AIMA

30 November 2006

London, 30 November 2006: AIMA, the global trade association for hedge funds has appointed Clayton Heijman to serve on its Council representing the members of The Netherlands.

The Council is the elected Board of Directors of AIMA and is made up of senior professionals from member companies worldwide.  In addition to the wider global remit, Mr. Heijman will specifically represent the interest of the Association’s Dutch members. He has already served on AIMA’s board for the last few years in a general capacity.

Commenting on his appointment, which will run for two years, he said, “I’m very pleased with this appointment as it will give the Dutch hedge fund investing and management industry a dedicated voice at the highest level. It shows commitment towards a region that always has been at the forefront of innovative investing.

This is important as the financial sector today faces a number of challenges as well as the opportunity to make major contributions to the financial strength of the Dutch investment and corporate industries.

In the public debate hedge funds are occasionally misunderstood and wrongly categorized. Hedge funds are taken as a generic investment category where there are in fact a combination very different strategies and styles.

Over the years the performance contribution of hedge funds has helped to protect pension fund assets and provide good investment returns. This is important to the future of many who save in such schemes. It will be the individual pension fund members who will benefit over time – as hedge funds mitigated performance downturn for pension and investment funds during the recent bear market. Keeping a dialogue going between all stake holders is therefore important.

Given this increased commitment by AIMA to the Dutch community, I hope to be able to continue meeting with investment managers, asset allocators and other significant stakeholders to build understanding and address issues. This is one of the core values of AIMA.
 
Hedge funds are no different from most other forms of investment and have to operate at the highest levels of corporate governance. Indeed only last week, Charles McCreevy, the EC Commissioner for the Internal Markets said that hedge funds in Europe are subject to wide-ranging national regulatory requirements and 'there are no currently regulatory gaps'.
 
Hedge funds provide markets with liquidity, they improve market pricing, they increase market transparency and they can be a catalyst for business efficiency.

Hedge funds in the Netherlands as well as investments from the Netherlands continue to play an important part in this activity and I hope that this will become recognised by all.”

- Ends –

For further information, please contact Clayton Heijman at heijman@aima.org  or tel +31 6 51 81 79 66 or Eoin Brophy, Hume Brophy Communications on +44 (0)20 7499 8736.

Editors’ Notes

1. About AIMA
As the only truly representative global hedge fund association, AIMA, the Alternative Investment Management Association, has over 1,100 corporate members worldwide, based in 47 countries.

Members include leading hedge fund managers, fund of hedge funds managers, prime brokers, legal and accounting services and fund administrators.  They all benefit from AIMA’s active influence in policy development, its leadership in industry initiatives, including education and sound practice manuals and its excellent reputation with regulators, worldwide.

AIMA is a dynamic organisation that reflects its membership’s interests and provides them with a vibrant global network.

AIMA is committed to developing industry skills and education standards and is a co-founder of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst designation (CAIA) – the industry’s first and only specialised educational standard for alternative investment specialists.

For further information, please visit AIMA’s website www.aima.org.

 

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