Benjamin Weston, Chairman

Benjamin Weston joined the Capital Markets Group of Bankers Trust Company in London in 1983. Elected a Managing Director of Bankers Trust Company in 1986, he started-up and headed Bankers' European Equity Group in 1987.

He returned to New York in 1990 as a Founding Member of Credit Suisse Financial Products. Mr. Weston also served on CSFP's Executive Board from 1990-1995. In 1994, Mr. Weston started-up the Leveraged Capital Services Group - a joint venture between Credit Suisse First Boston and CSFP- which was the first dedicated hedge fund coverage group on Wall Street. In October 1998, Mr. Weston assumed responsibility for CSFB's Leveraged Funds Group (LFG) which seeded, developed, marketed and managed CSFB-branded hedge and private equity funds. The Leveraged Funds Group deployed up to $650 million in CSFB capital. The funds created by LFG/FDG now deploy more than $32 billion in capital in their investment disciplines.

In 2002, Mr. Weston created Indeman Capital Management (“IDM”) which was founded to act as the management company for the IDM Opportunity Fund (“The IDM Fund”). The IDM Fund was a private equity–style fund devoted to the incubation, development and management of start-up hedge fund managers.

In 2005, Mr. Weston joined Merrill Lynch as Head of the Hedge Fund Development and Management Group (“HFDMG”) and President and CEO of Merrill Lynch Alternative Investments, a SEC-registered investment adviser. In the following 18 months, AUM grew from $17 billion to $26 billion, margins improved from 55% to 61% and total income grew in the business from circa $320 million to $749 million on an annualized basis.

Mr. Weston received his undergraduate degree in International Studies from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his MA in International Affairs with Honors in Economics from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC.