Matchpoint COO exits, succeeded by CFO

Ron Wilhelm left his post as chief operating officer of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Matchpoint Investment Management last month, and chief financial officer Ken Chuen has assumed his duties.

Wilhelm was licensed with Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission until February 10 at the firm, which runs the event-driven Matchpoint Asia Fund.

A spokeswoman for the firm declined to comment on the departure, but said Matchpoint is actively hiring staff for the investment and operations side of the business.

Wilhelm's departure follows that of James Tomlinson last year, who had headed investor relations and capital-raising. He was replaced by Robert Wood, who joined from UBP Asset Management.

The Matchpoint Asia Fund returned 13% in 2010, according to a source, but registered a loss of 12.8% last year. That said, it is up 2.43% for 2012 as at the end of February. It was running about $270 million as of mid-2011.

Matchpoint was set up during the post-crisis aftermath in 2009 by Raaj Shah, a former partner at Och-Ziff Capital Management, and Sean Debow, the ex-Asia research director for Ivory Investment Management.

The fund launched with $50 million, but the AUM is understood to have dropped to about $20 million by the start of 2010. However, an allocation of about $200 million of capital – said to have come from two funds of funds – was injected in the first quarter of 2010.

Wilhelm had joined Matchpoint in December 2010, having previously worked as a compliance director since December 2009 at Barclays Capital. He has also served as chief compliance officer, counsel and COO at Paradigm Global Advisors; managing director at Vastardis Capital; and fixed income associate at Morgan Stanley.