at the Federal Reserve Board and has taught at London School of Economics and at Stanford University where he held the position of Kaiser Visiting Professor of Risk and Insurance. Allan received his PhD from University of Cambridge and has published many papers on predictability of stock market returns, technical trading rules and performance evaluation for mutual funds and pension funds. This work has been published in a range of journals including Journal of American Statistical Association, Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Business, Journal of Econometrics, Review of Economic Studies and Quarterly Journal of Economics. Allan is a recognized economics expert and his research has been covered by leading financial press including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and The Economist Magazine.
Russell Wermers, Founding Partner
Russ Wermers is a founding partner of Parala Capital where he is responsible for financial research and innovation with particular emphasis on forecasting models. In addition, Russ is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland at College Park. His main research interests include studies of the efficiency of securities markets, as well as the role of institutional investors in setting stock prices. Most notably, his past research has developed new approaches to measuring and attributing the performance of mutual funds, pension funds, and hedge funds, as well as devising winning strategies for investing in these funds. His papers have been published widely including The American Economic Review, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, The Journal of Financial Economics, and The Journal of Finance. Russ is a recognized financial expert is quoted frequently in the leading financial press. Russ holds a Ph.D. Finance (1995) and MBA in Finance(1989) from the University of California and a B.S. Chemical Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering, cum laude, University of Idaho (1981).
Amir Yazdanpanah, Advisory Board Member
Amir Yazdanpanah is a member of Parala Capital’s advisory board. Amir is a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years experience in starting and growing technology companies that develop software based intellectual property to innovate and create market leading solutions. Amir has extensive experience in developing markets and selling solutions to large enterprises worldwide.
In 1996, Amir founded Telarix, which has become a global leader in providing revenue assurance, cost management, and network optimization solution to wireline, wireless, and broadband service providers. As Telarix CEO, Amir raised $9.5Million in venture capital and positioned the company to develop, market, sell, and implement multi-million dollar solutions to carriers worldwide. Amir is currently a non-executive Board Director of Telarix. Prior to Telarix, Amir held management positions at Cable & Wireless, ICS Information Technologies, and British Telecom.
Amir holds a BS in Electronic Engineering From Sussex University (UK) , and an MBA from leading European business school, Cranfield School of Management (UK). Amir holds a US Patent.