New fund AlbaCore makes latest hire

David Allen, formerly of CPPIB, has given his new credit business a name as well as hiring risk specialist David O’Neill.

The new credit fund being launched by David Allen has hired David O’Neill from KCG Holdings as business operations and risk manager, according to market sources confirming a report which first appeared in HFMWeek.

The fund, which has just been named AlbaCore Capital, is currently building its founding team, having also hired senior executives Joseph Novarro and Matthew Courey last month.

O’Neill was at US financial services firm KCG Holdings from 2013 to 2015, where he was head of European institutional equity trading with responsibility for the European cash equity trading desk. He was also a member of the risk committee and best execution committee.

Prior to that, he spent five years from 2008 to 2013 as a trader at Knight Capital Group, starting as an associate and rising to deputy head of European trading.

Last month, Allen drafted in Novarro, who was a managing partner and chief operating officer at London-based investment management firm Renshaw Bay; and Courey, who was head of Credit Suisse’s high yield bond trading team.

Novarro becomes partner and chief operating officer at AlbaCore, with Courey becoming a partner and portfolio manager. Both will also take seats on the firm’s investment committee.

Allen resigned from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in May this year, having built up its European credit platform. He was previously a partner and senior portfolio manager at GoldenTree Asset Management and worked for over a decade in M&A and investment banking at Morgan Stanley.