Aladdin’s credit and economics research team is led by Dr. Scott MacDonald and is complimented by Dr. Dmitry Udler, Director of Quantitative Risk Management and Research.  The team supports Aladdin’s asset management and broker dealer business units.

Credit and economics research is overwhelmingly driven from internal sources.  Aladdin’s asset selection aligns bottom-up and top-down financial, economic and policy studies. Detailed and dynamic macroeconomic, credit and quantitative analyses provide the framework for a systematic identification of industries and selection of assets.

Outside resources are used to supplement the team’s research capabilities by collaborating with economic policymakers, sell-side analysts, rating agencies, and firms that specialize in fixed-income research and analytics.  Aladdin’s credit and economics research team believes in rapid responses to current issues, major trends, and long-term developments.  The team is also active in meeting with clients and is available for inquiries.

Biographies:

DR. SCOTT MACDONALD, Senior Managing Director, Head of Credit and Economics Research. Dr. MacDonald had served as the Chief Economist and Director at KWR International, consulting for the Korean and Japanese governments and private sector investors prior to joining Aladdin.  Previously he was Director of Sovereign Research at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ).   Before joining DLJ Dr. MacDonald was the Sovereign Analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston focusing on Asian sovereign and state-owned companies.  From 1995 through 1999 he was consistently rated as one of the top analysts by Institutional Investor.  Dr. MacDonald has also worked for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Brady Plan debt re-schedulings for Argentina and Brazil, and European and Canadian banking issues.  He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Connecticut, his MA in Far Eastern Studies from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, and his BA in Political Science (with Honors) and History from Trinity College. Dr. MacDonald has authored, co-authored and edited sixteen books, and has been a commentator on both television and in the financial press.

CONSTANCE HUNTER, Managing Director & Chief Economist. Prior to joining Aladdin, Ms. Hunter was with Galtere Ltd., a global macro hedge fund, where she served as a Chief Economist. Prior to and concurrently with, Galtere Ltd., she was the Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Coronat Asset Management. In that role, Ms. Hunter identified macro themes and invested in global equity and FX markets to capitalize on these themes. Prior to founding Coronat, Ms. Hunter was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Quantrarian Capital Management, a hedge fund that invests in Asian markets. In addition, she has worked as a Portfolio Manager at Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., and Firebird Management, LLC. Ms. Hunter received a Bachelor of Arts from New York University, as well as a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University.

DR. DMITRY UDLER, Director, Quantitative Risk Management and Research. Dr. Udler develops and maintains quantitative risk analysis for the Aladdin SMA platform and helps individual clients understand and utilize results of detailed portfolio risk analytics. For this purpose he develops and maintains appropriate analytical tools and methodologies, as well as necessary market data feeds and historical databases. Prior to joining Aladdin, Dr. Udler was head of the Risk Measurement and Back-testing Group at JPM Chase. Before that Dr. Udler had been head of Market Risk Research and Methodology at HSBC, head of Quantitative Credit at BlackRock, Vice President of Model Review at Gen Re Securities and Vice President of Risk Analytics at Citibank. He had also participated in a number of consulting assignments. Dr. Udler’s principal areas of expertise are portfolio risk analytics, pricing and hedging of complex credit derivatives and capital structure arbitrage strategies. Dr. Udler has an MS in Applied Math and Computer Science from Kharkov University and a Ph. D. in Solid State Physics from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Chernogolovka/Moscow. He also spent six years at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois as research professor of Material Science.

ALEXANDER AVTSIN, Director, Research and Structured Credit: Alexander joined Aladdin in July 2007 after receiving his MBA from Columbia Business School. His degree concentrated in fixed income, with emphasis on structuring and quantitative methods. During his studies Alexander interned at Bank of America as a desk analyst on a credit trading desk. Prior to that, Alexander was with Iralex Solutions where he was the Founder for this information technology consulting services firm. Alexander has also served as an officer in Israel’s Air Force. He earned his B.S. degree from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

WILLIAM SIMONTON II, Financial Modeling Analyst: Prior to joining Aladdin,  William was an Analyst at Portfolio Advisors LLC. His main responsibilities included performing financial modeling for secondary transactions covering private equity, mezzanine, venture capital assets; including single-interest, portfolio, and structured transactions. He also analyzed portfolio companies in order to develop projections of future financial performance. Prior to that, he was an Investment Banking Analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at UBS. There, he managed the due diligence processes for buy-side and sell-side assignments, organized and maintained virtual data rooms and organized site visits and management presentations. William attended the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics.