Fund Finder Middle East ALTS

Ritz Carlton DIFC, Dubai

April 30th, 2025 - 8:30am to 2pm

Fund Finder Middle East Workshops aim to help you efficiently select your Investment Products.

in partnership with

Ask for invitation More Information

What can you expect from this event?

Format

A concise and targeted half day event in a pressure free, relaxed, and educational environment.

Discover

Speakers & Topics

A maximum of 8 selected sponsors present their strategies & products to fund selectors from across the GCC.

Discover

Audience

A specialized event designed to expose fund selectors to new investment products whilst enabling them to exchange ideas and network with their peers from across the region.

Discover

Fast, efficient workshop format

The workshops will take place at the Ritz Carlton DIFC and will see 7 sponsors each presenting 3 times over the course of a half day.

3 rooms, 3 moderators, 10-12 fund selectors per room. Sponsors present once in each room for half an hour.

This is an event where sponsors are invited to present on overall strategies or on specific investment products.

When not presenting, sponsoring groups are welcome to sit in on other presentations, or network in the lobby.

YUNUS SELANT

See his profile

MICHAEL GRIFFERTY

See his profile

OSCAR ORELLANA-HYDER

See his profile

Neutral market experts moderate the workshops

Speakers & Topics

Antonia O'Connor

Managing Director

Direct Lending: Capitalizing on a Growing Opportunity

Coming soon

Antonia O'Connor is a Managing Director at Blue Owl. Based in London, she serves as a Credit Product Specialist working closely with the regional institutional business development teams, covering Blue Owl’s Diversified Lending, First Lien, Technology and Opportunistic strategies. Prior to Blue Owl, Antonia worked at Magnetar for 10 years, where she led the EMEA Business Development and Investor Relations group. Prior to Magnetar, she was Co-Head of Hedge Funds, Senior Investment Manager and Head of Fixed Income & Credit within the Investment solutions division of Aberdeen Asset Management, serving as the portfolio manager for their flagship Fund of Funds. She Joined Aberdeen through the acquisition of RBS Asset Management in 2010, where she served in similar roles. Antonia began her career at Coutts & Co. in 1997 in their Alternative Investments team.

Antonia holds a BSc (1st Class Honours) from University College London (UCL)

Alastair Yates

Managing Director, Head of Real Assets EMEA, Client Solutions Group

The case for Infrastructure in Private Wealth Portfolios

- Introduction of Speaker and Macquarie

- What is Infrastructure? Characteristics + types of assets

- What is the opportunity for Sector: Demographics, Decarbonisation, Digitalisation

- What are the benefits of an allocation to Infrastructure for a client portfolio

Alastair is responsible for fundraising and investor relations for all of Macquarie Asset Management’s (MAM’s) current European-based infrastructure equity products. Since joining Macquarie in 2009, he has been involved in fundraising, investor relations, asset management, and acquisitions. Alastair has worked on Macquarie’s European infrastructure equity fundraisings, most recently with the Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund (MEIF) 7. He led the product launches of Macquarie Super Core Infrastructure Fund (MSCIF) in 2017, Macquarie GIG Renewable Energy Fund (MGREF) 2 in 2019, and Macquarie Global Infrastructure Fund (MGIF) in 2021. He has been involved in the fundraisings of MAM’s other funds, including its Asian and North American infrastructure equity funds and its agriculture funds, and he has experience in both asset management initiatives and acquisitions, having helped restructure National Car Parks and participated in the acquisition of Viesgo. Alastair holds a Master of Civil Engineering from Nottingham University.

Tani Burge

Managing Director, Infrastructure

The Infrastructure Revolution: Accessing the Megatrends of Decarbonisation and Digitalisation

Overview of Infrastructure as an asset class and the benefit of having an

allocation in client’s portfolios, why now in the current macro environment

Overview of GSAM’s Infrastructure platform and our semi-liquid G-INFRA

(Lux) fund (snapshot of the team, investment opportunity, investment

strategy, key characteristics and differentiators, investments to date)

Tani is a managing director in Alternatives Capital Formation within Goldman

Sachs Asset Management, leading infrastructure capital raising in EMEA.

She joined Goldman Sachs in 2024 as a managing director.

