Executive Management

We founded Gordian Knot in 1993 with the mission of building an exceptional investment management company. Gordian’s founding shareholders are Deutsche Bank, F. Sarofim & Co and management.

In January 1995, Gordian launched Sigma Finance Corporation, a Limited Purpose Finance Company, independent of any traditional bank sponsors. After careers at Citibank, which jointly spanned over 25 years, we believed that both investors and counterparties value a truly independent investment manager. Our goal was to create a stable platform which would enable Sigma to grow and achieve significant size without the risks of any contagion effects from its sponsors. Sigma has grown beyond US$27 billion and is now recognised as a high quality financial institution with an excellent track record in its own right.

In December 2004 Gordian launched Theta Corporation, a Limited Purpose Operating Company that specialises in investing via credit derivatives. Theta was created by Gordian working with its joint venture partner J.P. Morgan, which is a leader in the credit derivatives market but which does not have any role in managing Theta. Like Sigma, Theta benefits from a strong partnership with a major bank but without any direct sponsorship or contagion risk.

As Gordian has grown, our roles have changed. A corporate structure has necessarily been added to handle both increased head count and overseas branch offices in Geneva and New York. Where we were once directly involved in the business at a transactional level, today we are responsible for managing the unit heads who run the business on a daily basis. We continue to be directly involved in setting risk management policies, which drive our control culture, and maintaining relationships with clients. We participate in the credit and investment committee meetings for escalation authority when our experience is called on, but mostly to support the veto rights of Gordian’s credit analysts in credit oversight and ALCO.

We pride ourselves on being functionally interchangeable in most circumstances, which enables the smooth running of Gordian’s business whenever either of us is out of the office. However, we have clear lead and back-up roles for each investor client, counterparty relationship, geography and business unit. Over time, we fully expect that our roles will migrate further and that, as Gordian’s activities continue to expand, we will become less important to the business. We intend to continue to be as accessible as possible and to travel to meet investors as relentlessly as in the past. However, it is inevitable that some of you will see us less often and see more of our colleagues instead. This we consider a positive development as we pride ourselves on hiring young, smart and enthusiastic graduates and training them extensively in order for them to represent Gordian in the most professional way. In any case, we continue to be available to anyone who is interested in contacting us and we answer our own phones and reply to our e-mails ourselves. So please phone, fax or e-mail either of us at any time.

We have worked together since 1987 and successfully managed five companies: Alpha Finance (1988), Beta Finance (1989), Gordian Knot (1993), Sigma Finance (1995) and Theta Corporation (2004). But this is still just the beginning in bringing our vision of the future of finance to reality. We are often asked when we plan to retire. The answer is we don’t! We both have broad and varied interests outside Gordian. However, working at Gordian with the talented team we are proud to call our colleagues is simply too much fun to leave behind! There is much to do before we can consider that our mission – to make Gordian Knot one of the most respected investment managers worldwide – is accomplished. So, we look forward to being part of Gordian’s continuing growth and success for many years to come.