Fortis Beefs Up Prime Fund Solutions

Bob Reynolds

9 May 2007

Michael Secondo will lead new business development for Fortis Prime Fund Solutions LLC, a division of Fortis Merchant and Private Banking. Fortis also announced the appointment of four new members to the relationship management team and credit support group. This is designed to strengthen efforts to build its administration and leveraged finance products to alternative investments clients in North America. "These appointments are part of Fortis' commitment to service the needs of an increasingly sophisticated client base," said Jacques Bofferding, regional managing director for Fortis Prime Fund Solutions in the western hemisphere. "More and more, our clients are telling us that they need a consolidated package of services on a cost effective basis, from back door operations to the use of the balance sheet to provide bridge, currency, leverage and synthetic financings. With these additions to our growing US-based professional staff, we are continuing our responsiveness to these needs." Mr Secondo has responsibility to market Fortis' leveraged finance products to alternative investment clients. He was previously with Citigroup for more than 15 years, most recently as a sales director in the global prime brokerage and administration business. He will now report to Clay Burton, managing director and head of new business development. In addition, Vito Pizzullo, Mathieu Santerre and Laurence Headlam have joined the relationship management team to support the growing North American client base, reporting to Rhonda Eldridge, director of relationship management. Mr Pizzullo held senior roles with Morgan Stanley, UBS, Citco Fund Services and the RiskMetrics Group. Mr Santerre, a Canadian chartered accountant, joins the New York team from the Fortis BVI office bringing with him wide ranging knowledge in fund administration. Prior to his work with Fortis, he was an auditor for Deloitte in Canada and in the British Virgin Islands. Mr Headlam transfers from Fortis London where he specialised in large and complex credit transactions. He is an associate of The Chartered Institute of Bankers and before Fortis, spent three years at Allied Irish Bank. Also, Andrew Laird joins the Fortis Prime Fund Solutions' credit support group in New York. Prior to joining Fortis, Mr Laird worked for four years with UBS Financial Securities Lending.