Acadian Asset Management has appointed Scott Richardson as director of systematic credit in an effort to introduce a systematic capability service to keep up with growing client demand.
Mr Richardson has previously led both systematic equity and credit investing at BGI/BlackRock and AQR over the last 15 years, where he was head of Europe equity research and head of global credit research, along with his 25 years of experience in academia at several top-tier institutions, most recently at the London Business School. He began his career as an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
He will be tasked with building and leading a team of portfolio managers, researchers, traders and support personnel focused on Acadian’s new initiative, aiming to seed the first strategies by 2023.
Acadian CIO, Brendan Bradley, welcomed Mr Richardson’s appointment on Wednesday (13 July).
“Scott has had a stellar professional and academic career focused on systematic investing. We have long been familiar with his published research, and we are thrilled to have him on the team contributing directly to our work,” Mr Bradley said.
Mr Bradley further stated that they believe fixed income strategies “most closely resemble the equity strategies” they manage today and “will benefit from our existing expertise in data analysis, signal construction and trading.”
The primary reasons behind Acadian delving into systematic credit are attributed to changing bond market dynamics, which includes increases in electronic bond trading and data availability, investor demand and an alignment with their core capabilities.
CEO Ross Dowd said the firm believes that “incremental investment in our research and resources towards credit will provide differentiated fixed income strategies” for their clients.
"We continue to see investor demand for systematic strategies offering consistent returns paired with clarity around return drivers,” Mr Dowd stated.
