Prominent Investors and Hedge Fund Managers to Enjoy Insights from Larry Powell, Denise Shull and Mark Jeffries; Concept Capital Markets signs on as exclusive Prime Broker Sponsor

Hedge Connection, the premier patented hedge fund marketing platform in the alternative investment industry, announces three prominent guest speakers at the Global Fund Forum 2014 from June 10 to 12, 2014 at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Attendees will gain insights from former Deputy CIO and co-manager of the Utah Retirement Fund Larry Powell, leading adviser and communications consultant Mark Jeffries and author and neuroeconomist Denise Shull. The Global Fund Forum will facilitate thousands of meetings between hedge fund managers and institutional and family office investors sourced from Hedge Connection’s relationships and decade long experience hosting exclusive investor introductory events.

Hedge Connection is also pleased to announce that Concept Capital Markets has agreed to serve as a lead sponsor of the Global Fund Forum. Concept Capital has built a strong franchise as an introducing prime broker by providing hedge fund managers, managed account platforms, institutional investors, family offices, and registered investment advisers with turn-key solutions designed to free its clients to focus on their core competencies with an offering featuring world-class custody and clearing options, multi asset class capabilities, leading execution and order management systems, a seasoned execution desk, a range of financing options, a highly professional operations and customer support team, comprehensive portfolio reporting capabilities, and capital introduction.

“Since first learning of Hedge Connection our firm has been intrigued by the possibilities of the portal and the manner in which it can conveniently connect managers and those allocating funds in the alternative space,” said Jack Seibald, Managing Member of Concept Capital Markets, LLC. “The Global Fund Forum seems like a natural extension of this effort, and Concept Capital is excited to play a role in making it happen,” he added.

“In addition to the Global Fund Forum’s numerous one-on-one investor and manager meetings our attendees are looking forward to gaining insights from these brilliant speakers. Their addition enhances our exciting three day agenda filled with networking, lunches and dinners, cocktail receptions, entertainment and a special charity Casino Night that will benefit Portfolios with Purpose and the 100 Women in Hedge Funds 2014 beneficiary of their U.S. philanthropic activities the Cerebral Palsy International Research Foundation (CPIRF),” said Lisa Vioni, CEO of Hedge Connection, Inc. “We are also delighted to announce that industry-leader Concept Capital Markets has signed on as our exclusive prime broker sponsor,” she added.

Global Fund Forum guest speaker Larry Powell commented: “Any organization whose mission centers on improving communication amongst investors and between managers and investors is a friend of mine, I look forward to sharing my war stories!”

Larry Powell is the former Deputy CIO and co-managed the Utah Retirement Fund, a $25B US Public Pension Plan. Mr. Powell joined URS in 2008, he was ultimately responsible for the oversight and management of the investment team, analyzing deals and investing in all global public and private market asset classes. He worked with the URS investment team in all aspects of the investment management process, including manager sourcing, due diligence, buy/sell decisions, fee and term negotiations as well as the tactical and strategic investing of the URS portfolio. Prior to joining URS, Mr. Powell served as Managing Director, External Public Markets (EPM) at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. In this position, Mr. Powell managed a team of ten professionals who collectively oversaw all of TRS’ global investments in external managers within equities, fixed income and hedge funds. The EPM portfolio represented approximately 1/3 of all TRS’ assets estimated at $100billion. Previously, Mr. Powell was President and Chief Investment Officer of a macro hedge fund firm, which he founded in 1987. He holds a B.S. degree with a dual concentration in Finance and Real Estate from the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Denise Shull, a neuroeconomist and author, founded The ReThink Group in 2003 in order to solve the vexing problem of human misperception of risk. For over ten years, Shull has coached Wall Street professionals, offering techniques to avoid their typical behavioral responses to fear and greed. She specializes in separating intuition — felt knowledge — from impulse. Shull started her trading career at the Chicago Board Options Exchange and later traded futures as a member of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. It was at that time that she began transforming neuroeconomics – the new science of the brain on risk – into investing profits. She is a frequent speaker at industry and academic conferences, is often quoted in prominent business, risk, neuroeconomic and psychological publications and has appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box, CBS Sports, Bloomberg TV, Cavuto, PBS and The Discovery Channel. Shull graduated from Harvard Kennedy’s executive program in “Investment Decisions and Behavioral Finance” in 2009 and holds a Master of Arts in neuroscience (1995) from The University of Chicago. Her thesis research, “The Neurobiology of Freud’s Repetition Compulsion” was published in 2003 in the Annals of Modern Psychoanalysis and was cited in 2013 as one of the earliest papers in the emerging field of neuro-psychoanalysis.

Former Merrill Lynch stockbroker turned author and Keynote Speaker, Mark Jeffries, has become a trusted adviser and communications consultant to some of the world’s largest and most successful organizations. He speaks at and moderates conferences, summits, sales meetings, user forums and conventions all over the world for clients including IBM, Ernst & Young, SAS, HP, Zurich Insurance, Gartner, Microsoft, Royal Bank of Canada, Deltek & Bank of America. Dividing his time between The United States, Canada and Europe, Mark’s ideas, inspiration and guidance, are sought across virtually all industries.

The Global Fund Forum (the “Forum”) will enable over a thousand one-on-one meetings between institutional and family office investors and a diverse group of hedge fund managers. Prior to the Forum managers create a fund profile on Hedge Connection and gain access to investor profiles, and can begin to request meetings and send messages using Hedge Connection’s proprietary event scheduler. Participants can also use the Forum’s Mobile App during the event to get access to their schedule, see investor and fund profiles and read about the forum sponsors. For enquiries about participation, qualification or sponsorship opportunities for this year and the Global Fund Forum 2015 please click here.

About Hedge Connection, Inc.

Hedge Connection was launched in 2005 and is a marketing platform for hedge funds as well as an information portal for investors. On June 18, 2013 Hedge Connection Inc. received US Patent 8,068,478 for its unique business process of letting hedge funds and investors meet and connect online. Hedge Connection is viewed as the premier investor-intro and hedge fund marketing platform in the alternative investment industry. In addition to the online platform, Hedge Connection produces events.  Over 5,000 investors have participated in Hedge Connection events resulting in thousands of direct meetings at events held in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Hedge Connection has recently introduced the industry’s first socialized database. Through free membership in the Boardroom, industry participants can follow hedge funds in the fund database and other boardroom members offering the highest level of connectivity in the alternative industry today.

About Concept Capital Markets, LLC

Concept Capital Markets, LLC offers a comprehensive suite of brokerage and related services that provide traditional and alternative investment managers with solutions that are customizable and scalable. The firm was built by former investment managers to serve hedge fund managers, managed account platforms, institutional investors, family offices, and registered investment advisers with turn-key solutions designed to free its clients to focus on their core competencies. Our offering features world-class custody and clearing options, multi asset class capabilities, leading execution and order management systems, a seasoned execution desk, a range of financing options, a highly professional operations and customer support team, comprehensive portfolio reporting capabilities, and capital introduction. Concept Capital Markets, LLC is headquartered in Garden City, New York and operates offices in New York City and Purchase, NY, Greenwich, CT, Alpharetta, GA, El Segundo and Santa Monica, CA and Boca Raton, FL. The firm is registered as a Broker Dealer and Investment Adviser with the SEC, and is a member of FINRA, NFA, and SIPC.