Bryce Coats is currently an advisor with Hamilton Miller Investments, a hedge fund marketing group helping source smaller, more niche oriented funds as well as assisting in their capital raising efforts. Bryce began his career at Salomon, Smith Barney where he spent 7-years providing manager research within the Consulting Group and later transitioned into institutional sales advising corporations on their retirement plan assets.  He later joined Silver Creek, a Seattle based fund-of-funds operator, initially as a research analyst and later co-managed the Early Advantage fund, an emerging manger fund which managed $650MM at its peak during his tenure.  He later joined Athens Capital; a California based family office managing an emerging manager fund-of-funds with an emphasis in the energy and commodity markets. Bryce holds a B.A. in General Business from Seattle University, is Series 7 and 63 registered and is currently studying for his CAIA Level 2 exam.  He resides in Seattle and is married with two children.

Ravindra (Ravi) Deo is the Chief Investment Officer & Chief Technology Officer at Altura Capital. Prior to joining Altura he spent 14 years as Chief Investment Officer of Accessor Capital Management. At Accessor Mr. Deo created a series of pure asset class funds with over $2.7 billion in assets. As CIO of Accessor, Mr. Deo was responsible for finding, monitoring and replacing money managers for each of these funds. Prior to Accessor Ravindra was Senior Vice President at an institutional money management firm called LOR in Los Angeles. During his five years there he worked in R&D in systems development, client services, head of R&D and finally head of direct account management. Mr. Deo holds an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Business Administration, and a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India.

Matthew Hedges, CFA is a Senior Investment Analyst with Benchmark Plus, the $1.8 billion Hedge Fund of Funds headquartered in Tacoma. In the summer of 2010 he joined the investment team at Benchmark Plus where he seeks to uncover skilled alpha-generating hedge fund managers for the firm’s three core product offerings. He brings with him 13 years of experience as a trader and portfolio manager in the fixed income and derivatives markets. Matthew began his career in the trading pits of the Chicago Board of Trade as an option market maker. After a brief stint in the agricultural options markets, Matthew was assigned to initiate his firm’s entrance into the Treasury Options markets where he led a team in building the market making and risk management operation in the interest rate quadrant. He later joined a firm arbitraging S&P 500 Options between the CBOE and CME contracts. Following business school, Matthew served as Deputy Director at the State of Tennessee’s Consolidated Retired System (TCRS) where he and his team oversaw $14 billion in fixed income and derivative assets. During his six years with TCRS he conducted trading, research, and asset allocation across fixed income and currencies. Matthew holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a BA in Economics from Oregon State University. He earned his Chartered Financial Analyst designation in 2006 and is currently a CAIA Level I candidate.

Greg Schwieder is the Chief Operating Officer at Taiyo Pacific Partners, LP a $2 billion firm based in Kirkland, WA. The funds focus is in Japan and Asia utilizing equity investments in both private and public micro- to mid-cap companies. Before joining Taiyo, Greg was the Chief Finance Officer at Sperix Capital an equity long/short hedge fund specializing in technology.  Before Spherix , Greg was a principal and co-founder of Sol Hedge LLC, a back office operations firm providing finance, portfolio accounting, regulatory compliance, tax and client relations to hedge funds on an outsourced basis – including serving as the CFO of Amida Capital Management during 2007.  From 1998 through 2006, Greg served as Chief Financial Officer of Marin Capital Partners LP.  From 1996 to 1998, Greg was a Senior Tax Manager at Ernst & Young, LLP where he managed the tax elements of the firm’s Hedge Fund practice in its San Francisco office.   Greg earned his Master Degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Davis in 1993 and his B.A. in Economics and History, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado in 1984.  Greg is a Certified Public Accountant.

Geir Watland is a Seattle-based Vice President and Consultant at Canterbury Consulting, a West Coast institutional asset management consulting firm with $12 billion in assets under advisement and a focus on foundations, endowments and ultra-high net worth families.  Prior to joining Canterbury in 2011, he was a business development professional for a number of hedge funds where he developed relationships with fund of hedge funds, public and corporate pension plans, endowments, foundations and consultants. During 2008 and 2009 he was a Director and Product Specialist for the Alternative Investments Group at Bank of America. Previously he spent nearly seven years with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers/BlackRock holding a variety of positions including Product Specialist on the European Equities Team in London, Sales Manager in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as Vice President of the Strategic Alliances Group in the U.S.  He began his career in 1989 at the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA) and also worked at Russell/Mellon Analytical Services, Rainier Investment  Management and Murphey Favre.  Geir is a graduate of the University of Washington with degrees in Business Administration and Economics. He is both a CFA and CAIA charter holder.