BT's Voyager co-founder alive and well in Hong Kong

Leon Christianakis, who left the BT joint venture Voyager Funds Management in March citing illness, has reappeared in Hong Kong as a Deutsche Bank private client executive while his old shop hires up.

Andrew Cormie, the remaining head of Voyager, told Investment & Technology Magazine in June that Christianakis left the group after doctors warned him “he needed to do something less stressful”. According to Deutsche in Hong Kong, Christianakis took up his new position – as managing director equity trading for Deutsche Bank Private Client Asset Management – at the beginning of June. He was in Frankfurt on business yesterday. Cormie said prior to his departure Christianakis agreed not to move into a role that would compete with Voyager. “He joined Deutsche in a trading role, so he’s not competing with us because he’s not making any investment decisions,” Cormie said. He said while Christianakis remained an investor in Voyager funds, he has sold his 25 per cent shareholding in the business to the current management. BT’s 50 per cent stake in Voyager was not affected by the ownership reshuffle. Cormie also said Voyager has recently hired two senior staff with former Citco executive, Heidi Bean, joining as head of operations and business management as well as Matthew Hook, who starts as a portfolio manager in August. Prior to signing with Voyager, Hook worked with JP Morgan Securities in Sydney and has also served a stint with Deutsche Asset Management in London. Cormie, formerly head of JP Morgan Asset Management global equity teams in London, said Hook, who has a Phd in aerospace engineering, has particular experience in pairs trading strategies. I&T News reported in May 2006 that BT formed the Voyager joint venture last year to build an emerging markets absolute return fund with a focus on the Asia Pacific market. Its first product, the Pan Asia long short fund launched in September last year and, according to Cormie, currently manages about $15 million, some of which has been sourced through BT.