Joseph Allen
Mr. Allen is a Portfolio Manager and Head of Mortgage Credit and Structured Product Trading for the Bright Meadow Team. Prior to joining Mariner in 2017, he served as the Senior Portfolio Manager in charge of securitized products trading at Marinus Capital Advisors, LLC from 2009-2017. At Marinus he focused on all mortgage credit as well as ABS, CLO, and other related securitized investments. Prior to Marinus he was a senior trader in the Structured Finance Group at Blackstone/GSO Capital (2008-09) and a trader at Brevan Howard (2007). Previously, he was Director – Head of the CMBS/Agency Commercial Loan Trading Desk at Nomura Securities International (2005-2007). His responsibilities included overseeing all secondary CMBS trading, managing the Agency Commercial loan and trading business, and working with the CRE origination group on new loan originations and pricing. He launched his career at Nomura Securities International as a trader on the Residential Whole Loan Desk (2002-05) where he was involved in both agency and non-agency securitizations and in trading RMBS securities backed by re-performing, Alt-A, and subprime collateral as well as non-performing loans and other asset backed securities. Mr. Allen graduated cum laude from Cornell University (2002), holds a B.S. in Applied Economics and Management, and received his CFA designation in 2012.
Ganlin Chang
Dr. Chang joined Mariner in 2022 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Most recently he was a portfolio manager running a global rates book at Caxton Associates. Previously, Dr. Chang served as a portfolio manager in global rates at Garda Capital Partners, Bluecrest Capital Management, Credit Suisse and HBK Capital Management. Prior to his roles in portfolio management, Dr. Chang worked as a research analyst in Lehman Brother’s Fixed Income Quantitative Research group. Dr. Chang holds a Ph.D. degree in Finance from Columbia Business School, a master’s degree in Physics from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree from Fudan University in China.
James Cleary
Mr. Cleary joined Mariner in 2020 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Prior to joining Mariner, Mr. Cleary was a trader on the relative value trading team at Field Street Capital Management since 2014. He previously worked at BNP Paribas for nine years. From 2005 to 2008, he spent the majority of that time as a member of the Fixed Income Sales team, focusing on interest rate derivatives products. From 2008 to 2014 he worked in Interest Rate Trading on both the Interest Rate Swaps and USD Agency desks. Mr. Cleary graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a BA in Business Administration.
Christopher Dillon
Mr. Dillon is the Co-Portfolio Manager for Mariner’s Concordia Municipal Opportunities Strategy. Prior to joining Mariner in 2013, he was a portfolio manager, principal and member of the Investment Committee for Concordia Advisors, having joined in 2003 to co-manage Municipal Market Opportunities mandates with James Wise. Prior to joining Concordia in 2003, he was Co-Head of JP Morgan’s tax-exempt Structured Product Group from 1998, having been a Municipal Bond market strategist since 1991. Mr. Dillon holds a B.S. in Business Administration, summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Albany, and a Masters of Management from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University.
Frank Disanti
Mr. Disanti joined Mariner in 2013 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. During his time at Mariner, Mr. Disanti has worked in various capacities, most recently as a Junior Portfolio Manager involved in all facets of the MBS investment process, including mortgage basis trading, prepayment theme research, IO security selection, specified pool strategies and portfolio hedging. Mr. Disanti holds a CFA and a BS degree in Business Administration from SUNY Geneseo.
