Adviser
Episteme Capital Partners (UK), LLP (the “Adviser”), together with its principal affiliates, Episteme
Capital Partners (Cayman), Ltd. (“ECP (Cayman)”) and Episteme Capital Partners (US), LLC (“ECP
(US)”) was formed in February 2009. Adviser maintains its principal office in London. ECP (Cayman), an
exempted company with limited liability organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands, maintains its
principal place of business in the Cayman Islands and is the ultimate parent company and governance body
of both Adviser and ECP (US). ECP (US), a Delaware limited liability company, maintains its principal
place of business in Rye Brook, NY and provides certain administrative, middle and back-office services
to Adviser pursuant to an administrative agreement. As further described in Item 10 below, Adviser is
registered as an Alternative Investment Fund Manager with the FCA, and the Adviser, ECP (Cayman) and
ECP (US) are each registered with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (the "CFTC").
The individual principals (the “Principals”) as a group control ECP (Cayman) and Adviser. The Principals
are the following individuals:
Adrian Eterovic is a Principal, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Investment Officer (the “Chief
Investment Officer”) of Adviser. Mr. Eterovic is also a Director of ECP (Cayman). Previously, Mr.
Eterovic was the CEO of JWM Partners (UK) from 2004 to 2009 and was co-chairman of JWM Partners’
Investment Committee from 2003 to 2005. From 1993 to 1999 he was with Long-Term Capital
Management (UK) and prior to that he was with Salomon Brothers Inc. He holds an M.Sc. in Statistics from
Imperial College London (2015), a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Economics from Harvard University (1994), and
an Sc.D. degree in Structural Engineering and two M.S. degrees, one in Mechanical Engineering and the
other in Civil Engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1992) as well as a B.S. in
Physics and a Mechanical and Electrical Engineering degree from the National University of Cordoba
(1987).
Gustavo Lau is a Principal of Adviser and Head of Risk and Operations. Previously, Mr. Lau was a senior
fixed income trader at JWM Partners (UK) from 2000 to 2009, and prior to that was with Long-Term Capital
Management (UK) since 1994. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science (2019) from the Universitat
Politècnica de Catalunya, an M.S. degree in Computer Science (1988) and two B.S. in Mathematics (1988)
and Computer Science (1986) from the Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela. He also attended the MBA
program at the IESE Business School, Spain (1994). Mr. Lau is a Mathematics Masterclass lecturer for the
Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Jameel Kassam is a Principal of Adviser and Co-Head of Research. Mr. Kassam was a Strategist at the
Adviser from its inception until May 2014. Prior to that he held the same role at JWM Partners from early
2007. He holds an MPhys degree in Physics from the University of Oxford (2006).
Richard Leahy is a Director of ECP (Cayman) and a Principal of ECP (US). Previously, Mr. Leahy was a
founding partner of JWM Partners, and prior to that he was a Principal of Long-Term Capital Management
since 1993. He was formerly a Managing Director of Salomon Brothers and Co-Head of the Mortgage
Securities Department. He holds a B.S. degree in Economics from Boston State College (1970) and attended
graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.
Osvaldo Canavosio is a Principal of ECP (US). Prior to joining Episteme Capital, Mr. Canavosio was
formerly Head of Manager Research and Sector Head - Global Macro at Man FRM in New York. He was
also a member of Man FRM’s Investment Committee and Man FRM’s Management Committee. Osvaldo
has 25 years of global investment experience. Prior to joining Episteme, he worked at Man FRM for over
ten years serving in several capacities including research and portfolio management. From 2004 to 2008,
he worked at Vega Asset Management/Proxima Alfa Investments in New York, where he was a
Managing Director for Business Development. Before this he was Head Trader at Citibank Argentina.
Osvaldo holds a master’s degree in Finance from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (1999) in Argentina as
well as an Economics degree (honors) from Universidad Católica Argentina (1996). He is also a CFA
Charterholder.
Helaine Rosenbaum Dryden is a Principal of ECP (US) and the General Counsel and Chief Compliance
Officer of the Episteme Capital Group. Ms. Dryden was previously General Counsel and Chief
Compliance Officer at JWM Partners which she joined at its founding in 2000. Prior to JWMP, she was
Associate General Counsel of Long-Term Capital Management from 1997 to 2000. Prior to LTCM, Ms.
Dryden was an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton where her clients primarily consisted of investment
advisors and her practice encompassed advice regarding securities and other financing transactions as
well as mergers & acquisitions. From July 1989 to July 1991, she was employed by Morgan Stanley &
Co. as a financial analyst. Ms. Dryden received a B.A. degree from U.C. Berkeley in Economics (1989)
and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School (1994). She is admitted to the Bars of the States of New
York and Arizona.
Gina Roman is a Principal of ECP (US) and the Chief Financial Officer of Episteme Capital Group.
Previously Ms. Roman was a Controller at JWM Partners which she joined at its founding in 2000. Ms.
Roman was Assistant Controller at LTCM. Ms. Roman previously practiced as a CPA in Pennsylvania
(1985-1993) and worked as a CFO of a privately held International Textile company (1994-1999). Ms.
Roman is a graduate of Temple University with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree,
Accounting major.
Advisory Services
Adviser provides investment advisory services to pooled investment vehicles that are exempt from
registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”) and whose securities
are not registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) (each, a “Fund” and
collectively the “Funds”), as well as provides discretionary advisory and sub-advisory services to various
managed accounts (the “Managed Accounts”) each of which, as of the date of this Brochure, are futures
portfolios (predominantly consisting of futures contracts and foreign exchange forwards) and have either
claimed an exemption under the rules and regulations of the CFTC or are not otherwise required to be
registered as a commodity pool under such rules and regulations.
As the investment adviser of the Funds, Adviser’s services consist of identifying opportunities for
acquisition, management, monitoring, and disposition of investments of the Funds. Investment advice is
provided directly to the Funds, subject to the discretion and control of the managing member, the board of
directors or general partner of the applicable Fund, and not individually to the members, shareholders or
limited partners of the Funds.
Of the Funds currently sponsored by Adviser, only Systematic Quest Portfolio Company, Ltd. ("SQP") is
available for investment by most external investors. SQP is organized in a “master-feeder” structure.
Systematic Quest Fund I, LLC (the “Onshore Fund”) and Systematic Quest Fund II, Ltd. (the “Offshore
Fund”) are feeder funds, each of which achieves its objective by investing substantially all of its assets
directly
or indirectly in SQP. SQP’s investment approach has a balanced combination of fundamental,
technical and liquidity strategies. The Adviser has also established a Fund of One which is only available
to its underlying beneficial owner. Finally, the Adviser is currently developing additional trading
programs in four additional private funds but such funds are only currently offered to internal investors.
Clients establish the Managed Accounts by depositing assets into accounts maintained by independent
custodians, prime brokers or futures clearing merchants and entering into an Advisory Agreement (as
defined below) specifying the client’s investment objectives and the benchmark strategy. The Managed
Accounts currently are managed in one of three strategies:
1. Episteme Systematic Quest (hereinafter referred to as “ESQ”) which is a multi-asset class
systematic global macro strategy. ESQ’s investment approach has a balanced combination of
fundamental, technical, and liquidity strategies. The strategy trades the most liquid foreign
exchange forwards and government bond, short term interest rate, equity index and commodity
futures. ESQ may also be combined with a cash management strategy as “ESQTR”. ESQTR is
the strategy implemented by SQP.
2. Episteme Systematic Financial (hereinafter referred to as “ESF”) which is a multi-asset class
systematic global macro strategy. ESF’s investment approach has a balanced combination of
fundamental, technical, and liquidity strategies. The strategy trades the most liquid foreign
exchange forwards and government bond, short term interest rate and equity index futures. This
is a subset of the strategy implemented by ESQ.
3. Episteme Emerald (hereinafter referred to as “Emerald”) which is a quantitative systematic macro
program, which blends fundamental and technical strategies implemented through a diversified set
of futures and FX markets. These strategies are also a subset of the strategy implemented by ESQ
although it is subject to independent portfolio optimization from ESQ. Accordingly, trades are
subject to different weightings and may be in the opposite direction from ESQ.
