Altegris Research and Investments Team

Focused solely on alternatives, the Altegris Research and Investments team is dedicated to sourcing, evaluating and securing capacity with premier hedge funds, managed futures funds and programs, and other alternative investments. This is designed to meet the needs of investment professionals and sophisticated investors. This team of experts specializes in detailed operational and investment evaluation for new funds and investment managers, as well as ongoing review and monitoring of existing funds and managers on the Altegris platform.

Allen H. Cheng - Managing Director, Research and Investments, Member Investment Committee
Mr. Cheng brings 18 years of hedge fund and alternative investment experience to Altegris in his current role as Managing Director, Research and Investments. Before joining Altegris, Mr. Cheng served as Managing Director, Head of Fund of Funds Portfolio Management at Bank of America’s Alternative Investment Group. In this role, Mr. Cheng built and directed the hedge fund portfolio investment team and additionally oversaw numerous hedge fund products across diverse strategies. He has significant experience in the alternative investment industry, particularly in the area of identifying, selecting, and monitoring hedge fund managers across multiple investment disciplines. Mr. Cheng’s previous experience includes responsibility as Managing Director, Head of Research for Optima Fund Management, an investment advisory firm specialized in alternative investments. He began his alternative investment career at Moore Capital Management managing asset allocation and research for hedge fund multi-manager products. Mr. Cheng earned his BA in Finance from the University of Maryland and MBA from the University of Michigan.

Lara Magnusen , CAIA^SM - Vice President, Research and Investments, Member Investment Committee
With over 10 years of industry experience and four years of experience on the Altegris research team, Ms. Magnusen currently serves as Vice President of Research and Investments. Ms. Magnusen previously served as Director of Manager Research for Cabezon Capital LLC / Borton Hermeneutics LLC, responsible for monitoring and developing seeded managers. Additional experience includes her tenure as an Associate Portfolio Manager and Director of Investor Relations at Helix Investment Partners, a capital structure arbitrage hedge fund, as well as a several years as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. Ms. Magnusen holds a B.A. in Economics with a minor in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. She also has an M.B.A. from the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego. She holds the designation of CAIA^SM.

Tricia Zehr - Director, Product Development
Ms. Zehr has over nine years of financial industry experience. Prior to the formation of Altegris, Ms. Zehr was Director of Administration of the Managed Investments Division of Man Financial Inc, a subsidiary of the Man Group, in its La Jolla, California office. Ms. Zehr began her career as a financial consultant with Merrill Lynch’s Private Client Group in La Jolla, CA, where she served on a team of investment professionals focused on business lending and cash management, and estate and tax planning. Upon the separation from Man Financial and formation of Altegris in July 2002, she became a general securities principal and was responsible for supervision and compliance. In her current role as Director of Product Development at Altegris, Ms. Zehr works in the processes of initial and ongoing compliance, legal and regulatory review of products and money managers. She leads Altegris’ ongoing efforts in monitoring the administration of the investment products on our platform.

Eric Bundonis - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Bundonis joined Altegris from OneCapital Management Partners in New York. As a member of OneCapital’s investment committee, he was responsible for identifying, selecting, and monitoring investments for multi-manager funds of hedge funds serving institutional and high net worth investors. Previously, Mr. Bundonis conducted comprehensive qualitative and quantitative research on prospective and existing investments for one of the world’s leading family office investors, Auda Advisor Associates in New York. Mr. Bundonis graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont with a B.A. in History. He also attended the Post-Baccalaureate Program in Business at Columbia University in New York.

Ryan Hart , CFA, CAIA^SM - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Hart joins Altegris from Wachovia Securities, where he served as Alternative Investment Strategist, responsible for analyzing and recommending alternative investments. In this role, Mr. Hart also advised the investment network on the best utilization of alternative investments in client portfolios. Previously, he was a senior member of the investment team at Meritage Capital responsible for manager due diligence for fund of funds portfolios. Mr. Hart started his career at Franklin Templeton Investments where he performed quantitative and qualitative analysis on alternative investment managers and strategies while being a member of the investment committee. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of San Diego with B.S. in Business Administration in Finance.

Nicholas Maffeo , CAIA^SM - Senior Research Associate
Mr. Maffeo joined the Altegris team in September of 2005 as a Senior Research Associate. His current role consists of analyzing and monitoring Altegris’ current managed futures platform, as well as searching for new and emerging managed futures talent. Prior to joining Altegris, Nick was a Compliance Analyst at LPL Financial, analyzing client accounts to look for anomalies. Nick also gained experience at Legg Mason, a global asset management firm. Nick graduated Cum Laude from Shippensburg University with a B.S. in Business Administration in Finance and a minor in Economics.

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