Summer seems a distant memory and with the equinox upon us we throw ourselves into one of the busiest weeks of the year for AIMA. This point in the calendar is made all the more special by the fact that we are also celebrating our 25th anniversary through a number of initiatives, including a charity dinner this evening (23 September) in aid of the NSPCC and in support of Hedge Funds Care. We have also published a special one-off magazine that looks back at the last 25 years for both AIMA and the global hedge fund industry. To read this publication, titled ’25 Years in Hedge Funds’, click here. AIMA’s Council have congregated in London and we have just held a very productive day locked in a boardroom fine tuning our strategy and service value to meet the current priorities of our members.

I have recently returned from a  trip to Asia Pacific, where I met many of our members, as well as regulators and the media. I attended the AIMA Australia Hedge Fund Forum 2015 on 15 September, which saw a great line up of international and local speakers tackle the big issues that are shaping and progressing hedge fund investment, both in Australia and around the globe. Among the speakers were Steve Kuhn, CIO of Pine River Capital Management, and Sandy Rattray, CEO of Man AHL as well as several senior representatives from Australian superannuation funds. Topics included the future of CTAs, alpha and alternative beta, cyber security, hedge fund research as well as the regulatory and tax environment. Click here for a full review of the Forum. It is a sure sign of the positive growth in the Australian hedge fund industry, now reaching A$100 billion, that the event attracted over 300 attendees.

I stopped off in Hong Kong on my way home and spent time with a number of AIMA’s members there and attended an AIMA networking reception and an educational gathering at Simmons & Simmons’ HK office with Iain Cullen, our general counsel since the association’s inception back in 1990. We also took the opportunity to host a cocktail reception in Lan Kwai Fong to mark our 25 years which was attended by many members and some of the senior local regulators. It was extremely useful also to hear many of the local views on events in China. While certainly giving pause for thought we firmly believe that AIMA’s expansion into the mainland should continue as planned.

Now back in London I am hosting our flagship AIMA Annual Conference at the Guildhall in the City of London tomorrow (24 September) where I am expecting a good turnout with 600 delegates having registered to attend. Members wishing still to register should click here. To download a copy of the programme, click here.

This will present a great opportunity for our members to meet and hear from industry leaders from across the globe, as well as senior regulators and policy makers. We will share updates and photographs from the event across our Twitter feeds on the day, and look forward to writing more about this week’s events over the coming few days.

Jack Inglis

CEO