New chairman for MFA

Samuel Weiser, managing director of Ranger Capital Group, a Texas-based private investment management company, will replace Jeffrey Izenman as chairman of the Washington-based Managed Funds Association (MFA). MFA is a ten-year-old organisation for professionals in the global alternative investment industry, including hedge funds, fund of funds, and major end-users of derivatives.

Izenman wants to create more time working at BRI Partners, a firm he has just founded that provides investment capital and consultancy services to early-stage hedge fund managers. BRI has received $345 million in committed capital from various institutions, including US investment bank Bear Stearns.

Weiser has worked as a director in the prime brokerage group at Pershing Division/Credit Suisse First Boston. Previous to this, he was a partner at professional services firm Ernst & Young, where he was national director of investment advisory services. He has been an MFA director for two years and was just elected to his second two-year term.

The November 7 elections voted in four new 'at large' executive committee members, including Izenman, doubling the size of the body from two to four. The three new members are Jeffrey Chandor, senior vice-president and director of research, sales and marketing at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers; Bruce Nemirow, principal at Capital Growth Partners; and Adam Cooper, managing director and general counsel at Citadel Investment Group.

The board also appointed Scott Bernstein, general counsel, US investment management firm Caxton Associates, as a director for a one-year term.