Assirt’s Jacques joins Vertex

FormerAssirthead of distribution and product, Rebecca Jacques, who tendered her resignation from the research house on Monday and left later that day has joined alternative investment manager,Vertex Capitalas an associate director.

Jacques, who briefly held the role of acting head of Assirt following Caroline Saunders’ departure, will assume the title of associate director operations and business alliances when she joins the group in the first week of November.

Her mandate will be to manage Vertex’s outsourced business functions, its compliance and licensing work, as well as its relationships with alliance partners, such as Macquarie Bank andMorgan Stanley.

Macquarie provides capital protection services to the boutique manager, while Morgan Stanley is its prime broker.

Jacques joined Assirt as an investment analyst three and a half years ago before formally taking on the distribution and product role in March and says she is “looking forward to different challenges in the alternative investment industry”.

Vertex managing director Kim Ivey says he is pleased to have Jacques onboard as she has strong analytical and project management skills.

Ivey also reveals the group is close to striking an alliance deal, understood to be with Aurora Funds Management, to enable it to access the retail investor market.

“We will be announcing a new hedge fund product very shortly. It’s been created through an alliance with another institution who will take it to a retail investor market,” Ivey says.

The deal is likely to be finalised by the end of October Ivey says, but adds that he can’t reveal any details of which group is involved at this stage.