Managing Partner Jason Wachtel Discusses Transparency and Compliance

Financial Times’ FundFire writer Laura Suter spoke with Jason Wachtel,managing partner at JW Michaels & Co about the recent trend in alternatives firms filling compliance departments with U.S. attorney’s office and Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) alumni.

"By hiring someone who was a prosecutor and worked on significant cases, it sends a clear message to the investor base that [the manager is] really serious about compliance and transparency, and that investors don’t need to worry they are not going to be the next firm on the cover of a magazine saying ’we’re a Ponzi scheme’," says Jason Wachtel, managing partner at JW Michaels & Co, an executive search firm.

"Investors really like that, in fact it’s like a tool to get more dollars, when managers are doing the roadshow they are not just talking about performance, but that they hired someone from the U.S. attorney’s office," he says.

One stumbling block can be a mismatch in salary expectations, warns Wachtel.

Read the full article titled "Alts Shops Raid SEC, Attorney's Office for Compliance Hires" by Laura Suter (paid subscription)