Christopher Zook is Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of CAZ Investments, a Houston-based wealth management firm and multi-family office that offers both traditional and alternative investment products to institutional investors and high net-worth families.

Mr. Zook began his career with Paine Webber, was recruited to Lehman Brothers as a vice president, and later was sought out by Prudential Securities, where he became the youngest senior vice president in the firm's history. In 1997, Mr. Zook joined CIBC Oppenheimer as an executive director and served in that capacity until he started CAZ Investments in 2001.

Mr. Zook is Chairman of the Board of the Texas Hedge Fund Association. He and his wife are the founders of the Houston Select Football Texans, a charity aimed at helping middle school boys become “Men of Character through Football”. Christopher is a past president of The Children's Fund, and served two terms as President of the Board of Trustees for Avondale House. Mr. Zook serves as a Deacon at Second Baptist Church where he is a member of the Finance Committee and has twice chaired the Budget Committee for the 40,000 member congregation. He is a graduate of Texas Tech University and is married to his high school sweetheart. They have one son.

Mr. Caple is the President of VFT Capital, LP. VFT provides seed capital, marketing assistance and operational support to hedge funds. Mr. Caple is responsible for VFT’s overall strategic direction, and he oversees its operating, legal, compliance, finance and accounting functions.

Prior to joining VFT, Mr. Caple was the President of Novo Networks, Inc. (now known as Berliner Communications, Inc.), a publicly traded telecommunications company, where he had previously served as its Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. While at Novo, Mr. Caple led its long-term initiatives, managed its personnel and maintained oversight over its operations, SEC reporting and mergers and acquisitions. Before Novo, Mr. Caple held senior legal and management positions with GTE Corporation (now known as Verizon Communications, Inc.), Chancellor Media Corporation (now known as Clear Channel Communications, Inc.) and Marcus Cable, LP (now known as Charter Communications, Inc.). Prior to joining Marcus, Mr. Caple practiced law with the firm of Patton, Haltom, Roberts, McWilliams & Greer, LLP.

Mr. Caple received a Bachelor or Arts degree from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree, cum laude, from the University of Arkansas. During law school, Mr. Caple also served as the Managing Editor of the Arkansas Law Review.

Mr. Caple is a member of the Hedge Fund Business Operations Association, and he serves on the host committee for the Great Investors’ Best Ideas Foundation Investment Symposium. Mr. Caple also sits on the steering committee of GC Netweavers, a networking organization for general counsel, and he is active in the Association of Corporate Counsel, American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, Arkansas Bar Association and Dallas Bar Association. 
  

 

Ms. Gilker has been an active participant and trusted advisor in the alternative investing market for over 15 years. She is presently the founder and President of GSG Capital Advisors, LLC, a strategic consulting firm that assists hedge funds and private equity funds with capital raising, infrastructure build-out and business development. The Firm also provides due diligence sourcing and monitoring for clients with respect to both private and public investments. 

 

Prior to founding GSG Capital, Ms. Gilker served on the Investment Committee and was the director of research for hedge fund-of-fund portfolios for Carlson Capital, L.P. and Rainbow Trading Corporation, as well as serving on the Investment Committee for Ranger Advisors, L.P.   She also founded and ran Opus Advisors, LP, an early to middle stage information technology fund, and served as an Equities Analyst for Stockbridge Partners/Feshbach Brothers.  She began her career at Bank of America. 

 

Ms. Gilker is a member of AIMR and the Dallas Association of Investment Analysts, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, and Texas Wall Street Women.  She serves on the Associate Board of the Cox School of Business, the Advisory Board of the Great Investors’ Best Ideas Foundation Investment Symposium, and is an Advisory Board Member to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science.  She chairs the Investment Committee of St. John’s Episcopal School of Dallas and is chair of Trustees at First United Methodist Church of Dallas.  Ms. Gilker is a graduate of Southern Methodist University.

 

Doug J. Jegi

Doug J. Jegi is the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Compliance Officer for CrossCap Management Inc.   Mr. Jegi is responsible for all operating, compliance, marketing and client service functions for the firm.  CrossCap is based in Houston, Texas and is the investment manager of two long/short equity funds, CrossCap Partners, LP and CrossCap Partners Enhanced LP.

 

Prior to joining CrossCap, Mr. Jegi served as the Director of Client Services for Episteme Capital Management.  Previously, Mr. Jegi served as a Senior Analyst for Veras Investment Partners where he was instrumental in building the operational structure for a billion dollar hedge fund organization.  Prior to Veras, Mr. Jegi served as an Analyst for TranSierra Capital Management.

 

Mr. Jegi received a BS in International Business from San Francisco State University and a Masters in Business from The University of San Francisco.

 

Philip Pilibosian

Mr. Pilibosian co-founded of Condera Advisors, LLC (f/k/a “Redstone Asset Management, L.P.”) in 2003 when he began managing portfolios of hedge funds with the launch of Condera’s first fund of funds.  Condera is a boutique Houston-based advisory firm that provides investment advice to high net worth and institutional clients within an open investment architecture, emphasizing the use of alternative investments in an attempt to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns.  In addition to customized managed accounts of hedge funds, Condera also manages two funds of hedge funds pursuing absolute return and relative return investment objectives by investing with a diverse group of alternative investment managers.  Mr. Pilibosian serves as the firm’s President and Chief Investment Officer. 

