Menta Capital, a quant shop headquartered in San Francisco, has been put together by three senior managers of Barclays Global Investors (BGI). They are in the process of launching their first effort, a fund that focuses on a neutral strategy in the global markets.
Uzi Levine, one of the trio of cofounders, is the recognized quant expert who ran the neutral strategies market at BGI. During his twelve years at BGI, he was integral in the formulation of quantitative models that applied neutral equity strategies in the market. He introduced NeuAlpha, BGI's original long/short strategy, nearly ten years ago. Mr. Levine continued with this theme and was in charge of managing the Global Market Neutral fund for BGI.
George Patterson and Laurent Dubois are the two other founders of Menta Capital. They were both managing members at BGI. Mr. Patterson joined the advanced strategy and research group of the firm in 1996 and became the senior portfolio manager of the market neutral section. It was in this capacity that he was directly responsible for market neutral strategies in the US and globally.
Mr. Dubois leaves his duel role at BGI as head of strategy for the Alpha Management Group and also head of the investment group that focuses on commercialising alternative investments to become a chief operating officer at Menta Capital. His responsibilities include overseeing investor relations.
All three cofounders left BGI nearly a year ago to create a hedge fund operation of their own design that targets a compilation of global equity market neutral funds. This venture reflects the importance of financial models and the impact that quantitative research has upon hedge funds.
Mr. Levine was a research scientist before joining BGI and he was involved in research on non-linear statistical technique and its use to predict financial and economic events while he was at the Oregon Graduate Institute.
Menta Capital is actively seeking additional member to complement the existing staff of ten. They have a special interest in employing talented quantitative research analysts.