Demand for Hedge MDs soars
Albourne Village (Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007)
Cayman Net News

Cayman Net News reports: As the number of funds registered in the Cayman Islands continues to grow, it could put a lot of pressure on the demand for independent directors who sit on the boards, according to the Managing Director of Athena International Management.

At a recent hedge fund conference in Cayman, Allison Nolan of Athena International, which specialises in providing independent directors to hedge funds, said the growth in the investment funds industry means there is a potential that the fund industry may not have enough experienced directors with capacity and independence to serve on the growing number of hedge fund boards.

“The increased awareness in the funds industry of the importance of sound corporate governance has led to an increase in demand for the service of independent directors,” said Ms Nolan.

“The continuing growth of the hedge fund industry raises issues regarding the availability of high quality, knowledgeable and credible independent directors and implicit in this is the question of capacity for each “professional” independent directorship service provider.”

She added that this issue was not an easy one to solve as there are no official rules that regulate the number of directorships that can be held or at what point that individual reaches capacity.

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Based in the Cayman Islands, Athena International Management Limited is a sophisticated offshore provider of directorship services, primarily to the investment funds and structured finance industries, together with a comprehensive range of corporate services. For more information visit www.athena.ky