Our People

Vipin Sareen is one of the founding partners of IVC. He is a member of IVC Investment Management Board and is responsible for management and development of its business globally. Prior to founding IVC in 1998, he was a managing director and European head of the global equity derivatives division at UBS from 1992 to 1998, with overall marketing responsibilities for Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. Prior to this assignment, he was a senior marketer of global equity derivatives group at Salomon Brothers International, and traded interest rate derivatives at Midland Bank in London.

Mr. Sareen is a Chartered Accountant (1984) and holds an MBA degree in finance from City University Business School (1985).

Stephen A. Ross is Chairman of the Investment Advisory Board of IVC International, Ltd., and a director of IV Capital, Ltd. He is also the Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics at MIT, Chairman of Compensation Valuation, Inc. (CVI), and Principal and CIO of Ross Institutional Investors, LLC. He was previously the Sterling Professor of Economics and Finance at Yale University and, before that, a professor of economics and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a former member of the board of directors of Freddie Mac, and a trustee of CalTech where he chairs the investment committee. A Fellow of the Econometric Society and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he currently serves as an Associate Editor of several economics and finance journals and in 1988 was President of the American Finance Association. He has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards. In 2006 he was the first recipient of the CME-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Application and in 2007 he won the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize given by the Toulouse School of Economics.

Professor Ross received his B.S. with honors from CalTech in 1965 where he majored in physics, and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1970.

Ramy Goldstein is one of the two founding partners of IVC. He is a member of the IVC Investment Management Board and the management committee running IVC's Quantitative Equity Trading business. Prior to founding IVC in 1998, he was the founder and head of the global equity derivatives division at UBS from 1992 to 1997. He also served on the bank's equity management committee as well as the fixed-income and derivatives management committee. Prior to this he was co-head of equity derivatives and chief information officer at CS First Boston (Pacific) in Tokyo, head of equity financial strategies at CS First Boston in New York, and held positions at several option market-making and arbitrage firms on New York exchanges and in the micro-economic analysis unit AT&T.

Dr. Goldstein holds an MA degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.

Zakia Mehdi is a co-portfolio manager for IVC, jointly responsible for all aspects of portfolio management. Prior to joining IVC in 2002, Ms. Mehdi was Senior Investment Manager at Gartmore Investment Management's Hedge fund division with special responsibility for derivatives investment and risk management. From 1992 to 1998, she worked on the Global equity derivatives desk of UBS where she was a Managing Director responsible for European OTC Equity Derivatives Trading. From 1988-1992, she worked at Paribas Capital Markets Ltd, where she was responsible for trading OTC Equity Derivatives.

Ms. Mehdi holds a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics (1987) from University of London, King's College and a MSc in Operational Research from the London School of Economics.

Michael Bull is a co-portfolio manager for IVC, jointly responsible for all aspects of portfolio management. Prior to joining IVC in 2002, he was a global equity arbitrage trader at the Quantum Fund (Soros Fund Management). From 1997 to 2000 he was Head of Equity Derivatives research and a director of Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Securities Ltd. in London. From 1994 to 1997, he was a vice president and global strategist at Bankers Trust International, London having started his career at Paribas Capital Markets Ltd. in 1990 as an equity derivatives analyst and trader.

Dr. Bull holds a B.Sc 1st class Hons. degree in Mathematical Physics from the University of Birmingham (1985) and a D.Phil. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Oxford (1989). He was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University from 1989 to 1990.

Roland Englisch is a managing director of IVC responsible for marketing and sales in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Mr. Englisch has developed and executed a number of structured products linked to the IVC Ascent fund of hedge funds for the insurance industry and has pioneered the use of such structures for unit-linked life policies for retail investors. Prior to joining IVC in 2001, Mr. Englisch was a vice president at Chase/JP Morgan covering institutional clients in Austria, Germany and Luxembourg in the area of structured equity, fund derivatives and alternative investments products and before that he was a director in the investment banking division of Commerzbank where he held a similar role. From 1993 to 1998 Mr. Englisch held several positions with UBS ending as a director in the global equity derivatives division at UBS. At UBS, he marketed structured equity and fund derivatives products, including index-linked life policies and structured equity-linked notes for institutional investors in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

Mr. Englisch studied business administration at the universities of Linz and Vienna and holds a B.A. degree in Business Administration from the University of Linz (1993).

Kim Gayer works as a part time consultant for IVC. He brings his extensive knowledge and experience of the European retail market. Prior to joining IVC in 2010, Mr. Gayer held several management roles in the investment banking division of Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank. Initially mainly involved in Equity Derivatives in Germany/Austria, his role progressively became wider geographically and across asset classes. His last position at Deutsche was of Global Head of Investment Product (GMIP). This group of 175 professionals had the responsibility for both structuring and distributing all investments products of Deutsche's Investment Bank. The business encompassed structured-products, from warrants (X-market), notes to funds (DB Platinum) as well as ETFs (DB X-trackers) and draws together self-directed, advised, third party and white labeling business. 

Mr. Gayer holds a Bankkaufmann degree, a Diplomkauffmann degree as well an MBA in general management delivered by ESCP- EAP.

