About Us

The Hedge Fund Group sponsors the Certified Hedge Fund Professional Designation Program and maintains a networking association of more than 60,000 hedge fund industry professionals who actively network, partner, and refer resources to each other.

The Hedge Fund Group is the fastest-growing hedge fund organization with members from more than 60 countries and working in every major hedge fund city. Our organization manages several hedge fund seminar networking groups and members of our team often lecture at industry conferences in several hedge fund hub cities around the world.

Hedge Fund Group Headquarters: The Hedge Fund Group was founded in Boston 2006 and our headquarters have since been moved to west coast to Orenco Station in Portland, Oregon with associates and board members in New York, London, Chicago, Sao Paulo, San Francisco, Bejing, and Dubai.

Frequent Questions: Our website gets over 1,000 hits a day and many of the questions we receive are answered within our program overview or FAQ pages.

If you would like to contact our team or if you have any questions please first review our detailed Frenquently Asked Question page to see if your question is answered there and then please contact us through Click to Chat or email below, our office hours are 8:30AM - 5:30PM (PST). We are looking forward to working with you within our program.

Contact: Ashley Wirthlin Chat Live Team@HedgeFundCertification.com Phone: (503) 922-2752 Fax: (480) 772-4041

Address: Hedge Fund Group (HFG) Re: CHP Designation Program 3300 NW 185th Ave. Suite #108 Portland, Oregon 97229

The Hedge Fund Group Team

Richard C. Wilson, Managing Director

Richard C. Wilson is a bestselling author, global speaker, and the founder and managing director of the Certified Hedge Fund Professional Designation (CHP) Program.  He is a prominent figure within the hedge fund industry, working daily with hedge fund managers and family offices. 

Mr. Wilson also founded the Hedge Fund Group, a professional networking association with more than 60,000 members.  He lectures frequently at hedge fund conferences and hosts several annual networking events through the Hedge Fund Group in locations such as Switzerland, Russia, Singapore, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, and Lichtenstein.  His past work experiences include risk consulting and capital raising as third party marketer to hedge funds. Richard Wilson has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Oregon State University, a M.B.A. from the University of Portland, and he completed some masters level coursework on the psychology of influence at Harvard University.

David Becker

David Becker is an expert in portfolio and risk management, and is well adept in his knowledge of financial derivatives.  Mr. Becker has an 18 year track record of creating and initiating successful investment ideas. During his professional career, David has worked for 2 investment banks, which include Morgan Stanley and Smith Barney, trading equities, debt derivatives, commodities and foreign exchange.  David also spent time working at 3 different hedge funds, where he managed portfolios and developed a successful track record.  David has in depth knowledge of many trading strategies that lead to successful short and long term returns. 

Theodore O'Brien, Alternative Investment Research Analyst

Theodore O'Brien has been with our team since the beginning. He is one of the top 25 most well known alterantive investment research analysts in the industry having produced over 1,000 pieces of research and reporting cotnent on the space. Theo is also responsible for advising on technical aspects including web design, exam technology, and program planning. His background is in hedge fund market research, alternative investments and private equity, and he is a frequently published writer on these subjects.

Aldo S Rabih CPA, Directory of Participant Mentoring & Career Growth

Aldo s Rabih is a Senior manager in New York working on reinsurance technical issues and derivative credit valuations. Aldo gained over ten years experience dedicated to serving financial services entities (mainly hedge funds and private equity entities) and over four years of diversified experience in other industries and capital markets, both at Metlife as well as from other big four public accounting firms. Aldo has also spent two years as an independent risk consultant with a focus on internal controls and due diligence for fund of funds as well as reviewing transparency standards for fund of hedge funds. Aldo began his career in Montreal Canada and maintains both his Canadian chartered Accountancy as well as CPA licensure. Aldo’s former and current clients included Hedge funds, Private Equity Firms, Clearing Brokers, Introducing Brokers, Mutual Funds, and, Registered Investment Advisors, Trust Company, or Transfer Agents, as well as Alternative investment vehicles. He received a BComm. degree in accounting (Concordia University - Montreal) and Graduate Diploma in Public Accounting (McGill University – Montreal) He is a Certified Public Accountant, Canadian Chartered Accountant and member of AICPA as well as the Massachusetts Society of CPAs.