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Before co-founding Condera, Mr. Pilibosian had been with the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York as well as Mayer Brown LLP in Houston, Texas.  During his legal career, Mr. Pilibosian had been actively involved in the structuring and creation of, and advising clients with respect to investing in, hedge funds, private equity funds and other alternative investment products, including several large investment banks and one of the largest European pension funds.  Additionally, Mr. Pilibosian specialized in the areas of corporate bankruptcy, mergers and acquisitions and general securities law, counseling institutions across the world in these areas.  Mr. Pilibosian received his B.A., cum laude, from Vanderbilt University, his JD, summa cum laude, from Tulane Law School, and his MBA, Beta Gamma Sigma, from Tulane University’s A.B. Freeman School of Business.  Mr. Pilibosian is an occasional speaker at hedge fund symposiums and seminars.

 

Eliot D. Raffkind

Eliot D. Raffkind is a partner in the investment funds practice group of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Dallas.  Mr. Raffkind maintains an active practice in the representation of investment advisors, including advisors to domestic and offshore hedge funds and other private investment funds, in connection with fund formations and portfolio investing activities.

 

Mr. Raffkind is a frequent speaker before investment fund trade groups on issues affecting hedge funds and other private equity funds.  He serves on the board of directors of Capital For Kids (currently serving on the executive committee), Jonathan's Place and on the Investment Committee of Akin Gump Investment Partners, LP, the private investment fund formed by Akin Gump.

 

Mr. Raffkind received his B.B.A. in finance with high honors in 1983 from the University of Texas at Austin and received his J.D. with honors in 1986 from the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as a teaching quizmaster from 1985 to 1986.  He is a member of the State Bar of Texas.

 

Michael Rebello, Ph.D

Michael Rebello holds an Ashbel Smith Professorship at the School of Management, University of Texas at Dallas. Previously he held the Jessica L. and Edward L. Streiffer Chair in International Finance at the Freeman School at Tulane University. Professor Rebello has also worked at Georgia State University, and with professionals at Clarion Capital in Hong Kong and Malaysia, and Wasserstein Perella in New York.

 

His industry experience focused on equity analysis, distressed debt, and corporate restructuring. Professor Rebello’s research interests span mutual fund organization and performance, sell-side analyst research, corporate capital structure, corporate governance, corporate restructuring, and venture capital contracting. 

 

He has published extensively in journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, and Review of Financial Studies. Professor Rebello received a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University in India.

 

 

 

Dale West, CFA

Dale West is the Director of External Public Markets at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, a $90 billion pension system serving 1.2 million active and retired educators and their families.  Mr. West's team oversees the Trust's $3.5 billion hedge portfolio and over $12 billion in externally managed traditional equity and fixed-income assets.  TRS has been an investor in hedge funds since 2001.

 

Prior to joining TRS, Mr. West was based in London with the emerging markets equity team of T. Rowe Price International, where he covered telecoms and emerging markets.  He also served in U.S. foreign service, including a three-year posting to the American embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

 

Mr. West received an MBA from Stanford University, and is a 1991 graduate of the Universty of Texas at Austin the Plan II Liberal Arts Honors Program.

 

 

Officers:

 

Executive Director

Barry Y. Greenberg

Barry Y. Greenberg was appointed to serve as the executive director of the Texas Hedge Fund Association on May 28, 2009 . Mr. Greenberg is a partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and a member of the firm's investment funds practice.  Mr. Greenberg focuses his practice on advising both registered and unregistered investment companies and investment advisers.  He provides guidance regarding the formation and operation of both U.S. and offshore investment advisers and their related private investment funds and compliance with registered investment adviser and broker dealer regulations. He also advises clients regarding potential investments in a variety of private equity and hedge funds. He has extensive experience in counseling clients regarding registered investment company matters.

 

 

Prior to joining Akin Gump, Mr. Greenberg served for 10 years as vice president, legal, compliance and administration of American Beacon Advisors, Inc., formerly a wholly owned investment management subsidiary of AMR Corp. As the company’s general counsel, he advised on a variety of matters, with an emphasis on investment adviser and mutual fund legal and compliance issues. Mr. Greenberg began his legal career in the Fort Worth District Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission. He served for seven years in the Enforcement Division as an enforcement attorney and branch chief, managing investigations of matters involving violations of investment adviser, investment company, broker-dealer and general corporate securities regulations.

 

  

Mr. Greenberg received his B.A. in 1985 from Emory University and his J.D. cum laude in 1988 from Tulane Law School. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Dallas Bar Association.

 

Secretary/Treasurer

Eliot D. Raffkind 

 

 

Committees:

Membership Committee: Steve Caple, Heather Gilker and Doug Jegi

 

Events Committee:  Gerald Diduck (Chairman)

 

Public Relations Committee: Clint Duncan, Greg White