Helmut Gottlieb is a Managing Director of IVC and responsible for the structuring and marketing of investment solutions to institutional clients and high networth individuals in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining IVC Mr. Gottlieb served as a Member of the Board of Managing Directors of Citigroup's Corporate and Investment Bank in Frankfurt/Main with responsibility for the corporate banking and transaction services business of Citigroup in Germany. From 2001 to 2004 Mr. Gottlieb was Citigroup Country Officer and Head of the Corporate and Investment Bank in Austria.

Mr.Gottlieb started his career in fixed income origination at Commerzbank in Frankfurt/Main in 1985 followed by 3 years in derivative trading. From 1990 to 1994 he headed Commerzbank's activities in Canada with focus on capital markets and project finance. Back to Frankfurt/Main in 1994 Mr.Gottlieb joined the newly established division of Commerzbank managing the marketing/sales activities and exposure with multinational corporate and institutional clients on a global basis. In his new role Mr. Gottlieb covered multinationals domiciled in South Africa, Italy, Netherlands and Austria.

Dr. Gottlieb holds a PhD from the University of Salzburg (1984). He completed his studies at the University of Texas as a Fulbright Scholar with a LLM degree in 1985.

Michele Sportelli is a Managing Director of IVC responsible for marketing and business development of investment solutions in Italy. Prior to joining IVC Mr. Sportelli served in the alternative asset management industry, recently as Director of Redi & Partners in London and before as Managing Director with IVC, between 2002 and 2006, with main responsibility for Marketing and Sales in Italy.

Mr. Sportelli started his career in the financial services division of IMI in Rome in 1986. He subsequently moved to UBS in 1991 as Director of Capital Markets followed by various roles focused on financial derivatives marketing with General Re Financial Products (GRFP) in London as Vice President then with CIBC World Markets in London as Executive Director, between 1992 and 1999. In these positions he established and developed the marketing and sales activities in Italy as well as Spain and Portugal and executed a wide range of relevant structured deals in fixed income derivatives as well as equity indexes linked, basket of stocks linked and commodity linked structured notes for financial institutions, insurance companies and asset managers.

In 2000, he joined Credit Agricole Lazard Financial Products Bank (CALFP Bank), a joint venture between Lazard and Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole, where he engaged in strategic equity derivative solutions in Italy as Senior Investment Banker. In this role he was responsible, jointly with the Lazard advisory teams in Italy, for the marketing and sales of corporate finance and merger and acquisitions structured solutions covering major Italian corporate and financial top clients.

Mr Sportelli holds a Laurea (equivalent to a Masters Degree) in Economics and Business from LUISS University in Rome (1984).

Gunnar Moberg is based in Sweden as Senior Adviser at IV Capital for Scandinavia and for Hong Kong/China. Gunnar has held numerous positions within Skandia Insurance Company globally for more than 20 years where, among other things, he has been Group Marketing Director for Skandia worldwide and Regional Manager for Skandia in Asia. Gunnar has held more than 30 directorships globally within long term savings life assurance and fund companies and he has also been involved in starting up more than 10 life assurance companies both in Europe and in Asia. Based in Hong Kong for almost four years, Gunnar has closely monitored the fast-growing long term savings market in China. 

Mr Moberg holds an MBA in Modern languages from the Universities of Gothenburg, Lund, Uppsala and also from the University of Sussex in Brighton.

Hans Mohall is responsible for sales and marketing in the Nordic region. Prior to joining IVC, Mr Mohall worked for Skandia which involved Sales and Marketing Directorships in various markets, primarily in Europe. Mr Mohall was one of the pioneers in the Nordic Unit-linked insurance market and has over the years been responsible for the development of Unit-linked and Open Architecture insurance products in the Nordics. From 2006 to 2010 Mr Mohall was the Head of Sales Europe at Skandia International. Mr Mohall has also held a number of board memberships during the years at Skandia. Mr Mohall has worked in the financial area since 1984.

Mr Mohall has a Bachelor degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Uppsala.

Yozo Isogai is President of IVC Japan Limited, responsible for marketing and sales in Japan. Prior to joining IVC in 2010, Mr. Isogai was a managing director and Japan head of equity derivatives marketing and structuring at KBC Financial Products, covering structured equity, fund derivatives and alternative investments products. Before KBC, he held senior positions at ABN Amro Securities, UBS and Paribas Capital Markets Ltd. responsible for marketing and structuring equity derivatives in Japan. Prior to Paribas, he was engaged in a quantitative investment area at Nikko-Barra Investment Technology and Nikko Securities. He was also engaged in a couple of nuclear research and development projects at Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI).

Mr. Isogai is a CFA and holds a B.Sc. degree in Applied Physics and a Master of Nuclear Engineering from Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Mark Evans is the Chief Operating Officer of IVC. His role encompasses the finance, compliance and administration functions. For the three years prior to joining IVC in 2001, Mr. Evans held several management roles in the investment banking division of Commerzbank in various areas including proprietary equity trading, equity brokerage, equity capital markets, cash equity trading, and foreign currency risk hedging. From 1992 to 1998, Mr. Evans worked in structuring and equity derivative sales, at the global equity derivatives division at UBS, and in a prior assignment was the global head of control & accounting for that division. Prior to UBS, Mr. Evans was with JP Morgan for 5 years in financial control roles for the swaps and equity derivatives areas of the company. Mr. Evans began his career at KPMG in finance and banking audit & tax.

Mr. Evans is a Chartered Accountant (1988) and holds the MCT Corporate Treasury Qualification as well as a B.Sc. degree in Economics from the London School of Economics (1984).