Ashley Wirthlin, Candidate Experience Manager

Ashley Wirthlin joined the Hedge Fund Group in June of 2009 to help us keep up with potential candidate inquiries and public relations activities related to the CHP Designation. Ashley is key to our organization's ability to now take on 300 additional participants per session within the CHP Designation. Once you are a CHP Designation member you will most likely interact with Ashley on day-today studying and exam related inquiries.

Charlie Barr, Video Production & Editing

Charlie Barr is the Hedge Fund Group's video editor. Charlie helps produce video study aides, video recordings of team member speeches at conferences, and Hedge Fund Premium resources. Charlie's background is in conducting market research and investor database product construction projects within the Hedge Fund Group. As a member of the CHP Designation Program you will gain acceess to Hedge Fund Premium and watch many videos which Charlie helped produce and edit over the past few years.

Adriana Albuquerque, Director of Candidate Services

Adriana Albuquerque handles participant inquiries and research projects. She is responsible for ensuring that the CHP Designation materials and Hedge Fund Premium resources are updated frequently and that participant needs are promptly met. Adriana also helps coordinate Hedge Fund Group networking events and seminars for CHP members and hedge fund professionals across the industry in over 10 cities around the world including New York, Moscow, Chicago, Sao Paulo, Boston, London, and San Francisco.

Rafael Tassini, Resource Research & Construction

Rafael Tassini was added to our team to help us consistently produce new resources, alumni benefits, and downloadable multimedia from our website. Rafael is an expert in resource research and construction and many of the tools you use within our programs were built with his help.

CHP Preferred Recruiters

The following recruiters and placement agents are not part of our internal team, but they are an extension of what our designation program offers. These are recruiters who have become familiar with the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program and would rather work with those professionals who hold this designation rather than those who do not.

Rick Gold, First Call Associates I am an executive recruiter specializing in the financial services industry. Specifically, I cater to Investment Banks, Asset Management firms, Hedge Funds, and Private Equity. I have placed PM's, Traders, and Analysts across most asset classes. I have experience with discretionary and systematic strategies. My industry experience prior to my recruiting career, my dedication to building and maintaining relationships, and the level of honesty and integrity that I work with are what separates me from my competitors.

The Advisory Board

The CHP Designation is sponsored and offered by the Hedge Fund Group, an international industry networking association with with over 30,000 members. Our team of eight professionals have been working with CHP Program participants on a daily basis in addition to fielding advice and input from our Board of Advisors shown below.

The Board of Advisors for the Hedge Fund Group consists of over 50 hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, and industry consultants making this hedge fund certification program designed for and by hedge fund professionals. Ongoing conversations with additional funds and industry consultants indicate the Advisory Board will grow to over 100 by Q2 2010. Below is a sample of the current Advisory Board members:

Joe Omansky, Program Advisor

Mr. Omansky helps our team spread our brand among hedge fund managers throughout the industry and he has recently been spending time helping us improve and refine the learning objectives of the CHP Designation overall. Outside of the CHP Designation, Mr. Omansky runs the SkyRank System of Hedge Fund Ratings, which he created in April 2003. Prior to his work on SkyRank, he created and managed an equity options volatility model for Tradelink LLC, a Chicago-based multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to this, he was an equity options market maker of Lakota Trading Inc., a market-making entity owned by Steve Fossett on the Chicago Board Options Exchange. Early in his career, he worked for Merrill Lynch and Fidelity Investments. Omansky received his Master's in International Economics and Finance from Brandeis University and his Bachelor's in Economics from Clark University.

Read a full description of the CHP Designation Program by clicking here. You may also read testimonials from past and current CHP Designation Program participants by clicking here.

Note: The Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) designation program is in no way affiliated with, sponsored by, or related to the Chartered Financial Analyst® (CFA®) designation or CAIA Designation, and is not administered by the CFA Institute or CAIA Institute. The CHP Designation is an independent certification and training program which is only associated with the 50,000 member Hedge Fund Group (HFG) G.T.C. Institute, a U.S. based training and certification firm.