The following investment strategies are also currently available for Managed Accounts:
1. Episteme Systematic Fixed Income TR (hereinafter referred to as “ESFITR”), a multi-strategy
systematic program that trades the most liquid fixed income futures markets as well as short-term
instruments for cash management, including US Treasury Bills. ESFITR includes cash
management, therefore its returns are Total Returns (TR). ESFITR’s investment approach has a
balanced combination of fundamental, technical, and liquidity strategies. These strategies consist
of the fixed-income strategies implemented by ESQ. A subset of ESFITR, Episteme Fixed Income
Opportunities (previously referred to as the Global Liquid Opportunities strategy and hereinafter
referred to as “GLO”), which trades certain fixed income event-driven strategies is also available.
It uses highly liquid government bond futures, but it could potentially use government bonds..
2. Episteme Systematic Commodities (hereinafter referred to as “ESC”), a multi-strategy systematic
program that trades the most liquid commodity futures markets. ESC’s investment approach has
a balanced combination of fundamental, technical, and liquidity strategies. This is also a subset
of the strategies implemented by ESQ.
The following investment strategies are currently under development in the internal funds. While they are
not yet available for external investors in a private fund or commingled pool, the Adviser discusses such
programs with potential Managed Accounts from time to time.
1. Episteme Multi-Strategy (“EMS”) is a multi-asset class diversified program that currently
combines the strategies of ESQ (futures including FX futures instead of FX forwards, systematic
global macro), GLO (futures, event driven), and GEO (equities, event driven). The list of strategies,
programs and their allocations can change over time.
2. Episteme Trend (“ETR”) is a multi-asset class trend following program. ETR invests in the most
actively traded foreign exchange, government bond, short term interest rate, equity index and
commodity futures.
3. Episteme Equity Opportunities (“GEO”) is a global equity short-horizon event driven market
neutral program focusing on trading opportunities that arise from both corporate actions and equity
index events.
4. Episteme Systematic Equities (“ESE”) is a new systematic equity market neutral program still
being researched which will trade in global cash equities.
Adviser seeks to achieve the investment objectives of its external clients by utilizing a wide range of
investment strategies across multiple assets classes including futures and foreign exchange forwards. The
various strategies and asset classes are described more fully in Item 8 below.
Adviser may in the future organize other investment funds, including feeder funds for the Funds or parallel
funds for employees of Adviser, Funds of One, or manage investment funds or separately managed accounts
that may either co-invest with the Funds and/or the Managed Accounts or follow an investment program
similar to or different from the Funds’ and Managed Accounts’ programs. Adviser may also establish
special purpose vehicles or subsidiaries and Advisor or the Funds may invest in or act through such special
purpose vehicles or subsidiaries.
Services are provided to the Funds and the Managed Accounts in accordance with the investment and
advisory, investment management, trading advisory or client advisory agreements with each of the
respective Funds and Managed Accounts (each, an “Advisory Agreement”) and/or organizational
documents of the applicable Fund. Investment restrictions for the Funds or Managed Accounts, if any, are
generally established in the organizational or offering documents of the applicable Fund or the Advisory
Agreements with respect to a Managed Account.
All discussions of the Funds in this brochure, including but not limited to their investments, the
strategies used in managing the Funds, the fees and other costs associated with an investment in the
Funds, and conflicts of interest faced by Adviser and its affiliates in connection with management of
the Funds are qualified in their entirety by reference to each Fund’s respective confidential offering
memorandum (if any) and governing documents (referred to collectively as “Offering Documents.”).
Similarly, all discussions of the Managed Accounts in this brochure, including but not limited to their
investments, the strategies used in managing the Managed Accounts, the fees and other costs
associated with the Managed Accounts, and conflicts of interest faced by Adviser and its affiliates in
connection with management of the Managed Accounts are qualified in their entirety by reference to
each Managed Account’s respective Advisory Agreement and any other relevant governing
documents.
Assets Under Management
As of December 31, 2023, Adviser managed approximately $2.5 billion on a discretionary basis, which
includes both securities portfolios and commodities and futures accounts. Such assets under management
represents the risk-adjusted equivalent of all accounts managed by the Adviser when compared to SQP at
1x.