Unconventional Investing Conference 2025

Zeshan Ashfaque is a Senior Managing Director and a Senior Credit Officer in the Underwriting & Portfolio Management group at Man Varagon.

Zeshan has extensive experience investing in middle market credit and has originated, executed, and managed investments across a variety of structures, industries, and strategies, including stressed and distressed. Prior to Man Varagon, he worked in credit investing at HPS Investment Partners, TPG Sixth Street Partners, and Goldman Sachs Special Situations Group.

He earned a BBA from Emory University and an MS from The University of Virginia.

Giuliana Bordigoni is Director of Specialist Strategies and a member of Man AHL’s management and investment committees.

She has held several positions since joining Man AHL in 2007, including Head of Alternative Markets and Director of Fixed Income, where she has made significant contributions to Man AHL’s managed futures and Evolution portfolios.

Giuliana holds a PhD in Mathematics and Applications from Politecnico of Milan and a Master of Advanced Studies in Finance from ETH and University of Zurich.

Albert Chu is a Portfolio Manager at Man GLG, focusing on natural resource strategies.

He joined Man Group in 2023 from BNY Mellon, where he was the lead portfolio manager covering natural resources. Prior to this, he held investment and portfolio management roles focused on natural resources equities and futures at various investment firms, including Citadel LLC and SAC Capital.

Albert holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from Cornell University. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Steven Desmyter is President at Man Group, a member of the Man Group Executive Committee, and Chair of the Man Group Charitable Trust. As President, Steven oversees Solutions, our dedicated client research and customised asset allocation and portfolio construction service. He also leads Man Group’s approach to responsible investment and research, and manages the global sales and marketing distribution strategy.

Steven was previously Global Head of Sales & Marketing and prior to this, responsible for Man Group’s institutional and retail client relationships. Before joining Man Group in 2002, Steven was at Goldman Sachs, covering institutional clients in the European Equities Division.

As leader of Man Group’s sustainability and responsible investing efforts, Steven is a member of the Man Group ESG Leadership team and serves on the SASB (Sustainable Accounting Standards Board) Investor Advisory Group and the SBAI (Standards Board for Alternative Investments) Investor Advisory Group.

Steven holds Master’s degrees in Economics and Finance from the University of Ghent and the University of Kiel. He also holds an MBA from SDA Bocconi.

Ziang Fang is a senior portfolio manager at Man Numeric. He is responsible for the China-A share strategies and assists in the day-to-day portfolio management of the emerging markets strategies. Ziang is also actively engaged in the research efforts within the firm.

Prior to joining Man Numeric in 2017, Ziang had investment banking and private equity experience in Asia.

Ziang received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Renmin University of China and a master’s degree in finance from MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Robyn Grew is CEO of Man Group, a global alternative investment management firm with US$ 168.6bn* assets under management that is listed on the London Stock Exchange. As CEO, she leads the firm’s Executive Committee and is an executive director on the Man Group Board. Her strategic priorities include expanding and enhancing the firm’s investment content, driving technology-enabled client solutions and building out its distribution capabilities.

Since joining Man Group in 2010 through its acquisition of GLG, Robyn has served as Group COO, Head of ESG, General Counsel, and most recently, President. Robyn led Man Group’s corporate reorganisation in 2019 and has also spearheaded the firm’s diversity programme.

Robyn has worked in the investment industry since 1994. Previously, she held senior global positions at investment banks in London, New York and Tokyo, including Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers, as well as what is now the ICE Futures Europe exchange. She is a qualified barrister and member of the Standards Board for Alternative Investment (SBAI) Board of Trustees.

*As of 31 December 2024

Robert Lam is co-head of fixed income at Man Numeric. He is responsible for the development and day-to-day portfolio management of all credit strategies.

Prior to joining Man Numeric in 2018, Robert was a principal at Apollo Global Management, where he led quantitative research and data science for the liquid credit opportunistic business. Previously, he was a portfolio manager at Incapture. Prior to that, Robert worked in structured credit at Deutsche Bank Securities.

Robert received a bachelor of applied science degree in systems design engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Eva Sanchez Martin is Principal Quant and Head of Portfolio Engineering at Man AHL. Her research focuses on portfolio optimisation and the construction of bespoke client portfolios within the Man AHL Portfolio Management team.

Eva joined Man AHL in 2016. She has an MMath in Mathematics from the University of Oxford. She is also a CFA charterholder.

Amara is a quantitative researcher in the Fast Equities team at Man AHL.

Amara joined Man Group in 2020 through the Man Graduate Programme. After rotations in Man FRM and Man GPM, she joined the Macro team in 2021, where she was a quantitative researcher until 2024. Prior to that, Amara gained experienced at The D E Shaw Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Citi.

Amara graduated from the University of Cambridge with a first and as a scholar in Economics.

Kay Giesecke is the Founder and Director of Stanford's Advanced Financial Technologies Laboratory, Director of the Mathematical and Computational Finance Program, and a member of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering. He joined Stanford's faculty in 2005 and has held visiting positions at Cornell, UCLA, and the International Monetary Fund.

Kay is a financial technologist whose research agenda is driven by significant applied problems in areas such as investment management, risk analytics, lending, and regulation, where data streams are increasingly large-scale and dynamical, and where computational demands are critical. He has published over 50 research articles in leading academic journals and co-authored several US patents that underpin widely used investment analytics systems in the financial industry. His research has earned multiple awards, including the JP Morgan AI Faculty Research Award, the SIAM Financial Mathematics Conference Paper Prize, and the Fama/DFA Prize for Best Asset Pricing Paper.

Kay received his doctorate in 2001 from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin where he was a fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.