Cambridge Strategy appoints SocGen’s Reynolds as Asia CEO

Cambridge Strategy Asset Management, the London-based forex and emerging markets-focused hedge fund manager, has hired Adam Reynolds to take on the newly created role of Asia chief executive.

Reynolds’ appointment, effective January 2012, will see him working out of the firm’s Hong Kong office, where he will direct its business growth in Asia.

“He will oversee risk-taking in the Asian time-zone and will be responsible for running the day-to-day operations of our office in Hong Kong and marketing our products in the Asian region,” according to a Cambridge Strategy spokesman.

He will report jointly to the firm’s chief executive, Peter Henricks, and to Russell Thompson, its chief investment officer, who are both based in London.

Reynolds is a banking veteran with extensive experience in forex and currencies. He joins from Société Générale, where he was the co-head of fixed income and currencies in Asia. It is understood he has not been directly replaced at the French bank, which is reorganising the division.

Reynolds previously spent 12 years at Merrill Lynch where he served as head of global currencies institutional sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and also as a forex spot trader at banks that include HSBC and Citibank.

Cambridge Strategy’s emphasis on Asia comes as an economic slowdown looms in Europe and the US, dampening investments flows. The firm set up offices in Hong Kong and Sydney in 2009, following its establishment in the UK in 2004. It also has operations in New York.

Asian institutional clients and family offices will be a focus for Cambridge Strategy’s capital-raising activities. Its regionally focused products include the Asian Equity Markets Absolute Return, a long/short equity strategy.