Tal Gurion
Mr. Gurion joined Mariner in 2014 as Portfolio Manager for the Mariner Glen Oaks Strategy. Prior to Mariner, Mr. Gurion was a Portfolio Manager at Allen & Company where he managed Allen Global Partner’s credit portfolio since 2009. Prior to Allen & Company, he was a Portfolio Manager at JD Capital Management where he initiated and led the firm’s entry into the credit markets. Previously, he was a Co-Founder and assistant Portfolio Manager for Eos Credit Opportunities. He began his career in the investment banking department of Goldman Sachs & Company. Mr. Gurion graduated summa cum laude from Duke University with a B.A. in Economics and History and also received a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Ali Hassani
Mr. Hassani joined Mariner in 2021 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Previously Mr. Hassani was the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Oxus Capital Management, an absolute return fund investing in both corporate credit and emerging markets fixed income. Prior to the launch of Oxus, he invested in similar strategies at Bracebridge Capital. In 2014, Mr. Hassani was invited to help develop and manage the newly formed, external-facing, sovereign wealth fund of Kazakhstan as the senior adviser to its CEO and as a voting member of its investment committee. In 2010, during the start of the European Sovereign Debt Crisis, he joined Millennium Management where he invested in emerging markets fixed income. Mr. Hassani launched his career at Morgan Stanley, first in the firm wide risk department, moving then to the Structured Corporate Credit Desk, and then ultimately running the firm’s Proprietary Corporate Credit strategy throughout the Global Financial Crisis. He holds a B.S. degree with a double major in Mathematics and Economics from the California Institute of Technology where he was admitted with a merit scholarship.
Michael Lipsky
Mr. Lipsky joined Mariner in 2020 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Prior to joining Mariner, he was a Senior Analyst at Knighthead Capital Management. From 2011 to 2018, he was a Partner at MatlinPatterson Global Advisers LLC and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Global Opportunities Fund. From 2009 to 2011, Mr. Lipsky was a Managing Director at Blackrock, Inc. where he was the Portfolio Manager for the Value Credit Partners fund and head of distressed investments in the R3 Capital fund. Prior to joining Blackrock in 2009, Mr. Lipsky was a Senior Partner and Head of Distressed Products for R3 Capital Partners. He held a similar role with Lehman Brothers’ Global Principal Strategies group from 2007 to 2008. Earlier, he spent seven years with Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc. and was most recently a Managing Director in the Global Distressed Products group. From 1996 to 2000, Mr. Lipsky was an Associate in the Fixed Income Currencies and Commodities Group at Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Lipsky holds an MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School and a BA degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
John (Jack) Poulson
Mr. Poulson joined Mariner in August 2008 as a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Prior to joining Mariner, Mr. Poulson was Head Portfolio Manager of the Silvermine strategy at Five Mile Capital. Prior to Five Mile, Mr. Poulson was with Greenwich Capital Markets (GCM) from 1984-2002, most recently as Co-Head of the Liquid Products Group. Mr. Poulson initially traded U.S. Treasuries for Greenwich Capital as a market-maker and during the following nine years he became a senior U.S. Treasury trader and helped build a new primary dealership into one of the largest operations on Wall Street. In 1993, Mr. Poulson re-focused his efforts to concentrate solely on proprietary trading for GCM, creating a highly profitable business investing in U.S., Canadian, European and Japanese interest rate markets. In 1999, the parent of GCM (NatWest Bank PLC) appointed Mr. Poulson Head of Global Sovereign Debt in London. Mr. Poulson holds a B.S. degree from the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia and a M.B.A. from the University of Houston.
Arun Puri
Mr. Puri is Strategy Head and Portfolio Manager of the Concordia G-10 Fixed Income Relative Value Strategy. Prior to joining Mariner in April 2013, he was the Strategy Head and a Portfolio Manager at Concordia Advisors, LLC (“Concordia”). He joined Concordia in 1998 as Co-Portfolio Manager in the G-10 Fixed Income team from Barclay Investment (“BI”), a sub-advisor to Concordia, where he was a fixed income strategist. Prior to that, he worked for First Union Bank as a manager of its U.S. dollar derivatives and treasury portfolios. He was a partner and on the board of directors of Concordia. Arun Puri holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor’s of Science with Honors in Physics, Mathematics, and Geology from Punjab University, India.
Adam Rilander
Mr. Rilander is a Portfolio Manager and Head of Agency MBS Trading for the Bright Meadow Team. He has spent his career investing in, trading and researching Agency Mortgage Backed Securities. Most recently, from 2015 through 2016, Mr. Rilander was running a team overseeing the Agency derivative and mortgage option position at Premium Point Investments. From 2006-2015, he was trading Agency Mortgage Backed Securities at JPMorgan, becoming a Managing Director and the senior secondary trader on the Agency MBS desk. Prior to joining JPM, Mr. Rilander began his career in 2003 at Bear Stearns as a research analyst focused on Agency Mortgage Backed Securities. Mr. Rilander co-authored a chapter in Fabozzi’s “The Handbook of Mortgage Backed Securities, Sixth Edition” titled “Uncovering the Risk-Adjusted Carry in MBS.” Mr. Rilander graduated with an A.B. in Economics from Princeton University in 2003.
