Webinar

The Role of Education: Alternative Data Adoption in Finance

November 5th, 2021 11:30AM - 12:30 PM EDT

Speakers

  • Saeed Amen

    Founder
    @Cuemacro

  • Alexander Denev

    Lecturer
    @University of Oxford

  • Gene Ekster

    CEO
    @Alternative Data Group & Adjunct Professor
    @NYU

Moderator

  • Marta Lopata

    Chief Growth Officer
    @Thinknum Alternative Data & Co-Founder
    @Alternative Data Academy

The global alternative data market size is expected to multiply 10X and reach $17 billion by 2027. This explosive growth is demand driven: investors relying only on traditional market data suffer from portfolio crowding and alpha decay. So around 50% of large hedge funds have set up alternative data teams, and a further 20% plan on doing so.

To stay competitive, investment professionals must keep pace. Up to 40% of the workforce at asset management firms will require fundamental re-training in portfolio management and asset administration, where the use of better data and analytics will transform roles.

This panel discussion celebrates the official launch of the Alternative Data Academy, the world’s first alt data knowledge library aimed at working professionals in the finance industry. Faculty Experts Gene Ekster, Saeed Amen, and Alexander Denev will explore the evolution of alternative data education and showcase Academy curriculum highlights. Participants of this virtual event will be granted first access to the Academy prior to public release.

Speakers

  • Saeed Amen

    Founder
    @Cuemacro

    Saeed Amen

    Founder @Cuemacro

    SAEED AMEN is the founder of Cuemacro and co-founder of Thalesians. Over the past fifteen years, Saeed Amen has developed systematic trading strategies at major investment banks including Lehman Brothers and Nomura. He is also the author of Trading Thalesians: What the ancient world can teach us about trading today (Palgrave Macmillan) and is the coauthor of The Book of Alternative Data (Wiley).

    Through Cuemacro, he now consults and publishes research for clients in the area of systematic trading. He has developed many Python libraries including finmarketpy and tcapy for transaction cost analysis. His clients have included major quant funds and data companies such as Bloomberg. He has presented his work at many conferences and institutions which include the ECB, IMF, Bank of England, and Federal Reserve Board.

  • Alexander Denev

    Lecturer
    @University of Oxford

    Alexander Denev

    Lecturer @University of Oxford

    Alexander is a former Head of AI and the Data Science team for Financial Services - Risk Advisory. His responsibilities included development of AI products and advisory around risks and ethical implementation of AI. He also focussed on Alternative Data, AI for Data Quality and AI for Retail Banking. Previously, Alexander was a former Head of Quantitative Research & Advanced Analytics at IHS Markit.

    Prior to that, Alexander has worked in Risk Dynamics (McKinsey & Company), The Royal Bank of Scotland, European Investment Bank (EIB) and European Investment Fund (EIF), National Bank of Greece and Societe Generale.

    Alexander holds a degree in Mathematical Finance from University of Oxford where he has been a Visiting Lecturer on Bayesian Risk Management and Alternative Data. He wrote several papers and books on quantitative topics, ranging from stress testing and scenario analysis to asset allocation through Machine Learning techniques and alternative data.

  • Gene Ekster

    CEO
    @Alternative Data Group & Adjunct Professor
    @NYU

    Gene Ekster

    CEO @Alternative Data Group & Adjunct Professor @NYU

    Gene Ekster is an adjunct professor at NYU, where he teaches a course on alternative data in finance. He is also the CEO of AltDG, an alternative data software company. Previously, he managed the alternative data team at Point72 Asset Management and worked in alternative-data roles at Balyasny Asset Management, Lone Pine, 1010 Data, and Majestic Research. Gene is a board member of IDSO (a compliance organization), Eagle Alpha, Ottoquant, and Super Signal Capital. He holds a degree in Artificial Intelligence from U.C. Berkeley, an MBA from Cornell University, and is a CFA charter holder.

Moderator

  • Marta Lopata

    Chief Growth Officer
    @Thinknum Alternative Data & Co-Founder
    @Alternative Data Academy

    Marta Lopata

    Chief Growth Officer @Thinknum Alternative Data & Co-Founder @Alternative Data Academy

    Marta V. Lopata is the Chief Growth Officer at Thinknum Alternative Data and Kgbase - no-code knowledge graph tool. In 2019, Marta has founded External Data Conference - the world’s first annual conference bringing together leading minds in finance, business, media, government and sustainability to discuss the real-world applications for alternative data.

    Marta is also a co-Founder of Thinknum's media outlet which attracted millions readers with its alternative-data focused market insights about leading public and private companies.

    Marta is frequently quoted in the Business Insider, Institutional Investor, TechCrunch and other business publications; and is often a featured panelist at major market-related conferences.

    Marta speaks 4 languages (Chinese, French, Polish and English) and before immigrating to the US, she led product & growth teams in digital fabrication and sustainable materials in China and France.

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