History of the CHP Designation

A short review of how the CHP Designation Program was launched

The Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program got its start in Boston, MA from founder Richard Wilson and the Hedge Fund Group. Below, find a short history of the CHP Designation, including why the program was created and how it has grown so quickly over the past several years.

Richard's experience and background is in risk management, capital raising, and third party marketing. In 2006, he was working as a capital raising professional in Boston. He wanted to increase his knowledge and credibility within the hedge fund industry and was completing research on potential designation and certification programs that he could complete. Additionally, he had completed a financial modeling certification program, which helped him to learn about the subject. It also validated his knowledge by being certified by a well-known organization.

What he found in his research was that every certification program that hedge fund professionals were completing had been designed for finance, investment, or risk professionals but not hedge fund professionals. Furthermore, he saw that these programs were built with analysts and risk managers in mind, but not for the other 20-25 job titles in the hedge fund industry. This ignored need is what prompted the creation of the Certfied Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program.

Hedge Fund Group (HFG) Grows to 20,000 Members

In 2007 Richard started the Hedge Fund Group (HFG) networking association. It quickly grew from an off-line organization of 200 members to a global networking association of 10,000+ members. After receiving literally 1,000's of emails from professionals looking for training on hedge funds and recommendations for the "best" certification for a hedge fund professional, Richard realized there was an unmet need for a hedge fund focused professional designation program.

In 2007 and 2008 the Hedge Fund Group's influence and size grew to over 20,000 active members and with his advisory board's support the Certified Hedge Fund Professional (CHP) Program was launched. When first launched the program had a small website, no logo, no video modules, and no networking events offered. Despite these weaknesses it attracted 80 participants and the Hedge Fund Group re-invested everything that came in from this new business back into building a stronger training platform for the CHP Designation.

Membership Participation Rapidly Expands

In 2008-2009 the CHP Designation Program grew from a one level program to a dual level program with CHP Level 2 options in Hedge Fund Marketing & Sales, Hedge Fund Portfolio Analytics, and Hedge Fund Due Diligence. This was done to provide even more focused training within specific positions in the hedge fund industry. For example if you are a hedge fund analyst you now can not only complete a designation focused just on hedge funds, but you can also specialize in hedge fund portfolio analytics a very close match to the position you hold in the industry.

During this time period participation grew from 80 professionals to 300 professionals and again the Hedge Fund Group re-invested in building a stronger online training platform by building Hedge Fund Premium.

Video Training Platform Launched

In 2009, Hedge Fund Premium.com, the hedge fund industry's first video-based online hedge fund training platform, was launched. This training platform is available to the public at $27/month and is free for 12 months for all CHP participants. Now hosting over 60 educational videos, the Hedge Fund Premium platform is expanded monthly and is one way in which the program educates professionals around the world regardless of their education.

Now in 2010 the program has been expanded further to include more international networking events, more online video modules, career coaching, resume feedback and templates, and additional alumni benefits which include 60% off all in-person training seminars held by the Hedge Fund Group. All of the benefits and services we provide are the result of what professionals like you have requested. If there is something we could be doing better to provide more value to you please let us know and we will do all in our power to put that resource into place. We are hungry to constantly improve our program and to date we have done that through feedback from professionals like yourself.

Credibility Status of the CHP Designation

The program has now had over 700 participants and is growing each session. Already the CHP Designation is being required or "preferred" by many recruiters, placement agencies, and hedge fund managers. We have already been covered in the media by the Financial Times, WSJ websites, Alpha Magazine, Institutional Investor Magazine, and industry job and career websites. There are over 35,000 members in the Hedge Fund Group, over 54,000 online mentions of our program, and over 1,000,000 professionals have now visited our CHP Designation website, with web traffic rising each quarter.

Below is a graph showing the growth of the CHP Designation program over the past three years, 2008, 2009, and 2010. We are on track to have just shy of 1,000 participants by the end of 2010, and hopefully in 2011 we will pass the 1,500 mark.

The Future of the CHP Designation

We are planning to aggressively grow the CHP Designation in the future with additional events, videos, advisory board members, and challenging examinations. Our team of 13 professionals is growing and so is our reputation in the industry, we are committed to building the most valuable designation possible over the next 20 years adding new benefits to participants and alumni every year.

Want to complete our training program or learn more? Take an action toward getting involved today by joining our CHP Email Alert List or view the Testimonials, Benefits, Details, Enrollment, or FAQ pages of CHP website.