Greg Schwab
Mr. Schwab is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Prior to joining Mariner in 2005, Mr. Schwab was a Managing Director on the Bear Stearns Mortgage Desk. Mr. Schwab spent 19 years at Bear Stearns, trading all varieties of CMO’s, CDO’s, CBO’s and securitized fixed income assets. Mr. Schwab specialized in structuring, creating and trading complex mortgage derivative tranches. Over the course of Mr. Schwab’s career, he has been a trader in New York City, London and Tokyo. Mr. Schwab holds a B.A. in Finance from State University New York at Albany.
Rich Swift
Mr. Swift joined Mariner in 2021 and is a Partner and Portfolio Manager for the Mariner GreyArc Team. Prior to joining Mariner, Mr. Swift was the Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of GreyArc Global Investors, where he served as Chairman of the Investment Committee. Prior to starting GreyArc, Mr. Swift worked at GreyArc’s parent company, Axonic Capital LLC, as a Managing Director. Before joining Axonic, he was the Managing Partner of Point Capital Partners, a merchant bank he re-structured in 2009. Previously, he co-founded Stadia Capital LLC, a global long/short fund in 2001 which he later sold to FrontPoint in 2007. Prior to starting Stadia, he was an analyst at long/short fund Red Coat Capital and the Consumer Investment Banking group at Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York. Mr. Swift served in the 1st Armored Division in the United States Army. He received a B.S. in Economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an M.B.A. from New York University.
Theodore Temple
Mr. Temple joined Mariner in 2020 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Prior to Mariner, Mr. Temple was at BNY Mellon where he most recently was Director, Head of Treasury Trading since 2017 and previously a Managing Director at 484Wall Capital / BNY Mellon where from 2013 to 2015 he served as US Rates Arbitrage and Cycle Trading Portfolio Manager. From 2001 through 2005, he served as a Global Macro Trader for Nexus Capital. In 2006 he joined Lee Cooperman’s Omega Advisors as a Global Macro Trader and Brevan Howard in 2008. In 2010 Mr. Temple joined 5:15 Capital Management as a US Treasury Arbitrage Trader. From 2015 to 2017, he was a Managing Partner at Tempest Trading LLC. Mr. Temple attended Johnson & Wales University.
James Wise
Mr. Wise is the Co-Portfolio Manager for Mariner’s Concordia Municipal Opportunities Strategy. Prior to joining Mariner in 2013, he was a portfolio manager, principal and board director of Concordia, having joined in 2003 to co-manage Municipal Market Opportunities mandates with Christopher Dillon. Prior to joining Concordia, he was from 1998 Co-Head of JP Morgan’s Municipal Structured Product Group and head of the that area’s proprietary trading effort, having been a municipal bond market-maker and risk manager since 1993. James Wise holds a B.S. in Economics with a Finance concentration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and an Executive M.B.A. in Finance with Distinction from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business.
Paul Zhao
Mr. Zhao joined Mariner in 2022 and is a Portfolio Manager for the Firm. Most recently he was a senior portfolio manager running a linear rates book at Point72 Asset Management. Previously, Mr. Zhao served as a portfolio manager in linear rates and inflation at Capula Investment, Bluecrest Capital Management, Citadel and HBK Capital Management. Prior to hedge funds, Mr. Zhao was head of US rates and global inflation portfolio management at Fischer Francis Trees and Watts (rebranded to BNP Paribas Asset Management) where he also served as co-head of the central bank portfolio management group. From 1996 to 2004, he progressed from a portfolio associate to the lead portfolio manager in Treasuries, Agencies and Inflation Linked Bonds at TIAA-CREF. Paul Zhao holds an MBA in Finance from Yale University, School of Management.