- Prior to joining the firm, Tani worked at Astatine Investment Partners

(formerly Alinda Capital Partners) as a managing director serving as head of

Client and Investor Solutions. In this role, she focused on the evolving needs

of infrastructure investors across funds, co-investments and separately

managed accounts. Tani also sat on the board of one of Astatine's portfolio

companies. Prior to this, she worked as a corporate attorney at Linklaters in

their Hong Kong and London offices. While in London, Tani also did a

business secondment for the chairman of Linklaters where she was

responsible for strategy development and implementation, client relationship

management and partnership board governance.

- Tani earned a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) and a Bachelor of Asian Studies in

Mandarin from the Australian National University. She also studied at Peking

University, Beijing. Tani is a qualified lawyer in Australia and Hong Kong.

Luke Layfield

Head of Portfolio Management Team, Private Markets

Relative Value in Private Markets and aiding the Climate Transition

As leaders in sustainable investment in European Private Markets, Aviva

Investors will share their perspectives on constructing multi-sector illiquid

portfolios and how to align financial and impact objectives.

Coming soon

Gareth Payne

Head Credit and Alternative Fixed Income Client Portfolio Managers

Frontier Market Debt: the benefits of an absolute return approach

We believe the best risk-adjusted opportunities and alpha are found where others are not looking. Our conviction is that EM is largely consensus driven, with crowded positioning leading to correlated and high beta outcomes for investors. Conversely, Frontier Markets exhibit inefficiencies due to investor misconceptions and their idiosyncrasies, presenting distinct opportunities. A disciplined focus on downside protection via an absolute return approach can generate strong, uncorrelated returns for investors.

Gareth Payne is Head of Credit & Alternative Fixed Income Client Portfolio Managers at Pictet Asset Management. Before joining Pictet in 2019 Gareth was the Client Portfolio Manager for Man GLG’s Credit and Convertibles business with responsibility across both alternative and long-only strategies. Prior to that Gareth worked in a number of business development roles at Man’s multi-manager hedge fund unit, FRM. He began his career in 2007 at Lehman Brothers in London. Gareth holds a Masters and BA from the University of Cambridge.

Daniel Kayello

Director AB Carval

Asset-Based Finance: Diversified & Uncorrelated Returns in a Private Credit Market That’s Too Big to Ignore

Private Credit continues to demonstrate lower correlation with equities and high yield

markets, whilst providing a reliable income stream and reducing overall portfolio volatility

- Whilst Direct Lending has fueled the growth of the private credit market, investor capital is

increasingly seeking diversification from corporate exposures

- Asset based lending is $6.3 trillion in size and growing with lending to the real economy

undergoing the same fundamental shift from banks to non-bank lenders in areas including

residential & commercial properties, autos, commercial equipment, aviation leasing & energy transition

- These collateralized cash-flowing assets create a diversified, downside protected, short

duration portfolio, which is uncorrelated to broader markets and that offers a stable return.

- AB CarVal has a 38-year global presence in the space, investing ~$150bn through economic

cycles and market dislocations

Mr. Kayello is a director for AB CarVal. Based in London, Mr Kayello is

responsible for capital formation and investor relations in Europe and the

Middle East. Prior to joining AB CarVal, he was on the Credit sales team at

Morgan Stanley. Mr. Kayello earned is B.A. in Political Science and

Management Studies at Duke University.

Chris Swensen

Principal

Compelling opportunities in Private Equity Secondaries in volatile markets

We believe Private Equity Secondaries should be a core part of investors’

portfolios. We will explain the fundamentals of the asset class and how

partnering with firm, like Ares, that has a cycle-tested, track record and deep

origination capabilities can deliver strong risk adjusted returns within HNW

investors’ portfolios.

Mr. Swensen is a Principal within Ares Wealth Management Solutions, which

oversees Ares' client management activities in the global wealth channel.

Prior to joining Ares in 2023, Mr. Swensen was a Vice President and Product

Specialist at Blackstone, where he focused on capital raising activities in the

private equity markets. Previously, Mr. Swensen was an Analyst at

BlackRock. He holds a B.S. from Penn State University in Economics.

A hand-picked group of fund selectors

The Audience

Investment professionals from Global & Local Banks - Family Offices. UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar.

Invited fund selectors

Delegate passes will be issued on a strict invitation-only basis, where only key decision makers are able to attend.

Free flights and accommodation

All delegates from outside of Dubai are entitled to free flights and accommodation. Up to 25 non-Dubai delegates are flown over for each event.

In Partnership with AllFunds

All of Fenwick Media's events and projects in the Middle East are done in partnership with Allfunds.

Ask for invitation

Fund Finder Events

Fund Finder events gather wholesale fund selectors who work in the local markets