Hudson Gate Partners Fills Senior Roles for Teza Technologies
April 27, 2022 – Hudson Gate Partners recently recruited Joel McAndrew as head of business development and Brandon Johnson as general counsel and chief compliance officer for Teza Technologies, a science and technology-driven global quantitative investment firm.
This head of business development assignment was led by Paul Sassa, head of the marketing and investor relations practice at Hudson Gate Partners. “Having raised a significant amount of capital and other emerging quantitative investment funds, Joel brings the perfect experience to take Teza to the next level,” said Mr. Sassa. “Given Teza’s management pedigree and product line-up, there is no doubt Joel will be highly successful in his new role.”
Based in Teza’s New York City office, Mr. McAndrew is responsible for building and maintaining key relationships with institutional, family office, fund of funds, and investment consultants in North America and abroad. Mr. McAndrew is a seasoned business development professional in the quantitative investments space, having led previous marketing campaigns at Versor Investments and Gotham Asset Management.
Mr. Johnson brings a number years of hedge fund legal and compliance consulting experience to this role. He most recently served as Belvedere Trading’s general counsel. Before that, he was a principal consultant with Titan Regulation advising a number of RIA/CPO/CTA/broker-dealer clients on all regulatory matters and investigations. Mr. Johnson got his start in financial services working as a compliance officer and junior attorney for CTC Trading Group in Chicago.
This search was jointly led by Dawn Magnotta, head of the infrastructure practice, and Mr. Sassa. “The general counsel and chief compliance officer role at Teza was very attractive to candidates from proprietary trading firms in the Chicago area, because excellent hedge fund roles in Chicago are rare in comparison to the volume found in New York and California,” said Ms. Magnotta.
Under the leadership of CEO Misha Malyshev, Teza’s innovative approaches to quantitative research and platform engineering distinguish the firm from other quant trading firms. Founded in 2009 as a science and technology driven global quantitative trading business, Teza derives its edge in asset management from its algorithmic, low-latency trading past, and science-based investment processes.
Proven Search Firm
Hudson Gate Partners provides executive search services across the finance, communications, marketing services, technology, and healthcare industries. The search firm is headquartered in New York and has additional offices in Connecticut and Florida.
Mr. Sassa has 18 years of direct experience recruiting for senior-level marketing talent in the alternative investments space. Prior to his recruiting career, he was a vice president and product specialist at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York.
Working from Home and Adjusting to the New Normal for Businesses
Company culture is not easily encapsulated or often prioritized, even when staff are working in the office, interfacing in real time with the company philosophy. Working from home has revealed not only how few organizations have refined their company culture sufficiently, but also how few have yet to even consider company culture, according to Alyssa Gruber, head of administration and management search at Hudson Gate Partners. “What is salient now is the laser-focus on building and fortifying existing culture, and also, the focus on effectively communicating company ethos to employees, who are working both remotely and in-office,” she said “The time for only conceptually workshopping culture is far past. There is an immediacy to the need for well-articulated values, tenants, and policies which employees not only hear about, but experience.”
As an example, data trends show that employees seek to feel that their employer’s policies align with their purported company ethos. “If a company speaks to championing work-life balance but fails to allow latitude should an employee need to work from home one day, then employees begin to feel distrustful of what they are hearing,” said Ms. Gruber. “Culture is an active ever evolving word, not just some policies and slogans offered sporadically to appease employees and legal alike.”
Ms. Magnotta is an expert in recruiting for legal, compliance, HR, operations, accounting and finance roles. She has 16 years of recruiting experience in the alternative asset management space. Her expertise ranges from C-level to junior searches in the hedge fund, private equity, and family office space.
Recent Search
Earlier this year, Hudson Gate Partners recruited Allan Smith as the first chief people officer for Mogo, a NASDAQ-traded digital payments and financial technology company in Vancouver, British Columbia. Daryl-Lynn Michaud led the assignment. “We’ve been fortunate to attract and build an outstanding team at Mogo, and we’re excited to have Allan lead our people efforts going forward as we look to significantly expand our organization while continuing to retain and advance top talent,” said Mogo CEO David Feller. “We believe his experience in building world-class teams in fintech and fast-growing software companies will make him a highly impactful new addition to our leadership team.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
